Watch & Listen The Triduum Speaks to You

Intermountain Catholic

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Msgr. M. Francis Mannion, theologian and pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Parish, reminds us that the theology of the Triduum, the days including Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday's Easter Vigil, and Easter Sunday, is revealed in the readings and the rites. IC file photo

SALT LAKE CITY — The word Triduum is not one we hear used every day – its etymology is from the Latin, meaning a space of three days; "a space of three days usually preceding a Roman Catholic feast." (Webster) Msgr. M. Francis Mannion, theologian and pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Parish, told the Intermountain Catholic, "What you see and hear in the rites and the readings of the Triduum are what you get. The theology is present in the rites themselves."

In an April 2 interview Msgr. Mannion said the three-day celebration or observation of Holy Thursday and Good Friday leading up to the Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday is an ancient tradition going back to the fourth century.

"From the 300s, the Triduum has begun on Holy Thursday evening with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper," he said, and it has ended with the Easter celebrations that begin at the Easter Vigil. The Easter Sunday Masses are a reprise of the Easter Vigil.

"Historically, we have sketchy evidence of the Triduum going back even further than that, but the first detailed account of the Triduum comes to us from a fourth century Spanish nun who was traveling in the Middle East and wrote about what she saw. She wrote of processions and fasts, and celebrations of the Eucharist, then she wrote that ‘everything went on as usual.’"

Msgr. Mannion said her writings speak volumes about the consistency of eucharistic celebrations, even in the early days of the church.

"Not a great deal has changed from the fourth century," he said. "There is some diversity in the way the rites are celebrated in different places, but in the fourth century, we are reading accounts of the church getting itself organized. Things were still in the newborn stage until then."

The Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper included the ceremony of the washing of the feet, and the readings from Exodus, St. Paul, and the Gospel of John that remind Catholics of their roots in the Hebrew scriptures, their shared relationship to the Jewish people, and the Jewish roots of the Eucharist, he said.

"One event that is new in the Holy Thursday liturgy is the presentation of the newly consecrated oils to the local parishes with the bread and wine," Msgr. Mannion said. "Then we go back to the ancient traditions of the procession with the Blessed Sacrament and the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament until midnight. It is all meant to renew our faith in the great gift of the Eucharist and it calls to mind Jesus’ great suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane."

Many Catholic churches strip the altar of all decorations and accoutrements at the close of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. Msgr. Mannion said this is an informal rite, "not part of the Holy Thursday ceremony. It signifies the church’s call to us to return to the basics – to recall Jesus’ Last Supper and the ministry of Christ."

The Good Friday liturgy involves a retelling of the story of Christ’s passion, Msgr. Mannion said. "A central part of the Good Friday observance is our celebration of the cross of Christ alive in the church here and now. Holy Communion is part of the Good Friday observance, but no Mass is celebrated. From the very beginning of the church, Good Friday has been a day of simple observance. The passion is read and the cross is venerated. These liturgical rites are very important. We have the Liturgy of the Word, the Liturgy of the Cross, and Holy Communion."

The Easter Vigil, with its seven distinct readings focusing on the seven great themes of salvation history from the creation to the resurrection of Christ, give us a retelling of the history of salvation, the center of which is the death and resurrection of Christ, Msgr. Mannion said.

"Again, since the fourth century, St. Cyril of Jerusalem wrote of the Easter Vigil as a time to welcome the elect and the candidates in to full communion with the church," he said. "The ancient rites are based on those celebrations – Christ’s resurrection, the baptism, confirmation, and first communion of new church members."

While many consider Easter the most important day of the liturgical calendar, Msgr. Mannion reminds us that Christmas, the celebration of the Incarnation, and Easter, the celebrations of Jesus’ death, resurrection, and return in glory, don’t compete with one another. Rather, they compliment each other.

"Easter," Msgr. Mannion said, "is not just one day. It is a 50-day season ending at Pentecost. According to the Acts of the Apostles, the Easter season lasts from the resurrection of Christ to the coming of the Holy Spirit.

"In the Triduum, we are not casting our minds into the past only," Msgr. Mannion said. "We are celebrating the living reality of Christ’s death and resurrection in the life of the church and in the lives of individual Christians."