Sunday in the Second Week of the Easter Season

We pray the Sunday liturgy of the Easter season, offering our whole day to Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We hear Saint Augustine speak to the newly baptised about what baptism changes now and what it promises in the resurrection.
• opening prayers and the Morning Offering as a daily act of surrender and intercession 
• Saint Augustine’s welcome to the newly reborn in baptism and the call to put on Christ 
• baptism as forgiveness of past sins and the start of new life completed in the resurrection 
• the meaning of Sunday as the Lord’s Day and the “eighth day” of new birth 
• setting our hearts on heavenly things because our life is hidden with Christ in God 
• praying for deeper understanding of the font of baptism, the Spirit’s rebirth, and redemption by Christ’s blood 
If you found this time of prayer and reflection fruitful and would like more opportunities to grow in your faith, consider joining the Cristeros and purchasing our publications now available on Amazon.com. The Cristeros app is available on the Apple app and Google Play Store. More information on the Cristeros can be found at theCristeros.org.

Transcript

Saint Augustine On Baptismal Identity

Sunday As Eighth Day Hope

Seek What Is Above

Closing Collect And Final Blessing

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SPEAKER_00 0:03

Sunday in the second week of the Easter season. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. O God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help me. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day, in union with the holy sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, for the remission of my sins, for the intentions of my family and friends, and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father. Amen. From a sermon by Saint Augustine, Bishop. I speak to you who have just been reborn in baptism, my little children in Christ. You who are the new offspring of the Church, gift of the Father, proof of Mother Church's fruitfulness. All of you who stand fast in the Lord are a holy seed, a new colony of bees, the very flower of our ministry and fruit of our toil, my joy and my crown. It is the words of the Apostle that I address to you put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh and its desires, so that you may be clothed with the life of him whom you have put on in this sacrament. You have all been clothed with Christ by your baptism in him. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor freeman, there is neither male nor female. You are all one in Christ Jesus. Such is the power of this sacrament. It is a sacrament of new life which begins here and now with the forgiveness of all past sins, and will be brought to completion in the resurrection of the dead. You have been buried with Christ by baptism into death, in order that as Christ has risen from the dead, you also may walk in newness of life. You are walking now by faith, still on pilgrimage in a mortal body away from the Lord, but he to whom your steps are directed is himself the sure and certain way for you. Jesus Christ, who for our sake became man. For all who fear him, he has stored up abundant happiness, which he will reveal to those who hope in him, bringing it to completion when we have attained the reality which even now we possess in hope. This is the octave day of your new birth. Today is fulfilled in you the sign of faith that was prefigured in the Old Testament by the circumcision of the flesh on the eighth day after birth. When the Lord rose from the dead, he put off the mortality of the flesh. His risen body was still the same body, but it was no longer subject to death. By his resurrection he consecrated Sunday, or the Lord's Day, though the third after his passion, this day is the eighth after the Sabbath, and thus also the first day of the week. And so your own hope of resurrection, though not yet realized, is sure and certain. Because you have received the sacrament or sign of this reality, and have been given the pledge of the Spirit. If then you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your hearts on heavenly things, not the things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, your life, appears, then you too will appear with him in glory. You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, you will appear with him in glory. You must consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Jesus Christ, our Lord. When Christ, who is your life, appears, you will appear with him in glory. Hallelujah. God of everlasting mercy, who in the very recurrence of the Paschal feast kindle the faith of the people you have made your own. Increase, we pray, the grace you have bestowed that all may grasp and rightly understand in what font they have been washed, by whose spirit they have been reborn, by whose blood they have been redeemed. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. Amen. Let us praise the Lord and give him thanks. All that I have and all that I am I give to your hands, Jesus, through the heart of Mary, your blessed mother. Amen. Sacred heart of Jesus, have mercy on us. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. If you found this time of prayer and reflection fruitful and would like more opportunities to grow in your faith, consider joining the Cristeros and purchasing our publications now available on Amazon.com. The Christeros app is available on the Apple app and Google Play Store. More information on the Cristeros can be found at theCristeros.org.