Easter Vigil
“Dear friends in Christ: On this most holy night, in which our Lord Jesus passed over from death to life, the Church invites her members, dispersed throughout the world, to gather in vigil and prayer.” —Book of Common Prayer (Church Publishing, 1979), p. 285.
For the church, the Easter Vigil is one of the most complicated and beautiful services of the year. The difficulty is that it is only once a year, so it is hard to remember all the tiny details from year to year. This means that sometimes there is more chaos on this evening than the church would like. But this is also what adds to its beauty: light and creation coming out of chaos. The service starts with the lighting of the Paschal candle from a fire, usually outside of the church, and then bringing it inside into the complete darkness.
The deacon carries the Paschal candle in as he or she lights the congregation’s candles while singing “The Light of Christ” three times, each time in a slightly higher pitch. This is followed by the deacon chanting the beautiful Exsultet.
It is time for me to turn the Exsultet over to someone else. I have loved chanting the Exsultet for more than seventeen years. It has been a privilege. Susan, our other deacon at St. Mark’s, has been singing the Exsultet the past three years. I loved hearing her practicing and beautifully chanting it from her heart. Michael, one of our priests, chanted it last year since Susan was recovering from surgery. Susan is preaching this year, so Michael will again chant the Exsultet.
The Exsultet is followed by Old Testament readings about God’s history with God’s people. Next come baptisms, crying babies, and curious toddlers escaping from their parents, all still in the dark. Finally, the cacophony of the great noise of bells of every size announces that Christ has risen indeed, as the lights come on and we see all the flowers of Easter surrounding the inside of the church. Then we celebrate the first new Eucharist of the Easter season. This year because of the pandemic we will miss the baptisms and curious toddlers.
The service may have some similarity to what the spice- bearing women experienced when they came to the empty tomb on that early Easter morning, and saw one or two angels in dazzling white, telling them that they were the first to know that Jesus had been raised from the dead!
This is the Easter message: Jesus rose from the dead. We will rise from the dead. We have the promise that we will find resurrection in all the suffering and unnecessary deaths from this virus and from the social and racial unrest in our world.
Joanna. joannaseibert.com