HOLY SATURDAY - 2024

 DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

My Soul's Beloved,

The Liturgy for Easter Vigil is thrilling. We walk in time through salvation history beginning with Creation when Father, Son, and Spirit laid the foundation of the world. We hear about the fall of our first parents and how evil, sin, destruction, and death entered the world. We hear about God choosing Abraham, one man, and from his descendants, He would make a great nation. 

God made His first Covenant with Noah after the great flood.  He made subsequent Covenants with Himself Abraham, Moses, David, and His chosen people. However, You O Lord are the fulfillment of all the covenants. You are the new Adam, the new Moses, the new David, and in You, the old stale wine is replaced with the new wine. This New Wine is for all humanity who desire with all their hearts to discern and do Your will in all things.

We are grateful to the Church for rekindling in us a renewed fervor and joy as we recognize who are and to whom we belong. We have been purchased, redeemed, and restored to the place God intended us to have before the fall. 

ROMANS 6:3-11 ©

Christ, having been raised from the dead, will never die again

When we were baptised in Christ Jesus we were baptised in his death; in other words, when we were baptised we went into the tomb with him and joined him in death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father’s glory, we too might live a new life.
If in union with Christ we have imitated his death, we shall also imitate him in his resurrection. We must realise that our former selves have been crucified with him to destroy this sinful body and to free us from the slavery of sin. When a Christian dies, of course, he has finished with sin.
But we believe that having died with Christ we shall return to life with him: Christ, as we know, having been raised from the dead will never die again. Death has no power over him any more. When he died, he died, once for all, to sin, so his life now is life with God; and in that way, you too must consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive for God in Christ Jesus.

PSALM 117(118):1-2,16-17,22-23 ©

Give thanks to the Lord for he is good,

for his love has no end.
Let the sons of Israel say:
‘His love has no end.’

The Lord’s right hand has triumphed;

his right hand raised me up.
I shall not die, I shall live
and recount his deeds.

The stone which the builders rejected

has become the corner stone.
This is the work of the Lord,
a marvel in our eyes.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

MARK 16:1-8 ©

Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified, has risen

When the sabbath was over, Mary of Magdala, Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices with which to go and anoint him. And very early in the morning on the first day of the week they went to the tomb, just as the sun was rising.

They had been saying to one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?’ But when they looked they could see that the stone – which was very big – had already been rolled back. On entering the tomb they saw a young man in a white robe seated on the right-hand side, and they were struck with amazement. But he said to them, ‘There is no need for alarm. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified: he has risen, he is not here. See, here is the place where they laid him. But you must go and tell his disciples and Peter, “He is going before you to Galilee; it is there you will see him, just as he told you.”’