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Holy Saturday
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Holy Saturday

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Libretto DEL GIORNO
Holy Saturday
Saturday, April 19

Holy Saturday


Reading of the Word of God

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

Luke 23, 50-56

And now a member of the Council arrived, a good and upright man named Joseph.

He had not consented to what the others had planned and carried out. He came from Arimathaea, a Jewish town, and he lived in the hope of seeing the kingdom of God.

This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.

He then took it down, wrapped it in a shroud and put it in a tomb which was hewn in stone and which had never held a body.

It was Preparation day and the Sabbath was beginning to grow light.

Meanwhile the women who had come from Galilee with Jesus were following behind. They took note of the tomb and how the body had been laid.

Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. And on the Sabbath day they rested, as the Law required.

 

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

A good and just person did not agree with the decision to kill Jesus. He was convoked for the morning reunion in which Jesus would be judged and condemned. The evangelist notes that Joseph of Arimathaea abstained from approving the capital sentence that the members of the Sanhedrin decided. Another Joseph arrives at the end of Jesus’ life. The first saved Jesus from Herod, the second lowers him from the cross, wraps him in a linen cloth, and lays him in a new tomb. He is joined by the women who had been following Jesus. In front of the tomb, in front of the pain of this world, in front of death, in front of the sleep of the disciples, and in front of suffering, the only thing that remains is faith in the words of Jesus who entrusted himself to the Father. Luke writes: “It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning.” Perhaps in addition to the lights of a city waking up, that morning also saw the light of a new hour, the dawning of a new day for Jesus and for the world. In front of widespread pain, those who do not agree with the decision to kill and oppress are not only called to weep, but also to believe, pray, and hope for a different hour. The Church’s tradition –founded on those passages of Scripture that speak of Jesus’ descent to hell—would have Jesus descend to the “underworld,” the dwelling place of the dead, to gather them, beginning with Adam and Eve, and take them with himself on this day to Paradise. It is the Easter icon venerated in the Orthodox tradition. The resurrection begins here. And Jesus continues today to descend into the “hells” of this world, to pluck from the hands of death all those who have been violated by evil and to take them with him to heaven. He continues to say to them and to many others: “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Prayer is the heart of the life of the Community of Sant'Egidio and is its absolute priority. At the end of the day, every the Community of Sant'Egidio, large or small, gathers around the Lord to listen to his Word. The Word of God and the prayer are, in fact, the very basis of the whole life of the Community. The disciples cannot do other than remain at the feet of Jesus, as did Mary of Bethany, to receive his love and learn his ways (Phil. 2:5).
So every evening, when the Community returns to the feet of the Lord, it repeats the words of the anonymous disciple: " Lord, teach us how to pray". Jesus, Master of prayer, continues to answer: "When you pray, say: Abba, Father". It is not a simple exhortation, it is much more. With these words Jesus lets the disciples participate in his own relationship with the Father. Therefore in prayer, the fact of being children of the Father who is in heaven, comes before the words we may say. So praying is above all a way of being! That is to say we are children who turn with faith to the Father, certain that they will be heard.
Jesus teaches us to call God "Our Father". And not simply "Father" or "My Father". Disciples, even when they pray on their own, are never isolated nor they are orphans; they are always members of the Lord's family.
In praying together, beside the mystery of being children of God, there is also the mystery of brotherhood, as the Father of the Church said: "You cannot have God as father without having the church as mother". When praying together, the Holy Spirit assembles the disciples in the upper room together with Mary, the Lord's mother, so that they may direct their gaze towards the Lord's face and learn from Him the secret of his Heart.
 The Communities of Sant'Egidio all over the world gather in the various places of prayer and lay before the Lord the hopes and the sufferings of the tired, exhausted crowds of which the Gospel speaks ( Mat. 9: 3-7 ), In these ancient crowds we can see the huge masses of the modern cities, the millions of refugees who continue to flee their countries, the poor, relegated to the very fringe of life and all those who are waiting for someone to take care of them. Praying together includes the cry, the invocation, the aspiration, the desire for peace, the healing and salvation of the men and women of this world. Prayer is never in vain; it rises ceaselessly to the Lord so that anguish is turned into hope, tears into joy, despair into happiness, and solitude into communion. May the Kingdom of God come soon among people!