Triduum

TRIDUUM is a Latin term, which describes the three days' devotion at the heart of our paschal celebration: the liturgies of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil. All three are really part of one great, intense, extended liturgy which demands a church gathered in watch and prayer. They bring us face to face with the unwearied evil that runs beneath our life; they confront that evil in the triumph of the cross. They bring us to the font where we all began our lifelong Passover. They express how hard and beautiful a thing it is to pass from death to life, from sin to grace.
The Triduum is celebrated in all its richness at St. John's.

On Maundy Thursday, a remarkable liturgy gives thanks for the gift of the Eucharist but remembers the cost of that gift. The Last Supper is made present for us; feet are washed; we receive the commandment to love one another. But we leave the supper to enter darkness. Lights are extinguished; the organ is silenced; the altar is stripped and washed; the cross is veiled in black. And all night, some will watch with Christ, like the disciples in the garden. The Maundy Thursday service begins at 7:30 p.m.

The Good Friday Litugry takes us to the foot of the cross. On this day of all the year, the Eucharist is not celebrated, for this day commemorates the Great Eucharist: Christ's full and perfect offering of himself. Our sung service will be at 12:10 p.m. this year. There will be said services at 8:00 a.m. and 5:15 p.m.

The Holy Saturday Observance begins with Morning Prayer and Ante-Communion at 9:00 a.m. The Eucharist is begun, but stops short of completion. It must await the first Eucharist of Easter