Meditations for Holy Week
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Sat
Mar 22 |
am: 95, 88
pm: 27 |
Job 19:21-27a
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am: Heb 4:1-16
pm: Rom 8:1-11 |
There is no Gospel Reading on Saturday until the Vigil
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Holy Week: Holy Saturday- The Great Vigil of Easter LITURGICAL THEME FOR THE DAY: There is no liturgy on Holy Saturday. We spend the day reflecting upon the powerful reality of Jesus’ death. It is a day of silence and prayer which commemorates the dead Christ in the tomb. No Mass is celebrated. In cases of the danger of death, Eucharistic Hosts remaining from the Liturgies of the two previous days is used for viaticum to the sick visited this day. The Tabernacle is left empty and open. The lamp or candle usually situated next to the Tabernacle denoting the Presence of Christ is out. All of this points to the darkness and loss we feel.
Later that night (around 11 pm and through the morning hours was the tradition is the Vigil, the watching). The Easter Vigil begins with darkness. The darkness itself is the first movement of the liturgy as the priest lights a single candle from the Paschal Candle. The light is spread from person to person until everyone holds a lighted candle and the Exsultet is sung. Through the night the Lessons are read with homilies till the morn when the Easter proclamation and first Eucharist is celebrated.
MEDITATION OF THE DAY: Holy Saturday is the day between Jesus’ death and His resurrection. It is the day of watchful expectation, in which mourning is being transformed into joy. What we now know is that through His incarnation, life and death Christ has filled all things with Himself He has opened a path for all flesh to the resurrection from the dead, since it was not possible that the author of life would be dominated by corruption.
The Vigil of the Easter Moment has nothing to do with ecclesiastical nostalgia or sentimentalities. Someone put it in these bold, vivid terms: "Easter is not about the return of the robin in spring or crocuses or a butterfly coming out of the cocoon or any of that pagan drivel. It’s about a Body that somehow got loose. The Gospel accounts strain to describe what happened, but don’t make any mistake about it, they’re trying to describe something unearthly: death working backwards. So I can’t talk about ‘the eternal rebirth of hope’ or ‘Jesus living on in our hearts.’ We’re talking about a dead Jew, crucified; who came back to life … This is God we’re talking about, a real God, people, not some projection of our ego."
PRAYER OF THE DAY: Almighty and eternal God, you created all things in wonderful beauty and order. Help us now to perceive how still more wonderful is the new creation by which in the fullness of time you redeemed your people through the sacrifice of our Passover, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen
Holy Saturday Discipline: Make the commitment to participate in an Easter Vigil as was observed in the ancient church. If you cannot make it, spend the evening reading the lessons appointed for the Vigil and write a reflection on each lesson to share with another person during Eastertide.
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