[LA] Holy Saturday, in the traditional liturgy prior to the 1955 reforms, is a day of profound transition and expectation, whose complex and very rich rites were celebrated in the morning of Saturday, anticipating the joys of the Paschal Vigil which, in the first centuries, lasted the entire night. On this day, the Church gathers at the station of Saint John Lateran, the mother of all churches and the great baptistery of Rome, to witness the passage from darkness to light. The altar remains stripped until the beginning of the rites, which begin in the porch with the blessing of the new fire extracted from the stone, symbolizing Christ who bursts forth alive from the rocky sepulcher. All the liturgy of this day is structured to prepare the catechumens for Baptism and to renew in the faithful the grace of redemption: the lighting of the Paschal Candle, the majestic chant of the Exsultet,
the long listening to the twelve Old Testament prophecies, the blessing of the baptismal water and the Litanies of the Saints culminate in the first Easter Mass. It is a liturgy that still retains traces of mourning - without Introit, without Offertory chant, without the kiss of peace and without the Agnus Dei - but which already makes the bells ring in the Gloria and the triple Alleluia, announcing that death has been conquered and that the Lord's resurrection inaugurated the new creation.
🔥 1. Blessing of the new fire
The fire is an image of Jesus Christ, who said: I am the Light of the world. And on the holy night of Christmas He came into the world to illuminate those immersed in darkness; but the darkness did not comprehend the Light. For the blessing of the fire, the clergy and the people proceed to the doors of the church, where fire is extracted from stone, which is blessed by the Celebrant, who also blesses the five grains of incense that signify the five wounds of Our Lord, and will be fixed into the Paschal Candle.
🕯️ 2. Blessing of the Paschal Candle
After the blessing of the new fire, the acolyte or one of the ministers carries the Paschal Candle to the center, placing it before the Priest, who with a stylus engraves a cross between the points of the extremities intended for the inscription of the grains of incense.
🚶 3. Solemn procession and Paschal Proclamation
The Deacon enters the church, followed by the procession and carrying the lighted Candle. Three times he raises the Candle higher and sings Lumen Christi more loudly, to which all, kneeling, respond Deo gratias. The first time the Celebrant lights his candle; the second, the clergy; the third, the people and the whole church. The deacon sings the solemn Paschal Proclamation, the Exsultet.
📖 4. The Twelve Prophecies (Readings)
They are taken from Sacred Scripture and speak to us of the creation and governance of the world, of the power of the waters and of interior regeneration. These readings were chosen to serve as instruction for the catechumens who were to receive the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and the Eucharist. To us they recall the baptismal grace received and encourage us to preserve and renew it.
The twelve prophecies read in this most ancient liturgy form a monumental catechesis that recapitulates the entire history of salvation. The First Reading (Gn 1, 1-31 and 2, 1-2) narrates the Creation, showing God ordering chaos, prefiguring the new creation in Christ. The Second (Gn 5-8) relates the Flood and Noah's Ark, an image of Baptism that destroys sin and of the Church that saves. The Third (Gn 22, 1-19) brings the sacrifice of Isaac, the extreme obedience that prefigures the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. The Fourth (Ex 14, 24-31 and 15, 1) describes the crossing of the Red Sea, the liberation from slavery that points to our liberation from the waters of death. The Fifth (Is 54, 17 and 55, 1-11), Sixth (Br 3, 9-38), Seventh (Ez 37, 1-14) and Eighth (Is 4, 1-6) bring the voices of the prophets calling the people to living wisdom, to the New Covenant and to the promise of the Spirit that vivifies the dry bones and purifies Zion. The Ninth (Ex 12, 1-11) instructs on the Paschal Lamb, whose blood wards off the exterminating angel. The Tenth (Jn 3, 1-10) shows the repentance of Nineveh, exhorting us to penance. The Eleventh (Dt 31, 22-30) recalls the commandments given by Moses, and the Twelfth (Dn 3, 1-24) ends with the deliverance of the youths in the fiery furnace, proving that the fire of divine love protects and purifies the elect.
🙏 5. First part of the Litanies
After the prophecies, the Saints of the Triumphant Church are invoked to intercede for the catechumens who are about to be reborn in the waters of Baptism, uniting the Church on earth with that in heaven.
💧 6. Blessing of the baptismal water and Baptism
The priest goes to the baptismal font to bless the waters, dividing them in the form of a cross, breathing upon them and plunging the Paschal Candle into them three times, so that the power of the Holy Spirit may fecundate the water, making it a spiritual womb from which the new children of God will be born. Then the sacraments are administered to the catechumens.
🛐 7. Second part of the Litanies
While the litanies continue to be sung, the priests and ministers exchange the heavy purple penitential vestments for festive white garments, preparing the altar with flowers and lights for the beginning of the Mass of the Resurrection.
⛪ 8. Solemn Mass of the Vigil
In this Mass some particularities are noted: It has no Introit. The Offertory chant and the Agnus Dei are omitted. With all solemnity the Gloria is sung, during which all the bells ring festively, announcing the paschal joy to the whole world. The Prayer is a supplication for the neophytes to fulfill well their duties as Christians. The Epistle contains the admonition: If you have already risen with Christ, seek the things that are above. Three times, and each time in a higher tone, the Alleluia resounds, expression of paschal jubilation and joy.
📜 Epistle (Col 3, 1-4)
Brethren: If you have already risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your affection on the things of heaven, and not on those of the earth. For you are dead and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your Life, shall appear, then you also shall appear with Him in glory. Deo gratias.
📖 Gospel (Mt 28, 1-7)
Toward the end of the night of the Sabbath, at the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to visit the sepulcher. And behold, there was a great earthquake. For an Angel of the Lord descended from heaven and, approaching the sepulcher, rolled back the stone and sat upon it. His appearance was like lightning; and his vesture was white as snow. The guards, when they saw him, became terrified and as if dead. But the angel said to the women: Do not be afraid: I know that you seek Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen as he said. Come and see the place where the Lord was laid. Go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen; and that he will precede you into Galilee, where you will see him. Behold, I have told you. Laus tibi, Christe.
🕊️ The glorious expectation and the hidden life with Christ in God
The dawn of the resurrection breaks the silence of the sepulcher not with the force of earthly weapons, but with the brilliance of divine glory that terrifies the guards and consoles the hearts that love. The Gospel of Saint Matthew places us before the empty tomb and the angel who rolls away the stone, an irrefutable sign that death could not hold the Author of life. Saint Gregory the Great teaches that this divine initiative breaks the barriers of our despair; the empty tomb becomes the pulpit from which the greatest of truths is preached. However, on this Holy Saturday, even before the angelic announcement to the women, we contemplate the Virgin Mary. As Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori reminds us, upon departing from the sepulcher, Mary left her heart buried with Jesus, not in despair, but in the deepest and most resplendent faith. While the disciples doubted, the Co-Redemptrix offered the silent sacrifice of absolute certainty in the promise of Her Son. Her treasure was there, and where her treasure was, there her heart remained, confidently awaiting the dawn of the third day.
This reality of a heart guarded in Christ is precisely what Saint Paul demands of us in the Epistle to the Colossians: "seek the things that are above". The apostle reminds us that we were buried with Christ in the baptismal waters that are blessed today, and therefore our true life is hidden with Him in God. Saint Augustine, deepening this mystery, warns that the resurrection of Christ must elevate our soul to contemplate heavenly realities. If we are dead to sin and to disordered attachment to transitory things, our affection must reside where Christ reigns. The Christian life is not an escape from material reality, but a transfiguration of it, living earthly realities with our gaze fixed on eternity. The call to holiness is the reflection of the hidden life we already possess by grace, demanding from us a coherence that anticipates the promised glory.
Uniting the unshakable Marian faith before the sepulcher with the apostolic exhortation to seek the things above, we find the synthesis of this sacred vigil. Today's liturgy, although lacking the Introit antiphon, raises to the heavens its great opening cry through the triple Alleluia, sung in increasingly higher tones. This ascending chant is the mirror of our soul which, purified by the rigors of Lent and renewed by baptismal grace, rises from earth to heaven. If, following the example of the Most Blessed Virgin, we keep the Word of God in our heart, keeping our spiritual life united and hidden in the tabernacle where Christ lives and reigns, the divine promise will be fulfilled in us. When He, who is our true Life, manifests Himself in glory, the stone of our mortal condition will be rolled away forever, and we shall appear with Him in glory without end.