The Sacred Triduum: The Blessing of the Font, the Litanies, and the Vesperal Mass

Continuing from the previous post:   The Blessing of the Font Towards the end of the final, Twelfth Prophecy, the acolytes light their candles. One of them, perhaps the thurifer, takes the Paschal Candle from the column, and another takes the processional cross. After the final Prophecy is concluded, the sacred ministers remove their maniples,…

The Sacred Triduum: The New Fire and Prophecies of Holy Saturday

The Tenebrae of Holy Saturday is a service of sorrow, similar to the Lamentations Service of the Orthodox I briefly examined in the previous blog post. The antiphons of both Matins and Lauds refer to death, burial, and mourning. The Canticle at Lauds is the Song of Hezekiah, normally sung on Tuesdays, the opening verse…

The Sacred Triduum: Holy Saturday and the Problem of Time

My apologies for the very belated update. When I began work on the last entries of the Triduum after the Easter Octave my laptop charger broke. I return to finish the final three entries now that my new charger has arrived.   When is the Easter Vigil to be celebrated? Most of us, having grown…

The Sacred Triduum: Introduction

Of all the wealth I have discovered in my (rather casual "layman") studies of the liturgy over the years, nothing has inspired more awe than the Sacred Triduum, which are the collection of unique ritual and ceremonials for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and the Easter Vigil. The rites of the Sacred Triduum are…

In Nature Indifferent and Alterable: The Prayer Book, Missals, and Uniformity

"XXXIV. Of the Traditions of the Church It is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places one, and utterly like; for at all times they have been divers, and may be changed according to the diversities of countries, times, and men's manners, so that nothing be ordained against God's Word. Whosoever through…

And so we have become liturgical capitalists

The term "neoliberal" is notoriously tricky to work with because of both its varied use and the way it is now mired and often compromised in its polemical use in contemporary political debate (not unlike how the term "fascist" is thrown around perhaps a little too liberally to describe any kind of authoritarianism). Nevertheless, it…