St. Frances Cabrini RCC

Celebration of the
Easter Triduum

The Meaning of the Triduum
We are about to enter into the holiest days of the Church year, the Sacred Triduum.  Triduum means
"Three Days"," and it fefers to the three days that begin on Holy Thursday evening and end on Easter Sunday evening. These three days form one observance that is its own unique and central part of the liturgical year. The Three Days are not part of Lent, since Lent ends sometime on Holy Thursday afternoon. Indeed, the Triduum is a season set apart, three full days lived as one central moment in the life of every Christian and of the Christian community as a whole.

During these days, we are called to enter into a period of prayer, fasting, and vigiling, a period which reaches
its climax at the  Easter Vigil. There is a unity to the Triduum days that is manifested even in the way the different liturgies begin and end: on Thursday, there is no dismissal or conclusion; on Friday, we gather and leave with no introductory rites. We begin on Thursday and don't conclude until after the Vigil, as Easter Sunday is a kind of extension of the Vigil celebration.

These days are the focal point for the entire liturgical year, the central moment around which all else revolves.
These days are central because they draw us into the heart of our identity as church, as a people who have died and risen with Jesus Christ. We celebrate our dying and rising in Christ today. We are all called to reenter the mystery of dying more fully to self and rising in the Lord.

Setting Special Time Aside
Because the Triduum leads us powerfully into the core of who we are in Christ, these days should be
observed as fully as possible.  Our activities during the Three Days should be something other than "business as usual." As far as possible, Christians should abstain from normal activity on these days. We should free ourselves from the usual routines of work, meals, household tasks and entertainment; these should give way to keeping these days as a time of "retreat," a special time set apart for intense involvement with the mystery we celebrate. We should give ourselves the luxuary of allowing these days to look and feel different from other days of the year, entering into a sense of timelessness so that these days stand apart. There should be nothing in our schedule that distracts us from the proper spirit of these days.

One central focus which can help us enter into the proper spirit is fasting during these days.
The Second Vatican Council issued this appeal for the Paschal Fast in its Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, paragraph #110:
Let the paschal fast be kept sacred. Let it be observed everywhere on Good Friday and, where possible, prolonged through Holy Saturday, as a way of coming to the joys of the Sunday of the resurrection with uplifted and welcoming heart.
 

This two-day fast is notpenitential in nature, like the Lenten fast; instead, it is preparatory, in
anticipation of the coming feast. It is the fasting of those who are too excited to eat, the fasting of those who are so engrossed in something that they simply forget to stop for a meal. It is a powerful way of marking these days as unique--nothing as usual prevails, not even our habits of eating and drinking. And, of course, this fast can involve more than food and drink too. The purpose of the fast is to focus our life on the mystery of Christ's death and resurrection, so it may be just as or more important to fast from television, radio, and all the other distractions that usually fill our life. The challenge is to find ways to keep these days special, to keep them holy, to keep ourselves focused on the Lord and the meaning of our life to Him.

Thus, while the fast is only strictly required on Good Friday, the Second Vatican Council and subsequent
documents have called for its extension through Saturday. As such, the fast becomes a focus for preparing to approach the Easter Vigil on Saturday night; the church gets ready for that night. Each individual should create his or her own routine of prayer and reflection and fasting for these days.

What Happens During These Three Days
Everyone is invited to share in celebrating the Triduum liturgies! Wheather you are young or old,
currently active in the parish or not, please set these days aside. All of us should know that we areneeded at these liturgies; all of us need our whole community together on these greatest days in our year.
During the three days of the Sacred Triduum, we gather a number of times. Together we hear some
of the church's most beautiful prayers and scriptures and we make some of our finest music. Described below is the
parish schedule:
- Holy Thursday
- Good Friday
- The Easter Vigil

The Easter Season
The Triduum ends on Easter Sunday evening, and the days of Eastertime begin. The fifty (50) days of
the Easter Season, from Easter Sunday to Pentecost, are celebrated in joyful exultation as one feast day, even as one
"great Sunday".  The things we do during the Triduum need fifty days to play themselves out; the mysteries celebrated at the Vigil need to be unfolded.  This is the period of mystagogia, reflecting on the mysteries, for those initiated into the church. It is the time for all of us to reflect on the meaning of our baptism and the meaning of living the resurrected life of Christ.

ALLELUJA