Date/Time
Date(s) - 03/28/2018
7:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Location
Cathedral of Saint Joseph, Manchester, New Hampshire
Categories
Tenebrae will prayed in the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament. The entrance is on Lowell Street.
Tenebrae is a Latin word meaning “shadows” or “darkness.” It designated a special form of prayer which was originally prayed by the Church on Good Friday and Holy Saturday. Currently, the Office of Tenebrae is most commonly celebrated on Wednesday of Holy Week. The service consists of the Office for Readings and Morning Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours, the daily prayer of the Church. It is dramatically marked by the extinguishing of the church lights and of the seven candles placed in a candelabrum in the sanctuary. The service takes its name from the responsory, Tenebrae factae sunt. Originally, the service began before dawn with candles lighting the darkness. As daylight became stronger, fewer candles were needed and, one by one, they were put out. The gradual extinguishing of light, however, took on a deeper symbolic meaning associated with these solemn days of the Paschal Triduum. As the Church over the centuries commemorated the death of the Lord, the decreasing candlelight became a sign of the apparent triumph of evil and of the apparent failure of God’s plan of salvation. The single candle left burning is the symbol and promise of Christ’s triumph over death and darkness. The loud noise, or strepitus, at the conclusion of the service suggests the earthquake described in the Passion narratives.
