Friday 10 April 2009

Tenebrae for Holy Saturday


Tenebrae for Holy Saturday takes place in the late afternoon or evening of Good Friday.

The service is structurally the same as that sung for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday and the differences will be noted. The choir altar is as it was after Vespers this morning with six candlesticks and altar Cross now unveiled. Choir reverence are omitted until after None tomorrow.

At Mattins the first antiphon is In pace. The psalms are strictly proper. After the last verse of each psalm a candle is exstinguished on the hearse. The Lamentations of Jeremy form the first nocturn lessons with the Prayer of Jeremy as third lesson. The second nocturn lessons are again from St. Augustine on the psalms and in the third nocturn again from St. Paul to the Hebrews. The theme of the service is Christ in the Tomb. At Lauds the antiphon on the Benedictus is Mulieres, sung to the same tone as the previous nights and doubled. Exactly the same ceremonies take place as last night. When the Christus factus est is sung Propter quod et Deus exaltavit illum, dedit illi nomen, quod est super omne nomen is added.

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