An Introduction To Worship From Easter To Pentecost

The tenor of the Easter season is the opposite of the that of Lenten worship. While Lent is characterized by austerity, during Easter the church celebrates. Fasting and kneeling are replaced by alleluias of celebration. Easter is the annual festival that forms the center around which our liturgical life, indeed our faith, moves in orbit. We are Easter people precisely because it is in the unitive, historical event of cross and resurrection that we find the source of our salvation. While the details are far from clear, there seems to be wide agreement among scholars that, in addition to the weekly celebration of the Resurrection, an annual observance of Easter became standard fare very early in the life of the ancient church. Indeed, there is every reason to suspect that the primitive Christian community of Jewish origin would have observed the "Passover of God in Christ" the very next year after the Crucifixion. There seems to be little doubt that the original annual observance was…