Pascha Nostrum

Pascha Nostrum is a hymn used by some Christian communities during Easter season, also known as the “Easter Anthems.” The title is Latin for "Our Passover," and the text consists of a cento formed from several verses of Scripture: 1 Corinthians 5:7–8, Romans 6:9–11, and 1 Corinthians 15:20–22.

Archbishop Thomas Cranmer compiled it to be used at Morning Prayer on Easter in place of “Venite” Psalm 95 in the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer on Easter Day. In the Episcopal Church, it may be used in the traditional translation of Miles Coverdale or in a contemporary version as the invitatory at every celebration of Morning Prayer during the fifty days of Easter. It has been put to many different musical settings.

The words in English, as printed in the contemporary English version in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church, are as follows:^[1]

Alleluia.
Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us;
therefore let us keep the feast,

Not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil,
but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Alleluia.

Christ being raised from the dead will never die again;
death no longer has dominion over him.

The death that he died, he died to sin, once for all;
but the life he lives, he lives to God.

So also consider yourselves dead to sin,
and alive to God in Jesus Christ our Lord. Alleluia.

Christ has been raised from the dead,
the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

For since by a man came death,
by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam all die,
so also in Christ shall all be made alive. Alleluia.

External links[]

• Pascha nostrum at the Choral Public Domain Library

References[]