Just to be clear, there is no complete celebration of the joy of Easter without participating in the liturgies of Holy Week and specifically the Triduum—the three days that begin with the evening liturgy of Maundy Thursday and the Good Friday noon service of the Mass of the PreSanctified. PreScanctified simply means that there is no celebration of the Eucharist on this day, and we receive communion from the Blessed Sacrament consecrated the night before.
The climax of the sacred Triduum is reached in the Great Vigil of Easter, a service which abounds in archetypal imagery that evokes responses from deep within the human psyche: darkness and light, death and life, chaos and order, slavery and freedom.
The liturgy is intended as the first and primary celebration of Easter. The service begins in darkness, sometime between sunset or earlier on Holy Saturday
- The Liturgy of Light (kindling of new fire, lighting the Paschal candle, symbolizing the light of Christ, the singing of the Exsultet a song of praise in the light of the Paschal Candle)
- The Liturgy of the Word (readings from the Hebrew Scriptures interspersed with psalms, hymns, canticles, and prayers)
- The Blessing of Baptismal Water followed by Christian Initiation (Holy Baptism) and/or the Renewal of Baptismal Vows
- The first Eucharist of Easter with bells and light and music and the singing of Alleluias!
The Great Vigil of Easter recovers an ancient practice of keeping the Easter feast. Believers would gather in the hours of darkness ending at dawn on Easter to hear scripture and offer prayer. This night-long service of prayerful watching anticipated the baptisms that would come at first light and the Easter Eucharist. Easter was the primary baptismal occasion for the early church to the practical exclusion of all others. This practice linked the meanings of Christ’s dying and rising to the understanding of baptism.
The very form of the Easter Vigil reminds us that God works slowly. It reminds us that, even when we feel we are trapped in a time of endless waiting or wandering aimlessly in the desert, we are accompanied, that all of God’s work ever so gradually replaces the darkness with light, silence with bells, dry wells with water. All emptiness eventually gives way to Alleluia.
Come join us this year as we celebrate the first service of Easter! Bring your eyes, ears, nose and bells, any kind of bell you have. Let’s make a joyful noise. This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!