TENEBRAE (Matins - Laudes in the Holy Triduum)These Matins are a prayer drama, a trilogy on one great thought: the Passion of the Savior.Matins for Thursday furnishes the overture to the great drama. Its theme is the Passion in its causes andexecution. The principal scenes are: the agony on Mount Olivet, the betrayal of Judas and the institution of theEucharist. As all this is but the opening page of the drama, the intensity of poetical ardor is purposelyrestrained. Matins for Friday is the climax: the drama of the cross and sets the scene on the Calvary hill. Matinsfor Saturday brings a lessening of the tension, a sort of calm after the storm. There is a gradual surge of hopefor Christ's resurrection, but this vanishes as we catch a glimpse of our dead Savior's bloody wounds.At other times Matins has its festive introduction, the Invitatory, and has short versicles and prayers. TenebraeMatins begin straightway, without any introduction and they close every bit as abruptly. What on other dayswould seem a cold beginning and an inartistic ending, becomes a striking expression of grief and sorrow. Weare taken aback, something is missing. Then we remember: Christ has left His disciples and His life. We arestricken anew with grief and sorrow. For this same reason, the psalms do not conclude with the customaryGloria Patri [The history of the liturgy traces this absence to an ancient form of Matins which has endured inthese 3 offices (cf. Baumstark)].These Tenebrae presuppose that the church is in darkness. The King of Light battles with the prince ofdarkness. The action takes place before the altar stripped of all its ornaments. The clerics lay aside customarysolemn vestments, no organ accompanies the chant. Before the altar is places a triangle that holds 14 yellowcandles and 1 white one. The custom had a practical origin: the candles served to illumine the darkness of thechurch. Later it receives a symbolic meaning. The 14 candles of the triangle and the 6 of the altar ...