Saturday, April 19, 2025
Happy Saturday, friend! We are so excited to share with you what's coming up this week as we all prepare our hearts by praying with readings for Sunday, the day of rest with our Lord.
Live Liturgically // This Week’s Feast Days
Saturday, April 19 (today!) // Holy Saturday and the Easter Vigil
April 20 // Easter Sunday of The Resurrection of the Lord
April 21 // Monday in the Octave of Easter
April 22 // Tuesday in the Octave of Easter
April 23 //Wednesday in the Octave of Easter
April 24 // Thursday in the Octave of Easter
April 25 // Friday in the Octave of Easter
Letter from the Editor //
Dear Sister,
Today is Holy Saturday, a day when the tabernacles in Catholic churches all over the world stand open and empty. The altars are stripped bare, and we wait beside the tomb, which we know will be empty tomorrow on Easter Sunday, as empty as the tabernacles of today. But for now let us rest here and wait with all of creation, which anticipates tomorrow. Then tomorrow, as Mary of Magdala does in the Gospel, we go to the tomb “early in the morning” while it is “still dark” (John 20:1). Tomorrow we can follow her back to the Apostles and hear her worried report. Tomorrow we can run back with Peter and the other disciple and see the burial cloths and believe (see John 20:8).
But for today, let us hide with Jesus in the Tomb. We can tuck our hearts into His pierced side and ask Him for all that is sinful in us to die with Him. In doing this our “life is hidden with Christ in God,” and we know that tomorrow we will be “raised with Christ” and will have good reason to hope to one day “appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:1, 3-4). And when He rises, we can be bold like Saint Peter in bearing witness to the whole world (see Acts 10:39), that those of us who believe “shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord” (Psalm 118:17).
In Christ’s Love,
Susanna
Read the readings for the Resurrection of the Lord (Mass of Easter Day):
First Reading // Acts 10:34a, 37-43
Psalm // Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23
Second Reading // Colossians 3:1-4
Gospel // John 20:1-9
Prayer Practice // How will you rest and wait with hope today?
Susanna Spencer holds a master's in Theology from the Franciscan University of Steubenville and is the Devotions Editor for Blessed is She. She is a freelance writer and editor and a teacher-in-training living with her philosopher husband and four kids in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She loves reading theology, attending beautiful liturgies, cooking delicious food, and casually following baseball. She is the author of the Gospel Studies including Seek His Kingdom: A Meditation on Matthew , Listen to Him: A Meditation on Mark, and Abide in His Love: A Meditation on John. She was narrator for Found: Advent With the Good Shepherd and Rescued: Lent With the Lamb of God and a contributing author and editor for our children’s devotional prayer book, Rise Up. She was the Theological Editor of the Blessed Conversations Studies. Find out more about her here.
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