Easter Triduum and Maundy Thursday

Easter Triduum, Holy Triduum, or Paschal Triduum is a term used by some Christian churches, particularly the Roman Catholic Church, the Lutheran Church, and many Anglicans, to denote, collectively, the three days from the evening of Holy Thursday (or Maundy Thursday) to the evening of Easter Saturday. The Triduum begins with the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper of Holy Thursday and ends after the Easter Vigil on Saturday night/Sunday morning of Easter.

The term was used at the Second Vatican Council, when the revised liturgical calendar set the final part of Holy Week apart from Lent proper. Previously, these three days had already gained distinction from the rest of Holy Week with an observance of silence. These days are also known as "the still days." ^[1] During Mass, music is not to be played and all church bells are silenced. People are also encouraged to observe silence in their homes during this time.

Prior to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, weddings were prohibited throughout the entire season of Lent and during certain other periods as well.^[2] Today, such celebrations are prohibited only during the Triduum and a few other solemnities. Lutherans still discourage weddings during the entirety of Holy Week and Triduum.

The tradition of silence and lack of music is sometimes continued in Vatican II practice.

Contents [hide] 1 Maundy/Holy Thursday 2 Good Friday 3 Holy Saturday 4 Easter Vigil 5 Easter 6 References

[edit] Maundy/Holy Thursday

• An evening worship service or the Mass of the Lord's Supper is celebrated. During the Gloria, all church bells are rung; afterwards, they are silenced until the Gloria of the Easter Vigil.
• Some churches that celebrate this day as Maundy Thursday engage in the ritual of ceremonial washing of the feet. This is traditionally part of the celebration in Roman Catholic Churches.
• The Mass concludes with a procession of the Blessed Sacrament to the altar of repose.
• Eucharistic Adoration is common after the Holy Thursday Mass and continuing until midnight (occasionally re-commenced at dawn of Good Friday, continuing until the morning liturgy).
• Colours seen throughout the chapel or on vestments: White
• The sanctuary candle or paschal candle is extinguished or darkened, and not relit until the Easter Vigil.

[edit] Good Friday

• On Good Friday, Christians ritually recall the Passion and crucifixion of Jesus.
• In the Roman, Lutheran, and High Anglican rites, a cross or crucifix (not necessarily the one which stands on or near the altar on other days of the year) is ceremoniously unveiled.^[3] (In pre-Vatican II services, other crucifixes were to be unveiled, without ceremony, after the Good Friday service.)
• In Roman Catholicism, the clergy traditionally begin the service prostrate in front of the altar. Mass is not celebrated on Good Friday and the communion distributed at the Celebration of the Lord's Passion is consecrated on Holy Thursday.
• Also in Roman Catholicism, images of saints are either kept or veiled until the Easter Vigil. Votive lights before these images are not lit. Crucifixes that are movable are hidden, while those that are not movable are veiled until the Easter Vigil.
  • Only one cross or crucifix per church is unveiled throughout the entire Good Friday service, for the purpose of veneration by the congregation. Regardless of the size of the church or the congregation, it is not permissible to use two crucifixes for the said veneration. The faithful typically venerate the crucifix by kissing the feet of the corpus.
• Colors seen throughout the chapel or on vestments: Vary
  • No color, red, or black are used in different traditions.
  • Where colored hangings are removed for this day, liturgical color applies to vestments only.
• The priest wears a red vest to symbolise Jesus' blood.

[edit] Holy Saturday

• A commemoration of the day that Jesus lay in his tomb.
• In the Roman Catholic Church, daytime Masses are never offered.
• There are no colors seen or used throughout the chapel or on vestments.
• Known as Black Saturday in the Philippines.

[edit] Easter Vigil

• Held after nightfall of Holy Saturday, or before dawn on Easter Sunday, in anticipation of the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus.
• The ceremony of darkness and light is held in silence at the beginning of the Mass.
  • The paschal candle, representing Jesus's resurrection as the "return of light onto the world," is lit.
  • The solemn procession to the altar with the Paschal candle is formed.
  • Once everyone has processed in, the Exsultet is intoned.
• After the Exsultet, everyone is seated and listens to the 7 readings and 7 psalms, followed by the Epistle. These readings account salvation history, beginning with Creation.
• In pre- and post-Vatican II Roman Catholic practice, during the Gloria at the Mass, the organ and church bells are used in the liturgy for the first time in two days.^[4]
  • If the lights of the Church have been previously left off, they are turned on as the Gloria begins
• A Solemn Alleluia is sung before the Gospel is read
• The Paschal candle is used to bless the baptismal font to be used by the Elect.
• The celebrant uses the term "Alleluia" for the first time since the beginning of Lent.
• People desiring to full initiation in the Church who have completed their training are formally initiated as members of the faith the Church through the Sacraments of Initiation (Baptism, confirmation, and the Holy Eucharist).
• In current Vatican II practice, the use of lighting to signify the emergence from sin and the resurrection of Jesus vary, from the use of candles held by parishioners as well as candelabras lit throughout the church.
• Statues of Jesus, which have been veiled during Passion (usually throughout Lent), are unveiled.
• Colors seen throughout the chapel or on vestments: White, often together with gold, with yellow and white flowers often in use in many parishes.

[edit] Easter

• The date of Easter varies from year to year, but is always on a Sunday between the dates of March 22 and April 25. It occurs on the first Sunday after the first full moon of Spring.
• The Easter octave allows for no other feasts to be celebrated or commemorated during it (possible exception is the Greater Litanies if Easter falls later in the year). If Easter is so early that March 25 falls in Easter week, the feast of the Annunciation is postponed to the following week.
• The Ascension is the fortieth day of Easter; which is always a Thursday. Pentecost (or Whitsun) is the fiftieth day.
• Easter Masses are held throughout the day and are similar in content to the Easter Vigil Mass. However, baptisms are not performed, and the ritual of the Paschal candle is not performed (the candle is placed next to the ambo, or podium, throughout the Easter celebration).
• The Easter season extends from the Easter Vigil through Pentecost Sunday on the Catholic and Protestant calendars, normally the fiftieth day after Easter. On the calendar used by traditional Catholics, Eastertide lasts until the end of the Octave of Pentecost, at None of the following Ember Saturday.
• The colors seen throughout the chapel or on vestments during the fifty-day Easter period are white or gold

• Triduum

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  (Three days).

  A time frequently chosen for prayer or for other devout practices, whether by individuals in private, or in public by congregations or special organizations in parishes, in religious communities, seminaries, or schools. The form of prayer or devotion depends upon the occasion or purpose of the triduum. The three days usually precede some feast, and the feast then determines the choice of the pious execises. In liturgical usage there is a triduum of ceremonies and prayers in Holy Week; the Rogation Days; the three days of litanies prior to the feast of the Ascension, and the feasts of Easter and Pentecost, with the first two days of their octaves. There is ecclesiastical authorization for a triduum in honour of the Holy Trinity, of the Holy Eucharist, and of St. Joseph. The first of these, instituted Pius IX, 8 August, 1847, may be made at any time of the year in public or private, and partial or plenary indulgences are attached to it on the usual conditions. The second, also indulgenced, was instituted by Pius X, 10 April, 1907, for the purpose of promoting frequent Communion. The time for it is Friday, Saturday, and Sunday after the feast of Corpus Christi, though the bishops may designate any other more convenient time of the year. Each day there should be a sermon on the Holy Eucharist and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, and on Sunday, there should be besides a sermon on the Gospel and on the Holy Eucharist, at the parochial Mass. This triduum is specially for cathedral churches, though the bishops may also require other churches to have it. The prayer, "O Most Sweet Jesus" (Dulcissime Jesu), as given in the "Raccolta", is appointed for reading during Benediction. The triduum in honor of St. Joseph, prior to his feast on 19 March, was recommended by Leo XIII in the Encyclical "Quamprimum pluries" (15 August, 1889), with the prayer, "To thee, O blessed Joseph." The most frequent occasions for a triduum are: when children are in preparation for their first Communion; among pupils in school at the beginning of the scholastic year; among seminarians at the same time; and in religious communities for those who are to renew their vows yearly or every six months. The exercises of these triduums are mainly meditations or instructions disposing the hearers to a devout reception of the sacraments of penance and of Holy Communion and to betterment of life.

  Sources

  ST. JOHN, The Raccolta (6th ed., London, 1912); BERINGER, Die Ablasse, ihr Wesen u. Gebrauch (Paderborn, 1900, tr., Fr., Paris, 1905).

• Maundy Thursday

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  The feast of Maundy (or Holy) Thursday solemnly commemorates the institution of the Eucharist and is the oldest of the observances peculiar to Holy Week. In Rome various accessory ceremonies were early added to this commemoration, namely the consecration of the holy oils and the reconciliation of penitents, ceremonies obviously practical in character and readily explained by the proximity of the Christian Easter and the necessity of preparing for it. Holy Thursday could not but be a day of liturgical reunion since, in the cycle of movable feasts, it brings around the anniversary of the institution of the Liturgy. On that day, whilst the preparation of candidates was being completed, the Church celebrated the Missa chrismalis of which we have already described the rite (see HOLY OILS) and, moreover, proceeded to the reconciliation of penitents. In Rome everything was carried on in daylight, whereas in Africa on Holy Thursday the Eucharist was celebrated after the evening meal, in view of more exact conformity with the circumstances of the Last Supper. Canon 24 of the Council of Carthage dispenses the faithful from fast before communion on Holy Thursday, because, on that day, it was customary take a bath, and the bath and fast were considered incompatible. St. Augustine, too, speaks of this custom (Ep. cxviii ad Januarium, n. 7); he even says that as certain persons did not fast on that day, the oblation was made twice, morning and evening, and in this way those who did not observe the fast could partake of the Eucharist after the morning meal, whilst those who fasted awaited the evening repast.

  Holy Thursday was taken up with a succession of ceremonies of a joyful character. the baptism of neophytes, the reconciliation of penitents, the consecration of the holy oils, the washing of the feet, and commemoration of the Blessed Eucharist, and because of all these ceremonies, the day received different names, all of which allude to one or another of solemnities.

  Redditio symboli was so called because, before being admitted to baptism, the catechumens had to recite the creed from memory, either in the presence of the bishop or his representative.

  Pedilavium (washing of the feet), traces of which are found in the most ancient rites, occurred in many churches on Holy Thursday, the capitilavium (washing of the head) having taken place on Palm Sunday (St. Augustine, "Ep. cxviii, cxix", e. 18).

  Exomologesis, and reconciliation of penitents: letter of Pope Innocent I to Decentius of Gubbio, testifies that in Rome it was customary "quinta feria Pascha" to absolve penitents from their mortal and venial sins, except in cases of serious illness which kept them away from church (Labbe, "Concilia" II, col. 1247; St. Ambrose, "Ep. xxxiii ad Marcellinam"). The penitents heard the Missa pro reconciliatione paenitentium, and absolution was given them before the offertory. The "Sacramentary" of Pope Gelasius contains an Ordo agentibus publicam poenitentiam (Muratori, "Liturgia romana vetus", I, 548-551).

  Olei exorcizati confectio. In the fifth century the custom was established of consecrating on Holy Thursday all the chrism necessary for the anointing of the newly baptized. The "Comes Hieronymi", the Gregorian and Gelasian sacramentaries and the "Missa ambrosiana" of Pamelius, all agree upon the confection of the chrism on that day, as does also the "Ordo romanus I".

  Anniversarium Eucharistiae. The nocturnal celebration and the double oblation early became the object of increasing disfavour, until in 692 the Council of Trullo promulgated a formal prohibition. The Eucharistic celebration then took place in the morning, and the bishop reserved a part of the sacred species for the communion of the morrow, Missa praesanctificatorum (Muratori, "Liturg. rom. Vetus", II, 993).

  Other observances. On Holy Thursday the ringing of bells ceases, the altar is stripped after vespers, and the night office is celebrated under the name of Tenebræ.
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