Holy Saturday

The day before Easter is Holy Saturday, also known as the Harrowing of Hell. This is the third day of the sacred Paschal Triduum.

For Jesus’ disciples, this would have been the Jewish Sabbath so they rested.

While Jesus’ body lay in the tomb, his soul descended to Sheol, the Land of the Dead, to free those souls who were worthy of Heaven.

The day is marked by silence and gravity as Catholics meditate on Jesus’ descent into hell, praying and fasting while anticipating his Resurrection.

Another Catholic practice is to reflect on the Virgin Mary’s pain and suffering during this time. Because of this, she has earned titles such as Mother of Sorrows and Our Lady of Dolours.

There is no Mass during the day on Holy Saturday but the Easter Vigil is celebrated after sundown. This special Mass includes a service of light and Easter Proclamation, readings from salvation history, Baptism and Confirmation of new Catholics, and the celebration of the Eucharist.

The day before the Resurrection:

ROME REPORTS in English

Now there was a virtuous and righteous man named Joseph who, though he was a member of the council, had not consented to their plan of action. He came from the Jewish town of Arimathea and was awaiting the kingdom of God. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. After he had taken the body down, he wrapped it in a linen cloth and laid Him in a rock-hewn tomb in which no one had yet been buried. It was the day of preparation, and the sabbath was about to begin. The women who had come from Galilee with him followed behind, and when they had seen the tomb and the way in which his body was laid in it, they returned and prepared spices and perfumed oils. Then they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment.
Luke 23: 50-56

The great silence:

Fr. William Nicholas

Between the horror and the glory:

Loyola Press

Christ’s stay in the tomb constitutes the real link between his passible state before Easter and his glorious and risen state today. The same person of the “Living One” can say, “I died, and behold I am alive for evermore”: God [the Son] did not impede death from separating his soul from his body according to the necessary order of nature, but has reunited them to one another in the Resurrection, so that He himself might be, in his person, the meeting point for death and life, by arresting in Himself the decomposition of nature produced by death and so becoming the source of reunion for the separated parts.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 625

“This will be a night of vigil in honour of the Lord…from generation to generation.” These words of the Book of Exodus conclude the account of the departure of the Israelites from Egypt. They resound with special eloquence during the Easter Vigil, from which they draw their full meaning. In this year dedicated to God the Father, how can we fail to think of this night, Easter night, as the great night of the Father’s “vigil”? This watch by God embraces to the entire Easter Triduum. But in a special way the Father keeps watch during Holy Saturday, while the Son lies dead in the tomb. The mystery of Christ’s victory over the sin of the world is kept safe precisely by the Father’s watching. He watches over the whole earthly mission of the Son. His infinite compassion reaches its summit in the hour of passion and death: the hour when the Son is abandoned, so that the sons and daughters might be saved; when the Son is despised and rejected, so that the sons and daughters might be found once again; when the Son dies, so that the sons and daughters may find new life. The Father’s watch explains the Resurrection of the Son: even in the hour of death, the bond of love in God does not fail; nor does the Holy Spirit who, poured out by the dying Jesus on the Cross, fills with light the darkness of evil and raises Jesus from the dead, designating Him as Son of God in power and glory.
Pope John Paul II, Homily, 3 April 1999