At Tenebrae on Maundy Thursday Tenebrae (Latin for darkness") is a religious service of the Catholic Church held during the three days preceding Easter Sunday and characterized by gradual extinguishing …More
At Tenebrae on Maundy Thursday
Tenebrae (Latin for darkness") is a religious service of the Catholic Church held during the three days preceding Easter Sunday and characterized by gradual extinguishing of candles, and by a "strepitus" or "loud noise" taking place in total darkness near the end of the service. The traditions regarding this service go back at least to the ninth century.
Matins, originally celebrated a few hours after midnight, and lauds, originally celebrated at dawn, were anticipated by the late Middle Ages on the afternoon or evening of the preceding day, and were given the name "Tenebrae" because concluding when darkness was setting in.
The celebration of matins and lauds of these days on the previous evening in the form referred to as Tenebrae in churches with a sufficient number of clergy was universal in the Roman Rite until the reform of the Holy Week ceremonies by Pope Pius XII in 1955.
He restored the Easter Vigil as a night office, moving that Easter liturgy from Holy Saturday morning to the following night and likewise moved the principal liturgies of Holy Thursday and Good Friday from morning to afternoon or evening.
Thus matins and lauds of Good Friday and Holy Saturday could no longer be anticipated on the preceding evening, and even matins and lauds of Holy Thursday was allowed to be anticipated only in the case of cathedral churches in which the Chrism Mass was held on Holy Thursday morning.
The 1960 Code of Rubrics, which was incorporated in the next typical edition of the Roman Breviary, published on 5 April 1961, a year ahead of the publication of the 1962 edition of the Roman Missal,allowed no anticipation whatever of lauds, though matins alone could still be anticipated to the day before, later than the hour of vespers.
The structure is the same for all three days.
The first part of the service is matins, which in its pre-1970 form is composed of three nocturns, each consisting of three psalms, a short versicle and response, a silent Pater Noster, and three readings, each followed by a responsory.
The pre-1970 lauds consists of five psalms, a short versicle and response, and the Benedictus Gospel canticle, followed by Christus factus est, a silent Pater Noster, and the appointed collect.
The Gloria Patri is not said after each psalm.
The principal Tenebrae ceremony is the gradual extinguishing of candles upon a stand in the sanctuary called a hearse. Eventually, the Roman Rite settled on fifteen candles, one of which is extinguished after each of the nine psalms of matins and the five of lauds.
The six altar candles are put out during the Benedictus, gradually reducing also the lighting in the church throughout the chanting of the canticle.
Then any remaining lights in the church are extinguished and the last candle on the hearse is hidden behind the altar (if the altar is such as does not hide the light, the candle, still lit, is put inside a candle lantern),ending the service in total darkness.
The strepitus (Latin for "great noise"), made by slamming a book shut, banging a hymnal or breviary against the pew, or stomping on the floor, symbolizes the earthquake that followed Christ's death, although it may have originated as a simple signal to depart.
Tenebrae (Latin for darkness") is a religious service of the Catholic Church held during the three days preceding Easter Sunday and characterized by gradual extinguishing of candles, and by a "strepitus" or "loud noise" taking place in total darkness near the end of the service. The traditions regarding this service go back at least to the ninth century.
Matins, originally celebrated a few hours after midnight, and lauds, originally celebrated at dawn, were anticipated by the late Middle Ages on the afternoon or evening of the preceding day, and were given the name "Tenebrae" because concluding when darkness was setting in.
The celebration of matins and lauds of these days on the previous evening in the form referred to as Tenebrae in churches with a sufficient number of clergy was universal in the Roman Rite until the reform of the Holy Week ceremonies by Pope Pius XII in 1955.
He restored the Easter Vigil as a night office, moving that Easter liturgy from Holy Saturday morning to the following night and likewise moved the principal liturgies of Holy Thursday and Good Friday from morning to afternoon or evening.
Thus matins and lauds of Good Friday and Holy Saturday could no longer be anticipated on the preceding evening, and even matins and lauds of Holy Thursday was allowed to be anticipated only in the case of cathedral churches in which the Chrism Mass was held on Holy Thursday morning.
The 1960 Code of Rubrics, which was incorporated in the next typical edition of the Roman Breviary, published on 5 April 1961, a year ahead of the publication of the 1962 edition of the Roman Missal,allowed no anticipation whatever of lauds, though matins alone could still be anticipated to the day before, later than the hour of vespers.
The structure is the same for all three days.
The first part of the service is matins, which in its pre-1970 form is composed of three nocturns, each consisting of three psalms, a short versicle and response, a silent Pater Noster, and three readings, each followed by a responsory.
The pre-1970 lauds consists of five psalms, a short versicle and response, and the Benedictus Gospel canticle, followed by Christus factus est, a silent Pater Noster, and the appointed collect.
The Gloria Patri is not said after each psalm.
The principal Tenebrae ceremony is the gradual extinguishing of candles upon a stand in the sanctuary called a hearse. Eventually, the Roman Rite settled on fifteen candles, one of which is extinguished after each of the nine psalms of matins and the five of lauds.
The six altar candles are put out during the Benedictus, gradually reducing also the lighting in the church throughout the chanting of the canticle.
Then any remaining lights in the church are extinguished and the last candle on the hearse is hidden behind the altar (if the altar is such as does not hide the light, the candle, still lit, is put inside a candle lantern),ending the service in total darkness.
The strepitus (Latin for "great noise"), made by slamming a book shut, banging a hymnal or breviary against the pew, or stomping on the floor, symbolizes the earthquake that followed Christ's death, although it may have originated as a simple signal to depart.