April 15, 2022 The Easter Triduum: Good Friday
The Easter Triduum (TRIH-djoo-um), the Great Three Days, begins on Maundy Thursday. Lent has ended. We begin the celebration of the Passover of the Lord from death to life. During these Three Days Christians still reckon time according to the customs of the Jewish people. On Maundy Thursday, a number of ancient rites are observed during the Celebration of the Lord’s Supper. On Good Friday, we celebrate the second of the great liturgies of the Easter Triduum, the Celebration of the Passion of the Lord. The worship and ceremonies of the Church on Good Friday are for many Christians the most powerful of the Church year. The liturgy begins with the clergy prostrate before the altar and the people kneeling. Following the Liturgy of the Word and the Passion Narrative from Saint John, the Church offers its prayers in a form used by the ancient Church, a form now used only on Good Friday. Then at the Showing of the Cross we are invited to kneel or sit for a period of reflection and prayer while the choir sings the Reproaches. Finally we receive Holy Communion from the Sacrament consecrated at the Celebration of the Lord’s Supper. As much as possible, silence is observed before and after the liturgy. The Great Vigil of Easter, celebrated on Saturday night, is the final part of a service which began on Maundy Thursday. The service is from the red Book of Common Prayer 1979. All hymns are taken from the blue Hymnal 1982. All hymns are reprinted with permission under OneLicense.net A713125.
Our Celebrant and Preacher this Sunday is the Reverend Matthew Hoxsie Mead.
Today’s In Person Worship
- This Friday the Eucharist will be celebrated at 12:00 p.m. (Rite 2).
- Please review these Guidelines before attending worship at Christ Church. (Updated 2/26/2022)
Today’s Live-Stream Worship & Sermon Archives
- You can view the live-stream services HERE
- Sermon archives are HERE
- Our Sermon and other archives are here: https://www.youtube.com/c/christchurchpelham
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Today’s Propers (Collect & Lections from Holy Scripture)
The Collect
Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The First Lesson
The Psalm
The Second Lesson
The Passion
The Passion is chanted by the Cantor and Choir. the choral responses are adapted from a Latin setting by Tomas Luis de Victoria (c. 1548-1611)
The Easter Triduum concludes tomorrow night with the Easter Vigil at 7:30 p.m.
Parish Prayer List
Please note that names are listed alphabetically by last name of the person being prayed for (if it is known). We do not list last names for privacy reasons. For pastoral emergencies call or text one of the clergy: While Father Matt is in the Holy Land, please call Deacon Chisara Alimole (914.338.5194), or call the parish office (914.738.5515). If you have any updates (birthdays, prayers additions, etc., please let us know.) Please submit names you wish to be included by Tuesday morning, to Marie at: marie@christchurchpelham.org.
Our prayers are asked especially for: Marion, Mark, Marcia, Elizabeth, Zachary, Anne, Rosemarie, Ginny, Ralph, Douglas, Ethan, Barbara, Russell, Fran, Mary, Ralph, Ursla, Marcia, Scot, Sammy, Ted, James, Monica (in hospital), Rebecca, Janet, Jackie, Amina, Celine, Brayden, Alexia Grace, Alison, Nicole, Emma, Pelin, Hildy, Martin, Nate, Yen, Erica, Rosalina, Walter, Susan, Ariana, Danielle, The Salvatore family, Dean, Sue, Xandra, Sigi, Joyce, Julie, Scott, Robert, Sherry, Michelle, Rob, Drue, David, Rob, Chuck, Bill, Sue, Lael, M&D, Sandy, Morris, and Katie.
We give thanks for those celebrating birthdays this week and in the coming week Ed Cragin (April 11), David Dierking (April 13), Chris Ganpat (April 14), Mia Genovese (April 15), Kristine Valerio (April 16), Kari Black (April 17), Gus Ipsen (April 17), Kristin van OgTrop (April 17), Vanessa Dierking (April 18), and Tom Bricker (April 21).
We pray for those in our Armed Services especially: Joseph, Kevin, Jack, Leopold, Philip, Jake, Matthew, Robert, Philip-Jason, Nicholas, Sam, Helen, Mitchel, Alec, Jonah, Tia, Tyrese, and Terrence.
We pray that all elected and appointed officials may be led to wise decisions and right actions for the welfare and peace of the world, especially Joseph our President, and Kathy our Governor.
We pray for those who have died, (especially ______). And we pray for those who have died from COVID-19.
Rest eternal grant to them, O Lord
And let light perpetual shine upon them.
May their souls and the souls of the departed, through the mercy of God,
rest in peace. Amen
About the Music
Bob Chilcott (b. 1955) is one of the leading English composers of choral music working today and is Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Singers. As a boy, Chilcott sang in the choir of King’s College Cambridge under the direction of the legendary David Willcocks and he remained with the choir throughout his university years. In 1985, he joined The King’s Singers, the a cappella men’s touring ensemble formed in 1968 by six singers from King’s College, and he sang as a tenor with that ensemble for 12 years. His award-winning arrangements for the King’s Singers led to his career as a choral composer, which began in earnest in 1997. Chilcott’s setting of John 3:16, God so loved the world, has become a favorite selection for our parish choir to sing.
Tómas Lúis de Victoria (c. 1548-1611), was the most famous Spanish composer of the sixteenth century. Born in Ávila, Victoria was educated as a choirboy in Ávila’s cathedral. He is known to have been an accomplished organist at a very early age and seems to have had considerable success as a singer, as well, because in 1565, he was appointed the Cantor for the German College in Rome, which had been founded and directed by St. Ignatius Loyala in 1552 and where Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was the maestro di cappella (choirmaster). When Palestrina returned to his previous position as director of the Julian choir in the Vatican at the church of St. John Lateran, the Episcopal seat of the Bishop of Rome, Victoria was appointed choirmaster of the college. In 1573, he was also appointed to serve as choirmaster and instructor in plainsong (Gregorian chant) for the Pontifical Seminary in Rome, which was at that time also under Jesuit control. In 1574, he was ordained a priest by the English-born Thomas Goldwell, Bishop of the St. Asaph diocese in Wales, who had rejected the English Reformation and was living, more or less, in exile in Rome. With Palestrina, who was most likely his teacher and mentor, Victoria is regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Roman Catholic counter-Reformation. In 1584, Victoria was appointed priest and choirmaster to the monastery of the Descalzas Reales in Madrid, when his friend and patroness the dowager empress Maria entered that monastery’s cloistered life. He served as her chaplain. The choral responses in today’s reading of the Passion Gospel are adapted from a Latin setting by Victoria.
The Reproaches for Good Friday, also known as the Improperia, are a devotional responsory developed by the ninth century Iberian hermit, hymnist, and later bishop, St. Prudentius, in his Pontificale. By the twelfth century, it was widely adopted throughout the Western Catholic world. An embellishment of the Greek Trisagion, it serves as an indictment for the ways sinners have rejected Christ’s redemption and asks, in the Savior’s voice, “what have I done to you and how have I offended you?” The traditional Improperia and that set by Tómas Luis de Victoria alternate the Greek “Agios O Theos” with its Latin translation “Sanctus Deus.” We take the liberty of interpolating an English translation once in our repetition of this portion from the Trisagion and of singing the plainsong responses in English.
The Spanish-Puerto Rican cellist Pablo Casals (1876-1973) was one of the great cellists of the last century. His father, Carles Casals i Ribes was a parish organist and choirmaster and music teacher in the Catalonian village of El Vendrell and his mother, Pilar Defilló de Casals, was a musician born in Puerto Rico to Catalan immigrants who later returned to Spain, where she married Carles Casals. Casals received early musical instruction on piano, organ, violin and in composition from his father, and at the age of eleven purposed to dedicate himself to studying and performing on the cello, which he did in Barcelona at the Escola Municipal de Música. He went on to stipended study at the Royal Conservatory in Madrid on the recommendation of composer Isaac Albéniz, who was impressed by his prodigious talent. Having given his first public recital at the age of 14, Casals went on to early international success following a performance for Queen Victoria at the Crystal Palace in 1899. Primarily known as a cellist throughout his lifetime, Casals also composed a handful of pieces, including several motets, of which today’s ravishing setting of “O vos omnes” is the most cherished and often performed.
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