St. Amphilochius of Iconium writes: Death has seized our Lord Jesus Christ, but it shall not keep its hold on life....Of his own will he is now held; tomorrow he shall rise again, and hell shall be emptied.
Within the monastic setting, Holy Saturday is traditional a day of silence and reflection. The Liturgy of the Hours is stripped to the barest minimun of psalms, responsery and concluding prayer. The church is bare. Candles remain unlit, holy water fonts are dry. No bells, no processions, not even prayers for the dead. All these customs assist us in "feeling" the emptyness Jesus followers must have felt that first Holy Saturday.
Pope Benedict XVI writes Christ strode through the gate of our final loneliness; in his Passion he went down into the abyss our abandonment. Where no voice can reach us any longer, there is he.
Good thoughts for this Holy day.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Freezing Beautiful Times
Life would be so much easier if we could freeze the beautiful times, the times when joy overflowed and we were in tune with life around and ...
-
I confess I'm royally annoyed. I keep hearing, "Done with 2021. Let's move on to 2022!" Like 2022 is going to be signifi...
-
The gospel story goes, The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field (Mt 13:44). I always thought of that treasure as so...
-
Bernard Bro writes: It is not we who wait for God, and draw God's attention, but it is God who awaits us. It is not we who are an...
No comments:
Post a Comment