a day in the spring when some celebrate rebirth...
with "bunnies, chickies & duckies"...& lots of candy eggs...
or as a break from school/job/responsibilities...
a "family weekend" where you may go to church...
before the Easter egg hunt or going out for brunch...
if you are a "regular church-goer", it's a festive occasion...
a, "feel-good" moment...like, Christmas...
you go from the festive entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday...
to the empty tomb of Easter morning...
with perhaps a brief pause on Good Friday in the shadow of the cross...
but that's about it...
as Fr Toolbelt put it in his Easter sermon...
"...only 2% consider Easter the most important day in their religion..."
"...many regular Christians consider it very important...
but not THE most important..." so he was proud to be a "2%er"...
during Lent, he had said that if we didn't attend the Triduum services...
there was no point in coming on Easter Sunday morning...
because without the journey of the Triduum...
you just couldn't appreciate the true miracle of Easter...
or as the old plainsong hymn says...
"if you do not die with Him...
you cannot live with Him..."
those of us who have discovered the heritage, beauty & structure...
of a liturgical church, such as the Roman Catholic...
Greek Orthodox, Anglican, Episcopal or Lutheran...
have a connection to the lineage of the Christian church...
which allows us to be exposed to & thus become more aware of...
the spiritual journey that is Holy Week...
[the week from Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday]
the Triduum: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday...
climax with the first service of Easter...
at the conclusion of the Holy Saturday's Easter Vigil service...
[similar to the Vigil of Christmas on Christmas Eve...]
Easter Sunday morning being more or less...
a repetition of the first service of Easter...
Maundy Thursday celebrates the institution of the sacrament of the Eucharist...
[it was the first, "Last Supper"...]
the word "maundy" comes to us from the Latin, "mandatum"...
which means "new commandment", as in "mandate"...
Jesus washed the feet of his disciples...
and told them that they were to be servants...
He also gave them, "a new commandment...
to love your neighbors as yourself..."
during our Anglican Maundy Thursday service...
the priests wash the feet of any who come forward...
we celebrate the Eucharist together as Jesus & His disciples did...
then while the choir chants Psalm 22,
["They divide My garments among them...]
the main altar is stripped...
the host is removed from the tabernacle to a side altar...
the candles extinguished & removed...
as well as all the linens & all altar materials...
then the sanctuary lamp that burns at all times...
to show the presence of God in the Host...
is extinguished and the fire moved to the side altar...
we decorate the side altar as a garden for Christ's presence in the Host...
it is here that He will remain until we consume Him on Good Friday...
then He is not present until Easter...
we have a Garden Vigil from the end of the service Thursday night...
around 8:30 PM this year...
until 6 AM with people coming in to spend at least an hour...
"watching with Christ" in His hours of agony...
that led to His betrayal, cruel trial & vicious beatings...
this year, there were 22 who came throughout the night to "watch with Him"...
all crucifixes in the church have been shrouded since the beginning of Lent...
including the ones carried in the processions...
here waiting, behind the scenes, for the next service...
the basins of Holy water used to bless oneself upon entering & leaving the church...
were removed with the stripping of the main altar...
the banks of prayer candles are still out though...
lending their meager glow to a very dark & cold night of waiting...
by Good Friday, the candles on the side altar are out...
but the ambient light inside the church reveals the Risen Christ Crucifix...
though still shrouded, with His arms open with salvation to all...
foreshadowing the miracle to come...
though the main altar is still stripped...
the hymn board is blank...
reminding us that we cannot celebrate yet...
we must suffer with Him, who was innocent...
watch Him die apart from God because of our sins...
& descend into Hell in our place, conquering death for us...
before He can rise again in triumph...
so we venerate the cross, the acolytes & choir wearing only black tunics...
hearkening back to Ash Wednesday when we were in black & wore ashes...
the ashes of the previous year's Palm Sunday palms...
and end the service in a solemn silence, leaving the church quietly...
by Saturday evening, the Altar Guild members have worked magic...
the Main Altar is once again adorned and "waiting..."
the pulpit and Main Altar are a mass of lilies...
with all the candles, fine linens & other altar articles at the ready...
but the Tabernacle is still empty... the door is open...
and the sanctuary lamp is still not lit...
for Christ is not yet present...
a look at the side Altar reveals its return to its normal state...
but Christ in the host is not there either...
and will not be present until the first service of Easter...
when after the Vigil with its procession of New Fire...
the Exultet, the Blessing of the Easter Candle...
[this is a nice chanting of the Exultet]
then there are 5 scripture readings...
each of which is followed by a Psalm...
[we do them in Anglican Choral Chant...]
the Litany of the Saints...
then there are Baptisms, if any...
this year, we had 4; 2 on Saturday, 2 on Sunday...]
after the Baptisms, the lights go on...
[it's all been candle light up to then...]
revealing the Easter Altar with Christ again present...
the organ plays the introduction to "Jesus Christ is Risen Today"...
and the first service of Easter begins...
little bells ringing every time we say ,"Alleluia"...
[which has been absent from our service during the 40 Days of Lent...]
and now, we celebrate... made all the more meaningful...
for having walked the path of Lent...
taken on the painful burden of the Triduum...
with the sense of guilt & shame we accepted for His innocent death...
we can now accept His gift of our redemption...
and upon hearing the joyful acclamation:
"Alleluia, Christ is Risen !..."
we can respond with a glad & grateful heart...
"the Lord is Risen, Indeed ! Alleluia !"
2 comments:
This was truly beautiful, Catsinger! On a much smaller level we did all the same things at my little church in M-town. No choir but we had a beautiful cantor who did the Exultet and the Psalms after the readings proud! I LOVE the Easter Vigil and your pictures brought back lovely memories of my most recent Vigil and the lovely ones at the church pictured! Thank you!!
...I heard from SquarePeg that we had an "Easter total" of 310...
up a few from lastyear...
it was sure nice to have a FULL church at the 10 AM service for the first time in a while...
the nice thing about the Triduum is that the services are so meaningful that having a more pared down version does not affect the solemnity or significance at all...
may we all continue to be led in the right path...
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