Tenebræ
This Wednesday evening at 8:00pm, our parish of Holy Rosary will celebrate a Tenebræ service. You are most welcome to join us.
What is Tenebræ?
The word itself is Latin for “shadows”. It is a Holy Week service tied to the prayers of the Liturgy of the Hours, being a concatenation of Matins and Lauds, anticipated the night before.
In addition to the psalms, traditionally chanted, we hear readings from the Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah, from Saint Augustine, and from the Letter to the Hebrews.
It is a very somber service, designed to place you at the time of Christ’s Passion.
As we chant the psalms, one by one the candles and lights in the church are extinguished, until we are nearly in darkness.
And then, in darkness we whisper the Lord’s Prayer and hear the beautiful anthem Christus Factus Est.
A great noise is heard – the strepitus – representing the closing of the Lord’s tomb.
A single candle representing the Lord is returned to the altar, and we leave in silence by its light.
It is, as I said, a somber service, but a truly moving one.
Please join us if you can.
I too have enjoyed the times that I have experienced the nocturnal character of Tenebrae; however, I wonder how we reconcile such with the 1955 suppression of the practice of anticipating the morning offices of Triduum on the preceeding night–except for Holy Thursday in places where the Chrism Mass is celebrated on the morning of Holy Thursday as prescribed. If the proper times of the Hours, especially the hinge Hours, even more during the Paschal Triduum wherein the proper times are essential and, with the exception of Good Friday, well observed I wonder how we go about thinking of the continued observance of Tenebrae? Devotional? Liturgy?
It is an interesting question. Despite the 1955 changes, Tenebrae continues to be celebrated, most particularly on Wednesday of Holy Week, but also on Good Friday throughout the Catholic world – see for example many multiple parish listings in the Diocese of Green Bay, the Diocese of Pittsburgh, the Diocese of Portland, Maine, to name the first examples that popped up in a search.
In some places (Trenton, for example), the Bishop himself is leading Tenebrae.
The question is – after 1955 what is Tenebrae? In terms of being purely liturgical or purely devotional, it seems neither fish nor fowl. I’ve considered it a para-liturgical rite that does not fulfill any obligation to pray the Hours. That isn’t really a good answer, though, is it?