Holy Saturday Meditation...

The Sabbath Which Is About to End [Holy Saturday, April 2, 1994]

"Spend this day with me, my beloved children, and open your hearts to hope. My Son Jesus rests today in his new sepulchre.
It is the only day when I remained without my Son.
It is the first day of my new and universal motherhood.
It is the day which precedes the greatest feast: Easter!

On this day we commemorate the departure of the Chosen People from the long slavery spent in Egypt. It is the passage of the Angel of the Lord, who strikes the first-born of the Egyptians and spares the houses of the Hebrews, marked with the blood of the lamb.
The true Lamb of God has now been immolated on the Cross. His blood has descended upon the houses of all and has redeemed the entire human race. The Lamb immolated for you now lies in His new sepulchre.
The Mother keeps watch in sorrow and in tears, in faith and in prayer, in love and in hope. This day has been dedicated by the Church to a special veneration of your heavenly Mother, because on it the tomb is transformed into a crib, in which humanity is placed, redeemed and now born to a new divine life.
My Immaculate Heart is opened to receive here each of my new children. The tears unfold into a smile, the sorrow into joy, the hope into the greatest certitude.
Within a few hours my Son Jesus will come forth triumphant from the sepulchre, Victor over sin and death.
This is the Sabbath which prepares the radiant day of the resurrection.
This is the sorrow which leads to joy.
This is the death which opens upon life
This is the Sabbath which is about to end.

Humanity, corrupted by sin, slave to Satan, wounded by evil, oppressed under the yoke of a great slavery, still lies in its sepulchre. The hour is drawing close when Jesus, who has risen and ascended to the right hand of the Father, will return to you on the clouds of heaven, in the splendor of His divine glory, thus bringing to perfect fulfillment the work of His redemption."

Our Holy Mother also communicated this message on Good Friday, April 1, 1994--

"The bright cross, which will extend from east to west and will appear in the heavens, will be the sign of the return of Jesus in glory.
The bright cross, will be transformed from a gibbet to a throne of His triumph, because Jesus will come upon it to establish His glorious reign in the world.
The bright cross, which will appear in the heavens at the end of the purification and the great tribulation, will be the door which opens the long and dark sepulchre in which humanity is lying, to lead it into the new reign of life which Jesus will bring with His glorious return."

Mary states, "the hour is drawing close...." Let us lift our eyes to heaven and pray for that bright cross "that will extend from east to west and will appear in the heavens...the sign of the return of Jesus in glory.
--Both messages are from--To The Priests- Our Lady's Beloved Sons, MMP (2009); Interior locutions to Fr. Stefano Gobbi, MMP [1973-97]. #516, pp. 808-09; #515, p.807

Felix culpa...

"In Lent, the liturgy recalls the effect of Adam's sin in the life of man. Adam did not want to be a good son of God; he rebelled. But we also hear the echoing chant of that felix culpa: o happy fault, which the whole Church will joyfully intone at the Easter vigil.
Let us be happy. I am happy. I shouldn't be, looking at my life, making that personal examination of conscience which Lent requires. But I do feel happy, for I see that the Lord is seeking me again, that the Lord is still my Father. I know that you and I will surely see, with the light and help of grace, what things must be burned and we will burn them; what things must be uprooted and we will uproot them; what things have to be given up and we will give them up.
It's not easy. But we have a clear guide, which we should not and cannot do without. We are loved by God, and we will let the Holy Spirit act in us and purify us, so that we can embrace the Son of God on the cross, and rise with him, because the joy of the resurrection is rooted in the cross.
Mary, our Mother, "help of Christians, refuge of sinners": intercede with your Son to send us the Holy Spirit, to awaken in our hearts the decision to go ahead confidently, making us hear deep in our soul the call which filled with peace the martyrdom of one of the first Christians: "Come, return to your Father," he is awaiting you" [St. Ignatius of Antioch, Epistola ad Romanos, 7, 2 (pg. 5, 694):Veni ad Patrem.
--St. Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, Christ is Passing By, Homilies (1982), Four Courts Press Limited, Dublin, Ireland; The Conversion of the Children of God, [Homily given the first Sunday of Lent, March 2, 1952] pg. 94-95.