Holy Saturday

Antiphon: Though sinless, the Lord has been put to death. The world is in mourning as for an only son.

“It is impossible to describe the feeling that comes over you at such a time. The feeling that somehow, in an instant of time, everything is changed and nothing again will ever be quite the same. That tomorrow will never again be like yesterday. That the very trees, the grass, the air, the daylight are no longer the same, for the world has changed. It is a feeling impossible to describe, and yet one that every wife who has lost a husband knows well, one that every child who has tasted evil for the first time or faced a sudden crisis has experienced. It is that feeling that leaves the heart saying, ‘Oh, if only I could turn back the clock to before it happened...’”

~Walter Ciszek

   Thus says the Lord,

In their affliction, they shall look for Me:

   “Come, let us return to the Lord,

For it is He who has rent, but He will heal us;

   He has struck us, but He will bind our wounds.

He will revive us after two days;

   on the third day He will raise us up,

   to live in His presence.”

~Hosea 5:15b-16:2