Paschal Triduum

As Triduum Sacrum (Latin for sacred three days ) or Triduum Paschale " Paschal three days," is referred to in the liturgy of the period that begins with the Mass on Holy Thursday evening of the Last Supper, from Good Friday, the day of the passion and death of the Lord, on Holy Saturday, the day of the Holy Sepulchre rest of the Lord, extends and ends with Easter Sunday as the day of the Lord's Resurrection.

History

The early church understood under the Triduum Sacrum the three-day Celebration of the Passion, the Grabesruhe and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It originally included the Friday before Easter as the day of death, Saturday as the day of rest and Easter Sunday as the day of resurrection. Liturgical counts the eve of a day already the next day, so that the Triduum originally extended from Thursday evening to Sunday evening. The term appears probably the first time in the 4th century by the church father Ambrose, and is deepened by theological students whose Augustine. For the late antique church it was still, of course, to understand suffering and resurrection of Jesus as two sides of the same saving event ( Paschal Mystery ); so the whole Triduum formed from a single, continuous liturgy.

In the Middle Ages the sense of this relationship was lost. The suffering memory on the one hand and the celebration of the Resurrection on the other hand became independent more and more. This led to a doubling of the Triduum. You committed a first Triduum, which ranged from Maundy Thursday to Holy Saturday, as a three-day commemoration suffering with the Good Friday as Central and climax. In German-speaking naturalized in these days the term " Kartage " one. A second Triduum of Easter Sunday, Easter Monday and Easter Tuesday joined them, which had the form of three non-working holidays. Even the liturgical books that were issued to the Council of Trent in the late 16th century in connection, highlight the Monday and the Tuesday of the Easter Octave compared to the other days of the Octave of Easter. The Easter Tuesday, the third day of Easter disappeared in most regions in the 19th century, mostly in the context of secularization and enlightenment.

The liturgical movement of the 20th century discovered the original Triduum new. The Roman Catholic Church had this rediscovery in the reform of the Holy Week of 1955/56, incorporated; the liturgical reform after the Second Vatican Council rezipierte this going back to the origin. Thus the Triduum Sacrum according to the liturgical books again covers the period from the evening Mass of Holy Thursday - the celebration of the Last Supper - until Vespers of Easter Sunday. The whole Triduum is regarded as a single solemnity, the highest of the church year. It results in the liturgical books entitled "The Easter Triduum of the Passion, the death and resurrection of the Lord ."

Liturgy

In the liturgy of the holy three days the services of Holy Thursday ( The Last Supper ), Good Friday ( the suffering and death of the Lord) and form a single Easter Vigil Celebration of the Passion, the death and the resurrection. These services begin and end abnormally. So the Holy Mass ends on Holy Thursday without the final blessing; in most churches is after the subsequent transfer of the Blessed Sacrament in memory of the agony of Jesus on the Mount of Olives a time of silent adoration - or kept a vigil - the so-called Mount of Olives hour. The Liturgy of Good Friday begins with a silent cheers ratio, the self- downing of priests and deacons, and without opening greeting of the priest. It ends with a prayer of blessing over the people. On Holy Saturday only Liturgy of the Hours takes place. The celebration of the Easter Vigil begins with the lighting ceremony and the arrival of the Easter candle in the dark church. It is this worship ends again with the Schlussegen the celebration and an actual release. Good Friday and Holy Saturday are the only days in the church year, at which no Holy Mass is celebrated.

Even in many churches of the Reformation, the Triduum Sacrum has been rediscovered as a liturgical unit and configured accordingly in recent decades. In this context, the previously much-debated question of whether the Good Friday or Easter Sunday is the highest feast has become redundant.

The Eastern churches had never lost the connection between suffering memory and celebration of the resurrection, and thus the original Triduum.