My favorite parts of the Sacred Triduum

Hello sisters!

This week is a very special one in the Catholic Church.  It is pretty much the most important week of the year!  This week is called Holy Week and is part of Passion Tide, which is the time that leads up to Easter.  During Holy Week, we follow Jesus from His triumphal entrance into Jerusalem to His death and burial for the salvation of the world.

"Mother Church asks her children to recall with singular devotion the greatest mysteries of our faith: "Christ crucified, buried and then risen," and also Christ instituting the Most Holy Eucharist."

The Sacred Triduum encompasses the three days at the end of Holy Week; Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday - The Easter Vigil.  During these three special days we deeply contemplate  Christ's most precious gift to us - His life.

I have been blessed to be able to attend the Traditional Latin Mass celebrations of the Sacred Triduum for the last two years.  I would like to share my favorite parts of these celebrations with you!

Holy Thursday

"On the Mount of Olives, He prayed to the Father/ Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from Me/ The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. V. Watch ye and pray, that ye enter not into temptation/ The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. V. Lo, the hour approaches, and the Son of Man will be betrayed in to the hands of sinners/ The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."

On Holy Thursday, we recall the Lord's Supper and the institution of the Holy Eucharist.  This is also the night that our Blessed Lord instituted the Sacred Priesthood and suffered on the Mount of Olives.

My favorite part of Holy Thursday is actually after Mass when Our Lord, in the Blessed Sacrament, is taken to the Altar of Repose which has been adorned with candles, linens, and flowers.  The rest of the church is darkened and the faithful can sit in silence with Our Lord.  We are reminded of His words to us, "Watch one hour with Me."  And so we sit with Him, meditating upon the rosary, His agony in the garden, or some other prayers.  I read this beautiful selection from The Catholic Girl's Guide just by chance!

"'Lift up your heart!' Lift it up to the sacred mountains, up to the cross, up to heaven! 

To Mount Olivet, to Gethsemane! There, amid the shades of night illumined by the Paschal moon, under the boughs of the olive-trees, you will see a Man prostrate on the ground, bowed down, crushed as itwere by some heavy load, convulsively wringing His hands, His countenance pale as death. He breathes heavily, deep sighs escape

His tortured breast, a sweat of blood exudes from His pores,and trickles down His pallid face. And His dearest friends, the friends whom He loved as no friend ever loved his most beloved friend, no mother her darling child,— they leave Him alone in His agony; they have no word of comfort for Him; they are asleep; they could not watch with Him one hour, although only one brief hour had elapsed since they assured Him of their willingness to follow Him to prison and to death!

But all is not yet told! His foes are approaching, like bloodthirsty wolves; one steps forward who was formerly a friend, a disciple, and imprints the hideous kiss of betrayal on the colorless lips of the Sufferer— the patient Sufferer, whose pale face wears an expression of gentleness and of loving admonition, even while He gazes on this shameless man.

They lead the innocent Lamb, the incarnate Son of God, to Jerusalem; they treat Him, the sinless One, more barbarously than the vilest criminal; they mock Him and blaspheme Him; they scourge Him, and place a crown of sharp thorns upon His head."

~From The Catholic Girl's Guide pg. 63-64

Good Friday

"We adore You, O Christ,
and we bless You,
since through Your Holy Cross
You have redeemed the world.
Lord, have mercy on us."

On Good Friday, we commemorate the anniversary of the death and burial of Our Lord.  This is a very somber and sacred day.

My favorite part of the Good Friday liturgy is the Reproaches which are sung by the Choir.

"Popule Meus, also known as the 'Improperia' or the 'Reproaches,' is the hymn sung after the Adoration of the Cross on Good Friday. Here Christ reproaches the Chosen People, contrasting the innumerable favors God has bestowed upon them with the injuries He has received from their hands. Where God led them to the Chosen Land, the Jews led Him to the Cross. Where God gave a royal scepter, the Jews returned a crown of thorns."

 Here are some excerpts:

"O My people, what have I done to you, or in what have I offended you?  Answer Me. V. Because I led you out of the land of Egypt, you have prepared a Cross for your Savior."

"What more ought I to have done for thee, that I have not done? I planted thee, indeed, My most beautiful vineyard: and thou hast become exceeding bitter to Me: for in My thirst thou gavest Me vinegar to drink: and with a lance thou hast pierced the side of thy Savior."

"I gave you a royal scepter: and you have given to My head a crown of thorns.  O My people, what have I done to you, or in what have I offended you?  Answer Me."

"I exalted you with great strength: and you have hanged Me on the gibbet of the Cross.  O My people, what have I done to you, or in what have I offended you?  Answer Me."

"We adore Your Cross, O Lord, and we praise and glorify Your holy Resurrection, for behold by that wood joy came into the whole world.  May God have pity on us and bless us; may He let His face shine upon us, and have pity on us."

My other favorite part of Good Friday, although it's not in the liturgy, is the Procession of Good Friday.  Each parish's traditions are a little different.  At the FSSP, we processed through the streets behind an image of Our Lord taken down from the cross.  As we followed Our Lord's corpus to the tomb, we sang hymns.  This was a very moving gesture and one of the most striking parts of my Sacred Triduum.

"God of mercy and compassion, Look with pity upon me; Father let me call Thee 'Father'; 'Tis Thy child returns to Thee.  Jesus, Lord I ask for mercy, Let me not implore in vain; All my sins I now detest them, Never will I sin again.  See our Savior, bleeding, dying, On the Cross of Calvary; To that Cross my sins have nailed Him, Yet He bleeds and dies for me.  Jesus, Lord I ask for mercy, Let me not implore in vain; All my sins I now detest them, Never will I sin again. "

Holy Saturday - The Easter Vigil 

As the hart desireth streams of water, so doth my soul desireth Thee, O God.

On Holy Saturday, we keep vigil at the tomb, remember Christ's death, and wait for the promised Resurrection.  At the Easter Vigil, there is much symbolism in the lighting of the paschal candle, the blessing of the baptismal water, and the bells at the Gloria.

My favorite part of the Easter Vigil is the Gloria.  The church sits in complete darkness.  There are only a few candles lit on the altar.  The organ lightly plays the intonation and the priest sings "Glory to God in the highest!"  then, all the lights come on, there are flowers on the altar, the organ busts out in magnificent music, and the bells are rung continuously.  It is a most glorious moment. (No pun intended.). The servers go around the church unveiling all the statues and Easter has arrived!

The Litany of the Saints is also something worth mentioning.  This truly is a night on which all the hosts of Heaven are near and we can feel their prayers.  Our sins are conquered and God is victorious.  So I really can't say which part is my favorite.  I'm so glad we get to celebrate Christ's resurrection in such a glorious way.

The whole Easter Triduum is full of prayers, readings, symbolism, and beauty.  We should carefully meditate on Christ's amazing sacrifice of Love.  Yes, this is a sad time, but also a time of great rejoicing.

"Let the angelic choirs of heaven now rejoice; let the divine mysteries rejoice; and let the trumpet of salvation sound forth the victory of so great a King."

– First words of the Exsultet
Thank you for reading, and I pray you and your families have a blessed Triduum and happy Easter!!

In cordibus Jesu et Mariae,

Sarah