Easter Triduum

The Easter Triduum begins on the evening of Holy Thursday and ends on Easter Sunday evening. The Triduum is the culmination of our Christian belief. It is during the Triduum that well celebrate the Paschal Mysteries of Christ's Suffering, Death and Resurrection.

Holy Thursday
Prayer to Appreciate the Mass

O Lord Jesus,
in order that the merits of your
sacrifice on the Cross
might be applied to every soul of all time,
you willed that it should be
renewed upon the altar.
At the Last Supper, you said:
"Do this in remembrance of me."
By these words, you gave
your apostles and their successors
the power to consecrate
and the command to do what you yourself did.
I believe that the Mass is
both a sacrifice and a memorial - reenacting
your Passion, Death and Resurrection.
Help me to realize that the Mass
is the greatest gift of God to us
and our greatest gift to God. Amen.

Good Friday
Prayer of Love for the Crucified Lord

O Jesus,
it is not the heavenly reward you have promised
which impels me to love you;
neither is it the threat of hell
that keeps me from offending you.
It is you, O Lord,
it is the sight of you
affixed to the Cross and suffering insults;
it is the sight of your broken body,
as well as your pains and your death.
There is nothing you can give me
to make me love you.
For even if there were no heaven and no hell
I would still love you as I do! Amen.

Holy Saturday
Prayer to Be Joined with Christ in Death

O Lord,
your sorrowing Mother stood by your Cross;
help us in our sorrows to share your sufferings.
Like the seed buried in the ground, you have
produced the harvest of eternal life for us;
make us always dead to sin and alive to God.
Shepard of all,
in death you remained hidden from the world;
teach us to love our hidden spiritual life
with you and the Father.
In your role as the new Adam,
you went down among the dead
to release all the just there since the beginning;
grant that all who are dead in sin
may hear your voice and rise to new life.
Son of the living God,
you have allowed us through baptism
to be buried with you;
grant that we may also rise with you in baptism
and walk in newness of life. Amen.

Easter Sunday
Prayer of Praise

Praised be the God and Father
of our Lord, Jesus Christ,
he who in his great mercy gave us new birth;
a birth unto hope which draws its life
from the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead;
a birth to an imperishable inheritance,
incapable of fading or defilement,
which is kept in heaven for you who
are granted with God's power through faith;
a birth to a salvation which stands ready
to be revealed in the last days. Amen.

(1 Peter 1:3-5)