Holy Saturday homily: The Lord’s Decent in Hell

From An Ancient Homily on Holy Saturday: The Lord’s Decent Into Hell

Something strange is happening – there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.

He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: “My Lord be with you all.” Christ answered him: “And with your spirit.” He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”

I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated. For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden.

See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in my image. On my back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See my hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree.

I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.

Rise, 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. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.

Serving our brothers and sisters in New Haven

Today, Saturday, April 5, was our monthly cooking for our friends at the Amistad Catholic Worker (New Haven). Members of Communion & Liberation CT, the Order of Malta – Connecticut North East Area and Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem in CT prepared a nutritionally dense food. Our day together as friends gives meaning to our lives.

As Msgr Luigi Giussani wrote in his brief piece, “Meaning of Charitable Work,” par. 1:

Above all, our very nature requires us to be interested in others. When there is something beautiful within us we desire to communicate it to others. When we see others who are worse off than we are, we desire to help them with something of ours. This need is so original, so natural, that it is within us before we are conscious of it. We call it the law of existence. We do charitable work to satisfy this need.

I’ve named our group The Holloway Outreach 1 to honor the Shakespeare Lady, Margaret Holloway who died a few years ago and who lived with mental illness and was homeless.

Solemn Vespers for Laetare Sunday 2025

The CT North East Area of the Order of Malta and the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem met Sunday, March 30, for Solemn Vespers at St Monica’s Church (St Ambrose Parish), Northford. Archbishop Leonard Blair, emeritus archbishop of Hartford and a member of both Orders presided and preached.

The evening was attended by parishioners of St Monica’s which was hosted by Father Robert L. Turner, KHS, pastor. The sacred music was beautiful and the reception was a nicely done.

The Holloway Outreach

A personal initiative of feeding the poor and homeless in New Haven has got med thinking what to call the group. A name illustrates charism and demonstrates horizon. It references influence and the serious nature of a work. An ongoing charitable work like feeding people begs for a name. My giving a name to this work done monthly by a least three maybe four groups of people and institutions (to date) shows partnership for a worthy cause. The Holloway Outreach is a group of people of concerned with feeding the poor and homeless in our area. Our focus is on those who relate to Amistad Catholic Worker (New Haven, CT).

This charitable work is a group of friends, new and old sometimes just acquaintances, who collaborate with groups like Communion and Liberation, the Order of Malta and others who want to join in caring for, that is, feeding New Haven’s poor and homeless connected principally with Amistad Catholic Worker (New Haven). Our charitable work is a monthly adventure. It is funded by these friends of mine. If you want to join the work, let me know. We are inspired by one another’s desire to help others and to be a friend to those in need. The witness we give to one another focuses our attention on the meaningful reality of how people live.

We are inspired by the basic idea of wanting to do good. The human desire to make sure others have food. We are inspired by Matthew 25, Benedictine aspiration of hospitality, the work of Fr. Luigi Giussani and Communion and Liberation and Blessed Gerard and the Order of Malta and countless others like Blessed Andrey Sheptytsky, the Servant of God Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin.

Margaret Holloway was known as “The Shakespeare Lady,” died at 68 in 2020 as a result of COVID-19. She was a woman of great humanity, she had dignity, and lived as best she could. I think we all try to do the best we can to live well.

Holloway was a graduate of Bennington College and Yale’s School of Drama. She was frequently homeless and she lived with mental illness. I would see Margaret on Friday evenings most often on State Street. The Shakespeare Lady was a delight and I am sad she died.

Please join me in praying for the eternal peace of The Shakespeare Lady; I will have a Mass celebrated for her soon. Nevertheless, she’s been on my mind recently and I have wanted to remember her in a meaningful way and I think naming a group of friends who work for the dignity others for Margaret Holloway is fitting. The Holloway Outreach is here to serve the dignity of men and women.

Read more on Margaret Holloway, she’s really inspiring.

Blessed Bartolo Longo slated to be canonized

Great news!

​Yesterday, 24 February, during ​an audience g​iven to ​the Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin and Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, Substitute for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State, the Holy Fathe​r, Pope Francis authorized the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree​ that Blessed Bartolo Longo, Knight of the Holy Sepulchre​, will be canonized.

Blessed Bartolo is the first layman and member of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem to be canonized.

He was a lawyer, ex-Satanist, Dominican tertiary, and founder of the Shrine of Our Lady of Pompei.

Blessed Bartolo, pray for us.

913 years of the Order of Malta

Today, February 15, 1113 (yes, 912 years ago): Pope Paschal II issues “Pie Postulatio Voluntatis” (English: The Most Pious Request), recognizing the Order of Hospitallers. (Order of Knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem).

The entities generally considered to maintain historical continuity with the Knights are the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, based in Rome, the Bailiwick of Brandenburg of the Chivalric Order of Saint John of the hospital at Jerusalem, Johanniter Orde in Nederland, Order of Saint John in Sweden, and the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem.

May Our Lady, St Joseph, and Blessed Gerard , intercede for us.

Dom Paschal fell asleep in the Lord

Yesterday, January 15, 2025, R. Dom Paschal Scotti was called by the Lord of Life to Himself. Dom Paschal was born in 1962 and died during Vespers. Father Matthew anointed Dom Paschal and prayed the Apostolic Pardon. The funeral rites will be Tuesday, January 21 at the Abbey.

Fr. Paschal and I have been friends for 20+ years and have relied on his friendship and guidance  these many years. When visited the Abbey we always seem to catch up especially around the question, “so what are you reading?”

May Father Paschal’s memory be eternal.

May Our Lady, Queen of Peace and St. Gregory the Great intercede for Reverend Dom Paschal Scotti.

Order of the Holy Sepulchre in CT opens Holy Door in Norwich

Members of the Connecticut Section of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem met earlier today at the Cathedral of St. Patrick, Norwich, CT, to open the Holy Door for the Jubilee year very recently inaugurated by Pope Francis.

The Most Reverend Juan Miguel Betancourt celebrated and preached the Mass.

The witness of the EOHSJ brings alive the fact of the Lord’s Resurrection and one’s new life in the Lord. The jubilee year is meant to convey and to put into practice in the Christian life the reality of the Paschal Mystery: the Life, Death, Resurrection and Ascension of the Lord Jesus.

St Stephen –archdeacon

The Martyrdom of St. Stephen the Archdeacon

This day marks the martyrdom of St. Stephen, the Archdeacon and the first martyr (protomartyr). St. Luke testified about him in the Acts of the Apostles saying, “Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people” (Acts 6:8). The Jews envied him and seized him and brought him to the Council. They also set up false witnesses who said, “This man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law; for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us” (Acts 6:12-13). And all who sat in the Council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as the face of an angel (Acts 6:13).

Then the high priest said, “Are these things so?” St. Stephen answered with convincing words and told them the history from Abraham to Moses. The coming out of Abraham from Haran, the birth and the circumcision of Isaac, Jacob and his sons and their selling of Joseph, and how Joseph revealed himself to his brothers. St. Stephen continued to narrate to them all the events until the building of the temple. He concluded by saying, “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of Whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers; who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it” (Acts 7:51-53).

When they heard these things they were cut to their hearts, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”

Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran toward him with one accord; and they cast him out of the city and stoned him.

They stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus receive my Spirit.” Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he said this, he fell asleep (Acts 7:51-60). Devout men carried St. Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him.

May his prayers be with us. Amen.

(Coptic Synaxarion)