Holy Week & Triduum photos from Blackfriars

Below are some photos from this year's Holy Week and Triduum at Blackfriars, Oxford:



On Holy Monday, the community hosted an ecumenical Stations of the Cross. It was a chance for us to introduce the 14 Stations to other Christian communities in central Oxford and three Dominican students and members of other Christian communities gave brief reflections at each station.

This act of witness to our faith in Christ's saving death was expressed more publicly on Spy Wednesday as we walked through the busiest streets of Oxford, carrying a cross and giving out leaflets to shoppers and passers-by on the true meaning of Easter:



During the Triduum, the Office of Tenebrae was celebrated. A hearse of 15 unbleached candles is prepared and similarly unbleached candles are placed on the High Altar. In the Dominican custom, these are all gradually extinguished as the Office progresses.



The Office ends with a short litany at the foot of the Altar sung by four cantors alternating with the friars' choir and it ends, not with the loud banging some may remember in the Roman rite but with the words mortem autem crucis sung loudly and at a high pitch, after which the cantors prostrate themselves dramatically as the friars in choir kneel in prayer.





Above, the Altar of Repose on Maundy Thursday.

The Good Friday liturgy is very well-attended and many come, I suspect, for the distinctive Dominican way of performing the Veneration of the Cross. As has been posted here previously, the friars creep to the Cross by prostrating themselves three times. A relic of the True Cross is embedded in the cross which is held for veneration by the friars and the faithful, who come up, genuflecting thrice as they approach.





Finally the bleakness and austerity of Good Friday gives way to the light and richness of Easter Sunday. Below are photos from Solemn Vespers on Easter Sunday:

Easter Sunday - The Tomb is Empty

The desolation of the previous few days was magnified when Mary of Magdala discovered the empty tomb. “They have taken away the Lord, and I do not know what they have done with him.” Insult was being added to injury, as it was unimaginable that any further ignominy could be done to him.

When Mary runs to tell the disciples, they come in haste. As soon as they arrive, they see what they had never understood. The scriptures had been telling them clearly, the Lord had tried to tell them. But the action spoke louder than the words, and when they saw, they believed: he must rise from the dead.

Before his death, Jesus seemed unconquerable – he made the lame to run, he gave the blind their sight. Now he seems invincible. He has shattered the greatest horror of all: the horror of death. That tomb was the place of desolation. He was laid there dead, a defeated man. He comes out alive, victorious over evil. Thus the tomb of death becomes the womb of new life.

The Lord is not in the tomb. The tomb is not his place. The disciples did not find him there. He is not to be found among the things of the world, but in the things of heaven. The empty tomb is good news for the disciples. In the depths of their horror, they are shown that their trust was not misplaced. We will not find him in the tomb. We will not find him if we search for worldly glory or riches. He has given us new life so that when his glory is revealed, it will also shine in us. Resurrexit sicut dixit! Alleluia!

The Easter Vigil

The Readings may be found here.

We have come to Saturday evening at last. Those who have joined in the Triduum liturgies will, perhaps, be slightly worn out. The evening Mass of the Lord's Supper and the Solemn Liturgy of Our Lord's Passion, certainly as celebrated here at Blackfriars in Oxford, mean spending an impressive amount of time in Church - close to four hours in our case. We have celebrated our Lord's Passion and death by recalling and entering into the mysteries. Even though we all know the story, when we hear and see the Scriptures acted out for us, we cannot help but be left marked by the injustice and brutality of Jesus' death: all seems to be lost.

It is against this background that the joy of the resurrection breaks through at the Easter Vigil. We get a second wind despite our tiredness, because we know that death is not the end of the story, but the beginning. The austerity of Good Friday gives way to the light and life that the resurrection brings. What looked like defeat becomes the victory. In the liturgy of the Easter Vigil, we are given a survey of salvation history, where we see the unfolding of God's plan since the beginning of the world, a plan which reaches its high point in the death and resurrection of Christ.

What is enacted for us in the Triduum in such a careful and deliberate way should not only transform these few days and weeks, but our whole lives. We are shown what great love God has for us, and we are given a pattern for our lives. The death and resurrection of Christ effects an outpouring of grace that helps us to die to our pride, selfishness, anger, and greed, and rise to live lives that are joyful, peaceful, and useful in the service of God and neighbour. The message of the angel is that Christ is risen. Let us live each day as children of the risen Christ, rejoicing in the freedom won for us at so great a price.

Happy Easter!

Holy Saturday - Is nothing happening?

'What is happening? Today there is a great silence over the earth, a great silence, and stillness, a great silence because the King sleeps; the earth was in terror and was still, because God slept in the flesh, and raised up those who were sleeping from the ages. God has died in the flesh, and the underworld has trembled. Truly he goes to seek out our first parent like a lost sheep; he wishes to visit those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. He goes to free the prisoner Adam and his fellow-prisoner Eve from their pains, he who is God, and Adam's son.' - from an ancient homily for Holy Saturday

Good Friday

Galatians 3:23, ' now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed' (NRSV).

Before faith came, as it were, we - being in the loins of Adam - were barred from partaking in the tree of life. We were cast out from the presence of Almighty God. 'He [God] drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life' (Genesis 3.24).

In Adam, and because of whom we are mortal, we lost our status as sons and daughters. We became bound to mortality - a kind of slavery. Our status became that of slaves.

But, thanks be to God, 'when the fullness of time had come, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children' (Galatians 4.4-5).

The Son bore the name Jesus. He was/is the Son by nature, for, He is what the Father is. The Son enjoyed a naturalis aequalitas (natural equality) with the Father. Yet, for the sake of a lost world, for the sake of lost mankind, He did not scorn participation in humankind's nature. For our sake the Son of God, one who was/is equal with God, one who himself was/is God, was paraded as a common criminal before the eyes of the entire world. Then, He was raised up on a tree born-naked. He was made a curse. For, it is written, 'cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree'.

The devil and his little demons must have thought there is no way these human beings are going to get free now.

But, thanks be to God, the Father had something other in mind. When Jesus hung on that cross water and blood flowed from his side. As the Blood was flowing, the price for our redemption was being paid. 'He was handed over to death for our tresspasses ... ' (Romans 4. 25). That text from Romans goes on to say, and he 'was raised for our justification'. A justification that gives us access to the Father. Jesus' death swallowed up mortality and, in that death, we too can partake in that swallowing up of mortality. Thanks be to God.

John, the beloved disciple, said 'and just as Moses lifted up the serpeant in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up' (John 3.14). We know Moses lifted the serpeant as a sign for those who were going to die, that if they should have looked on the serpent they would be healed. In the same way, when we look at Jesus on the cross, freed from death, we are healed. Unlike the uplifted serpent, Christ uplifted is an enduring, eternal sign - ever-powerful.

Thus, Augustine was most right, when he said that if humankind were to forget that Christ died for humanity and it was effaced from the history of time then there would truly be dying.

Let us, therefore, look on Christ crucified.

Holy Week & Triduum at Blackfriars

Maundy Thursday - The Institution of the most Holy Eucharist

On this night Jesus enjoys a final meal with his disciples. But unlike any meal before this, Jesus does something extraordinary. Matthew’s Gospel tells us: “Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take and eat; this is my body.” And he took a chalice, and when he had given thanks ha gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins”. (Matt 26:26-29)

This happened during the ritual meal of the Passover, the deliverance of Israel from slavery. Yet, after the escape from Egypt, humanity remained bound to the slavery of sin. But Jesus doesn’t wish us to be slaves or servants. He wants to break our bonds and call us into the freedom of love that is his friendship. On the Cross he shows us the absolute depths of that love and mercy. In the Eucharist, “Jesus anticipates and makes present the sacrifice of the Cross and the victory of the resurrection”.1 In this miraculous gift, Jesus fulfils his promise given at his Ascension, “and behold, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” (Matt 28:20) In his sacred Body and Blood, Jesus gives his very self as our spiritual food, gives himself for the life of the world.

As Jesus prepares for the long and brutal journey towards death on Calvary, he leaves us this sign of his self-giving love. In washing his disciples feet, Jesus shows us that this love is always in the humble service of others. We are to imitate his self-giving. As brothers and sisters united in the one body, the Church and sharing in the one body, the Eucharist, Jesus calls us to love one another as he loved us, even unto death.

1. Pope Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, Page 14.