The Omega Point represents a real hope for us because we can rightly expect to be integrated into it; because an irrevocability attaches to the human person, who will not be reduced to nothingness but will be delivered from his isolation and taken into the unity of the everlasting Man.... The Resurrection of Jesus gives us the certainty that God exists and that, as Father of Jesus Christ, he is a God of human beings. The Resurrection of Jesus is the definitive theophany and the triumphant answer to the question of which really reigns: death or life. God exists: that is the real message of Easter. Anyone who even begins to grasp what this means also knows what it means to be redeemed. He knows why in her prayers on this day the Church sings endless Alleluias, thus giving expression to the wordless jubilation that is too intense to be articulated in everyday language because its object is our life in its entirety, with all that is effable and ineffable in it. Celebrating Easter means experiencing something of this joy.

Pope Benedict

A future which we bring about solely by our own power and in which the human person makes himself the sole measure of what is human can only be an inhuman future. In this sense it should be clear to us that only a future which we receive from God can be a "human" future. Consequently, we should regard Easter as being, among other things, a time for reflection on our own history and on the redemption and enslavement that history signifies for us. We may well celebrate Easter as a day of hope in the future. But as soon as we ask what man's hope should rightly be, we cannot look solely to man himself for the answer, since man represents a danger as well as a hope to himself.... Faith in the Resurrection of Jesus says that there is a future for every human being; the cry for unending life which is a part of the person is indeed answered. Through Jesus we do know "the room where exiled love lays down its victory." He himself is this place, and he calls us to be with him and in dependence on him. He calls us to keep this place open within the world so that he, the exiled love, may reappear over and over in the world; only its surface is of the crucified Christ, and our knowledge that this world is capable of inflicting deadly wounds even on its God. On the other hand, neither is the world the meaningless plaything of voracious death. It provides a place for exiled love, because through the mortal wounds of Jesus Christ God has entered this world.

Pope Benedict XVI

Please remember in prayer the monks of Saint Anselm Abbey and the faculty, staff and students at Saint Anselm College on their patronal feast day.

Singing indicates that the person is passing beyond the boundaries of the merely rational and falling into a kind of ecstasy; the merely rational he can express in ordinary language (that is why overly rational people are seldom tempted to sing). Now singing finds its climactic form in the Alleluia, the song in which the very essence of all song achieves its purest emodiment.... In fact we are dealing here with something that cannot be translated. The Alleluia is simply the nonverbal expression in song of a joy that requires no words because it transcends all words. In this it resembles certain kinds of exultation and jubilation that are to be found among all peoples, just as the miracle of joy manifests itself in every nation.... What does it mean to sing with "jubilation"? It means: to be unable to express in words, or to verbalize, the song that sings to you in your heart. As the harvesters in field or vineyard experience an increasingly jubilant sense of joy, they become incapable, it seems, of finding words to express this overflowing joy. They abandon syllables and words, and their singing turns into a jubilus or cry of exultation. A jubilus is a shout that shows the heart is trying to express what it cannot possibly say. And to whom is such a jubilus more fittingly directed than to him who is himself ineffable? He is ineffable because your words cannot lay hold of him.... The Alleluia is like a first revelation of what can and shall someday take place in us: our entire being shall turn into a single immense joy.

Pope Benedict XVI

Water typifies all that is precious on earth.  Anyone who has ever been thirsty knows the truth of this.... That is why water awakens within us the memory of Paradise and fruitfulness.  Once again, finally, it is the opposite of all this that enables us to grasp fully what a wonderful thing water is. The dirt and burden of the day fall away as we wash ourselves in the bath from which a person emerges as new-born child.... The cross of Christ is naught else than his radical gift of himself, the ultimate surrender in which hhe holds back nothing, not even his very self, but pours himself out totally for others. On the cross, then, the truly marvelous wellspring of pure self-surrender, of self-giving love for God, was unsealed. All the priceless value of water is comcentrated in it: the power to cleanse, fruitfulness, all that is refreshing and cheering and invigorating. In baptism this spring flows from Christ's cross through the entire Church like a mighty stream and "gladdens the city of God" (Ps 46:5). We bathe in this stream and are reborn. It alone constantly transforms the wilderness of the world into fruitful land; for, where hatred and selfishness reign there is a wilderness, and only when the spirit of loving service is effectively at work is anything truly constructive accomplished. We must never forget that the most precious spring in the world pours from the cross and from death, or, rather, from the radical surrender of self.

Pope Benedict XVI

The "alleluia" hasn't gotten old.

Every morning at Mass this week, we conclude with that beautifully sung "The Mass is ended. Go in peace. Alleluia, alleluia!"  And each and every day it gets stronger and more confident. Several years ago, when we began to sing this during the Easter Octave, the community simply looked at me as if to say, "You're kidding, right?" Now, they sing it confidently and joyously.

The response today is one that is anticipated and enthusiastic--and as ancient as is the chant, the response is fresh and new.

"Christ is risen," it says. Alleluia!

Happy 5th anniversary of ordination to the priesthood, Father Jason Wells. We are blessed to know you!