Holy Saturday with Our Lady

"Holy Saturday is liturgically a day of deepest mourning, a day which the Church spends at our Lord's sepulcher, meditating on His Sacred Passion and Death." - 1962 Roman Missal 

The sacred day of Holy Saturday is a day spent next to our Lady's side, mourning with her, and keeping her company in her sorrow as she mourns the brutal death of her Son. Many endeavored to keep her company - Mary Magdalene, the Beloved Apostle John, the repentant Peter - but none could understand the depths of her sorrow but her Son, Whom she no longer had with her. And yet in the midst of her mourning lies a glimmer of hope. Though nothing could ease or heal the pain she suffered, she knew what was soon to come. Let us kneel next to our Mother, grieving with her as her heart is now fully pierced, but let us look upon her gaze as she awaits the triumph of her Son, and in return she will direct our gaze towards the Light Who is about to dispel the darkness. 

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​​"Let us visit the Holy Mother, who has passed the night in Jerusalem, going over, in saddest memory, the scenes she has witnessed. Her Jesus has been a Victim to every possible insult and cruelty: He has been crucified: His precious Blood has flowed in torrents from those Five Wounds: He is dead, and now lies buried in yonder Tomb, as thou He were but a mere man, yea the most abject of men. How many tears have fallen during these long hours from the eyes of the Daughter of David! and yet, her Son has not come back to her! Near her is Magdalene; heartbroken by yesterday’s events, she has no words to tell her grief, for Jesus is gone, and, as she thinks, forever. The other Women, less loved by Jesus than Magdalene, yet still dear to him, stand round the disconsolate Mother. 

​"They have braved every insult and danger in order to remain on Calvary till all was over, and they intend returning thither with Magdalene, as soon as the Sabbath is over, to honor the Tomb and the Body of Jesus. John, the adopted son of Mary, and the Beloved Disciple of Jesus, is oppressed with sorrow. Others, also, of the Apostles and Disciples visit the house of mourning. Peter, penitent and humble, fears not to appear before the Mother of Mercy.

​Mary alone lives in expectation of his triumph. In her was verified that expression of the Holy Ghost where, speaking of the Valiant Woman, he says: Her lamp shall not be put out in the night. Her courage fails not, because she knows that the Sepulcher must yield up its Dead, and her Jesus will rise again to Life. St. Paul tells us that our religion is vain unless we have faith in the mystery of our Savior’s Resurrection: where was this faith on the day after our Lord’s Death? In one heart only—and that was Mary’s. As it was her chaste womb that had held within it Him whom heaven and earth cannot contain, so on this day, by her firm and unwavering faith, she resumes within her single self the whole Church. How sacred is this Saturday, which, notwithstanding all its sadness, is such a day of glory to the Mother of Jesus! It is on this account that the Church has consecrated to Mary the Saturday of every week."

- Dom Gueranger on Holy Saturday