Sorrow & Anticipation: Holy Saturday

The Entombment of Christ by Beato Fra Angelico.

The silence of the tomb.  The piercing sorrow of loss.

Yet, the expectation and knowledge of triumph.  The fasts and disciplines of Lent are nearly at their end.

On this day, Christ descended to the Limbo of the Fathers: Old Catholic Encyclopedia: Limbo

Christ in Limbo by Fra Angelico

Holy Saturday is a peculiar mix -- grief of the events from the day prior, yet a real anticipation of the joy of Easter Sunday that permits liturgies of the Resurrection creep into this calendar day.

The document of Vatican II on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, in article 110, expressed the hope about this day: "...let the paschal fast be kept sacred. Let it be celebrated everywhere on Good Friday and, where possible, prolonged throughout Holy Saturday, so that the joys of the Sunday of the resurrection may be attained with uplifted and clear mind."  Vatican II, Sacrosanctum Concilium  That hope, however, not in canon law, is not a command, but an invitation.  We find it echoed in the instructions of the American Bishops:
"If possible, the fast on Good Friday is continued until the Easter Vigil (on Holy Saturday night) as the "paschal fast" to honor the suffering and death of the Lord Jesus, and to prepare ourselves to share more fully and to celebrate more readily his Resurrection."  USCCB on Fasting & Abstinence

Some history of the day, a day that saw those liturgies move earlier and earlier, until the Latin Church restored them to the evening in the 20th century: Old Catholic Encyclopedia: Holy Saturday

Some customs of the day: Fish Eaters: Holy Saturday

Now, we wait for the great triumph of the Resurrection.

Silence.  Anticipation.

Live well, so as to die well!