VICAR

Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, Happy Easter to You and Your nearest and dearest.

Easter is the greatest of all Christian feasts, and the happy season of Eastertide lasts 50 days from Easter Day until the Feast of Pentecost. St Gregory of Nazianzus said that Easter was ‘like the sun among the stars’ of the other festivals. It is the heart of the sacred calendar, around which all of the other festivals have meaning and purpose.

Today is the summit of the Christian year, the fact that Christ is risen shows that God will never leave us, bringing good out of conflict, suffering and death. Easter tells us that just as Christ is risen. so too we can expect to be raised with him to eternal life. As we go into the week ahead let us consider that death was only the beginning, Christ is with us forever.

I wish You all a wonderful Easter Sunday, a relaxing bank holiday Monday and a splendid week ahead. God Bless.

Lord Jesus,

risen from the dead and alive for evermore

Stand in our midst today as in the upper room;

speak your peace to our hearts and minds;

and send us out into the world as your witnesses,

to the glory of your name.

Amen.