This is the night when Christ broke the chains of death and came up triumphant from the underworld...
O truly happy night, which alone was fit to know the hour and time Christ rose from the dead...
The power of this holy night banishes evil, washes guilt away, restores lost innocence, cheers up the sad, casts out hatred, makes peace, and brings down proud powers...
O truly happy night, when heaven is wedded to earth and divine to human.
Therefore, holy Father, in the joy of this night receive this evening sacrifice of praise, which your Church brings to you by your ministers' hands in the solemn offering of this candle, the work of bees... as its light is fed by liquid wax the mother bee produced for this precious candle's substance.
We pray you, therefore, Lord, that this wax-light, consecrated in honour of your name, may go on burning bravely to ward off tonight's darkness.
Let it be welcomed as a sweet scent and mingle with the lights above.
Let the Morning Star find its flame still burning.
I mean that Morning Star which knows no setting, Christ your son, who came back from the underworld and shone serenely on the human race, he who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
Flammas eius L Lucifer Matutinus inveniat.
Ille, inquam, L Lucifer qui nescit occasum, Christus filius tuus, qui regressus ab inferis, humano generi serenus illuxit, et vivit et regnat in saecula saeculorum.
Rising Christ. Stained glass window, Florence Duomo, by Paolo Uccello This version of lines from the Exultet is by Dinah Livingstone, adapted from previous translations.
From the Exultet, Praise Song to the Pascal Candle sung at the Easter Vigil. This version adapted by Dinah Livingstone from previous translations.