End of 40-day Lenten Season (Black Saturday)

End of 40-day Lenten Season (Black Saturday)


Christians will mark the close of the 40-day Lenten Season today, Black Saturday, with meditations on the Passion and Death of Christ, and His descent into hell before His Resurrection on Easter Sunday. No masses will be held in all Catholic churches this Saturday. Instead, the faithful are encouraged to venerate the image of Christ lying in the tomb as well as to reflect on the Seven Sorrows of Mary: The Prophecy of Simeon in the Temple, the Flight into Egypt, the Disappearance of the Child Jesus in the Temple, the Carrying of the Cross on Mount Calvary, the Crucifixion, the taking down from the Cross, and the Burial of Jesus. Also known as the Day of the Entombed Christ and the third day of the Easter Triduum, church sanctuaries will remain completely bare or draped in purple. Holy Communion is given only as a viaticum or to a dying person. Black Saturday lasts until dusk, after which the Easter Vigil, the third and final day of the Easter Triduum will be celebrated. At the Manila Cathedral, the Easter Vigil celebration will start at 8 Saturday night with Manila Archbishop Gaudencio B. Cardinal Rosales officiating the holy mass. The Easter Vigil is a time of joy and is considered the Mother of all Holy Vigils and the Great Service of Light. St. Cyril of Jerusalem said, "The Easter Vigil, although celebrated at night, is always as bright as day, symbolic of the Risen Christ." Meanwhile, Boac Bishop Rey Evangelista reminded the faithful "to spend Holy Week reflecting on the Passion of Christ, asking for Jesus' forgiveness, instead of relaxation and pleasure." " Week should not be commercialized. It is a time to devote one's whole being into the contemplation of the Passion, death, and Resurrection of Christ," the Catholic prelate said over Holychurch-run Radio Veritas. He also urged those experiencing pain, the sick, the homebound, and prisoners "to relate their suffering to Jesus" agony and to offer their sufferings as reparation to the various sins of society against God and humanity."

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