Happy Easter!

"Be not afraid. Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen!" Mark 16:6

Wipo: Easter Sequence

Christians, to the Paschal Victim offer sacrifice and praise.

The sheep are ransomed by the Lamb;

And Christ, the undefiled,

Hath sinners to his Father reconciled.

Death with life contended: combat strangely ended!

Life’s own Champion, slain, yet lives to reign.

Tell us, Mary: say what thou didst see upon the way.

The tomb the living did enclose;

I saw Christ’s glory as he rose!

The angels there attesting;

Shroud with grave-clothes resting.

Christ, my hope, has risen: he goes before you into Galilee.

That Christ is truly risen from the dead we know.

Victorious king, thy mercy show!

During the Easter Sunday liturgy, after the Second Reading and before the Gospel Acclamation, the Easter Sequence is read or sung. This liturgical poem, composed especially for the feast of Easter, was written by Wipo of Burgundy, a priest and chaplain to the Holy Roman Emperor, Konrad II. Wipo died about 1050 AD. One thousand years later, at the beginning of the third millennium, this beautiful poem, written at the beginning of the second millennium, can still resonate in our hearts. This sequence, Victimae Paschali (Paschal Victim) can be prayed during the Easter season.