Holy Saturday 19 April 2014

easter vigil

On Holy Saturday the Church is as it were at the Lord’s tomb, meditating on his Passion and death, and awaiting his resurrection with prayer and fasting. On this day the Church abstains strictly from the celebration of the Sacrifice of the Mass.

– The Easter Vigil

This is the night when the Church keeps vigil, waiting for the resurrection of the Lord, and celebrates the sacraments of Christian Initiation. The Passover Vigil, in which the Hebrews kept watch for the Lord’s passover which was to free them from slavery to Pharaoh, prefigured the true Pasch of Christ that was to come. For the resurrection of Christ, in which he ‘broke the chains of death and rose triumphant from the grave’, is the foundation of our faith and hope, and through Baptism and Confirmation we are inserted into the paschal mystery of Christ, dying, buried and raised with him, and with him we shall also reign.

The full meaning of this Vigil is a waiting for the coming of the Lord.

Click here for a video reflection by Bishop Denis Nulty, Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin on the Easter Vigil.