The name Tenebrae is the Latin word for "darkness" or "shadows," and has for centuries been applied to the ancient monastic night and early morning services of the last three days of Holy Week, which in medieval times came to be celebrated on the preceding evenings.
The traditional service is marked by reading from the book of Lamentations and the gradual extinguishing of 6 candles until a single candle, considered a symbol of the Lord, remains. Each candle extinguished represents a loss of human hope. Towards the end of the service, the final candle is hidden, representing the apparent victory of the forces of evil. But at the very end, a loud noise (the ‘Strepitus’ in Latin) is made, symbolizing the earthquake at the time of the resurrection (Matthew 28:2), the Benedictus is sung as a hymn of hope and the hidden candle is restored to its place. By its light all depart in silence.
It uses psalms and other passages of lament to remind us that God is present even at those times when we feel alone and abandoned – and even when we feel angry at God for the suffering which goes on in his world. It seems particularly appropriate for Maundy Thursday, when Jesus prayed desperately in Gethsemane, and also at this time when so many people have to struggle with fear, illness and even death, cut off from the human levels of support we so often take for granted.
This interpretation of the service is centred around a poem written by Sr Mary Stevens, who sees how the monastic service she took part in as an enclosed novice has come to represent standing with all the oppressed and suffering people with whom her order works in the modern age. I have not been able to contact Sr Mary to ask her if I may use her poem here, but I hope and believe she would approve.
Holy Week is a time of waiting and watching. Tonight in this service it seems more relevant than ever as we watch and wait with all those who suffer and cry out to God, and whose resurrection moment is yet to come.
If you have seven candles or tealights, you might like to light them and blow them out as the service progresses.
