The Easter Vigil

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Christ yesterday, today, beginning, and the end. His are the times and the ages alleluia.

On the earth we live as part of the church militant. We cannot wage a war without weaponry or an objective. The weapon is Christ alive in the most perfect unity between us. The objective is, “So that we may all be one.” (Chiara Lubich) 

I am so great full that the mother church has embraced us with the feast of Easter vigil mass. In accord with the ancient tradition, this night is one of vigil for the Lord, when he brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt. So on this night all Israelites must keep the vigil for the lord through generations (Ex .12:42) “Blessed are those servants whose master find vigilant on his arrival. (Lk, 12:35). This is a reminder for the faithful to have their lumps burning ready, to be like men awaiting their master’s return so that when he alives he will find them wide awake and seat with them at his table.

The night vigil is arranged in four parts which include, service of light, liturgy of the word that the church meditates on all the wonderful beauty of creation God has put on earth from the beginning. We also have the liturgy of baptism. The resurrected Lord is the sign for the members of the church to be reborn in baptism. All Christians renew their baptismal promises. The last part is the liturgy of the Eucharist; the entire church is invited to the banquet of the Lord as the witnesses of the paschal mystery. The celebration of the Eater vigil starts at night. According to the church tradition, it should not begin before the night falls and should end before the day break on Sunday (Roman missal)


As Lavigerie community in Jinja, this is how we celebrated our Easter vigil. We started our mass late in the evening with the preparation and blessing of a conflagration that was set a distance from the chapel. The Easter candle was blessed along with other candles. We started our procession to the recreation room where the Exsultet was recited. We had the first reading which was accompanied by the power point making us feel the reality of creation. We continued with the procession with the accompaniment of more readings from (Gen, 22:1-18), (Ex, 14:15-15:1), (Is, 54:5-14), (Bar, 3:9-15, 32:4:4). After the last reading from the Old Testament with the responsorial prayer, we entered chapel. The lights and alter candles were lit, and Father Gaetan who was the main celebrant intoned the Gloria that was taken up by the whole congregation. The last two readings were taken from the New Testament one from the book of Romans (6:3-11) and the gospel, “why look among the dead for someone who is alive.”(Mark 16:1-8)

The main celebrant’s homily was so moving that it left Christians in a thick smoke confusion to reflect more about their relationship with the risen Christ. He posed a question that, “Why are you a Christian?” Many answers were presented from Christians; these are some of the answers which were presented. One said I am a Christian because Jesus suffered, died and resurrected because of my sins. Another Christian responded that I want to be a disciple of Christ. In his homily, the preacher challenged the congregation saying that most of us are not strong in our journey of faith. “Where do you draw water when your well gets dry?” He called upon the entire community to always dig deep and surrender our lives to God when our wells get dry.  The main celebrant had prepared letters to the entire Christians, the later I received said, "Hello Collines, am happy again to talk to you, you are my beloved, I trust in you. I came so that you may have life and life to the fullness. You are the light of the world, don’t be afraid to shine. Shine my compassion. Remember, you are precious to me. Yours, Jesus."  The Easter vigil it is a reminder of the final victory of life over death; it also reminds us that we are the beloved, that we are called to have life to the fulness, that we are invited to be the light of the world. In order to experience the victory of Easter we need to befriend a journey of rejection, suffering and death as Jesus did, for any Christian who is serious about following Christ must be prepared to walk the same path with the risen Lord.


The mass finally ended sound and all Christian communities were invited for the simple meal which was prepared for us all as the sign of the togetherness to celebrate the joy of the risen Lord. Later all visitors departed. It’s my prayer that the good Lord protects us from all evil and continues blessing our renewed baptism promises.


Kananura Collines

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