It’s hard to get congregations to think of the Triduum as one feast spread over three days.
Our days start at midnight—or, in actual usage, sometime in the morning when we wake up. But Jewish days start
the evening before, and continue to the following evening. It’s just hard to wrap one’s modern,
Christian mind around that.
And the days are so different! Holy Thursday, with its footwashing ritual, feels very different from Good Friday, and both feel even more different from the Easter Vigil. How can they be experienced as one feast?
One way, of course, is to choose music that can span and unite the three. It’s not easy but it can be done. Obviously, as you’re reading this, you’re thinking, “But we can’t change the music now! It’s all planned and rehearsed!” So make notes and put them in a file for Triduum planning next year—or you’ll still be in the same boat.
For example, avoid didactic texts for the footwashing, texts that just repeat the words of the Gospel. The congregation knows the story already! They’ve just heard the story of the Last Supper. The last thing they need now is a text that just repeats the story again. It’s overkill, in a way. But an ostinato refrain, such as the Taizé “Jesus, Remember Me” or “Ubi Caritas,” can free up the assembly to see the link between the example of Jesus and their own lives. How much actual washing of feet do we actually do, anyhow? What in the community’s repertoire speaks to that kind of humble, sacrificial service?
(If you’re thinking, “Hmm, ‘Three Days’ sounds like a good hymn title in this context, you’re right. And that is a hint.)
All rights reserved.
from Religious Clip Art for the Liturgical Year (A, B, and C).
This art may be reproduced only by parishes who purchase the collection in book or CD-ROM form. For more information go http://www.ltp.org