April 19 (Saturday – Reflection)
- Scripture: Matthew 27:65-66 – “Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.
- Reflection: Holy Saturday is a day of stillness. We hold our breath, and realize that for some, breath has departed forever. We are doing what others cannot do. Simply by breathing. By being.
Then we wait. Jesus is in the tomb, and the world is wrapped in silence and uncertainty. This time can mirror the moments in our lives where we feel in limbo, holding vigil for God’s next move.
As we reflect, let us embrace the uncertainty, trusting in God’s steadfast promises. This day teaches us that darkness does not have the final say, and from seemingly hopeless situations, God can bring renewal and resurrection. - Spiritual Practice Prompt: Follow your breath. Inhale deeply. Hold the breath. Count. Exhale slowly. Count again. Repeat this seven times. Put your hand on your belly, to feel your abdomen rise and fall.
Know that in the darkest, most impossible of times, your breath connects you to Spirit. Your finite breath puts you in touch with the eternal, endless presence of God. You are not alone, though it feels so.
Dedicate time today to quiet reflection. You might light a candle for contemplation, symbolizing hope and your experience of waiting for resurrection. - Song:
- Wait on You by Erin Corrado: https://youtu.be/Ox2UD-MPkBg?si=G5hC5B7Qkc7mFznC
- Sound of Silence by Pentatonix: https://youtu.be/gdVjVtpr55M?si=iKWgRR9yo1bzJCxP
- Patient by Apollo: https://youtu.be/bNh5Z32SxH8?si=TRSs0IqYbBZG8KDi
- Alice & Breathing by Matt Maher: https://youtu.be/gYUJjsgd96k?si=GXNq70MrpIjBY8NC
Everyone who has ever lived, who will ever live, will someday undergo a Holy Saturday of their own. Someday we will all know the power of overwhelming loss when life as we know it changes, when all hope dies in midflight. Then, and only then, can we begin to understand the purpose of Holy Saturday.
… Today, alone and bereft, we come face-to-face with the question we try so hard to avoid the rest of the year: how do we deal with the God of darkness as well as the Giver of light? Have we been abandoned? Are we left now on our own in this world? Is there nothing else? Was all the rest of it pure fairy tale?
… No doubt about it: this is the day of the going down into the tomb—our own as well as Jesus’. It is now the time for us to die to false hope. But it is also time for us to die to faithless despair.
Hope, you see is a slippery thing, often confused with certainty, seldom understood as the spiritual discipline that makes us certain of only one thing: in the end, whatever happens will be resolved only by the doing of the will of God, however much we attempt to wrench it to our own ends.
There is the hope that we can begin, finally, to see the world as God sees it and so trust that God is indeed everywhere and in everything at all times—in abstruse as well as the luminous, whether we ourselves can see the hand of God in this moment or not. — Sr. Joan Chittister