SATURDAY, April 3 Holy Saturday

Matthew 27:57-66. So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away.

A young missionary in India lay dying in extreme pain, the result of an accident. He seemed to be past speech, but his lips moved. One of his friends, kneeling beside him, caught the words, "And we indeed justly."

The words of the dying thief! Could we take them on our lips, if we were called to such suffering today?

This is our last day of preparation for Easter. It is not a time for strong emotion, but for quiet self-examination. "Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there?"

He lies there very quietly on the rocky shelf. He makes no passionate appeal to us. Let us kneel there beside him, and think what it all means. He had to die that we might live. If we are to live through him, we must die also to self and to sin.

"And we indeed justly."

"Were you there when they laid him in the tomb? Were you there?" (1938)

The afternoon of this day is a special time for baptizing souls won during Lent. –Editor's Note

PRAY for the Diocese of Calabar (Province of The Niger Delta, Nigeria)

Ps 31:1-4, 15-16; Job 14:1-14 or Lamentations 3:1-9, 19-24; 1 Peter 4:1-8; Matthew 27:57-66 or John 19:38-42

View the daily Lectionary Readings at Satucket.com.
Or view the Bible passages at Biblegateway.com.

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