Tag: Holy Saturday

Awesome Expectations

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Courage, Cross, Discipleship, Faith, Jesus, spirituality, sufferingLeave a comment

Holy Saturday
April 4, 2026

We expect things, don’t we? Things as simple as rain. Things as complex as babies. We expect to wake up tomorrow, to have a safe drive home from work, to complete the to-do lists stuffed in our pockets. We expect life. We even expect death. We expect much of the in-between.

But it is the things we don’t expect that profoundly change our lives. These things shatter our routine and make a passageway for extraordinary grace. You have had such moments. During them, you were like the ancient Jews standing at the fracture of the Red Sea. Your soul was in a battle between fear and awe.

These moments came to you in various disguises: tragedy, surprise, celebration, disappointment, betrayal, or forgiveness. From the vantage point of time, you may be able to see how these moments freed you, redeemed you. Or, now within such a moment, you may still be struggling to discover its Divine Potential.

The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb by Hans Holbein (c. 1522)

We are not unlike the disciples experiencing the Passover of Jesus’s life. They, even He, may not have expected the Thursday of Transubstantiation – the giving of his body into the eternal bread and wine. They did not expect the cleavage of their sacred world by an unholy crucifixion. They did not expect a dislodged stone to yield a golden resurrection.

All that they did not expect we now call “Easter” – a rebirth in the steadfast assurance that God’s life ever triumphs. May we all be broken and blessed by this astounding and unexpected grace!

Spend some time today considering your hopes. Look for the things yet hidden behind the stone of expectation. Are they worthy of the awesome soul God gave you, and the immense invitation within the Paschal Mystery? Are we looking into an empty tomb, expecting new life? Or, on this hollow and hallow Saturday, are we quietly listening for whatever unexpected grace Easter will offer us?

Music: Exsultet – setting by Ryan Clouse

(And yes, I was annoyed by what I thought was a misspelling of “Exultet”. However, I did some research and this is an acceptable, though archaic, version of the word. There is an unfortunate ad near rhe end. Hit “skip” in lower right to view end of video. It’s worth it.

Suggested Scripture: Isaiah 53:1-12

Click for Scripture

For Your Reflection:

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Holy Saturday 2022

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn dying, Eternal Life, Faith, spirituality8 Comments

April 16, 2022

Readings for the Easter Vigil
Jesus in tomb
The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb by Hans Holbein (c. 1522)

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we wait, entombed with Jesus. The waiting has a surreal sense every year as we commemorate this day with no liturgy of its own.  Within our Holy Saturday prayer, there is a depth of meaning that eludes words. So, let us turn to poetry as we daily do:

Eliot

Here are two poems that may help us explore the spiritual dimensions of Holy Saturday.

meynell
levertov

Music: God Rested – Andrew Peterson

Holy Saturday 2021

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn dying, Eternal Life, Faith, JesusLeave a comment

April 3, 2021

Alternate Reading from Walter Brueggemann 

Alternate Reading from Walter Brueggemann

Today, in Mercy, we join Mary and the disciples as they deal with Christ’s death. No doubt, the range of emotions among them was as great as it would be among any group or family losing someone they dearly loved.

They had entered, with heart-wrenching drama, into a period of bereavement over the loss of Jesus. Doubt, hope, loss, fear, sadness and remembered joy vied for each of their hearts. They comforted one another and tried to understand each other’s handling of their terrible shared bereavement.

They did just what we all do as families, friends and communities when our beloved dies.

But ultimately, our particular bereavement belongs to us alone, woven from the many experiences we have had with the person who has died. These are personal and indescribable, as is the character of our pain and loss.

Do not be afraid of your bereavement.  It is a gift of love.

Holy Saturday, like bereavement, is a time of infrangible silence. No matter how many “whys” we throw heavenward, no answer comes. It is a time to test what Love has meant to us and, even as it seems to leave us, how it will live in us.

As we pray today with the bereaved Mother and disciples, let us fold all our bereavements into their love.  We already know the joyful end to the story, so let us pray today with honesty but also with unconquerable hope that we will live and love again.

Music: Goodbye, Old Friend – Sean Clive

Hidden Dance

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Faith, Love, Poetry5 Comments

Hidden Dance

Hidden Dance

How easily I let you go
when the final note was played,
with force as soft
as fracture of the chrysalis,
a breaking web collapsing
mutely in the shadowed night.

How easily it seemed
you slipped into another life,
as if it were familiar to you,
a practiced dance that I
was unaware you’d learned.

You fell in step with music
the living cannot hear.
Instead, I hear your absence
beating like a vacant drum
against the void you left behind.

I know I contradict the peace
with which you said goodbye.
It is as if, in me,
two different people loved you:
one was full of grace and gratitude,
and one still questions why.

Music:  Lux Aeterna – Edward Elgar – sung by Voces8

Sorrow

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn dying, Faith, Love, PoetryLeave a comment

 

rock

Sorrow

You must be alone

with sorrow

before you can leave it,

or it will crush you

like a black, heavy rock.

You must drive into

the hollow of its face,

under the ledges

it projects against you.

Feel its cold granite

pressed to your grain.

In time,

it will allow your turning

to rest your back

within its curve.

Only then,

you will be free to leave it,

walking lightly once again

on yielding earth.

When you return, it will be freely,

on a pilgrimage,

to touch the name you carved once

with the anguish of your heart.

Music:  Seeking Serenity – Nicholas Gunn