Commontide
Liturgical Color: Black
Palm Sunday
Almighty and everlasting God, in your tender love for us you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon himself our nature, and to suffer death upon the Cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and come to share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Holy Week
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. For our sins he was lifted high upon the Cross, that he might draw the whole world to himself; and by his suffering and death he became the author of eternal salvation for all who put their trust in him.
Most liturgical texts are from the Book of Common Prayer (2019) of the Anglican Church in North America.
The New Coverdale Psalter, © 2019 by the Anglican Church in North America. Used by permission.
Red Letter Day
Holy Saturday is the day Christ's body lay in the tomb, between the crucifixion and the resurrection. In the West it is kept without the Eucharist: the altar bare, the church silent, the fast unbroken until the vigil of the night. In the East the day carries a sung funeral for Christ and a liturgy that is already turning toward Easter. It is the oldest kind of observance the Church has, and no one instituted it.
Holy Saturday is the day of Christ's rest in the tomb — the only day in the Christian year when the Church contemplates the reality that God the Son lay dead and buried. It is the third day of the Paschal Triduum, spanning from the evening of Good Friday to the lighting of the Paschal Candle at the Easter Vigil. Like Good Friday, no Eucharist is celebrated on Holy Saturday itself; the altar remains bare. The theological significance of this day was developed early. The Apostles' Creed's affirmation that Christ 'descended to the dead' (descendit ad inferos) finds its liturgical home here. The tradition of Christ's descent — variously called the Harrowing of Hell, the Descensus, or the Anastasis — is rooted in 1 Peter 3:18-20 and 4:6, amplified by early patristic reflection. An ancient homily attributed to the second century (sometimes called the 'Ancient Homily on Holy Saturday,' preserved in the Liturgy of the Hours) dramatically narrates Christ descending to the realm of death to liberate Adam and Eve: 'Arise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven.' The BCP 2019 provides two collects for this day: one focusing on the entombment and the hope of the third day, the other on the descent to the dead.
Holy Saturday is characterized by silence, waiting, and theological paradox. The Church holds a kind of cosmic Sabbath — God resting from the work of redemption as God once rested from the work of creation. The Byzantine tradition makes the most of this paradox, with icons of the Anastasis (Resurrection) that depict Christ standing on the shattered gates of Hades, pulling Adam and Eve from their tombs, even as his own body lies in the grave above. This icon is, notably, the Eastern Church's primary Resurrection image — not the empty tomb, but the harrowing of the dead. In the West, the day is marked by quiet preparation. The Easter Vigil, which begins after nightfall, is technically the first liturgy of Easter Day and belongs to the Resurrection rather than to Holy Saturday. The BCP 2019 makes this distinction explicit: the Vigil is listed under Easter rather than Holy Saturday. The hours before the Vigil are a genuine liturgical void — the Church waits, as the disciples waited, not yet knowing what the morning will bring. The ancient baptismal connection is strong: Holy Saturday was historically the final day of preparation for catechumens who would be baptized at the Vigil, their passage through water mirroring Christ's passage through death.