| Sat Apr 4 | am: 95, 88 pm: 27 | Lam 3:37-58 | am: Heb 4:1-16 pm: Rom 8:1-11 | – |
HOLY SATURDAY
LITURGICAL THEME FOR THE DAY: There is no liturgy on Holy Saturday. We spend the day reflecting upon the powerful reality of Jesus’ death.
In addition to the Daily Reflection and the Preparing for the Easter Vigil Liturgy pages, we offer a page with each of the readings for the Easter Vigil and a page with each of the prayers that are said after each reading. These pages are inter-linked, so that is it possible to go back and forth, easily, just following the links.
What is important is that we keep this day holy and let our “sense” of the mystery of death shape our reflection, and our longing to celebrate the Easter gift of Jesus alive, for us and with us. On Holy Saturday, the Church contemplates the mystery of the Lord’s descent into Hades, the place of the dead. Death, our ultimate enemy, is defeated from within. “He (Christ) gave Himself as a ransom to death in which we were held captive, sold under sin. Descending into Hades through the Cross … He loosed the bonds of death” (Liturgy of St. Basil).
The “Great Vigil” is the day, which connects Good Friday, the commemoration of the Cross, with the day of His Resurrection. To many the real nature and the meaning of this “connection”, or “middle day”, remains obscure. For a good majority of churchgoers, the “important” days of Holy Week are Friday and Sunday, the Cross -and the Resurrection. These two days, however, remain somehow “disconnected unless one engages in the Great Vigil this day of transformation, the day when victory grows from inside the defeat, when before the Resurrection, we are given to contemplate the death of death itself. All this is expressed, and even more, all this really takes place every year in this marvelous morning service, in this liturgical commemoration, which becomes for us a saving and transforming present.
BIBLICAL MEDITATION OF THE DAY: As we stand on the threshold of Easter morning, Paul’s words to the Romans offer a profound meditation on what Christ’s resurrection means for us. As we wait for the dawn:
- We rest in the truth that condemnation has been removed
- We trust that the Spirit at work in us is stronger than death
- We anticipate the morning when the tomb will be empty
Holy Saturday is a day of waiting, but Romans 8 reminds us: the waiting is not hopeless. The Spirit who hovered over the waters at creation, who raised Jesus from the grave, is already at work in us.
PRAYER OF THE DAY: O God, who by the pages of both Testaments instruct and prepare us to celebrate the Paschal Mystery, grant that we may comprehend your mercy so that the gifts we receive from you this night may confirm our hope of the gifts to come. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen
ANCIENT WISDOM/PRESENT GRACE: “When we contemplate the sufferings of Jesus, He grants us, according to the measure of our faith, the grace to practice the virtues He revealed during those sacred hours.” – St. Angela Merici.
HOLY HYMN: Canon for Holy Saturday
HOLY WEEK DISCIPLINE: As a quiet day one should follow customs such as in Slavic countries there is a blessing of the traditional Easter foods, prepared in baskets: eggs, ham, lamb and sausages, butter and cheeses, horseradish and salt and the Easter breads. The Easter blessings of food owe their origin to the fact that these particular foods, namely, flesh meat and milk products, including eggs, were forbidden in the Middle Ages during the Lenten fast and abstinence. When the feast of Easter brought the rigorous fast to an end, and these foods were again allowed at table, the people showed their joy and gratitude by first taking the food to church for a blessing.