The Easter Triduum

Okay, I have to play catch-up again, since I have been gone and/or busy lately. (Not that I'm not busy anymore...)

I left off with the Seven Church Walk of Spy Wednesday. The next day (Holy Thursday) was a remarkable day. It began with the Chrism Mass at St. Peter's Basilica, presided over by the Holy Father, Pope Benedict. The great thing about the Chrism Mass is that, while at most of the other papal Masses during the year, priests are invited to be present and even to distribute Communion without actually concelebrating the Mass, on Holy Thursday they are permitted to concelebrate. Thus, all the priests in Rome (it seems) come out of the woodwork and show up at St. Peter's. It took about 45 minutes for all of us to process into the basilica before Mass, which was to begin at 9:30 a.m. I later read that there were some 1,600 priests in attendance.

So, celebrating Mass with the Pope was a great opportunity and blessing, and a profound chance to appreciate my priestly identity as well. It was beautiful to see priests from all over the world, united with the successor of St. Peter in the "Mother Church" of all Christendom. Quite a sight. The Holy Father gave a great homily about the priest being with the Lord and serving Him. I still need to find the English translation on the internet someplace...

That evening, we began the Easter Triduum with the Mass of the Lord's Supper at 5:30. Cardinal Levada, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was our guest celebrant. You could say that of all the "bigwigs" in the Church, he is one of the biggest! He has visited our seminary on several occasions, but this was the first time he celebrated any part of the Triduum with us.

Anyway, that was also a very special event because it commemorated, as it does every year, the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper, as well as the Priesthood. I suppose you can imagine why it was such a meaningful celebration for me! I was also one of the priests chosen to have his foot washed, which was humbling and yet very moving as well. It was a good reminder that the priesthood is eminently a life of self-giving for the love of God and neighbor.

After the Mass, we had a great feast. Traditionally, there is a feast after this Mass, especially among priests, as this is sort of the universal "feast day" for priests. There was good food, good fellowship, and just a good deal of joy in general that evening.

Here I might mention the tradition of the "Paschal Fast." It seems to be a tradition that has lost some steam for some reason in the last few decades, but it is still highly encouraged by the Church. The basic idea is that after supper on Holy Thursday, one fasts until after the Easter Vigil on Saturday evening. Now, that doesn't mean you can have absolutely no food whatsoever. Each person determines what he can or cannot do. Since the point of fasting is not to starve yourself, I usually opt for the bread and water fast, which, while it doesn't put you through extreme agony, still helps you to die to your own appetites and desires and put your focus on God, where it should be. I highly recommend the practice - it is very rewarding and very good for you spiritually.

Okay, back to Holy Thursday. There is a tradition in Rome - I don't know if it's a tradition elsewhere - that after the Mass of the Lord's Supper, the Eucharistic bread that remains is taken to a special altar called the "altar of repose," which is usually very beautifully decorated, until late that night. People walk all around town, visiting the various churches and stopping to pray at the altar of repose. It's almost like there is a competition between the parishes to see who can make their altar the most beautiful. Some of them were pretty amazing. They usually employ a lot of flowers, with many candles, too. One of the nicest parts of the evening is seeing so many people - especially young people - walking from church to church to pray. I think it would be a great tradition to begin in the U.S., at least in the cities that have a few or several churches.

So that's how Holy Thursday ended. On Good Friday, the main event is the Celebration of the Lord's Passion, which takes place at 3:00 p.m. This was also beautiful; the rite speaks for itself, but the way it was carried out was especially moving. The choir had been putting in many hours of practice, and it showed. Plus, three of my classmates sang the gospel account of the Passion. We had a great many guests visiting, and it was inspiring to see their reverence as they approached the cross for veneration.

That evening, I went (for the first time during my stay here in Rome) to the Colosseum for the Stations of the Cross with the Holy Father. The weather was miserable, as it often is on Good Friday. It rained the whole way there (about a 45-minute walk) and throughout the service (about 90 minutes). The reflections were very nice, however - they had been written by a Chinese cardinal. All in all, it was definitely worth the effort.

The morning of Holy Saturday, not much was going on. The house was pretty quiet, and I spent the day pretty tranquilly - working a bit, reading a bit, praying, etc. The greatest moment of the Church year was just around the corner.

There is a saying here at the North American College that, for many, has become the place's motto: "If it's worth doing, it's worth over-doing." This is usually said in reference to the way we celebrate the liturgy. It has never bothered me - in fact, I enjoy an "all-stops-pulled" liturgy very much! The Easter Vigil, being the supreme celebration of the year, bears a grandeur with which no other celebration of the year can compare.

We began in the courtyard in front of the chapel, with the Easter fire blazing. After the blessing of the fire and the Easter candle, we processed into the church for the Liturgy of the Word. There are seven readings normally, but it seems we usually truncate the number to four. (That's the only place where the NAC motto doesn't apply!)

As far as I know, there have never been any baptisms, confirmations, or first Eucharists received during the Easter Vigil at our seminary. One would hope that all the seminarians have already received these sacraments! So the ceremony is not as long as it could be if we were celebrating the sacraments of initiation.

Anyway, the Mass carried on as usual, but there was a great sense of joy - a kind of excitement - that the Lenten journey was over and that we were entering into the great season of Easter. It was a particular joy to celebrate the Vigil as a priest, and it gave me a lot to look forward to in the coming years of my priestly ministry.

Strangely, the seminarians are allowed to leave for their Easter vacation at any time after the Easter Vigil, so the Easter Sunday morning Mass seems a bit anti-climactic. However, it was very nice. A priest from Portland, OR, said the Mass, and there was a nice lunch afterward.

I suppose I could write a lot more about the whole celebration of the Easter Triduum, but I've covered the major details here. I wish that everyone could experience the celebrations as we experience them in the seminary - every detail is perfectly in place and everything is well-prepared. I'm sure that a lot of parishes at home have lovely celebrations, but I know that a lot of parishes put only very little effort into them. If only everyone knew what beauty they could experience....

That's all for now. I'll write about my travels in Poland sometime soon.