Holy Saturday is such a powerful day. It’s a day of quiet. A day of transition. Today we stand between the sorrow of Good Friday and the joy of Easter. It is a peaceful, hopeful, expectant day.

For the first time in his papacy, Pope Francis led the Way of the Cross from St. Peter’s Square rather than Rome’s Colosseum, where it has been held annually for more than five decades.

Standing at the foot of the cross on Good Friday with Mary, we look upon her crucified Son, asking God, “Why did he have to die? Couldn’t there be some other way?” Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles said in a homily April 10.

Somehow in this time of anxiety and indefinite quarantine, when so much seems uncertain, we seem to be primed for those moments of happy discovery—those moments when we see how much we are loved by God and by others.

Unable to invite Rome’s priests to mark Holy Thursday in St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis thanked all priests for their service and called those who died ministering to the sick and health care workers part of the community of “saints next door.”