Holy Saturday

For my entire adulthood, Holy Saturday has been my second favorite holy day (second to Easter). I am completely captivated by the hidden mystery of Christ's harrowing of hell: chains broken, captives set free, the glory of the gates of heaven flung wide open for our fathers in the faith.

I love Holy Saturday so much that when I was pregnant with my third baby it felt like pure gift to go into labor on Good Friday and deliver my baby in the first minutes of Holy Saturday. Deliverance!

I wake on Holy Saturday with the thrill that it has begun. 

There's an ancient homily for Holy Saturday that I share on social media nearly every year which begins Something Strange is Happening.... It is a beautiful read. 

There's also a breathtaking short video that was released a few years ago that illustrates what we believe:

But this year is different. This year I am shaken out of the mystical joy of the hidden realities, to the mortal reality that weeps with the women at the tomb because while all of it is true, today He is in the tomb, and Heidi is in the tomb.

I had the realization yesterday that as regards Heidi, the rest of my life is Holy Saturday - the in-between -  Good Friday behind, but the Resurrection yet to come. I know that she lives, but the reality is hidden from my senses. 

Perhaps my previous innocent joy in the hidden mystery of Holy Saturday has cracked open to a more mature understanding of joy and sorrow wedded together on this day. 

At our Good Friday liturgy, I was struck by the line from Hebrews 4:16, "So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help." This is my prayer and He has not failed to answer it. Praise God. 

Blessed Holy Saturday