EASTER THURSDAY
Easter, Feast of Holiness from the "Word of Life" on the margin of the Roman Missal by Don Columba Marmion.

In her litanies, the Church applies certain qualifying titles to some of the mysteries of Jesus. She says of His Resurrection that it is "holy": Per sanctam resurrectionem tuam. Why is the Resurrection, in preference to all the other mysteries of Jesus, called "holy"? Because it is in this mystery that Christ particularly fulfills the conditions of holiness; because if, by all His life, He is the Way, and the Light, if He gives the example of every virtue compatible with His Divinity, in His Resurrection Christ is above all the example of holiness. What, then, are the elements that constitute holiness? Holiness can be resumed for us into two elements: separation from all sin, detachment from every creature; and the belonging totally and steadfastly to God. Now, in Christ's Resurrection, these two characters are found in a degree not manifested before His coming forth from the tomb. Although the Word Incarnate had been, during His entire existence, the "Holy One" like to none other, it is with effulgent brightness that He especially reveals Himself to us under this aspect in His Resurrection and it is therefore that the Church sings: Per sanctan resurrectionem tuam.