Divine office chant audio6/26/2023 ![]() It is like a mini religious retreat for lay people. When I first encountered Tenebrae, I was struck by its intensity to help lay faithful enter into Holy Week with a greater degree of contemplation. Personally, I wanted to urge you to consider coming if you haven’t before, and experience this deeply moving, and prayerful part of Holy Week at Mater Dei. This is done usually by banging books on the pews for several seconds, until the “Christ candle” is returned to view again. ![]() Then, traditionally, a “loud noise/commotion” (the strepitus) is made, represents the convulsion of nature following the death of Christ the chaos of the world without a savior. The candles on the high altar are extinguished while the Benedictus is chanted, and then the famous “Christus Factus est” chant is sung at the end, while the candle representing Christ is hidden, so there is total darkness. As each psalm is completed, 1 candle is extinguished, until only the lone candle at the top is left personally, I have found this to be a powerful reminder of the apostles abandoning Christ in his darkest hour. There is a candle “hearse” at the front, shaped like a triangle, with 15 candles. The priests attend “in choir” in the sanctuary, and chant the lessons that separate the psalms during Matins. The choir sits in the front pews of the nave, women/men on separate sides, and we alternate chanting the verses of the psalms. Since we have the Maundy Thursday mass in the evening, we do not chant the Tenebrae service of Good Friday. That means on Wednesday night (tomorrow), we will chant the Matins/Lauds of Holy Thursday, and on Friday night, we chant the matins/lauds of Holy Saturday. So following this tradition of making it available for parishioners in a parish setting, we chant it on the previous night. In the earliest centuries, it was chanted shortly after midnight, but starting in the middle ages, it became the common practice to chant it on the evening before in anticipation, to make it more widely accessible to clergy and laity. Usually, in religious orders, this part of the office should be chanted when it is still dark outside, and sung by the light of candles only. Tenebrae means “darkness” or “shadows”, and it refers to the chanting of matins/lauds of the Divine Office on the 3 days leading up to Easter Sunday: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. ![]()
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