Holy Week at Holy Ghost Church The complete traditional Latin liturgy of the Sacred Triduum … … will be offered during
Holy Week this year at Holy Ghost Church (Knoxville) for the first time in a
half-century or more. Two services each day: Holy Thursday (April
18) 5 am Tenebrae 3 pm Mass of the Last Supper Good Friday (April 19) 5 am Tenebrae 6 pm Veneration of the Cross and Mass of the Presanctified Holy Saturday (April
20) 5 am Tenebrae 10 am Easter Vigil and Mass Until the mid-20th century, typically
celebrated Saturday morning rather than evening(1) The Divine Office of Tenebrae … … is a venerable
Holy Week devotion dating back well into the first millennium of
Christianity. It is characterized by the successive extinguishing of fifteen
candles—on a “tenebrae hearse” as illustrated below—as the service
progresses. The three Sacred Triduum celebrations
of Tenebrae (Latin for “darkness”) feature the chanting of Psalms and the
Lamentations of Jeremiah in the enveloping pre-dawn darkness. These services
comprise a trilogy on the Passion of Our Lord that is regarded as a
masterpiece of the traditional Roman rite. No liturgical services during the entire
church year are more biblical. New Latin-English booklets will be provided at
all these Sacred Triduum services. Passiontide Reflections …
The Easter Vigil
Mass … … is not an anticipated Mass
of the Resurrection,
and thus does not satisfy the Sunday obligation. It is a true vigil, a “keeping watch”, rather
than an anticipated Mass of Easter. So the true (traditional Latin) Mass of
the Resurrection is that of Easter Sunday (at noon at Holy Ghost). Twelve
prophecies … … spanning the Old Testament from
Genesis to Daniel, were traditionally read at the Easter Vigil on Saturday
morning. Some older hand missals include all twelve of these prophetic
readings that summarize the history of salvation. But newer 1962 missals
include only four of these 12 traditional prophecies. So,
to follow all twelve at this Holy Saturday Vigil, on the way in pick up one
of the special Latin-English booklets that are provided.
The Crucifixion (Giotto 1320) The traditional Latin Mass of Easter … … will be offered again this year at Holy Ghost Church (Knoxville) at 12 noon on Easter Sunday (April 21). This special Mass will be accompanied by motets and sacred polyphony, with the variable proper parts of the great Easter liturgy sung in Gregorian chant and the fixed ordinary parts (the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, etc.) in a choral setting by the Renaissance composer Giovanni Palestrina. All area Catholics and their friends are invited to share this festive celebration of the Resurrection of Our Lord. Click here for the Easter music program. ___________________________________________________________________________ (1)According to a New
Liturgical Movement article (here): “Prior
to the Holy Week reform of 1955, the services of the Triduum were all
anticipated, so that the Tenebrae services, Matins and Lauds of the three
days, all took place on the preceding evening, and the three Masses (including the Easter vigil) took place in the
morning. I have a Holy Week book formerly owned by a canon of St.
Peter’s; when I bought it, it contained a clipping from a newspaper of the
year 1930, listing the Holy Week services in several Roman churches. At St.
Peter’s Basilica, the Tenebrae services began at 4:45 p.m. each day, and the three Masses at 9:15 a.m. A
similar schedule was observed by various Byzantine Rite churches in the city,
such as the Pontifical Russian College; this schedule remains the norm in
Byzantine churches to this day.” The three 9:15 am Masses
were the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday morning, the Mass of the
Presanctified on Good Friday morning, and the Easter Vigil Mass on Holy
Saturday morning. In the case of these Masses, the “anticipation” was anticipation
to the morning (rather the more familiar anticipation of a morning Mass to
the previous evening). (2)Rev. Father Joseph Hamilton is a priest of the Archdiocese of
Sydney, Australia, currently researching at the University of Oxford in the
area of pre-Nicene pneumatology. After a moderately successful career in
investment banking that took him to the corners of the globe, Father Hamilton
swapped the economy of Mammon for that of the Most Holy Trinity. After
studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University and the Pontifical North
American College in Rome, he was ordained a priest in 2016, returning to Rome
after a parish assignment to take a license program at the Patristic
Institute ‘Augustinianum’, before transferring to Oxford for the DPhil. His
research interests include early pneumatology, angelology and demonology.
When not in a library and when time allows, you might find him sitting on a
surfboard in shark-infested waters. |