Lenten Meditations: Saturday 11 April
| Sat Apr 11 |
am: 95, 88 pm: 27 |
Lam 3:37-58 | am: Heb 4:1-16 pm: Rom 8:1-11 |
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HOLY SATURDAY
LITURGICAL THEME FOR THE DAY: On Holy Saturday the Church is, at the Lord’s tomb, meditating on his passion and death, and on his descent into hell, and awaiting his resurrection with prayer and fasting. It is highly recommended that on this day the Office of Readings and Morning Prayer be celebrated with the participation of the people
The liturgy this evening is The Great Vigil of Easter. The word vigilia, means “wakefulness,” came to be used when the faithful stayed awake to pray and do devotional exercises in anticipation of the feast. The Easter Vigil is apex of all Vigisl held on the evening before Easter. When night falls we begin the powerful liturgy of vigil of Easter which signifies in music , sight, sound and scent Christ’s passage from the dead to the living by the liturgy, which begins in darkness (sin, death) and is enlightened by the fire and the candle representing Lumen Christi — the Light of Christ — just as the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, the community of believers, is led from spiritual darkness to the light of His truth. Christ’s baptism, which our own baptism imitates, is represented during the liturgy by the blessing of the water of baptism by immersing (“burying”) the candle representing His Body into the font.
MEDITATION OF THE DAY: As we wake in the morning and ponder the day. We consider what a life would be like without Christ. We consider his body in the tomb today, and perhaps consider that if Christ was not victorious over the grave, our death seems more ominous. And yet there is a hope because we trust in his words despite the insecure feelings that one is left with after Good Friday. We wonder is there any word from the Lord as our hearts broken over these events seek healing. We long for some reply from the Lord who gave us life and meaning. We long for some word. It is that yearning that draws us that night to prepare our hearts to receive the Word of Salvation promise in the Great Vigil of Easter. Could it be that the tomb will be empty and remain empty forever as a sign that our lives will not really end, but only be transformed? Could that be the Word from the Lord? This is both a day of reflection and anticipation where peace and joy, are replaced by fear and sadness in our lives. For if we truly believe that death holds no true power over us, we can walk each day in the grace being offered us – to give our lives away in love
PRAYER OF THE DAY: All-powerful and ever-living God, your only Son went down among the dead and rose again in glory. In your goodness raise up your faithful people, buried with him in baptism, to be one with him in the eternal life of heaven, where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen
ANCIENT WISDOM/PRESENT GRACE ” Away with your fears of dying:
the death of our Savior has freed us from fear. Death played the master: he has mastered death.” –St. Hippolytus
Holy WEEK DISCIPLINE – As attending an Easter Vigil is not possible in most places. Invite friends and family to take one hour through the night and use the readings and prayers with music and meditation as a way to continue to tradition of the church . If not that Today is traditionally a day of abstinence in addition to being a day of fasting, until the Vigil Mass, when the Lenten Fast ends. In some churches today, priests will bless Easter baskets containing the foods eaten tomorrow (in other places, the baskets will be blessed after the liturgy tomorrow). Baskets bearing Easter bread, Easter eggs, meats, butter, horseradish, and salt are brought to church, blessed, and taken home to await the great feast on Easter Sunday.
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