The Beginning of the Sacred Triduum

MAUNDY THURSDAY

THE NIGHT OFFICE

The Office of Matins and Lauds, for the last three days of Holy Week, differs, in many things, from that of the rest of the year. All is sad and mournful, as though it were a funeral-service: nothing could more emphatically express the grief that now weighs down the heart of our holy mother the Church. Throughout all the Office of Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, she forbids herself the use of those formulas of joy and hope, wherewith, on all other days, she begins her praise of God. The Domine, labia mea aperies (0 Lord, thou shalt open my lips) : the Deus, in adjutorium meum intende (Incline unto mine aid, 0 God): the Gloria Patri, at the end of the Psalms, Canticles, and Responsories:—all are taken away. So likewise are those soul-stirring additions, which have been gradually made, in the different ages; and nothing is left, but what is essential to the form of the Divine Office:— Psalms, Lessons, and Chants expressive of grief. Each Canonical Hour ends with the Psalm Miserere, and with a commemoration of the Death and Cross of our Redeemer.

The name of Tenebrae has been given to the Matins and Lauds of the last three days of Holy Week, because this Office used formerly to be celebrated during the night: and even when the hour was anticipated, the name of Tenebrae was kept up for another reason; namely, that it began with daylight, but ended after the sun had set. There is an impressive ceremony, peculiar to this Office, which tends to perpetuate its name. There is placed in the Sanctuary, near the Altar, a large triangular candlestick, holding fifteen candles. These candles, and the six that are on the Altar, are of yellow wax, as in the Office for the Dead. At the end of each Psalm or Canticle, one of these fifteen candles is extinguished ; but the one, which is placed at the top of the Triangle, is left lighted. During the singing of the Benedictus, at Lauds, the Six candles on the Altar are also put out. Then the Master of Ceremonies takes the lighted candle from the Triangle, and holds it upon the Altar, whilst the Choir repeats the antiphon after the Canticle : after which, he hides it behind the Altar during the recitation of the Miserere and the Prayer, which follows the Psalm. As soon as this Prayer is finished, a noise is made with the seats of the stalls in the choir, which continues until the candle is brought from behind the Altar, and shows, by its light, that the Office of Tenebrae is over.

Let us now study the meaning of these ceremonies. The glory of the Son of God was obscured, and, so to say, eclipsed, by the ignominies he endured during his Passion. He, the Light of the world, powerful in word and work, who, but a few days ago, was proclaimed King by the citizens of Jerusalem, is now robbed of all his honours ; he is, says Isaias, the Man of sorrows,—a leper , he is, says the Royal Prophet, a worm of the earth, and no man; he is, as he says of himself, an object of shame even to his own Disciples, for they are all scandalised in him, and abandon him, yea, even Peter protests that he never knew him. This desertion on the part of his Apostles and Disciples is expressed by the candles being extinguished, one after the other, not only on the Triangle, but on the Altar itself. But Jesus, our Light, though despised and hidden, is not extinguished. This is signified by the Candle which is momentarily placed on the Altar; it figures our Redeemer suffering and dying on Calvary. In order to express his burial, the candle is hid behind the Altar; its light disappears. A confused noise is heard in the House of God, where all is now darkness. This noise and gloom express the convulsions of nature, when Jesus expired on the Cross;—the earth shook, the rocks were split, the dead came forth from their tombs. But the candle suddenly reappear; its light is as fair as ever; the noise is hushed, and homage is paid to the Conqueror of Death.

From The Liturgucal Year
by Dom Prosper Guéranger

Read the Divine Office for Holy Thursday here. 

On this day...

HYMN

In Parasceve

Judas Receiving Payment for his Betrayal, Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337)

On this day, Judas leaves his Master, and takes the devil for his guide. The love of money blinds him. He fell from the light, he became darkened ; for how could he be said to see, who sold the Light for thirty pieces of silver? But to us he has risen, he that suffered for the world : let us thus cry out unto him: Glory be to thee, that didst endure thy Passion, and hadst compassion, for mankind!

What was it, O Judas! that led thee to betray Jesus? Had he cut thee off from the number of his Apostles?  Had he deprived thee of the gift of healing the sick? When he supped with his Apostles, did he drive thee from table? When he washed their feet, did he pass thee by? And yet, thou wast unmindful of these great favours ! Thy ungrateful plot has branded thee with infamy: but his incomparable patience and great mercy are worthy of praise.

Say, O ye unjust ones!  What is it ye have heard from our Saviour?  Did he not expound unto you the Law and the Prophets? Why, therefore, have ye plotted how to redeem our souls?  They that had enjoyed thy unceasing gifts cried out: Let him be crucified! These murderers of such as were innocent, sought thee, that they might treat thee, their benefactor, as an evil-doer. But thou, O Christ! didst bear their wickedness with silence, for thou being the lover of mankind, didst desire to suffer for and save us.

We are prevented from speaking by the multitude of our sins: do thou, O Virgin Mother of God!  Pray for us to Him that was born of thee, for the Mother's prayer avails much with the mercy of our Lord. Despise not, O most pure Virgin! the prayers of sinners, for he that refused not even to suffer for us, is merciful, and is able to save us.

From The Liturgical Year,
by Dom Prosper Guéranger OSB

"Judica, Domine, nocentes me," Monday in Holy Week

This morning, also, Jesus goes with bis Disciples to Jerusalem. He is fasting, for the Gospel tells us, that he was hungry (Matthew 21:18). He approaches a fig-tree, which is by the way-side; but finds nothing on it, save leaves only. Jesus, wishing to give us an instruction, curses the fig-tree, which immediately withers away. He would hereby teach us what they are to expect, who have nothing but good desires, and never produce in themselves the fruit of a real conversion. Nor is the allusion to Jerusalem less evident. This City is zealous for the exterior of Divine Worship; but her heart is hard and obstinate, and she is plotting, at this very hour, the death of the Son of God.

The greater portion of the day is spent in the Temple, where Jesus holds long conversations with the Chief Priests and Ancients of the people. His language to them is stronger than ever, and triumphs over all their captious questions. It is principally in the Gospel of St. Matthew, that we shall find these answers of our Redeemer, which so energetically accuse the Jews of their sin of rejecting the Messias, and so plainly foretel the punishment their sin is to bring after it.

At length, Jesus leaves the Temple, and takes the road that leads to Bethania. Having come as far as Mount Olivet, which commands a view of Jerusalem, he sits down, and rests awhile. The Disciples make this an opportunity for asking him, how soon the chastisements he has been speaking of in the Temple will come upon the City. His answer comprises two events: the destruction of Jerusalem, and the final destruction of the world. He thus teaches them that the first is a figure of the second. The time when each is to happen, is to be when the measure of iniquity is filled up. But, with regard to the chastisement that is to befal Jerusalem, he gives this more definite answer: Amen I say to you: this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done.i History tells us how this prophecy of Jesus was fulfilled: forty years had scarcely elapsed after his Ascension,, when the Roman army encamped on this very place where he is now speaking to his Disciples, and laid siege to the ungrateful and wicked City. After giving a prophetic description of that Last Judgment, which is to rectify all the unjust judgments of men, he leaves Mount Olivet, returns to Bethania, and consoles the anxious heart of his most holy Mother.

The Station, at Rome, is in the Church of Saint Praxedes. It was in this Church, that Pope Paschal the Second, in the 9th century, placed two thousand three hundred bodies of holy Martyrs, which he had ordered to be taken out of the Catacombs. The Pillar, to which our Saviour was tied during his scourging, is also here.

 PRAYER.

O great and Sovereign Lord ! (Adonai!) Christ our God! Crucify us, with thyself, to this world, that so thy life may be in us. Take upon thee our sins, that thou mayst crucify them. Draw us unto thyself, since it was for our sakes that thou wast raised up from the earth; and thus snatch us from the power of the unclean tyrant: for, though by flesh and our sins, we be exposed to the insults of th!e devil, yet do we desire to serve, not him, but thee. We would be thy subjects ; we ask to be governed by thee ; for, by thy death on the cross, thou didst deliver us, who are mortals and surrounded by death. It is to bless thee for this wonderful favour, that we this day offer thee our devoted service ; and humbly adoring thee, we now implore and beseech thee, to hasten to our assistance, O thou our God, the Eternal and Almighty ! Let thy Cross thus profit us unto good, that thou, by its power, mayst triumph over the world in us, and thine own mercy restore us, by thy might and grace, to the ancient blessing. O thou, whose power hath turned the future into the past, and whose presence maketh the past to be present,—grant, that thy Passion may avail us to salvation, as though it were accomplished now on this very day. May the drops of thy holy Blood, which heretofore fell upon the earth from the Cross, be our present salvation : may it wash away all the sins of our earthly nature, and be, so to say, commingled with, the earth of our body, rendering it all thine, since we, by our reconciliation with thee, our Head, have been made one body with thee. Thou that ever reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, now begin to reign over us, O God-Man, Christ Jesus, King for ever and ever!

From The Liturgical Year,
by Dom Prosper Guéranger OSB