Fr. David Curry has collected his Holy Week and Easter meditations and homilies, based on the scripture text, “A sword shall pierce through thy own soul also; that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” into a single pdf document. Click here to download Holy Week and Easter at Christ Church 2026. These homilies were originally delivered and posted earlier this week on Palm Sunday through Easter Day.
Click here to listen to an audio recording of the 8:00am service of Holy Communion at Christ Church on Easter Day.
“Christ is risen, Alleluia! Alleluia! The Lord is risen, indeed! Alleluia! Alleluia!” This is the great Easter proclamation. Easter resounds with the cries of Alleluias, which means “Praise the Lord” or “Praise Yahweh,” that is, God. It is a Hebrew word transliterated into Greek and subsequently into other languages such as English. What does it mean? Simply put, it is our acknowledgement of the radical truth of God as the source and end of all life, the life which is greater than sin and death, the good that is greater than evil and wickedness. Life is resurrection! The Resurrection of Christ witnesses to our resurrection, to our being alive to life itself, to our humanity alive in God. God is life!
Easter is not a happy-clappy add-on to an otherwise dismal and gruesome story. It is not a kind of feel-good illusion to hide from view what we would rather not see, a human construct of our own devising in the face of a sense of the fatal futility and meaninglessness of life. Quite the opposite. It makes visible what has been obscured and hidden yet present in all of the events of the Passion. The Crucified and Risen Christ reveals us to ourselves.
Simeon’s prophecy about Jesus and Mary has carried us through Holy Week to Easter in all our meditations on the Passion. The whole point is that the Passion is in the Resurrection and the Resurrection is in the Passion. The two are inseparably intertwined. “This child,” Simeon said to Mary, “is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign that shall be spoken against.” We have certainly seen and heard quite enough of the things spoken against Christ in mockery and insult, in false witness and lies, in animosity and cruel hatred by Jew and Gentile. Such is sin, the falling away from truth and goodness in all its forms. But we have also seen moments and hints of the rising again of those whose consciences have been convicted by what they have seen and heard, such as Peter’s tears of sorrow, the Penitent’s prayer on the Cross to Christ, the unnamed woman breaking open the alabaster jar of ointment of spikenard to anoint Jesus in anticipation of his death and burial, and so on. These moments have shown souls being pierced by sin and by love. We are in the story in the fullest sense.
Monday April 6th, Monday in Easter Week
10:00am Holy Communion
Tuesday, April 7th, Tuesday in Easter Week
7:00pm Holy Communion
Sunday, April 12th, Octave Day of Easter
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
The collect for today, Easter-Day, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962) :
ALMIGHTY God, who through thine only begotten Son Jesus Christ hast overcome death, and opened unto us the gate of everlasting life: We humbly beseech thee, that as by thy special grace thou dost put into our minds good desires, so by thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
The Epistle: Colossians 3:1-11
The Gospel: St. John 20:1-10
Artwork: Giovanni Bellini, The Resurrection, c. 1475-79. Oil on panel, transferred to canvas, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin.