The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-03-15
THE TENEBRAE OF HOLY WEEK.

FarI OF the -OTlCe Sdlu by Priests.
The DesoIation of Jeremias, the
Prophet, Echoed in the Music of
the Lamentations.
The service of Tenebrae, which is
sung in the evening of the Wednes-
day, Thursday and Friday of Holy
Week, possesses a unique interest of
it's own. We quote again from Father
Thurston's learned volume, Lent and
Holy Week. Their attendance at
Tenebrae is almost the only occa-
sion upon which the laity in this
country are brought into contact
with the nocturnal portion of that
public prayer of the Church, through
which from the earliest times she
has offered to God, by night as well
as by day, an uninterrupted sacrifice
of praise.
Passing over the name "Tenebrae,"
exactly is. Well, the Tenebrae serv-
ice is simply the recitation in choir
of a portion of the Divine Office of
the Church, the Mathis and Lauds'
as this portion is called, for those
three solemn days, Maundy Thursday,
Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.
Every one has seen a priest occupied
in saying his Office, and most people
understand, at least vaguely, that
this Office consists of psalms and
lessons from Holy Scripture, and that
priests are bound to say a certain
variable selection of these from their
Breviaries daily.
In this daily recitation of the Office,
the Church for more than a thousand
years has recognized seven different
hours or times Of prayer-Matins and
Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None,
Vespers, Compline. In monasteries
these are all chanted separately.
Mathis and Lauds are by far the
longest, as long in fact as all the
rest put together, and it has been the
custom since very early times to con-
slider them as belonging in strictness
to the night watch, the vigil in it's
earliest and most accurate accepta-
ton. In the old monastic Orders the
signal for rising was given between
half past one and half past two
o'clock in the morning according to
the season of the year. The monks
rose from their hard beds at once,
and filed into the choir to begin
Mathis, which sometimes lasted for
nearly two hours. The community
did not always return to their dormi-
tory; but after short interval Lauds
were said with other prayers, and
after that, Prime, which began pune
tually at sunrise. Now the Church
does not ask all her children who
say Office in private or in common to
do as much as that. Some still say
their Mathis early in the morning;
others anticipate" that is, say them
the evening before. Either course is
permissible. So when we read in
our Holy Week books at the begin
ming of the Tenebrae service for
| Wednesday afternoon or evening,
The Office of Holy Thursday at
Matins,' we shall perceive at once
that the Office for the next day is
being anticipated. We see therefore
that the Tenebrae sung on the We'd
nesday, Thursday and Friday is moth
ing but the Mathis and Lauds belong
ing properly to the middle of the
night or the next morning and recited
before the hour when they are strict
ly due.
The Mathis of each day are divided
into three parts called nocturnes.
When the psalms of the first nocturn
have been sung and the Pater Noster
has been said in silence, a chanter
goes to the foot of the altar steps
and begins the first chapter of the
Lamentations of Jeremias, with the
heading "Incipit Lamentatio Jeremiae
Prophetic" and the acrostic letter
"aleph," singing to a tone which has
been universally recognized as one
of the most splendid specimens OF
the ancient plain chant which the
music of the Church affords. Moth.
ing could convey more perfectly the
spirit of desolation which breathes
in the prophets words. Let me quote
on this subject some remarks of a
distinguished modern musician, the
late w. NJ. Rockstro. He had previous.
ly been speaking of the Exsultet
which is sung on Holy Saturday, and
he contrasts these two masterpieces:
While the one, he says, represents
the perfection of triumphant dignity
the other (the lamentations carries
us down to the very lowest depths oil
sorrow, and is indeed susceptible OF
such intensely pathetic expression
that none who have ever heard il
sung in the only way in which il
ever can be sung if it is intended to
fulfill its self-evident purpose
is to say, with the deepest feeling
the singer can possibly infuse into
twill feel inclined to deny its title