In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
Christ is risen!
Here and now, in our midst, Christ is risen!
All around us Christ is risen!
Christ, who has demolished death,
who has destroyed the power of the Satan,
in whom is granted all power and authority in heaven and on earth, is risen.
And joy permeates all the earth, because Christ is risen!
Yesterday he was dead, but today and forever he is alive.
Yesterday my end was in the tomb and in Hades,
today I am alive forever,
because Christ is risen!
Christ is risen and I too will arise,
Christ is risen and I too will rejoice,
Christ is risen and I too am transfigured.
Christ is risen and all is forgiven,
my enemies are forgiven and I am forgiven.
Christ is risen and the Satan is bound,
Christ is risen and he is mocked,
Christ is risen and his unjust hold over me has been broken.
Our human race is transformed,
Our human race is made whole,
Our human race is perfected,
Because Christ is risen!
And having received the Resurrection,
having received the risen Christ,
Let us go out from here and declare to the world,
Christ is risen from the dead
Trampling down death by death,
And upon those in the tombs
Bestowing Life!
Christ is risen!
To our crucified and risen God and Saviour Jesus Christ be all glory, honour and worship, together with his unoriginate Father and the All-holy, Good and Life-creating Spirit. Amen.
In the first book, O Theophilos, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. To them he presented himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days, and speaking of the kingdom of God. And while staying with them he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me, for John baptized with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit. So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom of lsrael?” He said to them, “it is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.
— Acts 1:1–8
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light.The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. (John bore witness to him, and cried, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, for he was before me.'”) And from his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
— John 1:1–17