Novena in honour of the Blessed Gerard - Day 8

Day Eight
Christ has has died; Christ has risen

With the reform of the liturgy in years following the Second Vatican Council, the acclamation ‘mortem tuam annuntiamus, Domine, et tuam resurrectionem confitemur’ rendered as ‘Christ has died; Christ is risen’, became our profession of faith after the consecration.

This phrase repeats the original credo of the Church, the confession of the death and resurrection of the Lord. It was with this faith too that Blessed Gerard worked in Jerusalem near to the place where the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ occurred, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem that embraced the the traditional sites of the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord: ’...and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain...’ (1 Cor. xv:14).

In our own day, we must again become aware of this Easter faith that Gerard lived. During Easter, we, the baptized, are most intimately joined with Christ. ‘God raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus’ (Eph. ii:6); ‘so if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God’ (Col. iii:1-2).

Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, strengthen us in faith, in trust and in love.
Lord hear our prayer.
Make the Holy Land a land of peace between peoples where your praises may sound.
Lord hear our prayer.
Send us your Spirit that we may proclaim your death and profess your resurrection until you come in glory.
Lord hear our prayer.
Welcome our dead in your heavenly Jerusalem.
Lord hear our prayer.

Our Father... Hail Mary... Glory be to the Father…

Pray for us, Blessed Gerard
That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us Pray.
Let your people, renewed in youth of spirit, O God, rejoice always that those who now take delight in the glory of being your adopted children, may look forward with certain hope to the day of resurrection. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for the Third Sunday of Easter)