Maundy Thursday. Good Friday. Great Vigil of Easter 2015 April 2 nd to 4 th

Transcription

1 Healing. Worship. Reflection. Hospitality In Christ s Name. For All People 1130 Jervis Street, Vancouver, BC V6E2 C office@stpaulsanglican.bc.ca stpaulsanglican.bc.ca Maundy Thursday. Good Friday. Great Vigil of Easter 2015 April 2 nd to 4 th

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3 The Triduum The Three Great Days The Triduum (from the Latin word for Three Days ) is the central liturgical expression of our faith. Around it all our worship revolves. It proclaims in itself the Good News of God in Jesus Christ. The Triduum begins with the Maundy Thursday liturgy. There are four distinctive features of the Maundy Thursday liturgy: The washing of feet, the Institution of the Eucharist/Lord s Supper, the stripping of the altar, and the vigil at the altar of repose. The name Maundy comes from the Latin Mand atum, meaning mandate, or commandment which is a reference to two passages from John s gospel: The new commandment: I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. (John 13.34) and the command instituting foot-washing: So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought also to wash one another s feet. For I have set the example, that you also should do as I have done to you. (John 13:14-15). The washing of feet is the outward and visible sign of the love of Christ, which we are commanded to share with one another. We therefore wash one another s feet as Christ commanded that we all may share in that love. It is [ ] an action in which all are invited to participate. (Mitchell, Leonel L.: Lent, Holy Week, Easter, and the Great Fifty Days, Cowley, Boston, 1996, p.58) At the end of the liturgy we will all remove the church furnishings and strip the church, just as Jesus was stripped of his garments. It is a way for us to prepare even our building for the solemnity and horror of the day to come: Good Friday. Left over consecrated bread and wine will be processed to the Altar of Repose, where they will stay until the Good Friday service. We will keep vigil until midnight before the body and blood of Christ in bread and wine, deposited on the Altar of Repose. This follows the example of Gethsemane (a garden just outside the city of Jerusalem): On the night before his arrest, Jesus asked the apostles to watch and pray with him (Matthew 26:40-41). The liturgy of Good Friday includes three central elements: the Solemn Intercession, the Veneration of the Cross and Communion from the Blessed Sacraments. In keeping with ancient custom, the Holy Eucharist is not celebrated, as any celebration of the Holy Eucharist is a celebration of the Resurrection. Instead, bread and wine consecrated to be the body and blood of Christ on Maundy Thursday, are handed out as a simple and moving way for people to feed on the Crucified One. (McCausland s Order of Divine Services, p. 82). Another central element of the service is the Veneration of the Cross. The veneration of the Cross can provide an opportunity for a wholehearted personal and communal devotion. (ibid.) As with any veneration, we do not worship the material (i.e. the wood of the cross), but we worship what it symbolises (i.e. the death of Christ Jesus for us). The Great Vigil of Easter is at the heart of the liturgical worship of the Christian church: On the first Easter morning Jesus of Nazareth, who had been crucified, rose triumphantly and conquered death, evil, and sin. All other worship services find their meaning in and draw from this celebration of the Resurrection. The Vigil was already established in the fourth century. The tradition of holding a vigil of readings encompassing the whole history of salvation leading to the eucharist at the beginning of the Lord s Day [ ] is very early. The incorporation of baptism into the Vigil between the readings and the eucharist resulted from the fixing of Easter as the great baptismal feast, probably in the second or third century. [ ] The Easter Vigil, like the Holy Week services, was reintroduced [ ] into Anglicanism in the nineteenth century in the wake of the Oxford Movement [in the Church of England]. In its present form, the Great Vigil consists of four parts: the service of Light; the service of Lessons; Christian Initiation [i.e. Baptism]; and The Holy Eucharist. (Lent, Holy Week, Easter, and the Great Fifty Days, p ) All these parts help us to grasp with all our senses the good news of Easter: Jesus lives! 3

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5 Maundy Thursday 2 nd April, :00 pm 5

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14 Good Friday 3 rd April, :00 pm 14

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25 The Great Vigil of Easter 4 th April, :00PM 25

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