Tenebrae: A Service of Light in Reverse
Throughout monasteries, convents, rectories and many Catholic churches throughout the world, people recite the Liturgy of the Hours, also known as the Office or the Breviary. Some religious communities like the Benedictines have their own version, but mostly the Church prays the same prayers in the same order all around the world. Many people have also taken up this way of praying.
It is centred on the psalms and it includes readings from Sacred Scripture as well as many of the early teachers of the Church like St. Augustine. As part of the Liturgy of the Hours, the Office of Readings (one of the "hours") during Holy Week included services written with more elaboration to heighten the meditation on the Passion of Our Lord. At least when celebrated publicly these services were often compressed from being spread over three days into one evening. This is how the devotion we now call Tenebrae came about.
To Anglicans, it appears much like a service of readings with chant interspersed. To Catholics it is now quite different than many of the other forms of devotion we have become accustomed to. There is a particular history in Toronto, however. Monsignor John E. Ronan, a native of one of our oldest parishes St. James in Colgan, wrote a setting for Tenebrae that is sung each year in different churches in southern Ontario by alumni of St. Michael's Choir School. Tenebrae will be celebrated at St. Francis Xavier Parish here in Mississauga on Monday night of Holy Week following the 7 p.m. Mass.
To become acquainted with chant and polyphony is to touch the heart of the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church. Even without knowledge of Latin, the music draws one directly into contemplation, establishing a slow even breathing pattern and settling the mind. In the old days, we would say it "disposed" one to prayer. Indeed.
There is also a quite well-known local Tenebrae written by Healey Willan, choir director of the Anglican Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Toronto for many years. Mr. Willan did receive fairly wide recognition as a composer in the English-speaking world in his lifetime. There is a nice Virgin Classics disc with the Choir of St. Mary Magdalene.
To Anglicans, it appears much like a service of readings with chant interspersed. To Catholics it is now quite different than many of the other forms of devotion we have become accustomed to. There is a particular history in Toronto, however. Monsignor John E. Ronan, a native of one of our oldest parishes St. James in Colgan, wrote a setting for Tenebrae that is sung each year in different churches in southern Ontario by alumni of St. Michael's Choir School. Tenebrae will be celebrated at St. Francis Xavier Parish here in Mississauga on Monday night of Holy Week following the 7 p.m. Mass.To become acquainted with chant and polyphony is to touch the heart of the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church. Even without knowledge of Latin, the music draws one directly into contemplation, establishing a slow even breathing pattern and settling the mind. In the old days, we would say it "disposed" one to prayer. Indeed.
There is also a quite well-known local Tenebrae written by Healey Willan, choir director of the Anglican Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Toronto for many years. Mr. Willan did receive fairly wide recognition as a composer in the English-speaking world in his lifetime. There is a nice Virgin Classics disc with the Choir of St. Mary Magdalene.
