(pg 417) Easter Sunday is the greatest festival of the Church. Many times during His life, Our Lord announced that He would be put to death, but that He would rise on the third day. On this day He accomplished what He had promises. Easter Sunday is the anniversary of His resurrection. Concerning the time that He arose from the tomb, it is universally believed that it was a short time before the rising of the sun, when the darkness of the night was partly dispelled. He came out of the sepulchre as He had come out of the womb of His mother, without disturbing or injuring the heavy stone which stood firmly placed and sealed against the entrance to it. The soldiers themselves did not know of His resurrection until, all of a sudden, “there was a great earthquake. For an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and coming, rolled back the stone and sat upon it. And his countenance was as lightening, and his raiment as snow. And, for fear of him, the guards were struck with terror, and became as dead men” (Matth. Xxviii. 2-4).
The greatness of this feast is understood from the fact that we commemorate the Resurrection, not for a week only, but for fifty days; in other words, we give way to spiritual joy, for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, from Easter Sunday to Pentecost.
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(pg 492) These tongues of fire, which sat upon each of those who were in that room, were not the Spirit of God: they were simply the emblems representing that living Spirit, and the gifts which He bestowed upon the apostles. The Holy Ghost, Who proceedeth from the Father and from the Son, is named fire, because His action in our soul purifies from sin, and fills us with divine love. The office particularly attributed to the Holy Ghose being that of teacher of all truth, He should be represented by tongues of fire, because the truth was to be preached in all tongues, all over the world. As the action of fire may be said to be irresistible, the Holy Ghost should be represented by that emblem, since He was to give to Christians a mouth and wisdom which all their adversaries should not be able to resist and gainsay.
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(pg.498) Concerning the adorable Trinity, we were taught in our childhood, in the words of the Catechism, that there is but one God: that there are three persons in God – God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost; that the Blessed Trinity means one God in three divine persons; and that though there are three persons in the Blessed Trinity, yet there is but one God – for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are all one and the same God, having but one and the same divine nature.
Every Sunday at Mass we say: “I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible;
“And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God of God, light of light, true God of true God; begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father, by Whom all things were made….
“And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and life-giver, Who proceedeth from the Father and the Son; Who together with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified: Who spake by the prophets.”
The Lord our God is one.
He was from the beginning, He is, and ever shall be. He is great and worthy of all praise, and there is no end of his greatness. He is almighty, He can do all things, nothing is hard or impossible to Him! He governs all things by His Providence… His presence filleth heaven and earth. “Whither shall I go from Thy face?” Blessed art Thou, O Lord, Who beholdest the depth and sittest upon the cherubim! Blessed art Thou, O Lord, in the firmament of heaven, and worthy of praise forever… Blessed art Thou, O Lord God of our fathers, and worthy of praise forever!
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(pg. 499) Our God is holy and the source of all holiness; into Whose kingdom nothing defiled shall enter. Our God is infinitely beautiful, Whose presences above in heaven can satisfy our thirst after happiness. He is also just, returning to every one according to his works: punishing the wicked with torments everlasting, rewarding the just with endless and incomprehensible delights. God, the beginning and end of rational creatures, may be certainly known by the natural light of human reason, by means of created things. “For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made” (Rom. i. 20). But it pleases His wisdom and bounty to reveal Himself and the eternal decrees of His will to mankind by another and a supernatural way, as the apostle says: “God, who at sundry time and in divers manners spoke in times past to the father by the prophets; last of all, in these days hath spoken to us by His Son (Heb. i. 1,2).
Eternal thanks to Jesus Christ, Who has taught us, concerning the nature of God, that which our human reason never could have made known to us. It is Jesus Christ Who had revealed to us the existence of three divine persons in one substance – “Baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” He revealed to us that the Father begets the Son (John [1:]1-18): that the Son or Word was in the beginning; that He is God: that the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father and receiveth from the Son (John xv. 10; xvi. 14).
Jesus Christ has revealed to us the love of the Father, Who gave us His Son to save us; the love of the Son, Who died for our redemption; the love of the Holy Ghost, Who teaches all truth, gives light to our minds, and fills our hearts with divine love. It is Jesus Christ Who taught us that God has created us for the possession of Himself in heaven; that we should love Him and consider Him as our Father.
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(pg. 556) Catholic writers love to compare the Church to the bark of St. Peter for the following reasons: We are all voyagers on the sea of life. The passage is short, oftentimes stormy, and the land we must reach is the world which will last forever. Of ourselves we should not follow the proper course, we would not have strength enough to overcome dangers. Our Lord Jesus Christ, therefore, has built for us another Ark, of which He instituted St. Peter the visible pilot. To him He said on this day: “From henceforth thou shalt catch men.” And a few years after He charged him solemnly on the shore of the same lake to “feed His lambs, feed His sheep.” The wonderful number of fishes which Simon Peter caught at the voice of his Master was a figure of the thousands of souls which he converted to the faith of Jesus Christ after the day of Pentecost.
The bark of Peter was sometimes assailed by storms which threatened to sink it: Our Lord seemed to have no care of His fellow-passengers, but a word from His lips caused the winds and waves to be still. And so of the Church of Jesus Christ: she continues to gather in her bosom multitudes of sinner and infidels; and if nations rage, and devise vain things against her, all their efforts are useless, for the gates of hell cannot prevail against the Church.
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(pg 558) But we, too, have duties to fulfill towards the Church. We must… Remain in the ship of Peter – in the Church of Jesus Christ; He to Whom all power was given in heaven and on earth, has promised to be forever with His Church. Where He is, there is light, for He has come to enlighten those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death. He has the light of life. To whom else can we go? Some persons imagine that by adhering to some other church, they will hear the doctrine of St. Paul or some other apostle. But this is a delusion. The lambs and the sheep are to be fed by Peter alone (John xxi.); and there is no church on earth which can trace back its origin to the days of Christ by an uninterrupted succession of Bishops, except the See of Rome, the Church of St. Peter, which is on this account named the Apostolic See.
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Ubi Petrus VT 