After Good Friday Liturgy

[Godric2]

I have read that at the end of the Good Friday liturgy in some churches in the past a Vigil was kept (I do not refer to the Holy Thursday Vigil).

Is this tradition still found, or is it returning?

[Little Sisters in Manchester](http://stchrysostoms.wordpress.com/2012/03/03/little-sisters/ ‎)

 

[Chatter163]

This is because of the conversion of liturgical mixed metaphors, if you will–a classic case of where liturgical forms and popular devotions become entangled.

The vigil before the Blessed Sacrament was initially intended to commemorate the Our Lord’s vigil in Gethsemane, before His passion. This began on Maundy Thursday evening, and not knowing the exact hour at which His arrest took place, it became customary to keep the watch throughout the night into the morning of Good Friday, when the Mass of the Presantcified (a somewhat inaccurate term for the Liturgy of the Passion) took place. This in turn gave rise to various customs in different parts of Europe, including of visiting seven different churches during the night, IHO of the seven last words.

Though in early centuries the Blessed Sacrament was received by all who wished on Good Friday, by the Middle Ages the custom became for the priest alone to receive. The Most Holy was reserved only as viaticum until the Easter Vigil the next morning. Gradually the practice arose of setting up a sepulchre and keeping watch with Our Lord until the start of the Easter Vigil liturgy on Holy Saturtday morning, and the Sacrament reserved as viaticum was drawn into this. But the Good Friday Vigil at the tomb was a private devotion, not a public adoration, as at least the initial part of the vigil at the altar of repose was.

The result of this is a blurring of the garden and tomb vigils. When the Holy Week rites were revised in the 1950s, there was an emphasis on restoring ceremonies to their original and proper times, a trend that continued when the missal was revised in 1969-70. Part of this emphasis was the suppression of all-night vigils on both Thursday and Friday. The 1955 rubrics ordered that the adoration cease at mdinight on Maundy Thursday (though I know of a few old ethnic parishes that continued the all-night adoration, presumably with permission).

 

[Symphorian]

In pre-Reformation England there was a dramatic custom of the burial of Christ in the Easter Sepulchure. At the end of the Good Friday liturgy, the priest removed his Mass vestments and wearing a surplice, he walked barefoot to the Sepulchure carrying a Host in the pyx together with a cross which were wrapped in linen and ‘buried’ in the Easter Sepulchure. Whilst doing so, the priest intoned the Psalm verse ‘I am counted as one of them that go down to the pit’. The Sepulchure was censed and a continuous watch was then kept by parishioners and parish officers until early on Easter morning.

The Sepulchure could be a stone niche, table tomb or wooden box which was either set into the north wall of the chancel or placed near the north side of the high altar. Many candles were placed around it.

I too would be interested to hear if this custom if followed today. Having been brought up in the Anglo-Catholic tradition I’m familiar with the Maundy Thursday liturgy including the stripping of the altars and watch at the altar of repose but I’ve never experienced the Good Friday vigil before.

 

[Phemie]

These are the relevant articles from Paschale Solemnitatis, Circular Letter Concerning the Preparation and Celebration of the Easter Feasts

1. The Blessed Sacrament should be reserved in a closed tabernacle or pyx. Under no circumstances may it be exposed in a monstrance.
   The place where the tabernacle or pyx is situated must not be made to resemble a tomb, and the expression “tomb” is to be avoided: for the chapel of repose is not prepared so as to represent the “Lord’s burial” but for the custody of the Eucharistic Bread that will be distributed in Communion on Good Friday.
   56. The faithful should be encouraged after the Mass of the Lord’s Supper to spend a suitable period of time during the night in the church in, adoration before the Blessed Sacrament that has been solemnly reserved. Where appropriate, this prolonged eucharistic adoration may be accompanied by the reading of some part of the Gospel of Saint John (ch. 13-17).
   From midnight onwards, however, the adoration should be made without external solemnity, for the day of the Lord’s Passion has begun. (62)

I am aware of some parishes where a vigil is maintained at the foot of the Cross after the Good Friday celebration of the Passion of the Lord. This is accompanied by song, readings and prayers. This is strictly a private devotion organized by the parish.