Easter Triduum starts Maundy Thursday

Starting Thursday, the faithful will culminate another liturgical year with the Easter Triduum, a series of activities marking the passion, burial and resurrection of Christ. The Triduum starts with the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Maundy Thursday, reaches its high point during the Easter Vigil, and ends with the evening prayer on Easter Sunday. “Christ redeemed us all and gave perfect glory to God principally through his paschal mystery: dying he destroyed our death and rising he restored our life. Therefore, the Easter Triduum of the passion, burial, and resurrection of Christ is the culmination of the entire liturgical year. Thus the solemnity of Easter has the same kind of preeminence in the liturgical year that Sunday has in the week," the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Manila said of the Triduum. In Manila, archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales will personally lead the activities in the Easter Triduum, while similar activities will be held in various churches and shrines. During the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper, a priest will wash the feet of a group of persons representing a cross-section of the local community. The RCAM said there are traditionally 12 community members whose feet will be washed, to commemorate Christ’s washing his disciple’s feet. After communion, a ciborium with hosts for Good Friday is left on the altar, which is stripped privately. Crosses will be covered with red or purple veil and lamps should not be lit before images of saints. Holy water may be removed from all fonts and are refilled with the water blessed at the Easter Vigil. From Thursday to Saturday until the Easter Vigil, the paschal fast and abstinence is observed everywhere to honor the suffering and death of Christ, and for the faithful to prepare themselves to renew their baptismal promises and to share more deeply in his resurrection. The celebration of Christ’s Passion takes place about 3 p.m. on Friday. After the celebration, the altar is stripped, the cross remaining on the altar with four candles. On Holy Saturday, the image of Christ crucified or lying in the tomb or the descent into hell, as well as an image of the sorrowful Virgin Mary, can be placed in the church for veneration. The celebration of marriage is forbidden, as is also the celebration of other sacraments, except those of penance and the anointing of the sick. Easter vigil begins after nightfall of Saturday and ends before the dawn of Sunday. On Sunday, Mass should be celebrated with great solemnity. At the renewal of baptismal promises, all are sprinkled with water blessed on Easter night. The Easter candle, will then be placed near the ambo or near the altar, and kept there for the whole Easter season until the end of Pentecost Sunday. Highlighting the first Mass of Easter Sunday is the “encuentro," where the presider greets the people with adapted welcome and greeting at the plaza or at the door of the church. During the “encuentro," the statues of the Risen Christ and of Our Lady meet and greet each other. Then both are brought processionally inside the church (sanctuary), while an appropriate Easter song and the Gloria are sung.-GMANews.TV