The Sacred Triduum: Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter. The Mystery of Faith

The Sacred Triduum: Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter. The Mystery of Faith

By Deacon Keith Fournier
March 31st, 2010
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

"Beginning with the Easter Triduum as its source of light, the new age of the Resurrection fills the whole liturgical year with its brilliance. Gradually, on either side of this source, the year is transfigured by the liturgy" (Catechism of the Catholic Church) .
CHESAPEAKE, VA (Catholic Online) – The Easter Triduum begins with the Vigil of Holy Thursday. It marks the end of the forty days of Lent and the beginning of the three-day celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ - Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil/Easter Sunday. The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council reminded us of the extraordinary significance of the Triduum : "Christ redeemed us all and gave perfect glory to God principally through his paschal mystery: dying he destroyed our death and rising he restored our life. Therefore the Easter Triduum of the passion and resurrection of Christ is the culmination of the entire liturgical year." (General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar, # 18)
These last Forty Days were a time of preparation for these great Three days, which is what Triduum means. These three days lead us to an empty tomb and an Octave, eight days, of celebrating the Resurrection. They also introduce an entire liturgical season, the Easter Season, which lasts for Fifty days until Pentecost.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church instructs us: "Beginning with the EasterTriduum as its source of light, the new age of the Resurrection fills the whole liturgical year with its brilliance. Gradually, on either side of this source, the year is transfigured by the liturgy. It really is a "year of the Lord's favor." The economy of salvation is at work within the framework of time, but since its fulfillment in the Passover of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the culmination of history is anticipated "as a foretaste," and the kingdom of God enters into our time.
"Therefore Easter is not simply one feast among others, but the "Feast of feasts," the "Solemnity of solemnities," just as the Eucharist is the "Sacrament of sacraments" (the Great Sacrament). St. Athanasius calls Easter "the Great Sunday" and the Eastern Churches call Holy Week "the Great Week." The mystery of the Resurrection, in which Christ crushed death, permeates with its powerful energy our old time, until all is subjected to him." (CCC #1168, 1169)

There is no better book to assist Bishops, Priests, Deacons, and lay men and women charged with the task of preparing truly good liturgies in the Modern Roman Rite than Monsignor Peter J. Elliott´s "Ceremonies of the Liturgical Year." Monsignor Elliott writes in his Introduction:
"Christians understand time in a different way from other people because of the Liturgical Year. We are drawn into a cycle that can become such a part of our lives that it determines how we understand the structure of each passing year. In the mind of the Christian, each passing year takes shape, not so much around the cycle of natural seasons, the financial or sporting year or academic semesters, but around the feasts, fasts and seasons of the Catholic Church. Without thinking much about it, from early childhood, we gradually learn to see time itself, past, present and future, in a new way. All of the great moments of the Liturgical Year look back to the salvific events of Jesus Christ, the Lord of History.
"Those events are made present here and now as offers of grace. This week is Holy not only because of what we remember but because of what it can accomplish within each one of us as we give our voluntary "Yes" to its´ invitation. To put it another way, in Christ time takes on a sacramental dimension. The Liturgical Year bears this sacramental quality of memorial, actuation and prophecy.

"Time becomes a re-enactment of Christ's saving events, His being born in our flesh, His dying and rising for us in that human flesh. Time thus becomes a pressing sign of salvation, the "day of the Lord", His ever present "hour of salvation", the kairos. Time on earth then becomes our pilgrimage through and beyond death toward the future Kingdom. The Liturgical Year is best understood both in its origins and current form in the way we experience time: in the light of the past, present and future… .
"The Liturgical Year thus suggests the sovereignty of the grace of Christ. We say that we "follow" or "observe" the Liturgical Year, but this Year of Grace also carries us along. Once we enter it faithfully we must allow it to determine the shape of our daily lives. It sets up a series of "appointments" with the Lord. We know there are set days, moments, occasions when He expects us. Within this framework of obligation, duty and covenant, we are part of something greater than ourselves.

"We can detect a sense of being sustained or borne forward by the power and pace of a sacred cycle that is beyond our control. It will run its course whether we like it or not. This should give us an awareness of the divine dimension of the Liturgical Year as an expression the power and authority of Jesus who is the Lord of History. As the blessing of the Paschal Candle recalls: "…all time belongs to Him and all the ages". The sacred cycle thus becomes a sacrament of God's time. Salvation history is among us here and now... "my time" rests in God's hands (and) is a call to trust, to faith, to letting go of self."
The real question is not whether we will mark time but how we will do so? For the Christian time is not meant to be a tyrant ruling over us with impunity. Rather, it is a teacher, inviting and instructing us to choose to enter more fully into our relationship with the Lord and in Him with one another for the world. Time is not our enemy, but our friend. It is a part of the redemptive loving plan of a timeless God who, in His Son, the Timeless One, came into time to transform it from within.

The Lord gives us time as a gift and intends it to become a field of choice and a path to holiness in this life and the window into life eternal. Through time the Lord offers us the privilege of discovering His plan for our own life pilgrimage. Through time He invites us to participate in His ongoing redemptive plan, through His Son Jesus Christ who has been raised, by living in the full communion of His Church which is the seed of the kingdom. That redemptive plan will find its final fulfillment in the recreation of the entire cosmos in Christ. Time is the road along which this loving plan of redemption and re-creation proceeds.
At the very epicenter of our Liturgical Calendar is the great Three days we celebrate, Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Resurrection of the Lord, the Sacred Triduum. Good Liturgy is not simply a re-enactment of something that happened over 2000 years ago but an actual participation in the events themselves through living faith. These events are outside of time and made present in our Liturgical celebrations and in our reception of the Sacraments. Just as every Mass/Divine Liturgy is an invitation to enter into the sacrifice of Calvary which occurred once and for all.
We will soon attend the Last Supper and receive the gift of the Holy Eucharist, the Body, Blood Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. We will enter into the deep meaning of the Holy Priesthood. We will be invited to pour ourselves out like the water in the basins used to wash feet on Holy Thursday. We will be asked with the disciples in the Gospel accounts we will hear proclaimed to watch with the Lord. We will be invited to enter with Him into his anguish by imitating His Holy surrender in his Sacred Humanity in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Through the stark and solemn Liturgy of the Friday we call "Good", we will stand at the Altar of the Cross where heaven is rejoined to earth and earth to heaven, along with the Mother of the Lord. We will enter into the moment that forever changed - and still changes – all human History, the great self gift of the Son of God who did for us what we could never do for ourselves by in the words of the ancient Exultet, "trampling on death by death". We will wait at the tomb and witness the Glory of the Resurrection and the beginning of the New Creation.
The Liturgical year in the words of Monsignor Peter Elliott "… transforms our time into a sacrament of eternity."  Let us enter fully into the Sacred Triduum Liturgies. The Great Three Days of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Invite Us into Heart of the Mystery of Faith.Let it Begin!

Article brought to you by: Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Part 5: New Insights on the Gospels: Preface of Cardinal Rode, CM

The Author received the Pro Ecclesia and Pontifice Medal conferred by Pope Benedict XVI from the hands of Cardinal Frac Rodé, CM

[The work New Insights on the Gospels reveals,] in the first place, the theologian, who with admirable pedagogical discernment and ample theological erudition, draws from the ancient and new treas- ures of the intellectus fidei—from the Church Fathers to our days—to offer the people of God the bread of sound doctrine proceeding from the sun of the Word of God (…).

the author is a preacher with secure doctrinal footing, a pastor’s heart and the irresistible charism of a leader (…) who does not evade thorny questions, but is “able to threaten the powerful; [who seek out] those who neglect, squander, even destroy their lives, for the sake of the right and the good and their own well-being, their own happiness.” (…)

We discover, again and again on these pages, the solution to the spiritual problems of twenty-first century man, leading him to holiness and helping him to avoid falling into the temptation of pastoral utilitarianism (…).

The present collection of Gospel commentaries indisputably fills all the conditions for being not only a valuable aid to implementing the desires of the Holy Father for this Year of Faith, but also for serving as an abiding reference point for the clergy and faithful on the journey that should bring us to continually rediscover the beauty of faith.

(Excerpts from the Preface of Card. Franc Rodé, CM, Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life)

Each volume may be purchased for £20.00. They can be ordered by writing to:

Br Michael, 
29 Lower Teddington Road
Hampton Wick
Surrey KT1 4 EU
Tel.: (44) 20 8943 4159

or by email at lumenmaria@aol.com

Part 4: New Insights on the Gospels: Launching at the Vatican

On November 28, the first two volumes of the work of the Founder and Superior General of the Association of Pontifical Right Heralds of the Gospel, Msgr. João Scognamiglio Clá Dias, New Insights on the Gospels, published in four languages by the Libreria Editrice Vaticana, were presented in the Vatican.

The solemn event was held in the St. Pius X Auditorium, on the Via della Conciliazione, in a warm and cordial atmosphere, which on several occasions led the speakers to abandon their prepared texts, to speak ex abundantia cordis. This was the same locale where the third volume of the Pope’s work on Jesus of Nazareth, entitled The Infancy Narratives, was presented the previous week.

Three cardinals, five archbishops and bishops, and the ambassadors to the Holy See from Paraguay, El Salvador and Slovenia participated in the session. Especially noteworthy among the cardinals was Cardinal Franc Rodé, CM, Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, and Archbishop Emeritus of Ljubljana (Slovenia), who wrote a preface for the work and who was a speaker at the launching. The ceremony was also graced with the presence of Cardinal Salvatore de Giorgi, Archbishop Emeritus of Palermo, and Cardinal Santos Abril y Castelló, Archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major, as well as Archbishop Jean-Louis Bruguès, OP, Archivist and Librarian of the Holy Roman Church; Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts; Archbishop François Robert Bacqué, Apostolic Nuncio Emeritus to Netherlands; Most Rev. José Daniel Falla, Auxiliary Bishop of Bogotá and Secretary of the Colombian Bishops’ Conference, and Most Rev. Giovanni D’Ercole, Auxiliary Bishop of Aquila.

Divided into seven volumes, the work covers the Sunday Gospels for the entire Liturgical Year, with insights that are new, and at the same time consonant with the most renowned commentators of Sacred Scripture. On this occasion, volumes V and VI were presented, covering Year C, the current year of the Liturgical Calendar. A total of 40 thousand copies of each volume, in four languages, were printed in this edition.

Each volume may be purchased for £20.00. They can be ordered by writing to:

Br Michael, 

29 Lower Teddington Road
Hampton Wick
Surrey KT1 4 EU
Tel.: (44) 20 8943 4159

or by e-mailing: lumenmaria@aol.com

Part 3: The Author of 'New Insights on the Gospel'

Msgr. João Sconamiglio Clá Dias is an honorary canon of the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome, and Protonotary Apostolic. He is the founder of the International Association of the Faithful of Pontifical Right Heralds of the Gospel, of the Clerical Society of Apostolic Life Virgo Flos Carmeli, and of the Feminine Society of Apostolic Life Regina Virginum, entities of pontifical right, active in 78 countries.

Pope Benedict XVI receives the Author.

Msgr. João Scognamiglio Clá Dias was born in São Paulo, Brazil, on August 15, 1939. His parents, António Clá Dias and Annitta Scognamiglio Clá Dias, were immigrants from Europe (his father being a Spaniard from Cádiz and his mother, an Italian from Rome), in whom the Catholic faith, which they had received from their forefathers, was still vibrant.

This lively faith manifested itself early in João. In school, he sought to organize a movement among his classmates to help young people practice a virtuous life. He joined the Marian Congregations, and at the invitation of a teacher, entered the Third Order of the Discalced Carmelites of the Strict Observance, on May 23, 1956 in the city of São Paulo. This event deeply marked his life.

He completed his secondary studies at Colégio Estadual Roosevelt and studied law at the prestigious Largo de São Francisco Faculty in São Paulo. During his post-secondary studies he shone as an active Catholic university leader, in the turbulent years preceding the Sorbonne revolution of May 1968.

Seeing music as an efficacious means of evangelization, he refined his musical gifts with renowned maestro Miguel Arqueróns, conductor of the Paulista Choir of the Municipal Theatre of São Paulo.

His ardent desire to dedicate his life to the apostolate, in faithfulness to the magisterium of the Chair of Peter as well as his insight into the need for solid doctrinal foundation, led him to the study of Thomistic theology with the renowned university professors of Salamanca (Spain), including Fr. Arturo Alonso Lobo, OP, Fr. Marcelino Cabreros de Anta, CMF, Fr. Victorino Rodríguez y Rodriguez, OP, Fr. Esteban Gómez, OP, Fr. Antonio Royo Marin, OP, Fr. Teófilo Urdánoz, OP, and Fr. Armando Bandera, OP. Years later, in a gesture of profound gratitude, he wrote short biographies on two of his mentors with editions published in Spain and the United States: “Antonio Royo Marin, master of the spiritual life, brilliant preacher and renowned author”, and “Fr. Cabreros de Anta, CMF, A solid pillar of Canon Law in our century.” He has degrees in Philosophy and Theology from the Italo-Brazilian University in São Paulo and a Humanities Doctorate from the Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra, in the Dominican Republic. He also has a Doctorate in Canon Law from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (more commonly known as the Angelicum), in Rome; and in Theology from the Universidad Pontifícia Bolivariana, in Medellin, Colombia.

His desire for perfection spurred him to initiate a provisory attempt at community life in a former Benedictine edifice in São Paulo, in 1970. Of those first companions, none persevered. Yet, after numerous adversities, the community took root and blossomed into an evangelization movement headed by Msgr. João Clá. From this founding house developed many others, in which members dedicated themselves to prayer and study in preparation for works of evangelization.

This took the juridical form of a Private Association of the Faithful, the Heralds of the Gospel, in the diocese of Campo Limpo (Brazil). With its implantation in an additional 20 countries it was recognized by the Pontifical Council of the Laity, on February 22, 2001, as an International Association of Pontifical Right. Today it carries out activities in 78 countries on five continents. Msgr. João Clá Dias is the current Superior General of the Heralds of the Gospel.

The Author with Pope John Paul II on the occasion of the pontifical approval of the Heralds of the Gospel.

He also established a feminine branch of the Heralds – in a similar manner but independently from the masculine branch – with the ideal of community life as a means of achieving sanctity and worthily preparing for the evangelizing mission. From the feminine branch arose the Society of Apostolic Life Regina Virginum, which was recognized on April 4, 2009 by the Holy Father Benedict  XVI.

Inspired by a desire for greater dedication to Our Lord and his brethren, Msgr. João Clá prepared for the priestly ministry along with some of his companions. Because of the role which the Third Order of Carmel played in the founding of the Heralds of the Gospel, it was a Carmelite prelate, the Most Rev. Lucio Angelo Renna, then Bishop of Avezzano, Italy, who welcomed the first priests of this Association.

They – including Msgr. João Clá – were ordained on June 15, 2005, in the same Carmelite Basilica where almost 50 years previously Msgr. João had begun his activities at the service of the Church and his fellow Christians. The ceremony was honoured with the presence of Cardinal Claudio Hummes (Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for the Clergy). Seven bishops concelebrated the Eucharist along with seventy priests.

Msgr. João Clá founded, together with these first priests of the Heralds of the Gospel, the Priestly Society of Apostolic Life Virgo Flos Carmeli, approved on April 4, 2009 by Pope Benedict  XVI.  Msgr. João Clá is the present Superior General of Virgo Flos Carmeli.

He has written widely distributed works (some surpassing one million copies), published in Portuguese, Spanish, English, Italian, French, Polish and Albanian: “Fatima, Dawn of the Third Millennium,” “The Rosary, the Prayer of Peace,”  “Sacred Heart of Jesus, Treasure of Goodness and Love,” “The Miraculous Medal, its History and the Celestial Promises,” “Via Sacra,” “Jacinta and Francisco, the Chosen Ones of Mary,” “Daily Prayers,” “The Mother of Good Counsel of Genazzano,” “Dona Lucilia” and “Commentaries on the Little Office of the Immaculate Conception.” His doctoral thesis in Canon Law is entitled “The birth and development of the movement Heralds of the Gospel and its canonical recognition,” and the one in Theology is “The Gift of Wisdom in the mind, life and work of Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira.”

He is the founder of and regular contributor to the monthly magazine Heralds of the Gospel, published in English, Portuguese, Spanish and Italian, with a total circulation of nearly one million. Since 2002, he has written a commentary on the Gospel for each issue. He is also a regular contributor to the academic publication “Lumen Veritatis,” published by the University of the Heralds of the Gospel, which was inaugurated in October 2007, due mainly to his initiative.

Each volume may be purchased for £20.00. They can be ordered by writing to:

Br Michael, 

29 Lower Teddington Road
Hampton Wick
Surrey KT1 4 EU
Tel.: (44) 20 8943 4159

or by e-mailing: lumenmaria@aol.com

Part 2: Comments on 'New Insights on the Gospels'

In each of his homilies, the preacher reveals two concerns, which do not always appear together. On one hand, he imaginatively describes the setting for the evangelical scene being considered.[…] On the other hand, he confers profound theological insights on the scene, citing the Fathers of the Church. […] In this collection we find a type of compendium of Thomistic homilies for contemporary man. […] These homilies, like the solemn liturgies I mentioned, have one and the same goal: to make Heaven more real.

Archbishop Jean-Louis Bruguès, OP, Archivist and Librarian of the Holy Roman Church

It is enough to leaf through ‘New Insights on the Gospels’ to perceive that this is something different.

Brazil is bearing a fruit that we can only begin to decipher, and this commitment of the LEV in collaborating with these two volumes being presented today is as if to say: they help us to decipher something new.

Msgr. Giuseppe Antonio Scotti, President of the Joseph Ratzinger – Benedict XVI Foundation and Libreria Editrice Vaticana- LEV

The first thing I noted in these volumes is that the Author who prepared them expressed what he has within himself.

In New Insights on the Gospels, the Blessed Virgin is presented as a model of faith. This work could be called an enduring summons from Mary, who says: ‘Do whatever He tells you’ (Jn 2:5). The two volumes written by the founder of the Heralds repeat the refrain: ‘Do whatever the Gospel tells you.’

Fr. Edmund Caruana, O.Carm, Cappoufficio of the Libreria Editrice Vaticana

This letter is to thank you for sending me the magnificent, recently published books of Msgr. Scognamiglio. [...] I desire a widespread diffusion of these books, which explain evangelical and biblical events with imagination and inspiration. They are like a polychromatic painting that enriches the soul.

Mario Scaracchio, Mira – Italy

The Author presents, in language that is supremely evocative and attractive while also being accessible, the most elevated points of the theological universe within the Magisterium of the Church, with absolute fidelity. On each page […] one finds aspects that are extremely transcendental for the spirituality of all times, but which are little mentioned these days, like the notion of sin, of good and evil, and the decisive importance of sanctifying grace in man’s life. All this makes for especially amenable reading and, as can be seen in the Preface, what most attracts attention in this work is the great certainty that truth is strong in itself. The Author believes in the strength and the joy of truth, and considers the liturgical readings and homiletic preaching as an unsurpassable means of faith formation. In the presentation of these volumes, his great theological richness and firmness in secure and equilibrated Catholic doctrine is highlighted.

Miguel Ángel Velasco Puente, Editor of Alfa y Omega, the Catholic weekly of the Archdiocese of Madrid

Each volume may be purchased for £20.00. They can be ordered by writing to:

Br Michael, 

29 Lower Teddington Road
Hampton Wick
Surrey KT1 4 EU
Tel.: (44) 20 8943 4159

or by e-mailing: lumenmaria@aol.com

Part 1: NEW INSIGHTS ON THE GOSPELS 1

The collection New Insights on the Gospels is an international joint publication in Italian, English, Spanish and Portuguese of theLibreria Editrice Vaticana and the Heralds of the Gospel.

The reader who delves into the collection New Insights on the Gospels which expounds on the Sunday Gospels of the entire liturgical cycle, will have, more than the experience of reading a doctrinal exposition, the feeling of being personally present during the homilies of the founder of the Heralds of the Gospel,Msgr. João Clá Dias, EP.

Delivering doctrine in attractive language, the author effectively makes the highest points of the world of theology accessible, all within the parameters of the Church’s Magisterium, to which he is unswervingly faithful. This is more than a homiletic aid; it is preaching at his best, published here in a book form. A refreshing note of improvisation lends it both an unmistakable tenor of reality and the pastoral warmth of the breath of the Holy Spirit, so often manifested through sacred oratory.

Each page reveals characteristics of the spirituality and charism of the Heralds of the Gospel: deep-rooted devotion to Mary and vibrant love for the Papacy, along with aspects of Christian doctrine that are frequently overlooked in our day, such as a notion of sin, of good and evil, as well as the role of grace in man’s existence. Such points are developed and applied tot the reality of the spiritual life of the present-day Catholic with authority and clarity, making it a particularly valuable meditation aid for the Sunday Gospels.

Overview of the Collection New Insights on the Gospels

Volume I:

Year A – Sundays of Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter – Solemnities of the Lord during Ordinary Time

Volume II:

Year A – Sundays in Ordinary Time

Volume III:

Year B – Sundays of Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter –

Solemnities of the Lord during Ordinary Time

Volume IV:

Year B – Sundays in Ordinary Time

Note: .... the first two volumes of New Insights on the Gospel recently published by Libreria Editrice Vaticana.  Holding doctorates in Sacred Theology and Canon Law, Monsignor João Scognamiglio Clá Dias, E.P., the founder and superior general of the Heralds of the Gospel, offers the reader in these never before published commentaries a new perspective of the Good News for our times.

In his preface, His Eminence Cardinal Franc Rodé writes, “We discover on these pages the solution to the spiritual problems of the twenty-first century man.”  Making Cardinal Rode’s affirmation my own wish, I pray that New Insights on the Gospel will make a meaningful contribution to the New Evangelization, especially in the Year of Faith.

In this particular collection, the author masterfully comments on all the Gospels passages for Sundays of Ordinary Time, Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter, for the current Liturgical Year C.  I am certain that you will find these beautifully illustrated books to be genuine treasures.

Each volume may be purchased for £20.00. They can be ordered by writing to:

Br Michael, 

29 Lower Teddington Road
Hampton Wick
Surrey KT1 4 EU
Tel.: (44) 20 8943 4159

or by e-mailing: lumenmaria@aol.com