Holy Saturday is a day of silence. The Church waits at the Lord's tomb, meditating on his Passion and Death and on his descent to the dead, by which he opened the gates of heaven to the just who had gone before him. There is no Mass, the altar remains bare, and Holy Communion is given only as Viaticum to the dying. Morning Prayer and the Office of Readings are the day's proper liturgy, and the fast of Good Friday is fittingly prolonged. The Easter Vigil is celebrated in the night and belongs already to Easter Sunday. It must begin after nightfall and end before daybreak; Saint Augustine called it the mother of all holy vigils. It has four parts. The first is the Lucernarium: a fire is blessed outside the church, the paschal candle is prepared and lit from it, and the deacon carries it into the dark church with the threefold acclamation "The Light of Christ," after which the Exsultet, the great Easter Proclamation, is sung. The second is the Liturgy of the Word, in which the Church reads the story of salvation — seven readings from the Old Testament, each with its psalm and prayer, then the Epistle and the Gospel. Where circumstances require, the number of Old Testament readings may be reduced, but at least three are to be read, and the account of the crossing of the Red Sea with its canticle may never be omitted. After the last Old Testament prayer the Gloria is intoned and the bells are rung; the Alleluia is then solemnly sung for the first time since before Lent. The third part is the Baptismal Liturgy. The Litany of the Saints is sung, the baptismal water is blessed, the elect are baptized and confirmed, and the whole assembly renews its baptismal promises and is sprinkled with the blessed water. The fourth part is the Liturgy of the Eucharist, at which the newly baptized come to the Lord's table for the first time. The paschal candle then stands in the sanctuary throughout the fifty days of Easter, and afterward at the font for baptisms and beside the coffin at funerals — the same light carried into every Christian life and out of it.

Liturgical season

Triduum

• Exodus 14:15—15:1
• Romans 6:3-11

liturgical_season