Image: Vigil © Jan Richardson
Reading from the Gospels, Holy Saturday:
Matthew 27.57-66 or John 19.38-42
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there,
sitting opposite the tomb.
—Matthew 27.61
And now? we asked yesterday. What do we do now?
We wait. We watch. We keep vigil. We remind ourselves to breathe.
And if, still reeling from the rending, we hardly know what we keep vigil for, it is no matter.
And if, in our aching, we hardly know how to hope, it is no cause for despair.
On this day, all we need to know is this:
We do not wait alone.
The Art of Enduring
For Holy Saturday
This blessing
can wait as long
as you can.
Longer.
This blessing
began eons ago
and knows the art
of enduring.
This blessing
has passed
through ages
and generations,
witnessed the turning
of centuries,
weathered the spiraling
of history.
This blessing
is in no rush.
This blessing
will plant itself
by your door.
This blessing
will keep vigil
and chant prayers.
This blessing
will bring a friend
for company.
This blessing
will pack a lunch
and a thermos
of coffee.
This blessing
will bide
its sweet time
until it hears
the beginning
of breath,
the stirring
of limbs,
the stretching,
reaching,
rising
of what had lain
dead within you
and is ready
to return.
—Jan Richardson
from Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons
For a previous reflection for Holy Saturday, click the image or title below.
Holy Saturday: In the Breath, Another Breathing
Using Jan’s artwork…
To use the image “Vigil,” please visit this page at janrichardsonimages.com. (This is also available as an art print. After clicking over to the image’s page on the Jan Richardson Images site, just scroll down to the “Purchase as an Art Print” section.) Your use of janrichardsonimages.com helps make the ministry of The Painted Prayerbook possible. Thank you!
Using Jan’s words…
For worship services and related settings, you are welcome to use Jan’s blessings or other words from this blog without requesting permission. All that’s needed is to acknowledge the source. Please include this info in a credit line: “©Jan Richardson. janrichardson.com.” For other uses, visit Copyright Permissions.
April 15, 2017 at 12:31 AM |
Jan,
Thank you for this. I resonate with the words “the stretching, reaching, rising of what had lain dead within you.” I know that feeling, and I wait with hope for the blessing that awaits when it lifts. Thank you, blessed one, for your gift of words, over and over.
Gail
March 28, 2018 at 4:32 PM |
Jan, Thank you for your Holy Saturday reflections. A word of God which came to me on a Holy Saturday long ago was ” Oh whirling dervish wound with words, spin into stillness. Sit in empty tomb. Your mummied self will be unwrapped. Stones roll away of their own accord, and through no effort of your own, you too shall rise! And so it was!