Category: Holy Saturday

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A Church In Holy Saturday Mode

In my last post, and especially in my poem, my intention was to open my heart fully and express the anguish that yesterday’s news brought to me.  Yesterday, in a real sense, was a Good Friday moment for us all.  It was a time to weep, a time to mourn.  In one sense, we may feel as though the Lord has been taken away (even though He remains among us) and we do not know where they have put Him.

Now that we are absorbing the news of the suspension of public Masses, where are we? We long for Easter, for a Resurrection, for the full restoration of our Eucharistic celebrations.  Until then, we find ourselves in Holy Saturday mode. Continue reading “A Church In Holy Saturday Mode”

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The Liminal Sabbath

Holy Saturday

Having bought a linen cloth, (Joseph of Arimathea) took (Jesus) down, wrapped him in the linen cloth and laid him in a tomb that had been hewn out of the rock, Then he rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses watched where he was laid. – Mark 15:46-47

Holy Saturday. The forgotten day. The Church has no public liturgy for this day, other than the Liturgy of the Hours. Moreover, the way our parishes tend to schedule the Triduum celebrations on three consecutive nights – Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil – makes Holy Saturday itself all the more invisible. Liturgically, we lose the sense of the Resurrection happening “on the third day”. Moreover, we easily slide past Holy Saturday in our rush to the Vigil. This is a shame, as Holy Saturday has much to teach us. Let us pause, then, by the tomb of Jesus, as Mary Magdalene and the other women did, that we might see what this time might reveal to us.   Continue reading “The Liminal Sabbath”