Service of Light

[Holland]

I have been back in the Catholic Church for less than a year. I was looking forward to what we used to call Holy Saturday and the Service of Light and Baptism. Our Diocese doesn’t do that part of the Easter Vigil service. Does anyone do this Service on Holy Saturday anymore or was it done away with while I was gone from the Church?

 

[AJV]

Yes, the Service of Light is done at my Church on Holy Saturday(late). It’s a very touching ceremony.

 

[Chatter163]

A church without an Easter Vigil??? I have never heard of this.

 

[jbuck919]

Maybe I’m wrong, but I was raised that the setting of the new fire and the blessing of the paschal candle (the part of the ceremony from the beginning through the Exsultet) was the most solemn moment in the entire church year. If this is what you all mean by the “ceremony of light,” I can’t imagine it being omitted.

I have never heard the Exsultet sung well, BTW, not even at St. Paul’s Outside the Walls in Rome, which is a Benedictine establishment with an excellent schola. I am, alas, a musician, and my cringe threshold is rather low.

 

[Holland]

Oh no, they do the blessing of the Paschal Candle, etc. but the version I remember included everyone in the Church all having a small candle. The service was a lot longer but really beautiful. I can understand why churches no longer give everyone a candle. The expense and fire hazard for one, would keep a lot of churches from doing this. I just wondered if any churches out there actually did it anymore.

 

[introibo]

The last Easter Vigil I attended (2005) was in St James Spanish Place, in London. They lit a fire in the back of the church, which I had never seen done before (it was a large, gothic-style church, and the wall closest to the fire had no tapestries or anything flammable, so I guess it wasn’t too much of a fire hazard?).

Everyone got a fairly large candle to hold; they all remained lit throughout the entire Liturgy of the Word. This was pretty distracting, actually- I spent most of my time from the third or fourth reading on trying not to burn myself or get wax on the floor/my pants/my hand. At my home parish in the United States, the candles were always extinguished after the first collect, before the first reading.

 

[Holland]

I can imagine how distracting having to hold a candle through the whole service would be. We had small tapers that were extinguished right before the first reading.

 

[SMHW]

Yes. We still provide candles (to the adults at least.)

The fire is usually built in a portable firepit in the courtyard where the service begins. Eventually we will be processing into the church by the light of our candles. In previous years, candlelight has been the ONLY light during the procession into the church. But after a few people were injured due to lack of ability to see, we now use low level electric lights as well.

 

[jbuck919]

Again I may be wrong, but I recall nothing in the Roman ritual about lighting individual candles from the Pascal candle. That sounds distinctly like a sappy, sentimental Protestant accretion to me.

 

[Holland]

jbuck919:

Again I may be wrong, but I recall nothing in the Roman ritual about lighting individual candles from the Pascal candle. That sounds distinctly like a sappy, sentimental Protestant accretion to me./QUOTE

I will take this from my old Maryknoll Consectutive Sunday Missal dated 1963 since it follows what we used to do pretty closely. This is under the Solemn Procession:

In the center of the church, and again the sanctuary, Lumen Christi is sung in a progressively higher tone. After the first singing, the celebrant lights his candle from the Paschal Candle;after the second, the clergy light their candles, and after the third, THE PEOPLE LIGHT THEIRS. Arriviing in the sanctuary, the deacon puts the Paschal Candle in its place, carries the missal to the celebrant and asks a blessing from him.

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

Holland:

I have been back in the Catholic Church for less than a year. I was looking forward to what we used to call Holy Saturday and the Service of Light and Baptism. Our Diocese doesn’t do that part of the Easter Vigil service. Does anyone do this Service on Holy Saturday anymore or was it done away with while I was gone from the Church?

Since the restoration of the Easter Vigil Mass. I don’t think it’s optional. Now if there are no Catechumens then of course there would not be any Baptisms.

 

[jbuck919]

Holland:

jbuck919:

Again I may be wrong, but I recall nothing in the Roman ritual about lighting individual candles from the Pascal candle. That sounds distinctly like a sappy, sentimental Protestant accretion to me.

You know, you jogged my memory. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a vigil service where they did that (maybe I’ve just been going to the wrong ten churches). I have on the other hand (and this is a bit of a confession) been to Protestant services (not the Easter vigil) where they do this, and I absolutely detest it. Does anyone know if there is a rubric allowing a way around this part of the ritual?

 

[Holland]

jbuck919:

Holland:

You know, you jogged my memory. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a vigil service where they did that (maybe I’ve just been going to the wrong ten churches). I have on the other hand (and this is a bit of a confession) been to Protestant services (not the Easter vigil) where they do this, and I absolutely detest it. Does anyone know if there is a rubric allowing a way around this part of the ritual?

:crying: BOO HOO! How could you not like it. Its so beautiful! I know its sappy…

 

[Chatter163]

Do not worry; it is not sappy; neither is it Protestant; it is what the Catholic ritual calls for. The light of the risen Christ is spread throughout the people of God, and without being diminished in any way, which is what usually happens when something so small is shared by so many. This is an ancient ritual.

 

[m134e5]

jbuck919:

I have on the other hand (and this is a bit of a confession) been to Protestant services (not the Easter vigil) where they do this, and I absolutely detest it. Does anyone know if there is a rubric allowing a way around this part of the ritual?

Why??? Honestly, unless perhaps someone has a phobia of fires, I don’t see how anyone would not like this part of the liturgy.

 

[chicago]

I don’t find the practice sappy, but genuinely symbolic of how the light of Christ is enkinndled in the faithful through baptism and the Paschal mystery. Some people don’t seem to get this as, rather than waiting for the Paschal fire, they’ll light their tapers with a lighter. What is kind of funny is how many parishes use a bar-b-cue to start the Paschal fire in. You have to wonder if they plan on cooking up lamb.

 

[m134e5]

chicago:

I don’t find the practice sappy, but genuinely symbolic of how the light of Christ is enkinndled in the faithful through baptism and the Paschal mystery. Some people don’t seem to get this as, rather than waiting for the Paschal fire, they’ll light their tapers with a lighter. What is kind of funny is how many parishes use a bar-b-cue to start the Paschal fire in. You have to wonder if they plan on cooking up lamb.

I also like the symbolism of the second time the candles are lit during the Mass- after the newly baptized receive their candles, they light the others’ candles. It shows to me how new converts reignite the faith in us.

 

[Elzee]

I can actually say this is something my parish does extremely welll!

The fire outside, the Exsultet sung beautifully, the Paschal candle lighting one candle in church, and then, one by one each person lights another person’s candle until a completely darkened church is glowing with hundreds and hundreds of hand-held candles. It is beautiful. I can’t remember when we blow out the candles, but I know the church is basically lit by nothing except the candles in the sanctuary and a few around the church until we sing the Gloria! As we sing the Gloria, the lights are gradually brightened, and during the last verse ALL the the lights in the sanctuary that have been off since the beginning of Lent are turned on full force and the once-dim sanctuary just sparkles with the altar, ambo, Easter lilies, etc. in bright light. Then the lights come on in the rest of the church. It takes my breath away every year.