The Easter season has many opportunities to give blessings to others, make prayers that focus our attention on Christ’s sacrifice, and reflect on what other Christians have said about the season’s momentous events. This compilation provides a mix of traditional Easter blessings and prayers and more contemporary blessings and quotes for any occasion.
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15 Easter Blessings to Give Other Christians
These Easter blessings are generally given in church services, but some are blessings that congregants give each other.
The Paschal Blessing
1. The paschal blessing is the oldest recorded Easter greeting. It takes its wording from the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ resurrection and appearance to his disciples (especially his appearance on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24:33-34). In the paschal blessing, one Christian says, “He is risen!” and the other answers, “truly, he is risen!” or “He is risen indeed!”
There are many translations of this greeting, some of which slightly change the wording. For example, Ukrainian Christians will say “Khrystos Voskres” (“Christ is risen!”) and the response “Voistynu Voskres” (“He is truly risen”).
Anglican Easter Blessings
The following Easter blessings are excerpted from blessings traditionally said by a Church of England priest, usually as part of the worship proceedings during an Easter service:
2. The God of peace,
who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus,
that great shepherd of the sheep,
through the blood of the eternal covenant,
make you perfect in every good work to do his will,
working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight;
3. The God of peace,
who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus,
that great shepherd of the sheep,
make you perfect in every good work to do his will;
4. God, who through the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ
has given us the victory,
give you joy and peace in your faith;
5. God the Father,
by whose glory Christ was raised from the dead,
strengthen you to walk with him in his risen life;
6. May Christ,
who out of defeat brings new hope and a new future,
fill you with his new life;
7. God the Father,
by whose love Christ was raised from the dead,
open to you who believe the gates of everlasting life.
8. God the Son,
who in bursting from the grave has won a glorious victory,
give you joy as you share the Easter faith.
9. God the Holy Spirit,
who filled the disciples with the life of the risen Lord,
empower you and fill you with Christ’s peace.
(Excerpted from The Church of England’s Common Worship blessings and prayers)
Easter Blessings and Greetings for Different Days of the Easter Season
These Easter blessings and greetings are a little shorter and more personal, blessings you can give each other on different days of the Easter and Lent season.
10. God bless you and your family as the Easter season begins. May your hearts be filled with His love and peace.
11. May the peace of Christ be with you this Easter season.
12. As we remember the meaning of Palm Sunday, may your heart be filled with His love.
13. Let us remember His sacrifice on this Palm Sunday and every day.
14. Greetings and blessings on this Easter Vigil day.
15. Blessings to you as the Lenten season ends and Easter Sunday begins. May the love of Christ fill your hearts and souls. Amen.
(Excerpted from “30 Easter Greetings and Religious Messages to Share with Family and Friends” by Melissa Henderson)
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15 Easter Prayers to Remember the Gospel Message
These Easter prayers come from various traditions and generations of Christian writers. Some of them are best said in a group setting. Others can be said individually.
1. “Lord, suffer me not to be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus. Teach me to regard it as my highest honor, to have communion with the spirit and fellowship in the service of my blessed Saviour. Make him my all and in all: my song in the season of rejoicing and my hope in the hour of trial. God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of Christ.” —Albert Barnes, Manual of Prayer
2. “O God, who for our redemption didst give Thine only begotten Son to the death of the Cross, and by His glorious resurrection hast delivered us from the power of the enemy, grant us to die daily to sin, that we may evermore live with Him, in the joy of His resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” —Gregory the Great
3. “May I seek redemption only through his blood, the remission of sins according to the riches of his grace. Purge thou my conscience from dead works to serve the living God; and may I thus judge, that if Christ has died for me, I should henceforth live not unto myself, but unto him. O Lord, grant that at last I may be found among those that have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” —Albert Barnes, Manual of Prayer
4. “O good Shepherd, who didst lay down Thy life for the sheep, remember us: Be propitious, and have mercy upon us.
O everlasting Power and Wisdom of the most high God, Thou Word of the Father, remember us: Be propitious, and have mercy upon us.
O Thou Maker of the world, the Life of all, the Lord of angels, remember us: Be propitious, and have mercy upon us.
O Lamb of God, who for us wert led as a sheep to the slaughter, remember us: Be propitious, and have mercy upon us.
O Thou who wert seized, thou guiltless, buffeted, given over to robbers, remember us: Be propitious, and have mercy upon us.
Thou who alone hast by Thy death overcome the death of our guilt, remember us: Be propitious, and have mercy upon us. Amen.” —The Mozarabic Breviary
5.“Lord, help me to lay hold upon the hope set before me in the gospel. May I receive it as the only savor of life unto life. Let me not be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ; but may I glory in it as the power of God, unto salvation, to everyone that believeth. May it teach me to deny ungodliness, and to live righteously in thy sight. Make it the instrument of building me up in saving knowledge, holy love, and willing obedience, to the praise of Jesus Christ.” —Albert Barnes, Manual of Prayer
6. “The Day of Resurrection has dawned upon us, the day of true light and life, wherein Christ, the life of believers, arose from the dead. Let us give abundant thanks and praise to God, that while we solemnly celebrate the day of our Lord’s resurrection, He may be pleased to bestow on us quiet peace and special gladness; so that being protected from morning to night by His favoring mercy, we may rejoice in the gift of our Redeemer. Amen.” — The Mozarabic Sacramentary
7. “Blessed Father, teach me thy truth as it is in Jesus. Grant that I may love it, and feed upon it; and that I may teach it by my lips, and manifest it by my conduct to others.” —Albert Barnes, Manual of Prayer
8. “O Lord, who dost wash out our offenses, do Thou comfort us who faithfully call upon Thee; and, we beseech Thee, that Thou wouldest blot out our transgressions, and restore us from death to the land of the living; through Christ our Lord. Amen.” —The Sarum Breviary
9. “Gracious Jehovah, assist me to understand, and love, and obey the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I would magnify the riches of thy mercy which devised these glad tidings of great joy for all people. I would praise thee that thou didst send it in due time, in all its fulness of grace and truth, life and immortality. It was not because we deserved thy favor, or sought thy mercy; but because thou didst pity our lost condition, and didst enter into a covenant of grace, to bring us out of an estate of sin and misery into an estate of salvation, by a Redeemer. —Albert Barnes, Manual of Prayer
10. “We thank thee, our Father, for the life and the knowledge which thou hast made known to us through Jesus, thy servant; to thee by the glory forever. Just as this broken bread was scattered over the hills and having been gathered together became one, so let thy church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into thy kingdom; for thine is the glory and the power through Jesus Christ forever.” —The Didache
11. “Lord, enable me through the adorable Redeemer, to know, and value, and possess the exceeding riches of thy grace… Show me, O Lord, that Jesus is the mediator of this blessing: it is he that maketh peace through the blood of his cross: he giveth repentance and remission of sins: and he seals the redeemed soul by the Spirit, through sanctification, unto eternal life.” —Albert Barnes, Manual of Prayer
12. “We thank thee, our Father, for the holy vine of David thy servant, which thou hast made known to us through Jesus, thy servant; to thee by the glory forever.” —The Didache
13. “Blessed Son of God! the Father loveth Thee and hath given Thee all things. And Thou lovest the Father, and hast done all things He commanded Thee, and therefore hast the power to ask all things. Lord! give us Thine own Spirit, the Spirit of the Son. Make us childlike, as Thou wert on earth. And let every prayer be breathed in the faith that as the heaven is higher than the earth, so God’s Father-love, and His readiness to give us what we ask, surpasses all we can think or conceive. Amen.”—Andrew Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer
14. “Jehovah God, incline me to make Jesus my example in all the duties of life. May the same mind that was in him be also in me. Lead me to walk even as he walked; for he that followeth not after him is not worthy of him. May I look unto him as my pattern of patience and humility, prayer and faith, long-suffering and benevolence. May I strive to purify myself even as Christ is pure; and beholding, as in a glass, his glory, be changed into the same image, from glory to glory, by as the Spirit of the Lord.” —Albert Barnes, Manual of Prayer
15. “Lord, I thank thee that our Blessed Savior became the first-fruits of them that slept; thus setting the seal of heaven to the truth of his gospel, and to the hope of our resurrection. If Christ be not risen, then is our faith vain. But, thanks be to thy name, he has the keys of death and could not be holden of it. O may I rejoice in the hope, that though after my skin worms destroy my body, yet in my flesh, I shall see God, and be forever with the Lord.” —Albert Barnes, Manual of Prayer
Photo Credit: ©Unsplash/Gift Habeshaw
20 Easter Quotes about Jesus’ Sacrifice on the Cross
There have easily been hundreds of things written about Easter’s events, from Jesus entering Jerusalem to exiting the tomb. Here is a sampling of quotes from Christian authors, past and present.
1. “At once, then, fellow-sinner, hasten to Him. All you need is here. Here is full salvation; for He says, ‘All things are delivered unto Me of My Father.’ Here is free salvation; for the Father reveals it to whom He will, and nothing whatsoever in the sinner can be a barrier to Him.” —Andrew Alexander Bonar, Gospel Truths
2. “He is the glad news. He is the embodied reconciliation between God and man; the God-man shows forth the perfect union between humanity and the Deity which he has come to accomplish; and so he is not only a union between man and God, but he is the sacrifice for sins also.” —August Hopkins Strong, Popular Lectures on the Books of the New Testament
3. “He has saved us from ignorance; He has saved us from pain; but these are not the evils on which the hinge of His saving work turns. Above all and before all He has saved us from sin.” —Benjamin Breckenridge Warfield, The Power of God Unto Salvation
4. “He was wounded for our transgressions, not for his own. He did not transgress; if he had, he would have to have died for himself. He was lamb without spot, and thus he became the sinner’s substitute.” —D.L. Moody, The Gospel Awakening
5. “The love of created things is deceiving and unstable, but the love of Jesus is faithful and lasting. He who cleaveth to created things will fall with their slipperiness; but he who embraceth Jesus will stand upright forever.” —Thomas a’ Kempis, The Imitation of Christ
6. “Christ is Risen: The world below lies desolate
Christ is Risen: The spirits of evil are fallen
Christ is Risen: The angels of God are rejoicing
Christ is Risen: The tombs of the dead are empty
Christ is Risen indeed from the dead,
the first of the sleepers,
Glory and power are his forever and ever.” —St. Hippolytus of Rome
7. “Just as the uplifted ax would otherwise have fallen on your neck, He caught the blow on His own. You could have had no life if He had not died to save it; then what will you do? Will you have this offered mercy or reject it?” —Charles Finney, Sermons on Gospel Themes
8. “See, as they strip the robe from off his back
And spread his arms and nail them to the cross,
The dark nails pierce him and the sky turns black,
And love is firmly fastened onto loss.”—Malcolm Guite, Sounding the Seasons
9. “If He be lying in some forgotten grave, and if all that fair thought of His having burst the bands of death is a blunder, then there was nothing in His death that had the least bearing upon men’s sin, and it is no more to me than the deaths of thousands in the past. But if He be risen from the dead, then the Resurrection casts back a light upon the Cross, and we understand that His death is the life of the world, and that ‘by His stripes, we are healed.’” —Alexander Maclaren, The Wearied Christ
10. “Christ claimed to be other than the men by whom He was surrounded. He claimed prior existence, in that He said He was, before He came. He claimed infinite existence in that while He was yet present in the limitations of time and space, He spoke of being in the bosom of the Father and in heaven itself. He claimed indestructible existence, in that while He spoke of laying down His life, He declared that He would take it again and that no man could destroy it.”—George Campbell Morgan, The Teaching of Christ
11. “Christ on the sixth day finished his work; he said, It is finished; on the seventh day he rested, and then on the first day of the next week did as it were begin a new world, and enter upon new work.”—Matthew Henry
12. “Jesus comes near and he beholds the city
And looks on us with tears in his eyes,
And wells of mercy, streams of love and pity
Flow from the fountain whence all things arise.” —Malcolm Guite, “Holy Monday”
13. “You cannot find in all the books and writings of men, in all the annals and records of time, either such sufferings or such sayings as were these last words and wounds, sayings and sufferings of Jesus Christ.” —Thomas Brooks
14. “It was the devil’s purpose that our Lord should be crucified, but in His crucifixion lay everything that’s wonderful in a civilization that you and I belong to.” —Malcolm Muggeridge, Vintage Muggeridge
15. “With humility, Christ faced down humanity’s worst to give us God’s best.” —Judith Couchman, The Mystery of the Cross
16 “Jesus’ death and resurrection once and for all should give us hope that we can never be forsaken, forgotten, or overlooked by God.” —Michael Card, The Sacred Sorrow
17. “However serious we believe Good Friday is, we are confident that Easter Sunday lies ahead of us. And what if we do die? Jesus died too, and if Jesus died we believe that now he lives, and that we shall live too.” —Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel
18. “This resurrection of Christ is the most joyful event that ever came to pass; because hereby Christ rested from the great and difficult work of purchasing redemption, and received God’s testimony, that it was finished.” —Jonathan Edwards, A History of the Work of Redemption
19. “The body in Joseph’s new tomb appears to signify the end of everything for Christ and His disciples. The limp form of a newly dead believer suggests everlasting defeat. Yet how wrong are all these appearances. The tree will bloom again.” —A.W. Tozer, This World: Battlefield or Playground?
20. “O Death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory? Christ is risen, and you are overthrown. Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen. Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice. Christ is risen, and life reigns. Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave. For Christ, being risen from the dead, is become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.” —The Paschal Homily of John Chrysostom
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Learn more about the meaning and significance behind the Easter holiday and Holy Week celebrations:
What is Lent? and When Does Lent Start?
What is Ash Wednesday? and When is Ash Wednesday?
What is Palm Sunday?
What is Maundy Thursday?
What is Good Friday? and When is Good Friday?
What is Holy Saturday?
What is Easter? and When is Easter Sunday?
Easter Bible Verses
The Resurrection of Jesus
Easter Prayers
