p. 156Holy Week

1. Palm Sunday

The Procession.—The verdant palms in the hands of the faithful, the crowd of children, of men and women walking in procession, the sacred chants full of joy, vividly present the scene which Jerusalem saw five days before the passion. But the triumphal entry of the Saviour into Jerusalem was but a prophetic figure of that other triumph which He would receive in the midst of angelic harmonies in the heavenly Jerusalem. The gates of the celestial city, closed since the sin of Adam, could not open but to the bloody trophy of Calvary. It is this new triumph which the gates of the church indicate at the return of the procession, closed as they were until then, and yielding to the power of the cross, which seems thrice to open a breach in them as it knocks, while the voices of children, angels of the earth, rise in the sweetest melody of the sacred chants.

The Mass.—The Mass of Palm Sunday is a striking contrast to the procession; sadness succeeds the joyous canticles; after the gospel of triumph comes the sorrowful story of the passion, an image of the too-prompt change worked in the Jewish people; its inconstancy made it pass quickly from adoration to outrage, from the chants of Hosanna to the cries of “Crucify Him, crucify Him!”

2. Office of Tenebræ

In the middle of the choir stands a triangular candlestick, surmounted by fifteen candles, in memory of the twelve apostles, and the disciples represented by the three Marys. These candles, except the one at the top of the candlestick, are successively put out after each antiphon. During the chanting of the Benedictus those on the altar are extinguished. Then, in the midst of this profound night, whence the name of Tenebræ, or darkness, given to the office, a clerk carries behind the altar the candle which remains lighted at the top of the candlestick, hides it for some moments, and then its light returns to shine in the sanctuary. By this candle the Church represents to us the abandonment of Jesus Christ, His burial and resurrection. In the midst of the darkness of the sanctuary, an image of that which threw a veil of mourning over the world, a confused noise is heard; let us throw ourselves, then, at the foot of the cross where our God has just expired, and let this sound bring to our heart the echo of the upheaval of nature, the trembling of the earth, the opening of the tombs, the breaking of the rocks and the rending of the veil of the temple.

When, during the chant of the Miserere, the candle is carried behind the altar, our saddened heart should accompany the Saviour to the tomb. But that our sorrow be not without hope, this candle is not extinguished, and its flame says to us that Jesus Christ in the tomb lives still in His soul and in His divinity. Hope will give place to joy when the candle concealed behind the altar comes to shine anew in the sanctuary; we will then salute in it the Conqueror of death bursting gloriously from His tomb.

3. Holy Thursday

Mass of Holy Thursday.—The solemnity of the Mass of Holy Thursday makes a truce for a moment in the p. 157sorrows of the Church.

How can she contain the transports of her joy in this memorable anniversary of the institution of the Eucharist and the Catholic priesthood? The single Mass celebrated on this day in each church, the communion distributed to the clergy and the faithful, present to us the gospel scene when Jesus Christ, the only consecrator of the last supper, and the apostles were seated at the eucharistic table.

In honor of this solemnity the bells ring out during Mass their joyous peals; then, till Holy Saturday, they remain silent. This silence alone is a sign of great mourning, but it recalls to us also the silence of the apostles, not daring to raise their voices to defend their Master. Contrary to the usual practice of feast days, the kiss of peace is not given before the communion. By the suppression of this touching symbol of friendship the Church has intended to rebuke the perfidious treason consummated on the evening of this day.

The Repository.—The various names of tomb, repository, paradise, that is to say, garden, given by the people’s piety to the chapel which each one hastens to ornament with his richest hangings and his first flowers, alone show the mysteries to which the Church desires to turn our thoughts. The procession to the repository, by the light of candles and torches, already expresses funeral pomps. The incense poured out upon the way of the Blessed Sacrament recalls to us the aromatic herbs of the embalming; the silence of the priest, the mute sorrow of Mary and the disciples; the chants of triumph, the joyous canticles of the angels of heaven; the return without pomp, the sad descent from Calvary. In this paradise the chalice will be the tomb of the Saviour; the pall with which it is covered replaces the stone rolled before the sepulchre, and the paten laid above it represents the seal of the Pharisees. (Gavantus, p. iv. tit. 8.) A white veil envelops this mystic tomb, in memory of the winding-sheet which was used in the burial.

Blessing of the Holy Oils.—In this consecration everything is full of mystery: the day, the moment, the ceremonies. The day, Holy Thursday, feast of the Eucharist, seemed marvellously suitable to the consecration of the matter of the sacraments, which all, in some sort, bear upon that of our altars. The moment: the oil of the sick is blessed before the Pater in that part of the Mass which represents Our Lord on the cross, making Himself infirm in order to cure us, and dying for us. What abundant graces spring then from all the wounds of the Saviour upon that matter henceforth sanctified! This, become the channel of these precious graces, applied to the members of the sick man will give him health, often of body, always of soul. It is after the communion that the oil of catechumens and the holy chrism are consecrated, because the two sacraments of which they are especially the matter were instituted after the Resurrection, and the ceremonies which follow the communion symbolize that part of the life of Our Saviour. (See the Mass, page 15.)

We have said there was mystery in these ceremonies. The breathing of the bishop and the twelve priests who assist him upon the holy oils signifies the intervention of the Holy Spirit, of Whose breath it is the symbol, be it because of its name or because of the manner in which He was communicated to the apostles on the evening of the Resurrection. When the prayers of the liturgy have raised the matter of oil to that degree of power intended for it by God, the Church sees in it but the Spirit of love and peace which is there present by His virtue. This is why the bishop and the twelve priests come in turn to salute with a triple genuflection the holy chrism and the oil of the sick; this is why they respectfully kiss the vase which contains them.

The Washing of Feet.—The Pope washes the feet of thirteen priests of different nations. The Church ordains that, after the example of what is done in Rome, the bishop washes the feet of thirteen poor men.

Why thirteen? Some see here the intention of representing the perfected number of the Apostolic College, the traitor Judas having been replaced by St. Matthias, and God having added St. Paul to the apostles previously chosen. Others, with Benedict XIV., find the reason for this number in a fact of the life of St. Gregory the Great. This holy pontiff each day washed the feet of twelve beggars. One day he remarked a thirteenth, whom no one had seen enter; it was an angel.

The Stripping of the Altars.—After the Mass on Holy Thursday, the stripping of the altars takes place. The missal, the cards, the linens, cloths, and other ornaments are successively taken away, and then the candles are extinguished. The afflicted Church recalls to us by this ceremony the stripping to which Our Lord submitted, to expiate the fault of our first parents. Let us think then of Jesus Christ despoiled of everything, His garments, His glory, and His friends.

4. Good Friday

The altar stripped of its ornaments, the silence of the p. 159bells, the vestments of mourning in the sanctuary, the sadness upon each face, say to us that this day is the anniversary of a great sorrow. The anniversary of the death of a father unites all his children around his tomb. Faithful Christians hasten on Good Friday around the cross and the sepulchre of Jesus Christ. Only the unnatural child is lacking to this fraternal meeting of love and gratitude.

The morning office is divided into four parts: the Lessons, the Prayers, the Adoration of the Cross, and the Mass of the Presanctified.

The Lessons.—Before mounting the altar-steps the priest prays, prostrate, with his face on the earth. On this day, more than on any other, the altar seems to his faith like a new Calvary. But Our Lord, before consummating His sacrifice there, watered with His blood in sorrowful agony the Garden of Gethsemani. The gospel shows Him to us in this anguish, prostrate, His brow in the dust. The humiliated position of the priest recalls to us this first act of the great drama of the passion. The office begins by the reading of certain passages taken from the prophets, Exodus, and the gospel. The Church places before the eyes of her children the history of the great Victim of the human race. The prophets have announced long in advance His sufferings, His humiliations; Exodus, in the sacrifices of the Jewish law, has figured the different circumstances of His death; then the gospel gives us the simple and sublime story of that bloody immolation.

The Prayers.—The reading of the passion finished, the spouse of Jesus Christ, in tears prostrates herself at the foot of the cross, and prays for all the needs of her numerous family. No one is forgotten. Even for the Jews she has a prayer. Only, with the intention of imprinting a stigma upon the ironical genuflections of the prætorium and Calvary, she suppresses that act of adoration when she prays for the deicidal race.

The Unveiling of the Cross.—The ceremony known as the unveiling of the cross represents the preaching and the triumph of a crucified God. It is begun by detaching the portion of the veil which covers the top of the cross, and uncovering it as far as the arm.

It is raised a little, while in a medium voice are chanted the words: “Ecce lignum crucis.” And those present, or rather the entire world, are invited to come and adore: “Venite adoremus.” This first unveiling and the medium tone express the first preaching of the cross which the apostles made among themselves; they did not speak of the mystery of the redemption but with the disciples of Jesus, fearing otherwise to call the attention of the Jews. The cross receives, at the same time, the first homage of adoration, in reparation for the outrages which the Saviour received in the house of Caiphas.

The sacred ministers have gone further into the sanctuary, and uncovered the right arm of the cross. It is then raised higher, and in a louder voice than before is chanted again: “Ecce lignum crucis.” This second unveiling, accompanied with louder tones than the first, represents the preaching of the mystery of the cross to the Jews, after Pentecost; and the adoration which it receives for the second time is a reparation for the injuries of the prætorium.

Then the cross, entirely uncovered, is raised higher p. 160than before, and the chant, become nearly triumphant, repeats: “Ecce lignum crucis.” The solemnity of this last unveiling recalls the preaching of the mystery of the cross in the entire world, and by the third adoration the Church wishes to repair the blasphemies, the genuflections, and the cruelties of Calvary. (Guéranger, Holy Week.)

The Adoration of the Cross.—The cross, entirely uncovered, is shown to the pious and recollected crowd. For many days they have not seen the crucifix; in this moment they contemplate the head crowned with thorns, the hands and feet pierced with nails, the side opened by the iron of the lance, and all, kings and pontiffs, old men and children, rich and poor, come to adore the redeeming wood. Would it not seem as if they were weeping children admitted to the death-chamber of the head of the family, where he was exposed upon his bed, and presenting themselves with respectful grief to kiss his beloved remains?

Under the influence of one of those sweet illusions so familiar to sorrow and love, the faithful son sees in this moment but Calvary and its sorrowful road; out of respect for its dust empurpled with the divine blood, and in reparation for the falls of the Redeemer, he removes his shoes, and three times he bends his knee and bows his head.

Mass of the Presanctified.—Properly speaking there is no Mass on Good Friday. The ceremony which takes its place is called the Mass of the Presanctified; Mass, because some of the rites of the Mass are preserved; of the Presanctified, that is to say, gifts consecrated before, because the celebrant there offers to the adoration p. 161of the people, and consumes himself, the host consecrated in the Mass of Holy Thursday. The clergy go to bring from the repository the host reserved in the chalice. The altar-candles are lighted to receive the Blessed Sacrament. The absence of lights in the preceding ceremonies recalls to us the darkness which accompanied the death of our God. In this Mass the Church omits that which has direct connection with the mysteries of Calvary, and all the prayers in which mention is made of the communion of the faithful, or that under the species of wine, both of which have no place in this day. (Gav. p. iv. tit. 9.)

The elevation at the Pater is made with the right hand only, to distinguish it from the ordinary form; nothing, on this sorrowful day, must resemble other days. The prayer Libera nos is to-day said aloud, to celebrate the descent of Jesus Christ into Limbo, and the deliverance of the souls which were detained there. (Rational, l. iv. c. 49.)

Vespers, recited in a grave and mournful voice, end the office of the morning.

5. Holy Saturday

To understand the different parts of the office of this day, let us recall three facts: first, that this office, celebrated now in the morning, was formerly said in the night of Easter; secondly, that in this night the catechumens were baptized; thirdly, that the Mass was said in the dawn of the very day of the resurrection.

Blessing of the New Fire.—The lamps of the sanctuary, extinguished during these days, should have reminded us that the divine Light has, in a sense, extinguished and eclipsed Himself in the night of the tomb; the blessing of the new fire will represent to us His glorious return. In this ceremony the Church wears purple, the color of mourning; the joys of the Resurrection have not yet rejoiced the heart of the sorrowing spouse. However, it is no longer, like yesterday, black; hope has allowed some sweet rays to fall into her soul; her Beloved will soon be restored to her. For the blessing of the fire, the clergy go outside the church, following the steps of the holy women who had to go out of Jerusalem to reach the sepulchre. The celebrant, taking a stone, strikes from it a new fire. The stone is an emblem of Jesus Christ: though stricken by death at the hands of the Jews, He has none the less become, by His resurrection, the sacred fire which enlightens and warms the world. This glorious life, of which the sepulchre was as the cradle, Jesus Christ has not received; it was in Himself; the Church wishes to figure this mystery of the power of the Saviour raising Himself when she commands that the new fire shall not be taken from a fire already existing. The grains of incense, blessed with the new fire, recall to us the aromatic herbs brought to the sepulchre by Magdalen and her pious companions.

The Triangular Candle.—After blessing the new fire, the clergy enter again the holy place. The deacon carries a rod surmounted by a candle in three branches. This rod and triple candle symbolize Jesus Christ in His two natures: one the human nature with its weakness; the other the divine nature all resplendent with the glories of the Holy Trinity. One of the branches of this candle is lighted in the door of the church, and the deacon, showing it, says: “Lumen Christi”—“Behold the light of p. 162Christ”; and the response is made with genuflection: “Deo gratias”—“Thanks be to God.” The second branch and then the third is lighted and shown to the people, with the same words said in louder tone. This triple manifestation of the light marks for us the preaching by the Incarnate Word of the divinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and this tone, gradually raised, expresses the word, heard in the first instance like a faint murmur in the little circle of the apostles, and later resounding like the violent wind which symbolized it on the day of Pentecost, and that the voice of the Lord has dominated by its power the thunder of angry waters. (Ps. xxviii. 3; Guéranger; Gavantus.) As to the deacon clothed in white, delegated to be the messenger of the good tidings, he recalls to us the angel shining in light who announced to the holy women the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Blessing of the Paschal Candle.—It is the duty of the deacon to fulfil this function of the liturgy in the presence of the priest and even of the bishop. Jesus Christ arisen appeared first to the holy women, and then to the disciples at Emmaus, and then to the apostles reunited in the upper chamber of the last supper. Because of this fact in the Gospel, the inferior in the hierarchy has been preferred for the blessing of the paschal candle over the bishops and priests, successors of the disciples and the apostles.

As preliminaries of this ceremony the Gospel of the Mass is said; then the deacon, immediately, without saying Dominus vobiscum, to better express the agitation of the Church at the tidings of the Resurrection, intones the Exultet, that sublime chant which celebrates the victory over hell and death. The immortal Conqueror is there before our eyes, figured by the paschal candle. This, not yet lighted, recalls Jesus Christ stricken by death, and the five grains of incense, His embalming. The embalmed candle is lighted by the new fire, and then with its light and its five grains of incense it appears to us as a magnificent symbol of the Saviour, preserving after His resurrection His glorious wounds, the sight of which alone is a prayer full of tenderness and grace before His Father. (Guéranger, The Liturgical Year.)

From the paschal candle the other candles and the sanctuary lamp are lighted, as it is Jesus Christ from whom the apostles, the true torches of the world, received their light, destined to enlighten the universe. During the forty days consecrated to the honor of the mysteries of the risen Saviour the paschal candle lights the offices of the Church; it disappears on Ascension-day after the reading of the Gospel.

The Lessons.—We have said that in the night of Easter the catechumens were solemnly baptized. While they were gathered in the church porch the priests gave them the preparatory rites of baptism. To keep the assembly attentive, passages of the Scriptures were read relative to the circumstances, and divided by prayers and canticles. The number of the Lessons reminded the catechumens of the twelve apostles, to whom, after God, they owed the blessing of faith. (Gem. animæ, l. iii. c. 108.) At the prayer which accompanies each one of these lessons the knee is bent, except at the last one. This retraces the history of the three young Hebrews, who preferred to suffer the fires of the furnace rather p. 163than give idolatrous homage to the statue of Nabuchodonosor. The Church omits the genuflection to honor the beautiful example of fidelity to God given to all ages, and also to publicly condemn idolatry in the presence of the catechumens, taken, for the most part, from the darkness of paganism.

Blessing of the Water.—The Lessons finished, the clergy go to the sacred fonts; the celebrant there blesses the water destined for regeneration, following a rite religiously preserved by the Church, which we are about to explain. The priest, after having implored the divine intervention, touches the water thrice with his hand. The first time he divides it in the form of a cross, to show that, by virtue of the cross, the waters have received their power to regenerate souls. The second time he touches it with his hand to imprint this virtue upon it, that it may vivify and purify. The third time, after dividing it, he throws it towards the four points of the compass, to signify that all nations from the north and the south, the east and the west, are called to the grace of baptism.

Thrice also the priest breathes upon the water in the form of a cross, to call upon the matter of baptism, by the merits of Jesus Christ crucified, the fruitful intervention of the three divine Persons.

The water, prepared from the beginning of the world to become the powerful instrument of mercies, received all its virtue in the Jordan from the contact with the divine flesh of Jesus Christ. The Church expresses this mystery by plunging into the water the paschal candle, symbol of the Saviour. Its triple immersion figures the three immersions of baptism. But the regeneration of man is pre-eminently the work of the Holy Spirit; this is why the priest at the same time prays Him to descend upon the waters of baptism and pour out upon them His fruitful grace; also, to represent this merciful intervention, he breathes again upon the water, making this time with his breath the Greek letter ψ, the first of the word spirit in the language of the Hellenes; then he pours into it the oil of catechumens and holy chrism, sacred gifts become since Holy Thursday the repositories of divine graces.

At this moment was begun the immersion of catechumens. This solemn baptism on Holy Saturday is no longer customary; only the aspersion of water upon the assistants after the blessing is a souvenir of it. The new Christians then re-entered the church, and saluted their new brothers of heaven by the chant of the litanies. (Guér., Gav.)

Mass of Holy Saturday.—The altar, stripped and bare during these last days, is to-day re-clad with white linens and its rich ornaments, to represent to us the glories of the Resurrection.

Dawn begins to tinge the horizon, the commemorative hour of the Resurrection has arrived; the bells, uniting their sweet voices, celebrate it in a unanimous concert. For many long days the Alleluia has been banished from the liturgy; in the sorrows of exile, fallen man could not repeat it, but to-day heaven is opened to us; before we taste the joys of eternity let us repeat the sweetest of its canticles: “Alleluia, Alleluia!” At the Gospel incense is carried, but not candles. Again an allusion to the events of this morning. The holy women have come to the tomb with perfumes, p. 164but their souls were not illumined with the light of faith. Did they not expect to find in the sepulchre Him Who had promised to rise again on the third day? (Rational, l. vi. c. 81.) “There was in them all the ardor of love,” says Alcuin, “but faith was extinct.”

The Credo is not sung; it is the symbol of the faith preached by the apostles, and they had not yet believed in the resurrection of their Master. (Gavantus, p. iv. tit. 10.)

There is no Offertory at this Mass. The faithful, presenting as they did the bread and wine intended for the sacrifice, and the number of those intending to communicate, and consequently offer, being great, the length of this ceremony would have added still more to the fatigues of the night. For these reasons of charitable condescension the Offertory was omitted. The same thoughtfulness has made the Vespers of this day chosen from the shortest of all the psalms. Sung in the place of the anthem of the Communion, they are like a canticle of thanksgiving of the newly baptized, admitted for the first time to the banquet of the Lamb. Our Lord not having given peace to His apostles until the evening of His resurrection, the Kiss of Peace, and the Agnus Dei, which speaks of peace, are suppressed in the Mass of Holy Saturday.