Day 40 - The Day of Preparation

Holy Saturday is a day of preparation in most churches. The flower arrangers are usually the first to arrive, armed with lilies and greenery for a creative morning, then there are the altar frontals to change, the pascal candle to set in its stand, the service sheets to be prepared, the talk to write and many people to encourage....

With Good Friday over the last day of Lent is one of looking forward with hope and anticipation - its a day of waiting - and with all there is to do its that waiting that isn't always acknowledged. What is it we long from at the dawning of the new day? What do we expect after Lent ends? Is it with a new joy that we wait to greet the risen Lord? Do we wait content that we have done our best in the forty days or anxious that we may not have done enough?

Personally I am aware that my daily appointment with this blog page is almost over, and the challenge for me will be to make that daily appointment with myself instead, taking stock, mulling life over and seeing where God has been and is in it all regularly, and with gratitude.

So Holy Saturday can be a day of preparation of another kind as we ponder deep questions for ourselves about what we are going to do next....

I recently found this poem that I had written in 1988:

A silent sabbath
no joy, no pain,
sorrow and uncertainly
the death of yesterday
complete.
A task accomplished.
'It is finished'
the cry.
The temple curtain
ripped.
The darkened sky clear.

A silent sabbath.
No singing, no gossip,
hope and expectancy
the peace of tomorrow
to come.
A task unfinished
'death is defeated'
the promise.
The stone tomb entrance
opened.
The brightness shining through.

A silent sabbath.
Waiting for dawn to break.
Oils ready
for the risen Lord.

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