Today's gospel, Saturday 19 April, on Easter Eve, Holy Saturday
Easter Eve/ Holy Saturday
Easter Eve Service
- 7pm in Turlough, early All-age 'Easter Vigil' and Easter Communion
The gospel reading Luke 24:1-12
But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body.While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.
Collect
Grant, Lord,
that we who are baptised into the death
of your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ
may continually put to death our evil desires
and be buried with him;
and that through the grave and gate of death
we may pass to our joyful resurrection;
through his merits, who died and was buried
and rose again for us,
your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
Easter Eve/ Holy Saturday, an Inbetween Day
This is what the Christian writer Christine Valters Painter comments on this special Day, as quoted by Richard Rohr, Centre for Action and Contemplation (https://cac.org/):
Lingering In-Between
Spiritual teacher Christine Valters Paintner invites us to the patience necessary to receive the wisdom of Holy Saturday:
The Triduum, those three sacred days of unfolding liturgy, calls us to experience communion, loss, and the border spaces of unknowing. Holy Saturday is an invitation to make a conscious passage through the liminal realm of in-between….
For me, Holy Saturday evokes much about the human condition. It helps us examine the ways we are called to let go of things, people, identities, or securities. We wonder what will rise up out of the ashes of our lives….
Instead of rushing to resurrection, we must dwell in the space of unknowing. We must hold death and life in tension. One day, we can help others live through these scary and tense landscapes. The wisdom of the Triduum is that we must be fully present to both the starkness of Friday and the Saturday space between before we can really experience the Resurrection. We must know the terrible experience of loss wrought in our world. This pain can teach us more when the promise of new life dawns, and we will appreciate its light because we know the darkness….
Much of our lives are spent in Holy Saturday places but we spend so much energy resisting, longing for resolution and closure. Our practice this day is to really enter into the liminal zone, to be present to it with every cell of our being.
Make some time today to sit with all of the paradoxes of life. Bring yourself fully present so you can live in the discomfort of the experience. Rest in the space of waiting, and resist trying to come up with neat answers or resolutions. Imagine yourself on a wild border or standing on a threshold. See yourself knowing that you cannot fully embrace what is on the other side until you have let this place form in your heart. When you notice your attention drifting or your mind starting to analyze, return to the present moment. Allow yourself to feel whatever arises in this space. Honor the mystery.
Sacred Space
https://sacredspace.com/daily-prayer/2025-04-19/
Christian Art
https://christian.art/daily-gospel-reading/luke-24-1-12-2025/
You can read about the varied Christian traditions concerning this day here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Saturday
Services on Easter Day, 20 April
- 10am Christ Church Castlebar
- 12 noon for Holy Trinity Westport, in St Mary’s
- 3pm St Thomas’s Dugort
Easter Monday, 21 April
Return to Inishbiggle for A Service of Wholeness and Healing, with Easter Communion, followed by tea and fellowship in the Old School. Meeting at Dorian’s Point Ballycroy at 9.45am for 10am departure. Please contact the rector (email aughaval@tuam.anglican.org) if you wish to come along.
