Today is Saturday.  This particular Saturday lies between two significant days in the faith tradition which has formed and shaped me:  Good Friday and Easter Sunday. 
 

I live in the between today.  The story of Good Friday is one of suffering, absence, loss and death.  The story of Easter Sunday is one of hope, presence, gift and new life.  Today represents a between time.   

The longer I live this day, this brief twenty four hour period, the more I am beginning to realize that life is often a season of Saturdays.  Life brings suffering our way.  We know something about absence and loss.  In some way we are all touched by death, however close it comes to give us its kiss. 

It is also true that hope grows and presence is given in family, friendship and community.  Gifts are offered, often in small gestures of goodness.  This time of year reveals countless opportunities to see new life spring up, sing out and burst forth. 

And yet, this day, this Saturday calls to mind the reality for so many who live a perpetual Saturday reality.  Many of us only catch glimpses of Sunday's blessings.  The hardship of Friday is too real, too close and too woven into the fragile stories of our lives.  They may be memories of yesterday or years ago but they persist.  We stumble our way through in the echo of Friday