Easter people everywhere can do the “Via Lucis,” the Stations of Light recalling 14 events after the Resurrection. As the Vatican’s Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy explains: “A pious exercise called the Via Lucis has developed and spread to many regions in recent years.
“Following the model of the Via Crucis, the faithful process while meditating on the various appearances of Jesus — from his Resurrection to his Ascension — in which he showed his glory to the disciples who awaited the coming of the Holy Spirit. … Through the Via Lucis, the faithful recall the central event of the faith — the resurrection of Christ — and their discipleship in virtue of baptism, the paschal sacrament by which they have passed from the darkness of sin to the bright radiance of the light of grace.”
“The Via Lucis is a potential stimulus for the restoration of a ‘culture of life’ which is open to the hope and certitude offered by faith,” continues the explanation, “in a society often characterized by a ‘culture of death,’ despair and nihilism.”
The Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire, offers a helpful booklet on the Via Lucis that explains how to pray this beautiful Easter devotion, and EWTN has a video of it on YouTube.
As the booklet explains: “Although known and cherished since the first century, the Stations of Light were never gathered into a precise devotion until recent years. It formally became a Roman Catholic devotion, however, at the end of the 20th century when the Vatican was preparing the Jubilee Year and searching for new devotions appropriate to the millennial transition and yet faithful to Christian tradition.”
On Thursday of Easter Week, Slavic nations celebrate the holy souls, devoting the day to remembering those who had departed. On Friday, pilgrims in many places in Europe pray, sing hymns, and walk in processions, often with a cross and church banners, to their chosen destination, usually a shrine or a church, where they attend Mass and devotions.
The Byzantine Catholic Church and Orthodox churches call this Easter Week “Bright Week.” St. Michael the Archangel Byzantine Catholic Church in Pittston, Pennsylvania, explains on its website: “The first week beginning with Pascha (Easter) is known as Bright Week. In the Byzantine Catholic Church, the entire week of Easter or Pascha is given extraordinary significance. Pascha, being the Feast of Feasts, is the greatest spiritual and historical event on the Church liturgical calendar.”
On Bright Monday, the tradition calls for proclaiming all four Resurrection Gospels. Priests, altar servers, and people sing and walk to the church’s four different points that represent the Earth’s directions — north, east, south, west. At each of the corners, the procession stops, and a different Resurrection Gospel is chanted.
“It is why when we hear the Gospel readings on this day after Pascha — it further confirms the authenticity of all we profess and believe,” the church explains in its post. That is further carried out by a custom of many Catholic churches in Slavic cultures: Slavic greetings for the Easter season: “Christ is risen!” is responsed to with “Indeed, he is risen!” or “He is risen indeed!”
Regina Caeli
In all of Eastertide, the Regina Caeli replaces the Angelus, beginning on Easter Sunday. In it, the faithful pray: “For the Lord has truly risen, Alleluia.”
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“He is risen indeed!”
This article was originally published in the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and has been adapted for CNA.
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