An old friend

This week is Easter week, and the change of the liturgical season brings fresh words to our lips. In Morning Prayer, we're allowed to use the "Christ our Passover" canticle. Hearing it again in my daily prayers is like seeing an old friend again. The phrases are so lovely, and they evoke such beautiful resurrection images.

Repeating the phrases from memory reminds me of other times I've said this canticle, other Easter seasons. Images of spring flowers and sunny spring days come to mind. And my inner ear hears the canticle being chanted in parts at seminary. What a lovely and rich harvest for Easter season. No more Lenten drabness!

Here's the Canticle, from page 84 in the Book of Common Prayer:

Alleluia.
Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us; *
therefore let us keep the feast,
Not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, *
but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Alleluia.

Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; *
death no longer has dominion over him.
The death that he died, he died to sin, once for all; *
but the life he lives, he lives to God.
So also consider yourselves dead to sin, *
and alive to God in Jesus Christ our Lord. Alleluia.

Christ has been raised from the dead, *
the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
For since by a man came death, *
by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die, *
so also in Christ shall all be made alive. Alleluia.

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