Holy Saturday is a day for quiet reflective time. Historically, a man by the name of Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilot, was crucified, died and was buried in a tomb. It is hard to imagine the cruelty, the suffering, the sorrow that occurred on this day as Jesus walked to his fate. I have the good fortune to live near a retreat center called Cloisters on the Platte in Gretna, Nebraska in the United States. A beautiful place that women and men can attend for a directed retreat to spend quiet time with God. On the retreat grounds the stations of the cross occur along a 2,500 foot walking tour with audio meditations, comprised of 14 bronze sculptures stations of the cross that tell the story of Jesus’s condemnation by Pontius Pilot, his walk witnessed by his mother Mary, Veronica, and women of Jerusalem, the nailing of his hands and feet on the cross, his death, and Jesus taken down from the cross and laid in the tomb.  

Virtual Walking the Stations of the Cross at the Cloisters on the Platte

Today’s Holy Saturday experience brings me back to my walk during my retreat as well as a recent walk during Lent. The walk allows you to enter this time with some sense of the time, the setting, the cruelty of mankind, and the immense gratitude for how Jesus suffered for us, so we could have our sins forgiven, and the enormous gift received from our God for eternal life. 

I pray this Holy Saturday to receive the gift gratefully. To continue to follow Jesus’s ways, to remain humble, repent, and follow the commandments although imperfectly. I celebrate these gifts and hope in return to be transformative to others in offering my love.