Category:Easter Vigil

View the Wikipedia article on Easter Vigil.

Please support CPDL with a donation! All major credit cards as well as checks are accepted. Please visit this page for details.

The Vigil of Easter begins with the lighting of the candle and chanting of the Exsultet, followed by 7 lessons with tracts, each chanted to the same tune. Since 1970 the celebration of the Ordinary Form has required only 3 lessons (one of which must be the crossing of the Red Sea) and there is considerable discretion allowed in choosing the responses.

After the Baptismal Litany of Saints, Mass continues with the Gloria; the Agnus is omitted. In the post-1970 Mass the Liturgy of Baptism follows the Gospel and homily.

In the Anglican Communion, The Great Vigil of Easter (which came into wider usage starting with 19th-century Tractarians and 20th-century Anglo-Catholics) uses the same form with some variation. The Episcopal Church in the United States of America allows for Holy Baptism (or the Renewal of Baptismal Vows if none are to be baptised) to follow either the Gospel and homily or the Liturgy of the Word, which may include up to 9 lessons instead of seven. The Book of Common Prayer (1979) stipulates at least two lessons be read, one of which is always the crossing of the Red Sea. Instead of tracts, various psalms and canticles are suggested to follow each lesson, or other hymns may be sung. A homily may follow any of the readings. The Revised Common Lectionary, frequently used within the Episcopal Church and elsewhere, lists minor variations in readings and suggested psalms from The Book of Common Prayer.

The pre-1951 Latin Rite Easter Vigil, celebrated during the day, calls for the singing of an abbreviated Office of Vespers in place of the Postcommunion. The 1951–1969 revision calls instead for the singing of an abbreviated Office of Lauds: