Holy Saturday
Sunday
Trust the down, and God will take care of the up. This leaves humanity in solidarity with the life cycle, and also with one another, with no need to create success stories for ourselves or to create failure stories for others.
—Richard Rohr
Monday
Some form of suffering or death—psychological, spiritual, relational, or physical—is the only way we will loosen our ties to our small and separate self. Only then does the larger self appear, which we could call the Risen Christ, the soul, or the true self.
—Richard Rohr
Tuesday
Over and over, Jesus lays this path before us. There is nothing to be renounced or resisted. Everything can be embraced, but the catch is to cling to nothing. You let it go.
—Cynthia Bourgeault
Wednesday
To return to love, to know perfect love, we surrender the will to power. It is this revelation that makes the scriptures on perfect love so prophetic and revolutionary for our times. We cannot know love if we remain unable to surrender our attachment to power.
—bell hooks
Thursday
Surrendering to the divine flow is not about giving in, capitulating, becoming a puppet, being naïve, being irresponsible, or stopping all planning and thinking. Surrender is about a peaceful inner opening that keeps the conduit of living water flowing to love.
—Richard Rohr
Friday
I believe that the cross is an image for our own time and every time: We are invited to gaze upon the image of the crucified Jesus to soften our hearts toward all suffering. With softened hearts, God leads us to an uncanny and newfound compassion and understanding.
—Richard Rohr
Week Sixteen Practice
Lingering In-Between
Spiritual teacher Christine Valters Paintner invites us to the patience necessary to receive the wisdom of Holy Saturday:
The Triduum, those three sacred days of unfolding liturgy, calls us to experience communion, loss, and the border spaces of unknowing. Holy Saturday is an invitation to make a conscious passage through the liminal realm of in-between….
For me, Holy Saturday evokes much about the human condition. It helps us examine the ways we are called to let go of things, people, identities, or securities. We wonder what will rise up out of the ashes of our lives….
Instead of rushing to resurrection, we must dwell in the space of unknowing. We must hold death and life in tension. One day, we can help others live through these scary and tense landscapes. The wisdom of the Triduum is that we must be fully present to both the starkness of Friday and the Saturday space between before we can really experience the Resurrection. We must know the terrible experience of loss wrought in our world. This pain can teach us more when the promise of new life dawns, and we will appreciate its light because we know the darkness….
Much of our lives are spent in Holy Saturday places but we spend so much energy resisting, longing for resolution and closure. Our practice this day is to really enter into the liminal zone, to be present to it with every cell of our being.
Make some time today to sit with all of the paradoxes of life. Bring yourself fully present so you can live in the discomfort of the experience. Rest in the space of waiting, and resist trying to come up with neat answers or resolutions. Imagine yourself on a wild border or standing on a threshold. See yourself knowing that you cannot fully embrace what is on the other side until you have let this place form in your heart. When you notice your attention drifting or your mind starting to analyze, return to the present moment. Allow yourself to feel whatever arises in this space. Honor the mystery.
Reference:
[1] Christine Valters Paintner, The Soul of a Pilgrim: Eight Practices for the Journey Within (Sorin Books, 2015), 122–123.
Image credit and inspiration: Unknown, Neom (detail), 2023, photo, Saudi Arabia, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. Like this cave explorer, loving surrender can sometimes mean walking bravely into a dark unknown.
