My summary of Triduum 2006

Amy Welborn is doing a St. Blogs survey of Triduum services. Here are my (hastily written and hence probably typo-filled) comments below with links to her thread if you want to contribute your experiences to the discussion...

Holy Thursday - Chrism Mass
(yes I attended our diocese's Chrism Mass, but Amy isn't polling people on this one)

Holy Thursday - Join Amy's discussion thread

Overflow crowd. Almost the entire parish processed out to the parish center where the altar of repose was setup, and stayed kneeling in silent prayer afterwards or singing the Tantum Ergo.

It was nice seeing the holy oils brought in during the celebration ... having seen them consecrated earlier that morning at our diocese's Chrism Mass. It brought home to me the deep interconnection between the various parishes in our diocese.

Good Friday - Join Amy's discussion thread

Full prostration by both priests. Overflow crowd into the street. Veneration of the Cross probably took about half an hour.

I'm always struck by how radically different a Church is on Good Friday without the presence of the Holy Eucharist. Our parish normally has very bright lights illuminating the central tabernacle and that day the doors of it were open and the lights all turned off. It reminded me of a line from Brideshead Revisited: "Suddenly, it wasn't a Church anymore, just an oddly decorated room."

Thank God Good Friday is just a single day out of the year!

Easter Vigil - Join Amy's discussion thread

Ah, my hair still has incense in it from the Easter Vigil.

The Easter proclamation was done by a very well intentioned but almost tone-deaf deacon... so that was a bit of overflow penance from Lent. :-P

4 kids and an adult baptized, each with a full pitcher of water for the three immersions - fantastic!20 more RCIA folks received Confirmation and were brought into full communion. Athanasius, Augustine ... some great conformation names (though for a moment I thought I heard one person had taken the name St. Pelagius - that gave me a fright!!).

Since our parish is named after St. Thomas the Apostle the pastor used the example of St. Thomas as the basis for meditation in the Homily... calling on the faithful to encounter the risen Lord in all his powerful reality - and not as a "myth" or "nice idea" (appropriate considering this year's cycle of readings for Triduum was from Mark - which brings up that whole "historical Jesus" modern reading of the synoptic gospels).

2 1/2 hour liturgy all totalled. We did 7 of the 10 readings I believe (and the Epistle). Bells during the Gloria. After the consecration and distribution of Communion the Blessed Sacrament was reposed in the tabernacle and the lights were flipped back on - The Church felt like home again!

I love how the Easter Candle serves so many purposed during Easter Vigil - lighting the candles of the faithful, placed in the baptismal font, used to light the candles of the Altar, and the candles of the Catechumans... you get this wonderfully typological expression of the light and grace of Christ inspiring and upholding the whole Sacramental life of the Church!

Easter Sunday - Join Amy's discussion thread

(yes I went to this one as well - five liturgies in the last 4 days, counting Chrism Mass on Holy Thursday)

Another wonderful Mass... this one a bit more sedate after the Easter Vigil revelries. Pretty much back to the normal wonderful routine. Easter proclamation, refined Homily from the night before. ;)

You know, supreme sacrifice of the Mass. Can't complain. :)

Now it's time for me to join my family - they've baked a cake for Pope Benedict and are going to sing him happy birthday! Apologies if there are any inaccuracies in my account - I only had a couple moments to compose it.