Easter Triduum (Part I)

Right then, first of all, the Easter Triduum is considered the biggest and most important triduum in the liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church. Triduum come from the Latin meaning Three days and it recalls the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This Easter, being my first away from home, I decided to spend some time in reflection at Ampleforth Abbey, an abbey run by the English Benedictine monks as well as to celebrate a monastic triduum liturgy. Now that I am back, I will be blogging my experience in stages complete with photos which hopefully will come out nicely. So watch out...















This is a picture of me standing in front of the abbey church.

And this is a picture of the statue of St. Benedict, the founder of the Benedictines, by whose rule the monks live their life.

Anyway, this first post will be about the triduum. It begins on Holy or Maundy Thursday with the Mass of the Lord's Supper which commemorates 3 things- the institution of the Eucharist, the institution of the priesthood and also the new commandment or mandatum: Love one another.

In the morning, there is a special mass called Chrism mass, at which the Holy Oils to be used during the course of the next year is blessed. The oil of the catechumens, used for baptizing; the oil of the sick, used to anoint the sick and dying; and the oil of chrism, used at comfirmation and ordinations. It is also a time for our priests to renew their pledge of service to the church as they are gathered together witht heir bishop for this mass. After the mass, the priests will bring back with them the oils to their own parishes, where usually there is a rite of reception of the Holy Oils during the Mass of the Lord's Supper (a rite which seems to have been abolished in many parishes).

Now also at the Mass of the Lord's Supper in the evening, we read about how Jesus instituted the Eucharist, how he gave his disciples a new commandment to love one another. The priest will reenact what Jesus did during the last supper, taking off his grand chasuble and exchanging it for a simple apron, he washes the feet of 12 people and then kisses it. An act of humility indeed!!! After the mass, the Eucharist is processed to the altar of repose and the main altar is stripped.

Here,we see the altar of repose which is situated in the crypt of the abbey church.

The following day is Good Friday, and what is so good about this Friday? Hmm... On this day, we walk the stations of the cross or via crucis, retracing the paths which Jesus took to Golgotha to be crucified. We then have the solemn liturgy of Good Friday. This day is the only day in the church that the holy sacrifice of Mass is not offered. The service usually takes place at 3pm, the hour when Jesus died, in a very solemn mood with no music being played whatsoever. It begins with the celebrants processing in in silence and prostrating themselves. After that, we have the reading of the Passion. In the abbey, this was sung by three monks and was very well done. We then move on to the veneration of the cross followed by Communion.

This is a picture of Fr. William, playing the role of the narrator; another priest whom I do not remember his name playing Jesus; and Fr. Oswald in the role of the crowd.

The Passion text on Good Friday is always taken from the Gospel of St. John, while the passion which is read on Passion Sunday changes with the cycle of readings.

Below left, is during the prayer of intercessions.
Below right, are the monks lining up to venerate the cross.



OK, I think that's it for now. I will post more later.