First Reading
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
God said, "Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves, and let
them be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild beasts
and all the reptiles that crawl upon the earth."
God created man in the image of himself, in the image of God he created him, male
and female he created them.
God blessed them, saying to them, "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and conquer it.
Be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven and all living animals on the
earth." God said, "See, I give you all the seed-bearing plants that are upon the whole
earth, and all the trees with seed-bearing fruit; this shall be your food. To all wild
beasts, all birds of heaven and all living reptiles on the earth I give all the foliage of
plants for food." And so it was. God saw all he had made, and indeed it was very good.
Evening came and morning came: the sixth day.
Thus heaven and earth were completed with all their array. On the seventh day God
completed the work he had been doing. He rested on the seventh day after all the work
he had been doing.
Second Reading
God put Abraham to the test, "Abraham, Abraham," he called. "Here I am," he replied.
"Take you son," God said "your only child Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of
Moriah. There you shall offer him as a burnt offering, on a mountain I will point out to
you."
When they arrived at the place God had pointed out to him, Abraham built an altar
there, and arranged the wood. Then he bound his son Isaac and put him on the altar on
top of the wood. Abraham stretched out his hand and seized the knife to kill his son.
But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven.
"Abraham, Abraham," he said. "I am here," he replied. "Do not harm him, for now I
know you fear God. You have not refused me your son, your only son." Then looking
up, Abraham saw a ram caught by its horns in a bush. Abraham took the ram and
offered it as a burnt-offering in place of his son.
VIGILIA PASCUAL
The angel of the Lord called Abraham a second time from heaven. "I swear by my
own self – it is the Lord who speaks – because you have done this, because you have
not refused me your son, your only son, I will shower blessings on you, I will make
your descendants as many as the stars of heaven and the grains of sand on the
seashore. Your descendants shall gain possession of the gates of their enemies. All the
nations of the earth shall bless themselves by your descendants, as a reward for your
obedience."
THIRD READING Exodus 14:15 – 15:1
The Lord said to Moses, "Why do you cry to me so? Tell the sons of Israel to march
on. For yourself, raise your staff and stretch our your hand over the sea and part it for
the sons of Israel to walk through the sea on dry ground. I for my part will make the
heart of the Egyptians so stubborn that they will follow them. So shall I win myself
glory at the expense of Pharaoh, of all his army, his chariots, his horsemen. And when
I have won glory for myself, at the expense of Pharaoh and his chariots and his army,
the Egyptians will learn that I am the Lord."
Then the angel of the Lord, who marched at the front of the army of Israel, changed
station and moved to their rear. The pillar of cloud changed station from the front to
the rear of them, and remained there. It came between the camp of the Egyptians and
the camp of Israel. The cloud was dark, and the night passed without the armies
drawing any closer the whole night long. Moses stretched out his hand over the sea.
The Lord drove back the sea with a strong easterly wind all night, and he made dry
land of the sea. The waters parted and the sons of Israel went on dry ground right into
the sea, walls of water to right and to left of them. The Egyptians gave chase: after
them they went, right into the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen.
In the morning watch, the Lord looked down on the army of the Egyptians from the
pillar of fire and of cloud, and threw the army into confusion. He so clogged their
chariot wheels that they could scarcely make headway. "Let us flee from the
Israelites," the Egyptians cried "the Lord is fighting from them against the Egyptians!"
"Stretch out your hand over the sea," the Lord said to Moses "that the waters may flow
back on the Egyptians and their chariots and their horsemen." Moses stretched out his
hand over the sea and, as day broke, the sea returned to its bed. The fleeing Egyptians
marched right into it, and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the very middle of the
sea. The returning waters overwhelmed the chariots and the horsemen of Pharaoh's
whole army, which had followed the Israelites into the sea; not a single one of them
was left. But the sons of Israel had marched through the sea on dry ground, walls of
water to right and to left of them. That day, the Lord rescued Israel from the
Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. Israel witnessed the
great act that the Lord had performed against the Egyptians, and the people venerated
the Lord; they put their faith in the Lord and in Moses, his servant. It was then that
Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song in honour of the Lord: I will sing to the
Lord, glorious his triumph! Horse and rider he has thrown into the sea!
VIGILIA PASCUAL
FOURTH READING Isaiah 54:5-14
For now your creator will be your husband, his name, the Lord of hosts; your redeemer
will be the Holy One of Israel, he is called the God of the whole earth. Yes, like a
forsaken wife, distressed in spirit, the Lord calls you back. Does a man cast off the
wife of his youth? says your God.
I did forsake you for a brief moment, but with great love will I take you back. In
excess of anger, for a moment I hid my face from you. But with everlasting love I have
taken pity on you, says the Lord, your redeemer.
I am now as I was in the days of Noah when I swore that Noah's waters should never
flood the world again. So now I swear concerning my anger with you and the threats I
made against you; for the mountains may depart, the hills be shaken, but my love for
you will never leave you and my covenant of peace with you will never be shaken,
says the Lord who takes pity on you.
Unhappy creature, storm-tossed, disconsolate, see, I will set your stones on carbuncles
and your foundations on sapphires. I will make rubies your battlements, your gates
crystal, and your entire wall precious stones. Your sons will all be taught by the Lord.
The prosperity of your sons will be great. You will be founded on integrity; remote
from oppression, you will have nothing to fear; remote from terror, it will not approach
you.
FIFTH READING Isaiah 55:1-11
Thus says the Lord: Oh, come to the water all you who are thirsty; though you have no
money, come! Buy corn, without money, and eat, and, at no cost, wine and milk. Why
spend money on what is not bread, your wages on what fails to satisfy? Listen, listen
to me, and you will have good things to eat and rich food to enjoy. Pay attention, come
to me; listen, and your soul will live.
With you I will make an everlasting covenant out of the favours promised to David.
See, I have made of you a witness to the peoples, a leader and a master of the nations.
See, you will summon a nation you never knew, those unknown will come hurrying to
you, for the sake of the Lord your God, of the Holy One of Israel who will glorify you.
Seek the Lord while he is still to be found, call to him while he is still near. Let the
wicked man abandon his way, the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn back to the Lord
who will take pity on him, to our God who is rich in forgiving; for my thoughts are not
your thoughts, my ways are not your ways – it is the Lord who speaks. Yes, the
heavens are as high above earth as my ways are above your ways, my thoughts above
your thoughts.
Yes, as the rain and the snow come down from the heavens and do not return without
watering the earth, making it yield and giving growth to provide seed for the sower
VIGILIA PASCUAL
and bread for the eating, so the word that goes from my mouth does not return to me
empty, without carrying out my will and succeeding in what it was sent to do.
SIXTH READING Baruch 3:9-15.32 – 4:4
Listen, Israel, to commands that bring life; hear, and learn what knowledge means.
Why, Israel, why are you in the country of your enemies, growing older and older in
an alien land, sharing defilement with the dead, reckoned with those who go to Sheol?
Because you have forsaken the fountain of wisdom. Had you walked in the way of
God, you would have lived in peace for ever. Learn where knowledge is, where
strength, where understanding, and so learn where length of days is, where life, where
the light of the eyes and where peace. But who has found out where she lives, who has
entered her treasure house?
But the One who knows all knows her, he has grasped her with his own intellect, he
has set the earth firm for ever and filled it with four-footed beasts, he sends the light –
and it goes, he recalls it – and trembling it obeys; the stars shine joyfully at their set
times: when he calls them, they answer, "Here we are"; they gladly shine for their
creator. It is he who is our God, no other can compare with him. He has grasped the
whole way of knowledge, and confided it to his servant Jacob, to Israel his well-
beloved; so causing her to appear on earth and move among men.
This is the book of the commandments of God, the Law that stands for ever; those who
keep her live, those who desert her die.
Turn back, Jacob, seize her, in her radiance make your way to light: do not yield your
glory to another, your privilege to a people not your own. Israel, blessed are we: what
pleases God has been revealed to us.
SEVENTH READING Ezekiel 36:16-17a.18-28
The word of the Lord was addressed to me as follows: "Son of man, the members of
the House of Israel used to live in their own land, but they defiled it by their conduct
and actions.
"I then discharged my fury at them because of the blood they shed in their land and the
idols with which they defiled it. I scattered them among the nations and dispersed
them in foreign countries. I sentenced them as their conduct and actions deserved. And
now they have profaned my holy name among the nations where they have gone, so
that people say of them, 'These are the people of the Lord; they have been exiled from
his land.' But I have been concerned about my holy name, which the House of Israel
has profaned among the nations where they have gone. And so, say to the House of
Israel, 'The Lord says this: I am not doing this for your sake, House of Israel, but for
the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you
VIGILIA PASCUAL
have gone. I mean to display the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned
among the nations, which you have profaned among them. And the nations will learn
that I am the Lord – it is the Lord who speaks – when I display my holiness for your
sake before their eyes. Then I am going to take you from among the nations and gather
you together from all foreign countries, and bring you home to your own land. I shall
cleanse you of all your defilement and all your idols. I shall give you a new heart, and
put a new spirit in you; I shall remove the heart of stone from your bodies and give
you a heart of flesh instead. I shall put my spirit in you, and make you keep my laws
and sincerely respect my observances. You will live in the land which I gave your
ancestors. You shall be my people and I will be your God.'"
NEW TESTAMENT Reading Romans 6:3-11
You have been taught that when we were baptised in Christ Jesus we were baptised in
his death; in other words, when we were baptised we went into the tomb with him and
joined him in death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father's glory,
we too might live a new life. If in union with Christ we have imitated his death, we
shall also imitate him in his resurrection. We must realise that our former selves have
been crucified with him to destroy this sinful body and to free us from the slavery of
sin. When a man dies, of course, he has finished with sin.
But we believe that having died with Christ we shall return to life with him: Christ, as
we know, having been raised from the dead will never die again. Death has no power
over him any more. When he died, he died, once for all, to sin, so his life now is life
with God; and in that way, you too must consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive
for God in Christ Jesus.
Gospel
On the first day of the week, at the first sign of dawn, they went to the tomb with the
spices they had prepared. They found that the stone had been rolled away from the
tomb, but on entering discovered that the body of the Lord Jesus was not there. As
they stood there not knowing what to think, two men in brilliant clothes suddenly
appeared at their side. Terrified, the women lowered their eyes. But the two men said
to them, "Why look among the dead for someone who is alive? He is not here; he has
risen. Remember what he told you when he was still in Galilee: that the Son of Man
had to be handed over into the power of sinful men and be crucified, and rise again on
the third day?" And they remembered his words. When the women returned from the
tomb they told all this to the Eleven and to all the others. The women were Mary of
Magdala, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James. The other women with them also
told the apostles, but this story of theirs seemed pure nonsense, and they did not
believe them.
Peter, however, went running to the tomb. He bent down and saw the binding cloths,
but nothing else; he then went back home, amazed at what had happened.
