By Canon Philip Gillespie

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A late Easter means that the entirety of May is spent within the Eastertide and, therefore, also within the period when the anthem to Our Lady in the Liturgy is the Regina Coeli Laetare – ‘Queen of Heaven, Rejoice’, with its multiple Alleluias.

 

Having restrained from – or fasted from, you could say – the use of the Alleluia during the 40 days of Lent, the Liturgy gives us ample opportunity to catch up during the 50 days of Eastertide. Indeed, the double Alleluia at the dismissal makes a comeback for the Feast of Pentecost, this year on 8 June, just to give a final blast. Why is Alleluia such a significant word? Because it sums up the spirituality of the Christian life: praise of the Lord.

 

We give praise, we give honour and in that sense put the Lord in His rightful place at the heart of our lives when we gather in Liturgy, when we pray together, and – equally as importantly – when we put those sentiments of prayer into our ‘right living’, our everyday words and actions which may not be within a church building but which certainly form part of the Liturgy of our daily lives. That is the dignity to which we are called, recognising that we give praise to the Lord, living our Alleluia, wherever we find ourselves in the day and according to whichever means (words or actions) present themselves.

 

A simple act of recollection for the close of the day (the ‘examen’, or examination of conscience which is part of our Catholic devotional tradition) would be: how have I lived my Alleluia today? How have I brought my relationship with Jesus to bear on my choices and decisions of the day? How have I been a bringer of happiness and joy and the warmth of the love of Christ into a world which can at times be dark and cold and unforgiving?

 

So Alleluia is not only a word but an invitation and a challenge – sing it with gusto in the Liturgy and live it with gusto in the day