Paschal Triduum

The Sacred Paschal Triduum is the heart of the liturgical year. It is counted as three days, from the evening of Holy Thursday to the evening of Easter Sunday, and the Church treats those days as a single celebration of the Passion, Death, and Resurrection. The General Instruction and the Roman Missal do not describe them as three unrelated services.

Holy Thursday evening is the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. The Church remembers the Eucharist and the priesthood, the washing of the feet may be done, and the Blessed Sacrament is carried to the altar of repose. The altar is stripped. People often stay to watch, in memory of Gethsemane. Mass is not celebrated again until the Vigil.

Good Friday is the Celebration of the Passion of the Lord. There is no Mass. The liturgy has the liturgy of the Word with the Passion according to John, the solemn intercessions, the adoration of the Cross, and Holy Communion from hosts consecrated the night before. It is a day of fasting and abstinence. Holy Saturday is empty until night. The Church does not celebrate the sacraments of the Eucharist except in danger of death.

The Easter Vigil, after nightfall, is the greatest of the Church’s liturgies: the lucernarium and Exsultet, the long series of readings from creation to the prophets, the Gloria and Alleluia, the Gospel of the Resurrection, baptism and confirmation of the elect, and the Eucharist. Easter Sunday morning continues what the Vigil has begun. The Triduum ends with Evening Prayer II of Easter Sunday.