Saints of the Day & More

This day is also known as "The Day Christ laid in the tomb", due to the fact that after we read the 14th Station, Christ is buried. And thus on that Saturday we are in a hopeful vigil to see the return of our Lord and King, Jesus Christ. In the Gospels, the final passage we come across is, "Christ was then laid in the tomb, with a large boulder covering its entrance, and Christ laid there for 3 days, until Sunday when rose again." This is what we see/hear of Christ before he Resurrects on Sunday. Little is know about what took place within the tomb of Christ before the Glorious and Triumphant Sunday. In the primitive Church Holy Saturday was known as Great, or Grand, Saturday, Holy Saturday, the Angelic Night, the Vigil of Easter, etc. It is no longer, like Maundy Thursday, a day of joy, but one of joy and sadness intermingled; it is the close of the season of Lent and penance, and the beginning of paschal time, which is one of rejoicing. The night of the vigil of E...

As early as the first century, the Church set aside every Friday as a special day of prayer and fasting. It was not until the fourth century, however, that the Church began observing the Friday before Easter as the day associated with the crucifixion of Christ. First called Holy or Great Friday by the Greek Church, the name "Good Friday" was adopted by the Roman Church around the sixth or seventh century. With every Good Friday and also every Friday during Lent we walk alongside Christ and venerate his Passion, Death and Resurrection. We First begin with the Betrayal of Judas, which is said to have taken place in Gethsemane at some time around Mid-Night. Later Jesus is taken before the High Priests and is interrogated and later judged and sent before Pilate in the early morning hours. Pilate then sent Jesus to King Herod, the son of Herod the Great, to which to his belief, Jesus was a crazy person who just needed to be taught a lesson or ignored. Christ then returns to Pilate...

The feast of Maundy (or Holy) Thursday solemnly commemorates the institution of the Eucharist and is the oldest of the observances peculiar to Holy Week. In Rome various accessory ceremonies were early added to this commemoration, namely the consecration of the holy oils and the reconciliation of penitents, ceremonies obviously practical in character and readily explained by the proximity of the Christian Easter and the necessity of preparing for it. Holy Thursday could not but be a day of liturgical reunion since, in the cycle of movable feasts, it brings around the anniversary of the institution of the Liturgy. On that day, whilst the preparation of candidates was being completed, the Church celebrated the Missa chrismalis of which we have already described the rite and, moreover, proceeded to the reconciliation of penitents. In Rome everything was carried on in daylight, whereas in Africa on Holy Thursday the Eucharist was celebrated after the evening meal, in view of more exact con...