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Rejoice, O Heavenly powers! Sing, choir of angels! Exult, all creation around God's throne! Jesus Christ our King is risen! Sound the trumpet of salvation! Rejoice, O Earth in shining splendor, radiant in the brightness of your king! Christ has conquered! Glory fills you! Darkness vanishes forever! Rejoice, O Holy Mother Church! Exult in glory! The risen Savior shines upon you! Let this holy place resound with joy, echoing the mighty song of all God's people.

It is truly right that with full hearts and minds and voices we should praise the unseen God, the all-powerful Father, and his only Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. For Christ has ransomed us with his blood, and paid for us the price of Adam's sin to our eternal Father. This is our Passover Feast, when Christ, our true lamb, is slain, whose blood consecrates the homes of all believers. This is the holy night when first you saved our fathers: you freed the people of Israel from their slavery and let them dry-shod through the sea. This is the night when Christian everywhere, washed clean of sin and freed from all defilement, are restored to grace and grow together in holiness. This is the night when Jesus Christ broke the chains of death and rose triumphant from the grave.

Father, how wonderful your care for us! To ransom a slave you gave away your Son. O happy fault, o necessary sin of Adam, which gained for us so great a redeemer! The power of this holy night dispels all evil, washes guilt away, restores lost innocence, brings mourners joy. O truly blessed night, when heaven is wedded to earth and we are reconciled with God!

And so, heavenly Father, in the joy of this night, receive our evening sacrifice of praise, your Church's solemn offering. Accept this Easter candle. May it always dispel the darkness of this night. May the morning star which never sets find this flame still burning: Christ, that morning star, who came back from the dead and shed his peaceful light on all humankind, your Son who lives and reigns for ever and ever.

Amen.