Introducing the Triduum — Taking Easter Seriously

“Triduum” means “Three Days”, and it refers to a three-day period of preparation before a festival or holy-day. No day is as holy as Easter, the day of Our Lord’s resurrection; so the most important Triduum is the three days immediately before Easter: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. All of our Lenten self-discipline culminates in these three days which are observed with prayer, sorrow, and fasting; and with solemn communal worship that recapitulates the story of Christ’s saving act of self-sacrifice.

Tenebrae

Triduum starts on Wednesday at sunset, in keeping with the Israelite practice of observing sunset as the end of one day and the beginning of the next. As the shadows lengthen following sunset on April 16, we will begin the ancient service of “Tenebrae”, the Service of Shadows. Tenebrae began in monasteries in the 800s CE. Monastics generally prayed eight times a day, roughly three hours apart, with some flexibility for the hours of prayer in the middle of the night to let the monks get a little uninterrupted sleep. With this schedule, they could sing the entire Book of Of Psalms all the way through in just a week. Which they did; week in an week out. During the three days before Easter, it became the norm to move those middle-of-the-night services (called “Lauds” and “Matins”) to the evening before, so that the ordinary people living near by might worship with them.

As the Hours of Prayer consisted of sung psalms and lessons, our Tenebrae service at 6pm on Wednesday 16 April will consist of lessons interspersed with sung music, recounting from the biblical record the stories of Jesus from the hours immediately after his triumphant entry into Jerusalem, to his last words and actions before the Last Supper. A special Tenebrae candle-holder, called a “hearse”, is used during the Tenebrae service. Its fifteen candles are gradually extinguished, one by one as each lesson is read, dramatically illustrating the darkness that fell around Jesus as his arrest, torture and execution approached.

Maundy

Thursday is the first full day of the Triduum, and ends at Sunset, when the second of our special preparation services takes place. “Maundy” comes from the Latin word “mandatum”, which means “command”. The anglicized word “Maundy” refers to ceremony of washing one anothers’ feet, and more particularly washing the feet of the poor and giving them alms. On His last night with his friends, Jesus told them “This is my commandment: love one another, as I have loved you.” Jesus demonstrated servant-love by washing His disciples’ feet, by sharing a meal with them and particularly blessing the bread and wine to be His Body and Blood, and then leading them out into the Garden of Gethsemene to keep vigil with him until the power-brokers of his world came to arrest Him.

We set up banquet tables in our worship-space for our Maundy service, and set the tables with a simple but plentiful meal: bread and butter; apples, milk, and honey; bitter lettuce and salt water; wine and grape-juice. A basin, towel, and jug of warm water are set to one side beside a chair. Our service begins with telling the story, from our Sunday Stories curriculum, of A New Commandment. Our pastor will bless and share the Bread and Wine; and then we will dine together. Over the course of this simple supper, people may come up to wash one anothers feet as the Spirit moves them. Also during the supper, the youngest person present askes three questions, which are answered from Scripture. When the meal comes to an end, everyone present is asked to help remove all the ornamentation from the worship-space in preparation for the next day’s Good Friday worship.