Holy Saturday Rest and Preparations for the Easter Sunday Celebration

2016 lamb cake

Preparing for Easter family dinner is a favorite time -- the celebration and feast after the fast, the assurance that joy is the ultimate fulfillment of suffering.

I was up early this morning because I woke at 5:00 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep. The sky was just beginning to lighten when I came downstairs. Is that the way it was that first Easter morning as Mary and the other women came to the tomb? Quiet except for the birds chirping as they began their day?

Prayers, coffee, a peek outside to make sure the bee yard rests undisturbed across the field, a pat for the dog who isn't ready to get up just yet.

And now the preparations. The lamb cake mixed and baked and ready to be iced. The turkey breast in a bowl of cold water to defrost, anticipation of the grandchildren coming to color eggs and help decorate the lamb. And Jesus and Mary at the center of it all.


Tradition tells us Jesus visited Mary first of all after the Resurrection on Easter morning. What a reunion! She knew He would rise. She didn't go to the tomb. She knew it was empty. Oh, that we could have her confidence that all would be well in the midst of deep suffering. And then to release the prisoners in Limbo and lead them to everlasting life. Think of the joy at the gates of heaven as Jesus opened them and lead the saints in. That is what I am anticipating on this Holy Saturday morning.

Rejoice and be glad for this is the day that the Lord has made.