Schedule
Lent, the Season of purification and enlightenment, focused on the Elect [1] in their final formative moments to be made members of the Body of Christ. The Faithful [2] had a baptismal focus for Lent as well. Recognizing that the radiance of baptismal life has been tarnished by sin, the Faithful responded to the promptings of Holy Spirit to permit baptismal holiness to shine forth through grace-initiated acts of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. These works involve the whole person – body, mind and heart – and now equips one to renewal Baptismal Promises at the celebration of Jesus’ Resurrection. So as the sun sets on Thursday of Holy Week, the Season of Lent draws to a quiet close and the Church enters the most solemn time of the year: the Sacred Paschal Triduum.
“Since Christ accomplished His work of human redemption and of the perfect glorification of God principally through His Paschal [3] Mystery,[4] in which by dying He has destroyed our death, and by rising restored our life, the Sacred Paschal Triduum of the Passion and Resurrection of the Lord shines forth as the high point of the entire liturgical year. Therefore the preeminence that Sunday has in the week, the Solemnity of Easter has in the liturgical year.[5]
The Paschal Triduum of the Passion and Resurrection of the Lord begins with the evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper, has its center in the Easter Vigil, and closes with Vespers (Evening Prayer II) of the Sunday of the Resurrection.
On Friday of the Passion of the Lord [6] (Good Friday) and, if appropriate, also on Holy Saturday until the Easter Vigil, [7] the Sacred Paschal fast is everywhere observed.
The Easter Vigil, in the holy night when the Lord rose again, is considered the “Mother of all holy vigils,” [8] in which the Church, keeping watch, awaits the Resurrection of Christ and celebrates it in the Sacraments. therefore, the entire celebration of this Sacred Vigil must take place at night, so that it both begins after nightfall and ends before the dawn on the Sunday.”[9]
[1] Elect are those chosen (elected) by the Bishop at the beginning of Lent to be incorporated into the Body of Christ through the Easter Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and the Most Holy Eucharist.
[2] Faithful are those who have been fully initiated into the Body of Christ through the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and the Most Holy Eucharist.
[3] The word Paschal is the English translation of the Hebrew word pesah — “Passover.”
[4] The word Mystery, so important in Catholic Theology, originates in the Greek root verb muo. Translated literally, muo was used often in antiquity ‘to close or shut the mouth’ thus listen. Closing or shutting the mouth also conveyed a sense of fasting. Thus aspects of Catholic Christian living that are described as Mystery or Mysteries is or are NOT primary about being unknown but about living the reality by listening and fasting.
[5] Second Vatican Council, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, 5.
[6] Paul VI, Apostolic Constitution, Paenitemini, February 17, 1966, II §3: Acta Apostolicae Sedis 58 (1966), p. 184.
[7] Second Vatican Council, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, 110.
[8] Augustine, Sermon 219.
[9] Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the Calendar, 18-21.