Easter Sunday – He is Risen!

Easter Sunday is more than just a celebration of an event that happened two thousand years ago. It is an invitation to experience a personal resurrection, to allow the light of Christ to penetrate the darkness within us, and to emerge transformed, renewed, and filled with the hope of eternal life. It is a call to live as Easter people, radiating the joy and peace of the Risen Lord in a world desperately in need of both.

Frank Cardinal Leo, Metropolitan Archbishop of Toronto, presided at the noon Mass on Easter Sunday at St. Michael’s Cathedral Basilica, which was filled to capacity. The Easter season will continue over the next 50 days when endless Alleluias will ring out throughout our liturgical celebrations.

In his Easter message Cardinal Leo speaks directly to the importance of this high moment in our Church calendar:

“The greatest liturgical celebration of the Church is of course Easter. The enthusiastic and traditional greeting on Easter morning and throughout the Easter Octave is: Christus surréxit! - Surréxit vere, allelúja (“Christ is risen!” - “He is risen indeed, Alleluia!”) – and it fills us with a renewed sense of hope and deepened trust in the Lord Jesus, our Saviour. How can we not be overjoyed in considering that singular event of Jesus rising out of the tomb, just outside of Jerusalem and therefore, is alive today, among us, in our midst, in our hearts, in the sacraments, in his Word and in the Church! That life-giving happening of yesteryear has incredible and life-changing effects on our life, today. By his death on the Cross, we today are freed from sin, from all sin, every sin and its destructive grip on our lives. By his glorious Resurrection, we today are given new life, a new beginning, new freedom, new opportunities. And so, it is with that incomparable Easter joy that I extend my warmest greetings to you and your loved ones this Easter Sunday and throughout the Easter Season.”

We offer our prayers and joyful Easter wishes to the faithful throughout the Archdiocese of Toronto. We also give thanks for the hundreds of clergy, staff and volunteers who worked so diligently over the Lenten season to support our journey of prayer, fasting and almsgiving through to the Easter Triduum and finally, these beautiful and inspiring Easter days. Happy Easter!

To watch Cardinal Leo’s Easter Message, click here.