Today is the seventh day of the Octave of Easter, and I realized I had not really written anything about the octave as such. From our Jewish ancestors we receive a tradition of significant numbers. Starting of course with the ONE God, we speak of the TRINITY, we pray NOVENAS (9 days), the 40 days of Lent, the 50th day of Easter, PENTECOST, and for Christmas and Easter we celebrate an OCTAVE.
I have written in earlier postings about the Christian understanding of Sunday as the eighth day, the first day of the new creation. In our Easter liturgy that gets expressed in the way all of the 8 days beginning on Easter Sunday are celebrated with the same Solemnity of Easter Sunday, including the singing of the Gloria every day.
In the ancient Church the newly baptized would have worn their baptismal gowns throughout, laying them aside on the Sunday after Easter, the last day of the Octave, giving rise to the name for the Sunday, Dominica in Albis, White Sunday.
Tomorrow we complete the Octave, but the Season of Easter continues until Pentecost, the 50th day. Even though the lilies may fade our joy should not. Let us continue to proclaim the Good News, peace, and joy of Jesus.
