Preparation for Triduum

In the course of just 3 days, the most important, most symbolically rich, most dramatically beautiful liturgies of the entire year take place, with those three days having their own special season of the Liturgical Year: The Holy Triduum. The Triduum encompasses Maundy (Holy) Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday’s Easter Vigil. These three liturgies together act almost like one continuous Mass, with there being no dismissal such as “go forth, the Mass is ended” given the end of the Easter Vigil, and no greeting of “In the name of the Father…” given on Good Friday.

To prepare our hearts to enter the Triduum, Holy Week provides 3 liturgies: Palm Sunday, Chrism Mass, and Tenebrae. Palm Sunday needs no introduction, when we commemorate our Lord’s triumphant entry into The Holy City just 5 days before his death. Chrism Mass, celebrated this year on Monday of Holy Week at St. Simon and Jude Cathedral is when the majority of the priests of the Diocese gather together and renew the vows of their priesthood, and the Holy Oils (Oil of the Sick, Oil of the Cathechumens, Sacred Chrism) that are to be used for the next year are solemnly blessed by the Bishop.

On Wednesday of Holy Week at 8:00pm, OLMC will offer The Office of Tenebrae (Latin for darkness), a meditative scriptural prayer service where the church is plunged into shadows lit only by a handful of candles near the altar, where we join the lamentations of the Old Testament, reflecting on their parallels to the Passion of Christ, and concluding with a startling loud noise like the earthquake at His death. In many ways, by attending this ancient service, the faithful can take their own part in following Our Lord to Calvary and to the tomb. We can imagine ourselves in Gethsemane, in the house of Caiaphas, and in the tomb—stripped of everything he had. Our Lord’s Passion was underscored by his loneliness—but also by his constant connection to the Father. In the same way at Tenebrae, we can also participate in the last moments of Our Lord’s earthly life and focus on what is most important—the Lord’s work of redemption, his sacrifice, and the love of the Father.

I invite you to join in these deeply moving liturgies and experience the fullness of our faith throughout all time from Genesis to now, encapsulated and revealed across those most holy days of the Triduum, as well as in the striking preparatory liturgies of the first half of Holy Week. Take the time to deepen and enrich your own and your family’s faith! Bring the children to these formative liturgies that can open their minds to the cosmic drama of the History of Salvation and be an integral part of their core memories of their faith!