CandelaLouisanaAlexiablogger

Holy Saturday


On Holy Saturday the Church is the tomb of the Lord meditating his passion and death, and refrains the sacrifice of the mass, thus leaving the altar bare until after the solemn night vigil or expectation of the resurrection, will inaugurate the joys of Easter, whose exuberance flood the fifty days of Easter. On this day does not distribute communion, unless in case of Viaticum.

The specific mystery of Holy Saturday is this: the absence of the Lord. The Lord has hidden his face, stole your presence, the Lord is absent, the Lord, mysteriously, is dead.



The items that we agree to call "mystery" are:

a) Deprivation of the Eucharist. Again according to this logic, the mystery, the Eucharist is impossible on Holy Saturday, for the Lord "is not".

b) It is not the Word of God proclaimed in the Eucharistic assembly. No Eucharist, no Eucharist Word in context unlike Friday.

c) The experience of emptiness. When a loved one dies we say we left a void that can not be filled, the house is empty. Holy Saturday is the contact with the vacuum. This gap, which is awe, silence and fasting, is a mystery, and his experience is a celebration of worship in the depths.



This day is for living from meditative stillness, staying alone and overwhelmed in the absence of the Lord.

Meditate "seeing" to the burial of the Lord (which we have to bury us?, The rest of the Lord, Let us strive to enter the rest of the Lord (cf. Heb 4, 1-13), the Lord descends into the abyss and is with the righteous (this is the unfathomable mystery that Christians confess in the Creed: "And he went down into hell").

The grain of wheat has died and is buried in the bowels of the earth, but will occur for that very abundant fruit (cf. Jn 12: 24). Christ is with the dead. Then be firstborn from the dead, the first fruits of the new creation.

Christ has become integral to the end with mortal man (are we in solidarity as Jesus?). Solidarity their failure, their silence, their moments of collapse, of the times when it seems that evil has triumphed and death (look to our own experience). The grave will not be the last word, but it is very serious. "Why have you forsaken me.

The descent into "hell" is part of the dynamics of the Passover (? Identified your "hell"?). It is death and release, fall and rise in a unitary movement. Christ breaks the power of death and brings us out of "our graves." We take the hand (do you leave out of your graves?). The death has been conquered and keys, scattered.

In one way or another, additionally, the Christian community sees Jesus in the tomb, in their silence, in their grief, in their failure customizing, before Jesus in the tomb, our (s) grave (s), our ( s) pain (is) our (s) fail (s). Silent and pray. We watch. We know he will rise, but meanwhile we take very seriously the grave of one who gave his life for us.

Easter Vigil
The most significant night of the year


After a day of silence, prayer and fasting, we prepare to celebrate Easter, the passage, the Lord's Resurrection. The Easter Vigil is the Lord's Passover and Easter in the Church, origin and root of the whole liturgical year.

In this celebration of the Easter Vigil received his consecration words, prayers, sacraments and symbols of the Church, which are extension and radiation of Easter.

These great symbols are the holy assembly, always the bride and the community of the Risen. The new time, always, night and day, Easter time and inserted in our day that is Christ. The new fire, which recalls the pillar of fire and the fire kindled by the Spirit of the Risen Lord in the hearts of the faithful. The regenerative water, a sign of new life in Christ, the source of life. The holy chrism spiritual anointing of the baptized. The wedding of the Church: in the bread and wine of the Eucharist we have the food and the Risen Risen. The new song of the Alleluia Easter anthem of the redeemed, singing pilgrims on their way to the motherland.

All other symbols are Easter: the cross, the altar, the ambo, the book. Above all, the ritual importance of the Vigil, the Easter candle, a sign of Christ that shines his presence at the meeting.



The structure of the Easter Vigil is interpreted as follows:

Skylight: cosmic Easter.

Liturgy of the Word: Easter story.

Baptismal rites: Easter neophytes.

Eucharistic Liturgy: Easter worshipers.



The skylight in the liturgy of fire and light. With the blessing of the new fire to turn the new light, we are reminded that at night where everything is renewed in the One who makes all things new. The candle is blessed and adorned as a symbol of Christ Light. The procession from darkness to light, the pilgrimage of the Church, the new People of God, guided by the pillar of fire, lighting each receives baptism of Christ to be always a child of light.



The Liturgy of the Word. The proclamation of the Word of God becomes symbolically in light of the Risen Christ, the center of the cosmos and of history. They are progressive readings of the history of salvation are Christological, have a close relationship with the baptism. Then the prayer of the Church expresses the sense typological reading.



Baptismal Liturgy. Follow the baptismal liturgy with the invocation of the saints, the blessing of the baptismal font and all other rites of baptism and confirmation when adult baptism. If no baptisms, is passed immediately to the blessing of water, waivers and promises of baptism with water spray. It is the memory of the Passover memorial and baptism. It ends with the universal prayer of the faithful or.



Eucharistic Liturgy. Encounter with the risen Christ in the paschal sacrifice, in communion with Him The celebration ends with the invitation at the end of Easter Mass to carry all the proclamation of the Risen Christ.



Christ resurrected, has conquered death. This is indeed the Lord's day. The foundation of our faith. The decisive experience the Church as the Bride united to the Bridegroom, recalls and lives every year, renewing your communion with Him in the Word and in the Sacraments tonight. The birth of Christ at New Life wants to lead the rebirth of their community, and each of us, to that same New Life.


Have a good Easter
Regards