The Via Lucis: A meditative journey celebrating the Risen Christ [Easter Devotional]

Happy Easter! We hope that you and your loved ones are enjoying this beautiful season that the Church gives us. In fact, we are still in the Octave of Easter, which ends this coming Sunday, so each day this week is considered a continuation of what we began celebrating at the Easter Vigil—every day is Easter! Not only that, but the Church has designated a full fifty days for the Easter season (ten more days than the Lenten season), ending on Pentecost Sunday, when we celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and the Blessed Mother in the Upper Room.

After the desert of Lent, with all of its rigorous spiritual practices, many Catholics are left wondering exactly how to enter fully into the joy of Easter. To that end, we invite you to join us in praying the Via Lucis, the Way of Light, a relatively new devotion meant to help the faithful follow Jesus’ footsteps as he appears and ministers to his disciples before his Ascension into heaven.

Each “station” of the Via Lucis, like each station of the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross), includes a corresponding Scripture passage, a meditation, and a short prayer. It’s the perfect way to start (or end) your Easter days. Here’s a sample from the second day:

Second Station: The Disciples Find the Empty Tomb

But at daybreak on the first day of the week they took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb; but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were puzzling over this, behold, two men in dazzling garments appeared to them. They were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground. They said to them, “Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here, but he has been raised.” (Luke 24:1-6)

Meditation: “Why do you seek the living one among the dead?” The angel’s question to the disciples is directed at each of us. Why do we seek fulfillment outside of Christ, the only source of authentic, joyful life? Why do we try to fill ourselves with that which cannot ultimately satisfy: money, notoriety, job promotions, fleeting pleasures? Deep down, each of us knows that we cannot find life in this passing world, and yet we continue to try! CS Lewis once wrote that “All that we call human history—money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery—[is] the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.” Take some time during this Easter week to examine your own life: are you looking for satisfaction in the wrong places?

Prayer: Risen Lord, so often I seek the happiness only you can give in places where I will never find it. Help me to remember, Lord, that you are the only one who can satisfy me completely, and that you are the source of all the things and people in this world who contribute to my happiness. Thank you, Jesus, for coming to save me from myself. Amen.

If you’d like to pray with us, you can download The Via Lucis devotional today. Please keep our missionaries and those they serve in your prayers; you will be in ours!

We invite you to join us on this meditative journey and celebrate the resurrection of Christ.