Easter Triduum - Fr. Louis Bulletin Letter - April 9, 2006
The celebrations culminating Holy Week – the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday night through Evening Prayer of Easter Sunday – are known as the sacred Easter Triduum. “Christ redeemed us all and gave perfect glory to God principally through His Paschal Mystery: dying He destroyed our death and rising He restored our life. Therefore, the Easter Triduum of the Passion and Resurrection of the Lord is the culmination of the entire liturgical year . . . These days are . . . of utmost importance in the spiritual and pastoral life of the Church” (Caeremoniale Episcoporum, 295-296).
With the Holy Thursday Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper (7:00 pm), the Church “devotes herself to the remembrance of the Last Supper. At this Supper on the night before He was betrayed, the Lord Jesus, loving those who were His own in the world even to the end, offered His Body and Blood to the Father under the appearances of bread and wine, gave them to the Apostles to eat and drink, then enjoined the Apostles and their successors in the Priesthood to offer them in turn . . . This Mass is, first of all, the memorial of the institution of the Eucharist . . . (It) is also the memorial of the institution of the Priesthood, by which Christ’s mission and sacrifice are perpetuated in the world. In addition, this Mass is the memorial of that love by which the Lord loved us even to death” (Caeremoniale Episcoporum, 297). Immediately following this Mass until Midnight, we have the opportunity to be with the Lord present in the Most Holy Eucharist. It was after the Last Supper that Jesus asked His disciples to pray with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. He extends that same invitation to us! Let us not have the Lord say to us as He said to the Apostles: “So you could not stay awake with me for even an hour?” (Matthew 26:40). 11:45 PM Night Prayer concludes the time of adoration.
At the Good Friday Celebration of the Lord’s Passion (12:10 pm & 2:15 pm), “the Church meditates on the Passion of her Lord and Spouse, adores the cross, commemorates her origin from the side of Christ asleep on the cross, and intercedes for the salvation of the whole world” (Paschales Solemnitatis, 58). Good Friday is a day of penance for Catholics: abstaining from eating meat for those 14 years of age and older, and fasting (one full meal and two smaller meals) for those who are 18 but not yet 59.
On Holy Saturday, we have the Blessing of Food for the First Meal of Easter (1:00 pm). “This custom arose from the discipline of fasting throughout Lent and the special Easter fast during the Easter Triduum. Easter was the first day when meat, eggs, and other foods could again be eaten” (Book of Blessings, 1701). The Easter Vigil of Holy Saturday (8:00 pm), “according to a most ancient tradition . . . (is) ‘one of vigil for the Lord’ (see Exodus 12:42), and the vigil celebrated during it, to commemorate that holy night when the Lord rose from the dead, is regarded as the ‘mother of all holy vigils’ (Augustine of Hippo, Sermo 219). For in that night the Church keeps vigil, waiting for the Resurrection of the Lord, and celebrates the Sacraments of Christian Initiation” (Paschales Solemnitatis, 77).
“The Resurrection of Christ is the foundation of our faith and hope, and through Baptism and Confirmation we are inserted into the Paschal Mystery of Christ, dying, buried, and raised with Him, and with Him we shall also reign”(Paschales Solemnitatis, 80). The Masses of Easter Sunday (6:30, 8:00 & 10:00 am)are celebrated with great solemnity.