Tridu-wha?

April 2, 2020 Uncategorized

Following the spiritual roller coaster that is Palm Sunday (shouts of “hosanna!” as Jesus makes his “triumphal entry” into Jerusalem followed by a Passion narrative from one of the synoptic gospels), toward the end of the week we enter into a three-day period known as the Triduum (most common pronunciations are TRI-doo-um or TRI-dyoo-um, with a short i, though I have heard tri-dum and tri-DOO-um) – “tri” for “three,” and “duum,” related to the Latin word for “days”: Maundy Thursday, from which comes Jesus’ Eucharistic adaptation of a Passover meal and foot-washing; Good Friday’s commemoration of Jesus’ crucifixion; and The Great Vigil of Easter, often held on Saturday evening or very early Easter Sunday morning, which, except for the Eucharist, is an entirely different service than we experience on Resurrection Sunday.

For those who are familiar with the three services of Holy Week, or at the least Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, you might notice that neither of those services conclude with any kind of dismissal; they just end with the ministers leaving in silence (often on Maundy Thursday with the stripping of the altar – a very powerful moment to allow that stark silence to stand on its own). This is because the Triduum actually is one service, walking through the entire paschal event in sequence. For reasons of modern life, however, we have come to observe each of the three parts of the service across three days because to do all three in one sitting would take anywhere from four to six hours, maybe even longer depending on just how elaborate you make the Vigil! These days, fewer and fewer people are observing even Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services, much less the Vigil, in their churches. Not sure how many (if any) people would show up if we proposed to offer the entire Triduum service(s) all at once!

Still, especially with circumstances as they are this year, we invite you into a Triduum experience, maybe deeper than usual, by joining together online, walking through the Prayer Book (pp 274-295) and adapting what you can for home use (or finding other resources our Episcopal tradition offers), or even developing your own practices that bring the Triduum fully to life in a new way (we’d love to hear what you come up with!). Regardless of circumstances and adapted practices, all Triduum blessings be with you!

-Marc