UNITY OF CHRIST'S PASCHAL MYSTERY
The summit of the Liturgical Year is the Easter Triduum. The Paschal Triduum is a single liturgical celebration that spans three days. It begins on the Thursday before Easter and ends the evening of Easter Sunday. Though chronologically three days, they are liturgically one day unfolding for us the unity of Christ's Paschal Mystery.
Another unique element about the Paschal Triduum is that a single liturgy encompasses all three days. It is not three separate liturgies. This is best seen when all three days are celebrated physically in the same church. At the end of the Mass on Holy Thursday, you’ll notice there is no final blessing or dismissal. People are invited to pray quietly before the Blessed Sacrament and then leave when they are ready. The liturgy doesn’t formally conclude; it simply pauses.
It picks up again on Good Friday with the Solemn Celebration of the Lord’s Passion. You’ll notice that this solemn liturgy doesn’t have the usual, formal beginning we are used to: the entrance procession or greeting by the priest. Rather, the priest and ministers enter the sanctuary when they are ready and, after prostrating before the altar, they simply pick up where they left off the evening before. Like Holy Thursday, the Good Friday liturgy doesn’t have a formal dismissal; rather, the priest simply says a prayer over the people before departing. Another pause.
And although the Easter Vigil begins with the sign of the cross, it begins in a different location — outside, around a fire without an opening song or procession. We pick up our prayer from where we left off the day before. And it is only at the end of the Easter Vigil Mass we hear the formal dismissal of the assembly, “Mass is ended,” with the double alleluia. The Easter Vigil, which always is to begin after sunset on Saturday, takes place on the third day of the Triduum, so the vigil is considered the Easter Mass. Subsequent Masses are celebrated on Sunday for those unable to attend the vigil.
Paschal Triduum Liturgy -
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