|
Dear St. Alban's Family,
“What is happening? Today there is a great silence over the earth, a great silence, and stillness, a great silence because the King sleeps…”
Holy Saturday, also called the Holy Sabbath and the Great Sabbath, is an empty day, the day when Christ rested in the tomb and all creation awaited the resurrection. The service honoring Holy Saturday is the most overlooked liturgy of Holy Week, but among the most memorable for those who take the time to keep it. It is a very brief but beautiful office, 20 minutes in duration, that includes a continuation of the Passion Gospel read on Good Friday, along the reading of a stunning fifth century sermon that imagines the harrowing of hell—the doctrine affirmed in the Apostles’ Creed that Jesus, after giving up his spirit on the cross, broke into the underworld to free the souls trapped in captivity there. This service prominently features the canticle, Benedicite, omnia opera Domini, which illustrates the bursting forth of new life from the earth as Jesus lay briefly in the tomb—the text of which comes from the apocryphal book, “The Song of the Three Young Men,” recounting the praises sung by Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego as they were spared death in the fiery furnace (in Daniel 3.)
Zoom link for Holy Saturday Office at 8:00 am — Click Here to Join
The Great Vigil of Easter and the First Mass of the Resurrection
7:30 pm
The practice of celebrating Vigils of Feast Days follows the ancient Jewish pattern of holy days beginning at sundown and continuing through to the following evening. Similarly to the Nativity of Our Lord—otherwise known as Christmas—the celebration of which for most people begins on Christmas Eve, joyous celebrations of the Easter victory over death and hell begin on the Eve of Easter. According to tradition, the Vigil is celebrated at a convenient time between sunset on Holy Saturday and sunrise on Easter Morning; it is, in many ways, the most important observance of the year. Our Easter worship begins in the gathering darkness on Saturday evening with lighting of the New Fire, the Paschal Candle leading the faithful into the church like the ancient Israelites following God in the pillar of flame in the desert, and the singing of the Exultet.
Please join us at 7:30 pm. You won't soon forget the experience of attending the Easter Vigil!
| 
