by Boniface Willard, OP (originally printed in the Arch & Vine)
Tenebrae will be celebrated at St. Albert’s Priory the mornings of the Triduum at 7:00am. All are invited to join the Dominicans in this prayer.
From the Latin word for “darkness,” Tenebrae is the term given to the liturgical office of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday as it was observed prior to the 1955 reform of Holy Week by Pope Pius XII. Dominicans have continued to pray Tenebrae each year as a particular tradition of our Order.
Tenebrae has roots as early as the 7th century, when those celebrating the Office would do so in almost complete darkness – the only light coming from a large candelabra, called a hearse. While the number of candles on the hearse has varied, today there are usually fifteen tapers.
Although there have been many changes, the contemporary Office of Tenebrae retains many traces of the ancient rite. There is no introductory verse or Invitatory, and the “Glory to…” after each psalm and canticle is omitted. After each psalm or canticle, a set of candles is extinguished – symbolizing the Apostles’ desertion in the Garden of Olives – until there is only one left, the so-called Christ candle. During the singing of the Benedictus, this candle is not extinguished but is carried out of the Church, symbolizing Christ’s death and burial.
The psalms are punctuated by three lessons taken from the Book of Lamentations: a collection of poems which grieve over the Babylonian destruction, in 587 BC, of the temple in Jerusalem and the ruin of the people of Israel. By describing the horrible situation which they now endure, the poems exhort the Israelites to mourn for having turned away from God to worship foreign, pagan gods. Each stanza begins with a Hebrew letter. When the Hebrew alphabet is used this way, it is able to express completeness or fullness; here, the complete and full desolation of Israel. The great “Prayer of Jeremiah,” which ends Tenebrae on Saturday, is a plea to God to relent in punishment and rescue the people, despite what they have done.
One cannot take part in these prayers without being impressed by their simple dignity and majesty. Today, we can make these psalms and lamentations our own. As we pray them, we can seek pardon for our sins, as well as the sins of the whole world. We can reflect on any of the ways in which we have turned away from being “the image and likeness of God.
