EASTER
is not simply one feast among others,
but
the FEAST OF FEASTS,
the SOLEMNITY OF SOLEMNITIES.
                                                (CATECHISM #1169)

                      Because they penetrated so deeply into the mysteries of Christ’s sufferings, St. Francis and St. Clare were able to enter full-heartedly into the joy of His Resurrection.  Because their lives were centered on the Church’s liturgy, they could appreciate as few have

the new age of the Resurrection (which) fills
the whole liturgical year with its brilliance. (#1168)

            The Easter joy of Francis and Clare was rooted in the Cross.  Their rejoicing was anchored in God who so loved the world that He gave His only Son that the world might have life through Him.

            What the Church of their time legislated as THE EASTER DUTY (You shall humbly receive your Creator in Holy Communion at least during the Easter season), they understood as the present CATECHISM’S guaranteeing

the minimum reception of the Lord’s Body and Blood
in connection with the Paschal feasts,
the origin and center of the Christian liturgy. (#2042)  

            And so a Cardinal (and future Pope) of the Church could write to St. Clare of that glorious joy with which I discoursed with you on the Body of Christ when I was celebrating Easter with you.  It was a glorious joy that gave depth and meaning to an enclosed lifetime of penance, which bore its own bright witness to the unchanging fact that

THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS
is the crowning truth
of our faith in Christ.(#638)

ALLELUIA!

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