This is the Day the Lord hath made, let us rejoice and be glad! From St. Mary Magdalen Church in Drogheda, Co. Louth, Ireland:
Thanksgiving Prayer after Easter Communion:
"O good Master! Jesus, Rabboni, kindest of Friends, dearest and most pitying Lord, welcome, welcome forever! Blessed be Thy loving kindness, O glorious Risen One, beautiful in Thy majestic holiness, tender in Thy marvellous condescensions. O Divine Lover, how I thank Thee for having deigned this happy morning to meet my soul in Thy fragrant Garden of Prayer, for having shown Thyself to me in the white robe of Thy Sacrament, for having come to me, put Thine Arms about Thy poor weak child, and called me by my name. Lord, dearest Lord, I put my hands in Thy pierced ones and I give Thee all myself -- my body and my soul, my past, my present, and my future. I give Thee my faults and sins -- according to the Divine Liberality of Thy great Heart, as Thou didst teach SS. Gertrude and Mechtilde to do -- that Thou mayest blot them out, and Thyself make holiest compensation for them with Thine own merits and sufferings, and by Thine own Divine power. It was one of Thine unselfish Joys in Thy Resurrection, that Thou mightest do so much for Thy friends. I give Thee my hopes, that they may flower into realization in Thee and under Thy loving care, Whose Infinite Wisdom reacheth from end to end mightily and ordereth all things sweetly. I give Thee my fears, that Thou, who didst console Thy broken-hearted Magdalen with such exquisiste Divine tenderness, mayest also comfort and deliver me and mine. I give Thee my sorrows, that Thou mayest unite them to Thine own, and alleviate them -- my joys, that, united to Thine and thankfully received by me, they may help me to the eternal joys Thou, my Risen Lord, art storing up for me in Paradise. I give my friends to Thee -- keep us all in Thy Sacred Heart; I give Thee mine enemies, that they may never be a source of sin or fault to me, or of grief to Thee. I beg of Thee to have pity on all poor sinners, and to meet all the dying this day as Thou didst Thy holy Magdalen.
"And now, O dearest Master, when I leave Thee, grant that I may spread abroad the good odor of Christ among Thine and my brethren, that I may be Thine Apostle as was Magdalen after Thy joyous Resurrection. Fill my soul, as Thou didst hers, with the unselfish joy of Thy Rising from the dead. And may all my thoughts, words, and acts this day be a sweet fragrance unto Thee!"
He is Risen as He Said, Alleluia!
