How many times a year do we celebrate Easter?

Once?  Two? Three?

Most people will probably answer once.  Some, depending on family circumstances and gatherings might answer two or three.

In my family life we usually celebrate only once.  The entire family meets at church and then we come home to have our egg hunt for the kids and our meal.  The kids have to wait until after dinner to find the eggs.

But in my church, we celebrate Easter every Sunday.  Yes we do!

Every Sunday we use The Book of Common Prayer when we celebrate Communion – The Holy Eucharist and in that context we celebrate the risen Christ.

When we proclaim the mystery of faith the celebrant and congregation say together following words:

Christ has died.  Christ is risen.  Christ will come again.

and the Celebrant continues “We celebrate the memorial of our redemption, O Father, in this sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.  Recalling his death, resurrection, and ascension, we offer you these gifts.”

We have Alternative Forms of the Great Thanksgiving and the words are similar:

In Eucharistic Prayer B (which is my personal favorite) we say the following

We remember his death, We proclaim his resurrection, We await his coming in glory;

In Eucharistic Prayer C the celebrant says:

“Remembering now his work of redemption, and offering to you this sacrifice of thanksgiving,”

then the people join in saying:

“We celebrate his death and resurrection, as we await the day of his coming.”

In my church – we celebrate Easter a minimum of 54 times a year – probably more like a minimum of 108 times because we have a mid-week service with Eucharist as well.

I appreciate the fact that we celebrate Easter this often because without celebrating Easter people are more likely to remember his death and forget about the hope in the resurrection.  Christ defeated death on Easter.  We should never forget this – in fact, people need to be reminded of this more often.  Jesus came to save us from sin and deliver us out of death into life.   In celebrating Easter we are reminded that Jesus defeated death brought on by the sins of humanity which he carried on the cross.  On Good Friday and every Sunday we remember that he forgave sin from the cross, But on Easter and every Sunday we celebrate His victory over death and the grave. It is through His resurrection that we know we too will be delivered out of eternal death into eternal life.  That is so worth celebrating!  Thank you Jesus!

How often would you like to celebrate Easter?

Find a church like mine and you can celebrate at least once a week!

Wishing you a happy and blessed Easter – today and every day.