FUNERAL SERVICE FOR CHRIST

Tenebrae is a liturgical service of sung readings and Psalms that features distinctive symbolic elements of Christ’s passion and death. Tenebrae means “shadows” or “darkness” in Latin. The service shows the darkness that comes over the earth upon Christ’s death. One of the chants of the service draws from Scripture that tenebrae factae sunt — “darkness fell” at the death of Christ (Matthew 27:45-46). Candles are gradually extinguished, and a loud noise, called a “strepitus” at the service’s conclusion symbolizes the chaos following Christ’s death.  
 
Historically, it was a portion of the Liturgy of the Hours prayers of Matins and Lauds for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of Holy Week. Now, it is often an adaptation or shortened form of those prayers typically offered on Spy Wednesday of Holy Week. Tenebrae is designed to serve as a powerful, reflective experience for the faithful ahead of the Easter Triduum. The representation of the darkness of sin and death serve to call the faithful to embrace the light of Christ, who has conquered death.  
 
Those attending a Tenebrae service for the first time may be startled by entering a church shrouded in darkness except for the light of a few candles, the gradual extinguishing of those candles, and the loud banging noise (the “strepitus”) that builds and echoes in the darkness at the service’s conclusion.  
 
Tenebrae is not only rich in striking visual elements, but also features some of the most distinctively mournful music the Church has to offer with the chanting of the Lamentations of Jeremiah and the Psalms. According to Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka, associate professor and the director of sacred music at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, CA, the Church has seen Tenebrae as “a funeral service, in some ways, for Christ,” providing a “spiritual picture” of the darkness after the death of Christ before the Resurrection.  

SOURCE: https://www.ncregister.com/features/tenebrae-services-spy-wednesday  
 
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