Family Tenebrae

It is possible to bring the Faith into the home in a very lively and fun way. I especially enjoy emulating what is going on at Church with how we decorate the home. This is especially true with Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter.

This morning, for this sombre day of Holy Saturday, we have re-enacted the tradition of the Tenebrae hearse in our front room. We have matched the number of tealights with the number of Antiphons in our 1954 Benedictine 'Short Breviary' (which uses the traditional little hours of Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline). It has for today eight psalms, a lesson, and the Benedictus. We extinguished a candle after each with the dawn light flooding in the window. In the background we played Carlo Gesualdo's Tenebrae Responsories. Twas lovely. This little breviary has nicer translations of the Psalms than the modern ICEL one.

Grant, we beseech Thee,
Almighty God,
that we who look forward to the resurrection of Thy Son
with devout expectation
may participate in the glory of His resurrection.
Through the same Jesus Christ,
Thy Son our Lord,
who liveth and reigneth with Thee
in the unity of the Holy Ghost,
God, world without end.
Amen.