{"id":25669,"date":"2020-04-11T07:00:35","date_gmt":"2020-04-11T06:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/?p=25669"},"modified":"2020-04-10T22:09:07","modified_gmt":"2020-04-10T21:09:07","slug":"holy-week-holy-saturday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/holy-week-holy-saturday\/","title":{"rendered":"Holy Week &#8211; Holy Saturday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Holy Saturday:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Holy Saturday is a unique day in the Church\u2019s year. There is no Mass even for priests.\u00a0 The church is bare. There is no sanctuary lamp because Jesus isn&#8217;t in the tabernacle; He&#8217;s in the tomb. When you come into the empty church, you become aware, not of the Divine Presence but of the Divine Absence.\u00a0 The agony and apparent defeat of the cross is etched deeply in our minds. Jesus is buried in the grave.\u00a0 However, we are blessed even more than the Apostles, because we know that there is hope in the emptiness of this day. It was quite sad last week to hear of garden centres closing and plants and trees being allowed to die. I found myself reflecting that there is a garden in Calvary (Jn 19:41). \u201cNow, in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden.\u201d\u00a0 When we follow Jesus to the cross and remain with Him in His sufferings, we are able to see the garden. Those who flee the suffering of Calvary miss out on the garden. When you go into your garden soon, what will you see?\u00a0 Will you see buds and new leaves?\u00a0 Signs of new and vibrant life.\u00a0 This garden, the garden at Calvary, is the beginning of new hope and risen life. Also in this garden there will soon be the Gardener, the risen Jesus, and we will find him shining in resurrected glory.\u00a0 So, even when life is tough and lonely, stay with Jesus, as did Mary Magdalene and her companions. If you leave Him you will miss out on the joys to be found in Calvary&#8217;s garden.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Let us Pray:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Dear Jesus, like your disciples we are fearful,and so we ask you to give to us that blessing of peace, by which you calmed their anxious hearts,filled them with joy, and confirmed them in faith,you who live and reign,<\/p>\n<p>forever and ever.<\/p>\n<p><strong> Amen.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>A final Reflection will be posted tomorrow for Easter Sunday<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Holy Saturday: Holy Saturday is a unique day in the Church\u2019s year. There is no Mass even for priests.\u00a0 The church is bare. There is no sanctuary lamp because Jesus isn&#8217;t in<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/holy-week-holy-saturday\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2931,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2931"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25669"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25687,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25669\/revisions\/25687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/StNinians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}