The Triduum

On Saturday night the Byzantine Catholic church service (figuratively) called: Easter was something I wanted to meet in person instead of second-hand on Sunday morning. I was ready to experience the Resurrection with the first responders, the women instead of with Thomas and the other apostles.

I arrived at the appointed hour of 10pm not knowing what to expect other than than what not to expect – converts. The Byzantine church has a tiny congregation and I was aware of no RCIA candidates. Of course the Byzantine church doesn’t need converts to properly celebrate the Lord’s Resurrection in an elaborate way.

The church was somewhat darkened when I took my seat. There was a reciting of Psalms going on, and I was irritated that I couldn’t find where in the large pampthlet where we were, despite my "early" arrival. I figured this was a pre-liturgy but it seemed the liturgy itself was a collection of pre-liturgies until the familiar words of the consecration. Someone arrived not long after me and left about an hour into it.

It's surely gauche to time the liturgy, which is sort of like looking at your watch during sex. But it lasted over 2 hours, which would've been more manageable at 8pm instead of 10pm. I’d taken off my coat, unaware that we’d be going outside. After having my candle lit by a bystander, we processed out and heard the gospel outside. I was very cold and glad when we headed back in.

Soon after getting back inside all was lit up. Christ was risen! The pastor made the rounds with incense, telling us that Christ is Risen to which we responded, “indeed He is risen!”. He did it not once or twice but likely eight or twelve times. We are slow and I think I appreciated the necessity of this.
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I rather liked this opening line from Betty Duffy on her blog: “It’s always around this time of year that I wish I had given up a noun rather than a verb for Lent.”

It has about it the ring of veracity even without accompaniment. I’m always impressed, after the fact, just how long Lent really is.

Lent is a good time to test oneself. Ash Wednesday, I’ve always found, is a day much easier to fast than Good Friday even though I suspect it should be the other way around. I should be in good spiritual shape by Good Friday, not to mention how the day itself is pyrotechnically more important than the first.