HOLY SATURDAY

Liturgy of the Hours

Holy Saturday has a full Divine Office allocated to it, which is prayed in the usual way. Only those who do not attend the Easter Vigil say Night Prayer.

A day of waiting

We should not experience Holy Saturday as “an empty day”, when we need to find something to do, to fill in the time before the Easter Vigil. The day is a time of waiting and repose, not to be shattered by busy last-minute preparations for the Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday. We should have completed all necessary preparations before Holy Thursday.

We know, by faith based on the gospels, what happened after Good Friday and on Easter Sunday. Jesus laid down his bodily life in the hope of taking up eternal life. He was put to death, and his body reposed in the tomb until God raised him from the dead.

On the day after his crucifixion, it was as though all creation awaited the resurrection. All creation was affected by the resurrection of Jesus.

So, on Holy Saturday, the Church celebrates Jesus Christ resting in his tomb, but she also awaits the effects of his resurrection.

We should enter into the Church’s and all creation’s waiting, and maintain the reflective spirit of the day by taking time over praying the Liturgy of the Hours, in quiet prayer and in joyful hope. Bodily rest is also appropriate, if we intend to take part in an all-night vigil later.