Celebrate the Resurrection: Easter Prayers for Your Family
Easter and Us
Were it not for Easter, you would not be reading this.
Because without Easter, without the Resurrection, the apostles would still be cowering in fear.
They would not have experienced the power of the risen Christ or received the promised Holy Spirit.
They would not have preached the gospel to all the world. And you and I would not be who we are today — children of God, through our faith in Jesus.
Easter is what brings us together. It is the foundation, the hope on which our faith rests, especially when we find ourselves in life’s dark valleys.
It is the destruction of our greatest fear — the fear of death.
And so, as we move from contemplating Jesus’ Passion to celebrating the greatest of all triumphs, here are two Easter prayers for the family that you can choose to pray today:
The first is a prayer I wrote for our family to say after Easter Mass.
The second is a more traditional and poetic prayer that reminds us of all that Jesus achieved for us on this day.
I hope these prayers help kindle the joy and hope of Easter in your family and your heart.
Happy Easter!
Easter Prayer for the Family
Oh Risen Jesus,
On this blessed day of triumph
We gather before you as a family
To thank you for crushing death and fear
For giving us a hope that never dies
And opening the gates of heaven to us.
Thank you, Lord, for giving us to each other.
On this the day of your Resurrection,
We ask you to fill our home with your peace and joy
And to strengthen the bonds of love between husband and wife.
Between parents and children,
Between brothers and sisters.
Bless each member of our family
With the gifts of wisdom, faith, and joy.
Teach us to forgive as you forgave,
To love as you have loved us.
May our home be a place of warmth,
Our hands be instruments of service,
And our words reflect your love.
And may the light of Easter shine brightly in our hearts and our home
Today and every day.
Amen.
Traditional Easter Prayer
As the world sings triumphant cries to heaven over death that You conquered,
help us, Lord, tomorrow as well,
when the dresses are put away and the candy is all eaten and on with life we go;
let us not forget.
The celebration of Your Resurrection over death is a celebration of life
that should continue well beyond the sunrise service and the music,
rehearshed for days prior;
it is beyond the sign of spring
beyond the lily
beyond new lambs grazing in open fields.
Resurrection is a daily celebration over fear;
man’s greatest and most powerful enemy.
Fear of tomorrow,
fear of our yesterdays,
fear of what shall become of our young our old our unborn.
Resurrection is replacing fear with physical action.
This alone, the most touching and profound of Your signs
that fear is dead
and belief in You brings, not just hope but life.
What better living parable could You have brought?
All fear death. All.
Even in the garden, You took on our fear if for only moments,
it was as real as our fears can be real
and You knew then that this single enemy must be destroyed.
And, You sacrificed Your life,
leaving those who had been comfort, and follower;
You left them behind, to conquer fear.
I shall cling to this now, and the tomorrows given me.
Peace and Thanksgiving lifted unto You.
Amen.
