Sunday Reflections, 2nd Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday), 12 April 2026

The Incredulity of St Thomas

Caravaggio [Web Gallery of Art]

Second Sunday of Easter, Year A

Divine Mercy Sunday

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand)

Readings (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, Scotland, India)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) 

Gospel John 20:19-31  (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.’

Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord’. But he said to them, ‘Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.’

Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.’ Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

 

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

 

The Incredulity of St Thomas

Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Art]

The closing words of today’s Gospel give us the reason why the four gospels were written: these [signs] are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

In his general audience in St Peter's Square on Wednesday 24 October 2012 Pope Benedict asked The Year of Faith: What is Faith? 

In trying to answer that question the Pope said [emphases added]:  Indeed, God has revealed that his love for man, for each one of us, is boundless: on the Cross, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God made man, shows us in the clearest possible way how far this love reaches, even to the gift of himself, even to the supreme sacrifice. With the mystery of Christ’s death and Resurrection, God plumbs to the depths of our humanity to bring it back to him, to uplift it to his heights. Faith is believing in this love of God that is never lacking in the face of human wickedness, in the face of evil and death, but is capable of transforming every kind of slavery, giving us the possibility of salvation. Having faith, then, is meeting this 'You', God, who supports me and grants me the promise of an indestructible love that not only aspires to eternity but gives it.

Benedict points out to us the painful reality that we can reject God's love: However, we see around us every day that many remain indifferent or refuse to accept this proclamation. At the end of Mark’s Gospel we heard harsh words from the Risen One who says: 'He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned' (Mk 16:16), loses himself. I would like to invite you to reflect on this.

This side of Jesus and of his Gospel has been largely sidelined, forgotten, in our times. Jesus is not a fuzzy teddy bear and following him is not like cuddling one, as the families of nearly 100 Christians killed in Nigeria during Holy Week of 2023. can tell us. Christians were killed again this year on Palm Sunday and at Easter: here and here.

The closing words of Pope Benedict in his talk are both challenging and uplifting: Dear friends, our time needs Christians who have been grasped by Christ, who grow in faith through their familiarity with Sacred Scripture and the sacraments. People who are, as it were, an open book that tells of the experience of new life in the Spirit, of the presence of that God who supports us on our way and opens us to everlasting life. Many thanks.

The Pope may well have had in mind today's First Reading (Acts 2:42-47): And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers . . . And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need . . . And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favour with all the people.

That passage from the Acts of the Apostles probably gives an idealised description of the early Christians, but it shows us what we are called to as followers of Jesus Christ, what we can be by the grace of the Holy Spirit. 

Fr Ralph Beiting

1 January 1924 – 9 August 2012 [photo]

I remember while spending a good part of the summer of 1969 in a large rural parish in eastern Kentucky where there were few Catholics but where the parish priest, the late Fr Ralph Beiting had many projects involving mainly college and some high school students from all over the USA, along with some adult volunteers. A college student who has remained a friend ever since remarked to me before he went back home to New York that we had had a wonderful experience of Christian community, something like that in the First Reading. This particular group may never have this experience together again - but we know that such an experience is possible, said my friend Brendan.

The yearly observance of Lent, Holy Week and Easter, ending with Pentecost, is what renews our hope and enables us, with the grace of God, to build and experience Christian community throughout our lives if we are, to use the words of Pope Benedict, People who are, as it were, an open book that tells of the experience of new life in the Spirit. Fr Beiting was for me as a young priest such 'an open book'.

Ye Sons and Daughters (O Filii et Filiae)

Composed in Latin in the 15th century by Franciscan Friar Jean Tisserand

Performed by the Christendom College Choir and Schola Gregoriana

Traditional Latin Mass

The Octave Day of Easter

Low Sunday

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 04-12-2026 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 John 5:4-10. Gospel: John 20:19-31.

Apostle St Thomas

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

Thomas answered him, 'My Lord and my God!' (John 20::28; Gospel).

     

                                                              

'My Lord and My God!' Sunday Reflections, 2nd Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday) Year C

 

The Incredulity of St Thomas, 

Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan,)

Readings (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, India, Scotland)  

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel John 20:19-31 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.’

 Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord’. But he said to them, ‘Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.’

 Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.’ Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’

 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

 

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

             

Christ and Doubting Thomas, 

Andrea del Verrocchio [Web Gallery of Art]

It is true that Jesus says to St Thomas in today's Gospel, Do not disbelieve, but believe. But for many years I have thought that scholars and others have been unfair to this apostle. The expression 'Doubting Thomas' has come down to us in the English language to describe someone who is sceptical, who doesn't believe unless he sees. 

That would describe Thomas at one level. But he said, Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe. He had the insight that if Jesus was truly risen he would carry the scars of his crucifixion. He seemed to grasp the extent of the sufferings of Jesus to redeem us sinners. And when he meets the Risen Lord eight days later he makes the most explicit act of faith in the whole Bible: My Lord and my God!

I learned this prayer when I was very young and it is part of the fibre of the Catholic faith here in Ireland. When the Mass promulgated in 1969 by Pope St Paul VI came out it introduced something new: the Acclamation after the Consecration. When the priest says The Mystery of Faith the people answer by singing or saying one of four acclamations. However, here in Ireland we have a fifth, the Act of Faith of St Thomas in today's Gospel: My Lord and my God! This is the one I always ask the people to use now when celebrating a public Mass, unless the choir has prepared one of the others acclamations. (The priest doesn't sing or say the acclamation as it belongs to the congregation / choir.)

When I was growing up the Mass was what's known now as the Traditional Latin Mass or 'TLM'. There were no official acclamations after the Consecration then but there was for me a very powerful unofficial one here in Ireland: the 'communal cough'. People literally held their breaths during the Consecration because they truly believed that through the power of the Holy Spirit acting through the priest the bread and wine became the Body and Blood of Christ, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity as we learned in kindergarten. After the elevation of the Precious Blood everyone coughed, letting out the tension of their awe-filled faith during the Consecration. This 'communal cough' was full, active participation in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and a deep expression of the faith of the whole community. The priest and people were fully united in worshipping God the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ.

In a meditation on the Easter Vigil published in Magnificat and also on Aleteia on Thursday, English mystic Caryll Houselander (1901 - 1954) captured for me something of this awe, of the faith that people had in the reality of the bread and wine becoming the Body and Blood of Christ during the Mass. Here is the last part of her meditation. (Emphases are mine).

Once again bread and wine and water are brought into the sanctuary, and a Host is consecrated. At the elevation a peal of little bells rings out. It is not only worship of the soul, but the soul expressed through the body. The priest prostrates himself, beats his breast, lifts his arms up to heaven, makes the sign of the cross, speaks the mysterious words: 'This is my Body.' The congregation joins in this worship, and it is expressed by the body of each one: they know that when the words of consecration are spoken, the Word made flesh is there for each one of them; the same glory pours into the difficult worship of the old rheumatic woman at the back of the church as into the priest who is lifting up God in his hands. The glory of the Incarnation is equally in the aching of the old woman’s bones and the young priest’s ecstasy. The glory is not confined to the church where the Mass is offered: it extends in ring upon ring of light and circles the world.

St Thomas saw the glory of the Incarnation in the scars on the hands, feet and side of the Risen Lord. And his Act of Faith extends in ring upon ring of light and circles the world.

Mo Thiarna agus Mo Dhia - My Lord and My God

Sung by Dungiven Parish Church Choir, Ireland

St Thomas's Act of Faith in Irish and English

Traditional Latin Mass

Low Sunday (The Octave Dy of Easter)

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 04-27-2025 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 John 5:4-10.  Gospel: John 20:19-31.

The Incredulity of St Thomas, 

 Caravaggio [Web Gallery of Art]

Thomas answered him, 'My Lord and my God!' (John 20:28; Gospel)

'My Lord and my God!' Sunday Reflections, 2nd Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday), Year C

The Incredulity of St Thomas, Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings(Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel John 20:19-31 (New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition, Canada)  

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’ Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’  Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge 

The Gospel of John (2003) Directed by Philip Saville

Narrator: Christopher Plummer

In 2007, during a visit to Canada I was asked to give a talk to a prayer group. Afterwards, over coffee, I was chatting with on of the members, an elderly immigrant from Germany, who told me how she had become a Catholic. She had been raised as a Lutheran and had been on the verge of joining the Catholic Church for a long time but could not take the final step.

One weekday afternoon, feeling somewhat down because of this she went for a walk. She happened to pass by a Catholic church and decided to go in. While she was there a group of teenage boys came in went up to the front of the church, genuflected before the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle, knelt down for a couple of minutes, stood up, genuflected again and went on their way.

These boys were expressing what the Church has always taught: Do not, then, regard the eucharistic elements as ordinary bread and wine: they are in fact the body and blood of the Lord, as he himself has declared. Whatever your senses may tell you, be strong in faith.

You have been taught and you are firmly convinced that what looks and tastes like bread and wine is not bread and wine but the body and the blood of Christ. You know also how David referred to this long ago when he sang: Bread gives strength to man’s heart and makes his face shine with the oil of gladness. Strengthen your heart, then, by receiving this bread as spiritual bread, and bring joy to the face of your soul. (From The Jerusalem Catecheses, used in the Office of Readings for Saturday within the Octave of Easter.)

This is the reason that Fr Jean-Marc Fournier, chaplain to the Paris Fire Brigade, rescued the Blessed Sacrament from the burning Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral in Holy Week.

The visit of those Canadian teenage boys to the Blessed Sacrament was the German woman's My Lord and my God! moment. She became a Catholic shortly afterwards. Those boys had no idea of how their simple expression of their faith had so profoundly touched the life of a person whom they may not have even noticed.

The moment that St Thomas said My Lord and my God! was truly an 'eternal' moment. It led to his martyrdom and to his living with God for all eternity.

My German-Canadian friend's moment is 'eternal' in the same way. It led her into a deeper relationship with the Lord Jesus and with all the members of the Church and points towards an eternity with God himself.

Every such moment in our lives is meant to be eternal, a moment when we experience the presence of God's love so clearly, a moment that we continue to carry with us, sometimes consciously but perhaps more often not being aware of it, a moment that leads us to eternal life.

I think that we my legitimately think of those many moments in the way St John in his gospel writes of the many other signs [miracles] that Jesus did, which are not written in this book. These moments are graces given by God so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

The Mar Thoma Sliva or Saint Thomas Cross, the symbol of the Syro-Malabar Church [Wikipedia]

Nearly nine per cent of nurses in the Republic of Ireland are from India and most of these are Catholics from Kerala who belong to the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church that traces its origins back to St Thomas the Apostle. These, as well as the Syro-Malankara Catholics in Kerala, are in full communion with Rome. 

I have met many Keralite Catholics here in Ireland and also in Britain and know how fervent they are in living their faith.There are Masses in the Syro-Malabar Rite every Sunday in the Archdiocese of Dublin.

May St Thomas the Apostle, whose My Lord and my God! is the most explicit expression of faith in Jesus Christ in the whole of the New Testament, continue to watch over them. 

                                                                                                                    Antiphona communionem Communion Antiphon Cf John 20:27

Setting by contemporary Scottish composer James MacMillan

Mitte manum tuam, et cognoscere loca clavorum,

Bring your hand and feel the place of the nails,

et noli esse incredulus, sed fidelis, alleluia, alleluia.

and do not be unbelieving but believing, alleluia, alleluia.

Gregorian Chant setting

St Thomas the Apostle, Jusepe Martínez [Web Gallery of Art] 

My Lord and my God!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

'My Lord and my God!' Sunday Reflections, Second Sunday of Easter (or Sunday of Divine Mercy), Year A

The Apostle St Thomas, El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

                

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel John 20:19-31 (New Revised  Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition) 

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’ Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’

John 20:19-31 from The Gospel of John

We can read the words of Jesus to Thomas as a gentle rebuke that has led to the nickname he may carry for all eternity: 'Doubting Thomas'. But I prefer to see him as the one who understood that the Risen Lord must carry the scars of his crucifixion and who made the most explicit act of faith in the whole of Sacred Scripture: My Lord and my God!

The First Reading today (Ats 2:42-47) opens with the words They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 'The breaking of the bread' is an expression used for the celebration of the Eucharist. We can see in this sentence the essence of the Mass as we celebrate it today: listening to God's word, praying and sharing in the Sacrifice of Jesus and sharing his Body and Blood.

Some commentators say that the failure of Thomas was not to listen to God's word as related by his companions. Maybe he did fail here but did the others have the same awareness as Thomas had that the Risen Lord must carry his scars for all eternity?

In Evangelii Gaudium No 7 Pope Francis writes: I never tire of repeating those words of Benedict XVI which take us to the very heart of the Gospel: 'Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction'.

Thomas had been a companion of Jesus for two to three years but what he experienced in today's gospel was precisely what Pope Benedict describes as the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.

Servant of God, Fr Emil Joseph Kapaun (20 April 1916 - 23 May 1951) celebrating Mass with American soldiers during the Korean War [Wikipedia]

In his general audience in St Peter's Square on 31 October 2012 Pope Benedict said: I cannot build my personal faith in a private dialogue with Jesus, because faith is given to me by God through a community of believers that is the Church and projects me into the multitude of believers, into a kind of communion that is not only sociological but rooted in the eternal love of God who is in himself the communion of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, it is Trinitarian Love. Our faith is truly personal, only if it is also communal: it can be my faith only if it dwells in and moves with the 'we' of the Church, only if it is our faith, the common faith of the one Church.

Pope Francis re-echoes this in Evangelii Gaudium Nos 264 - 268: We need to implore his grace daily, asking him to open our cold hearts and shake up our lukewarm and superficial existence . . . Sometimes we lose our enthusiasm for mission because we forget that the Gospel responds to our deepest needs, since we were created for what the Gospel offers us: friendship with Jesus and love of our brothers and sisters . . . The word of God also invites us to recognise that we are a people . . . Mission is at once a passion for Jesus and a passion for his people. When we stand before Jesus crucified, we see the depth of his love which exalts and sustains us, but at the same time, unless we are blind, we begin to realize that Jesus’ gaze, burning with love, expands to embrace all his people. We realize once more that he wants to make use of us to draw closer to his beloved people. He takes us from the midst of his people and he sends us to his people; without this sense of belonging we cannot understand our deepest identity.

What both Pope Benedict and Pope Francis are saying is that while our faith is in a person, Jesus Christ the Risen Lord, it can never be a question of 'Jesus and me'. Pope Benedict says, faith is given to me by God through a community of believers that is the Church and projects me into the multitude of believers and Pope Francis emphasises that He takes us from the midst of his people and he sends us to his people; without this sense of belonging we cannot understand our deepest identity.

In other words, I can only know myself as a brother or sister of Jesus, as a son or daughter of God the Father when I know myself as a member of their family, which I have become through my baptism.

And that awareness of who I am is strengthened when I join other members of God's family every Sunday as they devote themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

British soldiers at Mass in the Netherlands during World War II [Wikipedia]

Many Irish Columbans served as chaplains in the British Forces during World War II. One, Fr Patrick McMahon, died in action in Normandy, France, after rescuing a Canadian soldier on 14 August 1944.

In the Office of Readings, prayed by priests, monks, nuns and others as part of the Prayer of the Church, there are two readings. The first is from the Bible and the second usually from writers in the early centuries of the Church. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday of Easter Week the second reading is from Instructions to the Newly Baptized in Jerusalem also known as The Jerusalem Catechesis, written, as far as I know, by St Cyril of Jerusalem. The author says, Just as the bread of the Eucharist after the invocation of the Holy Spirit is no longer just bread, but the body of Christ, so when the Holy Spirit has been invoked on the holy chrism it is no longer mere or ordinary ointment; it is the gift of Christ, which through the presence of the Holy Spirit instils his divinity into us [Friday].

For the Saturday reading the author tells the newly-baptized: Do not, then, regard the bread and wine as nothing but bread and wine, for they are the body and blood of Christ as the master himself has proclaimed. Though your senses suggest otherwise, let faith reassure you. You have been taught and fully instructed that what seems to be bread is not bread, though it appears to be such to the sense of taste, but the body of Christ; that what seems to be wine is not wine, though the taste would have it so, but the blood of Christ. 

When I celebrate Mass with the Deaf here in Bacolod City, a group whose needs the late Columban Fr Joseph Coyle was the first priest to respond to and whose vision is being carried on now by many others, both Deaf and hearing, after the consecration of the bread and again of the wine, I hear from speaking people who are present the words of St Thomas, My Lord and my God. Just like St Thomas, they recognise the presence of the Risen Lord in the bread and the winde that have no become his Body and Blood.

Fr Emil Kapaun and Fr Patrick McMahon recognised the presence of Jesus in the bread and wine that became the Body and Blood of Christ each time they celebrated the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. They also recognised the presence of Jesus in the wounds of the soldiers they tended and in whose service they sacrificed their lives - following the example of St Thomas who, according to tradition, was martyred in India.

+++

Regina caeli is sung during the Easter Season at the end of the Church's Night Prayer (Compline).

The Coronation of the Virgin, Fra Angelico [Web Gallery of Art]

Regina cæli, lætare, alleluia:

R. Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluia,

Resurrexit, sicut dixit, alleluia,

R. Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluia.

Gaude et lætare, Virgo Maria, alleluia.

R. Quia surrexit Dominus vere, alleluia.

Oremus.
Deus, qui per resurrectionem Filii tui, Domini nostri Iesu Christi,
mundum lætificare dignatus es:
præsta, quæsumus, ut per eius Genitricem Virginem Mariam,
perpetuæ capiamus gaudia vitæ.
Per eundem Christum Dominum nostrum. R. Amen.

Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia.

The Son whom you merited to bear, alleluia.

Has risen, as He said, alleluia.

Pray for us to God, alleluia.

V. Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia.

R. For the Lord has truly risen, alleluia.

Let us pray.
O God, who through the resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ
gave rejoicing to the world,
grant, we pray, that through his Mother, the Virgin Mary,
we may obtain the joy of everlasting life.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.