Our second Good Friday photopost of this year continues to highlight the variety of our Catholic liturgical heritage, with ceremonies in both the pre- and post-Pian forms of the EF, as well as the OF, and Vespers in the Byzantine Rite. We also have an interesting example from Germany of popular devotion in a liturgical context.
A much larger number of pictures of Tenebrae services were sent in this year, so we will probably have two posts of those before we move on to the Easter vigil and Easter Sunday. There is always room for more, so feel free to send your late submissions in to photopost@newliturgicalmovement.org. Evangelize through beauty!
A much larger number of pictures of Tenebrae services were sent in this year, so we will probably have two posts of those before we move on to the Easter vigil and Easter Sunday. There is always room for more, so feel free to send your late submissions in to photopost@newliturgicalmovement.org. Evangelize through beauty!
Old St Patrick Oratory - Kansas City, Missouri (ICKSP)
St Eugène - Paris, France
Watch the complete service on the Youtube channel of the Schola Sainte-Cécile
Watch the complete service on the Youtube channel of the Schola Sainte-Cécile
St John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Church - Minneapolis, Minnesota
Vespers of Good Friday is the principal and most popular commemoration of the Lord’s Passion.
The Gospel at this service is a composite text, in which passages from Ss Luke and John are inserted into chapter 27 of St Matthew: verses 1-38, followed by Luke 23, 39-43 (Jesus and the two thieves), verses 39-54, followed by John 19, 31-37 (Jesus commends His Mother to St John), and then verses 55-61. The conclusion of the same chapter, verses 62-66, the account of Christ’s burial, is read at the Matins which follow.
Towards the end of the service, the ‘epitaphios’, an icon of the dead Christ, is laid on the altar, and incensed...
It is then carried in procession through the church, down to a table set up for that purpose in the nave. In the Greek custom, everyone passes under it and kisses it before it is laid on the table...
...and incensed again (of course!) The table then becomes the focus of the rest of the service, and of the services of Holy Saturday, until it is removed before the Paschal vigil.
St Francis de Sales - Benedict, Maryland
Damenstiftkirche - Munich, Germany (FSSP)
Here we see an example of a popular Bavarian custom: on Maundy Thursday not one, but two Hosts are reserved for Good Friday. Immediately after the priest’s Communion at the Mass of the Presanctified, the second Host is placed in a veiled monstrance, then carried in a solemn procession to be exposed at the “Holy Sepulchre.” This sepulchre (which is normally set up is the same place as the altar of repose) also contains an image of the dead Christ, and is traditionally decorated with glass balls filled with coloured water, behind which candles are placed. Sepulchres of this kind were often large stage-like structures, but most disappeared after the so-called Enlightenment, and many of the survivors after Vatican II; however, they have enjoyed a resurgence in recent years, not only among traditionalists. The Exposition ends on Good Friday evening, and is nowadays in some places resumed on Holy Saturday morning. During the Easter Vigil (more traditionally, I think, during or after the Matins of Easter) the figure of the dead Christ is removed, and a risen Christ is placed at the top. (This custom is described in some German medieval liturgical books as a formal part of the liturgy.)
Cathedral of St Eugene - Santa Rosa, California
San Simon Piccolo - Venice, Italy (FSSP)
Nuestra Señora de la Paz y San Pio X - Guatemala City, Guatemala
St Joseph - Richmond, Virginia
After the solemn liturgy, a statue of the dead Christ was carried to an area filled with flowers, and laid before a statue of Our Lady of Sorrows; the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary were prayed.
