The Easter Season
The Easter season begins on Easter Sunday and continues to Pentecost Sunday. During these fifty days, Christians celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord with joy and exultation as one great Sunday.
The first eight days of the Easter season are celebrated as the Octave of Easter. This octave, in many ways, treats every day of the octave as Easter Sunday itself. At Mass, the priest prays in Preface I of Easter, in reference to the resurrection of Christ, that it is our duty at all times to acclaim the Lord but especially on this day when Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. Likewise in the First Eucharistic Prayer, which is the Roman Canon, the priest speaks of how the Church is celebrating the most sacred day of the Resurrection of our Lord in the flesh. Finally, the dismissal at the end of Mass concludes with a double Alleluia every day of the octave. At this time, the deacon or priest dismisses the assembly with the usual words, but after the dismissal adds alleluia, alleluia as a sign of the great joy of the Church as she celebrates the Resurrection of the Lord.
Finally, from the solemnity of the Ascension until Pentecost, almost all of the collects at the beginning of Mass pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Church. Then at Pentecost itself, as the Church celebrates the sending of the Holy Spirit, the priest prays that the gifts of the Holy Spirit may be poured out upon the whole world so that the hearts of believers may be filled with the divine grace that was at work at the first proclamation of the Gospel.
Source: Rev. Kurt Belsole, OSB, Saint Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe, PA
www.liftupyourhearts.church