Mary Magdalene standing by the grave’s side, and there weeping, is brought to represent unto us the state of all mankind before this day, the day of Christ’s rising again, weeping over the dead. But Christ quickened her, and her spirits that were good as dead. You thought you should have come to Christ’s resurrection today, and so you do. But not to his alone, but even to Mary Magadelene’s resurrection too. For in very deed a kind of resurrection it was wrought in her; revived as it were, and raised from a dead and drooping, to a lively and cheerful estate. The gardener had done his part, made her all green on the sudden.
A Reading from a sermon of Lancelot Andrewes preached before King James I at Whitehall on Easter Day 1620
And so, today, the doom and gloom of Holy Week and Good Friday is past. Today we read how Mary Magdalene found the Lord’s tomb with two angels in it. After that, she was a witness to the resurrection after she mistook the Lord for a gardener. She went to tell the other disciples as she was instructed.
We all are commissioned to tell the good news of the risen Lord through our lives to all around us. Let us continue to do this this week and through the coming weeks.
As a community, we continue to pray for those in religious life across the island of Ireland and throughout the world.
Collect of Easter Day
Almighty God, through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ you have overcome death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life: Grant that, as by your grace going before us you put into our minds good desires, so by your continual help we may bring them to good effect; through Jesus Christ our risen Lord who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Community of St Benedict – Ireland 