“Therefore command the tomb to be made secure until the third day.. So they went with the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone.” Mathew 27:64-66

Holy Saturday is the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday in the Catholic Liturgical Calendar. It is the final day of Lent (except for those who celebrate the end of Lent on the Thursday before Easter). Holy Saturday celebrates, a day of silence, of waiting beside the tomb, the quiet calm of mourning and weeping.

Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, and John 19 each describes of a man by the name of Joseph, who made provisions for Jesus’s body to be laid in a new tomb. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary intended to assist in preparing the body with spices and oils. The women ran out of time before it was officially the Sabbath, so the anointing of the body had to wait until Sunday morning. The hours between arriving at the tomb must have been filled with tears of sorrow, yet glimmers of hope that indeed He would do as He said on Sunday.

Just as Jesus’ followers waited the tedious hours of that Saturday to see what would occur Sunday, so we wait to see the hand of the Lord in our own lives.

Holy Saturday in History
In the second century, people kept an absolute fast for the entire 40-hour period between nightfall on Good Friday (recollecting the time Christ was removed from the cross and buried in the tomb) and dawn on Easter Sunday (when Christ was resurrected).

By Constantine's realm in the fourth century, the night of the vigil of Easter began Saturday at dusk, with the lighting of the "new fire," including a large number of lamps and candles and the paschal candle.

In the early church, Christians gathered on the afternoon of Holy Saturday to pray and to confer the Sacrament of Baptism on catechumens—converts to Christianity who had spent Lent preparing to be received into the Church. This vigil lasted through the night until dawn on Easter Sunday, when the Alleluia was sung for the first time since the beginning of Lent, and the faithful, including the newly baptized, broke their 40-hour fast by receiving Communion.

With the reform of the liturgies for Holy Week in 1956, the ceremonies of the Easter Vigil, especially the blessing of new fire and the lighting of the Easter candle returned to the Easter Vigil itself, that is, to the Mass celebrated after sundown on Holy Saturday, and thus the original character of Holy Saturday was restored.

Until the revision of the rules for fasting and abstinence in 1969, strict fasting and abstinence continued to be practiced on the morning of Holy Saturday, thus reminding the faithful of the sorrowful nature of the day and preparing them for the joy of Easter feast.

Holy Saturday is a time for us to lean into being present in the Lord, placing our own agendas at the door, and coming before Him to simply be with Him. The Lord desires a relationship with us, and a requirement of a relationship is time together.

Holy Saturday is a great day not to ask for anything, but to simply spend time within the Spirit of the Lord as we wait in silence to witness his resurrection on Easter Sunday.