The Easter Season continues until Pentecost, lasting longer than the Lenten Season which has prepared us for this moment. Paul writes, “…our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” (1 Cor 15:14)Although the Octave of Solemnities comes to a close on Divine Mercy Sunday, it does not mean the ending of Easter itself.
Easter is the foundation of our Christian faith, for without Christ’s Death and Resurrection as St. Through His Resurrection, He gives us new life and opens the gates of Heaven, where His Father has prepared a place for us. Through His Death, Christ destroys our bondage to sin. No other feast is ever celebrated during this week.” ( With Christ Through the Year, 1947, Bernard Strasser, p. Since the resurrection was the most significant event in the life of our Lord who by means of this wonderful and undeniable fact made His divinity known to the entire world, Easter is the highest Sunday and Easter Week the great week of the entire Church year. In the Church's liturgical calendar, each day of the Octave is designated as a Solemnity, the highest ranking of liturgical feasts.
Easter Week refers to the first seven days of this eight-day week. It is the start of Eastertide in Christian churches that commemorate it. But Easter Week is the antithesis of Holy Week. The Octave of Easter is the 8-day period of celebration, starting from Easter Sunday and ending on Second Sunday Of Easter. Rightly therefore can this week be considered the most serious and awe-inspiring in the Church’s calendar. “If Holy Week is the most sacred and most important week of the entire ecclesiastical year, it is because it draws its importance from Good Friday, the day on which Christ, the God-Man and Redeemer, died on the cross for us. Discuss: What do you think it would be like to see Jesus alive after he died on the. In order to celebrate the greatest of feasts, we must recognize the importance of Holy Week, more specifically, the importance of Christ’s sacrifice on Good Friday: Read the Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday (2nd Sunday of Easter). This gives us the opportunity to contemplate the mysteries, joys, and graces of Easter, the greatest feast of the Church.
This holy day is the beginning of the Easter Octave, each day a solemnity, the highest of feasts! Each day is like a ‘little Sunday’, prolonging the initial feast for eight days. This Sunday we celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord.