'STAND FAST IN THE FAITH'

New Zealand Tablet, 20 March 1913, Page 3

'STAND FAST IN THE FAITH '

(A Weekly Instruction specially written for the N.Z. Tablet by ‘ Ghimel.’) THE CEREMONIES OF HOLY WEEK: V.— holy Saturday According to modern practice the ceremonies of Holy Saturday commence early in the morning. In reality, the service is the vigil or night-watch of Easter Sunday, and originally did not begin till the Saturday evening and lasted almost till the dawn. The early Christians believed that our Lord would come again at the dawn of some Easter, and hence they surrounded the night-watch of that festival with great solemnity. Thus of the Emperor Constantine (fourth century) we are told that he ‘ transformed the night of the sacred vigil into the brilliancy of day, by lighting throughout the city pillars of wax, while burning lamps illuminated every part, so that this mystic vigil was rendered brighter than the brightest daylight.’ The chief features of the service are these : The Blessing of the New Fire, the Procession, the Prophecies, the Blessing of the Font, the Blessing of the Paschal Candle, and the Mass.

The Blessing of the New Fire. —The sacred ministers proceed to the front of the church and there bless and light the fire which is to be used in the thurible and from which is lit the taper that serves to light the Paschal Candle. The idea is this: Christ promised that by His death He would make all things new'; and so, the Church, which with her risen Spouse rises to newness of life, gives a fresh blessing every year to the 'creatures of God ' used in her service. According to old Roman custom the fire was hidden on Good Friday as an image of the death of "Christ, and from it the candle was lit on Holy Saturday, as a type of the Resurrection.

The Procession to the Sanctuary. —When the blessing is over, the procession moves up the Church. The rubric explains what follows: Then the deacon, putting on a white dalmatic, takes a rod with three candles fixed on the top. The thurifer goes first with an acolyte, carrying on a plate the five grains of incense the subdeacon with the cross follows, and the clergy in order; then the deacon with the triple candle, and last of all the priest. When the deacon is come into the Church, an acolyte, who carries a taper lighted from the new fire, lights one of the three candles on the top of the rod, and the deacon, holding up the rod, kneels, as do all the rest except the subdeacon, and sings alone:

Lumen Christi (Behold the light of Christ). Response: Deo gratias (Thanks be to God).

Twice more the procession stops, while the deacon lights the remaining candles and sings the ' Lumen Christi.' The triple candle on the single stalk represents the distinction of Persons in the Blessed Trinity a very appropriate ceremony in view of the baptism of catechumens associated with the Holy Saturday service.

The Blessing of the Paschal Candle. —This feast, as we have explained, was originally the night-watch of Easter, when the faithful commemorated Christ's Resurrection, and the blessing of the Paschal Candle was designed to represent that great fact in a striking manner. It was intended,' writes Father Thurston, ' amongst the early Jewish Christians, a people who like other Oriental races clothed all their thought in figures and parables, that this great light should typify Him Who is the ' True Light' which cometh into this world,' Him in Whose light the catechumens that evening to be ' illuminated ' were to participate. ; He was the great Light, their little flame was only derived £t>/->vm T-Ti*v> Tn what more on&Tinnrr wnt could the Resurrection be represented than as a ' blaze of light' Lumen ad revelation-em Gentium, a light for the revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of Thy people, Israel /

- /Standing beside the Paschal Candle, the deacon chants that grand song of triumph, the Ex'sultet/ a eucharistic prayer composed probably by St. Augustine (fifth century). ■;■ The prayer itself, apart from the inspiring music to which it is sung, is very beautiful. It speaks of the victory of Christ our King in rising from the dead, the joy of Mother Church, the symbolism of the candle itself, the night of the first Pasch when the children of Israel weht-lorth from Egypt, and (note the striking expressions) of the 'happy fault' of our forefather Adam ' which deserved to nave such and so great a Redeemer.' The deacon stops three times during the singing to fix in the candle the five grains of incense (already blessed along with the fire), which may be taken to represent the five Sacred Wounds in our Saviour's glorified Body. The candle itself is lit from the newly blessed taper. (The Prophecies. —The celebrant now reads the Prophecies, extracts from the prophetical and other books of the Old Testament referring to the Messias. It may be, as some think, that in early days these passages were read exclusively for the benefit of the catechumens, in order to let them see how God dealt with His people under the Old Law, and how privileged they themselves-were under the New, or perhaps they were read, along with psalms and prayers, simply with the idea of opening the minds of the assembled worshippers to the new creation introduced by the Resurrection.

The Blessing of the Font. The ministers next proceed to the baptistry for the blessing of the font. The celebrant says a prayer of thanksgiving and invocation, which is taken up with the idea of the new spiritual creation that is effected by the baptismal waters. 'ln this laver of regeneration, indeed, the world is to be renewed, the Spirit of God is once more to be borne upon the waters, they are to be separated from all earthly taint of evil, they are to be a fourfold river of life, spreading from paradise to the four quarters of the globe, converted by God's power from bitterness to sweetness, welling up from the rock to give drink to the thirsty people, recalling finally the miracles of the Saviour, and drawing their efficacy from the stream of His sacred side.' The lighted Paschal candle is plunged three times into the baptismal waters —a representation of the Baptism of our Lord in the Jordan, and an image of the sacramental power thereby given to the water. The celebrant pours the oil of catechumens and chrism over the waters to consecrate them and to signify their richness, and he breathes upon the waters to symbolise the descent of the Holy Ghost upon our Lord and us in Baptism. In the primitive Church the solemn Baptism of the catechumens followed this ceremony. The Mass.-— The procession returns to the sanctuary, the litanies are sung (they were once the accompaniment of the procession, now they are its conclusion), and the Mass begins. In the early ages the Mass would begin only as the dawn of Easter Sunday was breaking, and naturally would give expression to the Church's joy at the thought of the coming Resurrection. - That is why even in the Mass which we now celebrate so early on Saturday morning, the bells are rung at the ' Gloria,' the organ is sounded, and the Alleluias are once more heard. At the end of Mass Vespers are said, because according to the original custom, they had not been said when the long service of the vigil commenced.