And it is finished…the sacred liturgies of the Easter Triduum…
And looking up they saw that the stone had been rolled back, for it was very large, alleluia.
O God, on this day through Thine only-begotten Son has overcome death and opened unto us the gate of everlasting life, do Thou follow with Thine aid the desires which Thou does put into our minds and by Thy continual help bring the same to good effect.
The Marian Antiphon concluding Compline during Eastertide is the Queen of Heaven Rejoice.
V. Queen of heaven, rejoice, alleluia:
R. For He whom you merited to bear, alleluia,
V. Has risen, as He said, alleluia.
R. Pray for us to God, alleluia..
Let us pray:
O God, who by the resurrection of Your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, granted joy to the whole world: grant, we beg You, that through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, His Mother, we may lay hold of the joys of eternal life. Through Christ our Lord.
Read about this prayer here; it has an interesting history.
The sacred Liturgy follows the biblical pattern of prayer: sundown to sundown. You will notice that our Jewish brothers and sisters do the same. So one’s following the liturgical life of the Church needs to remember that telling time is a bit different in that a liturgical day does not begin with sunrise to sundown. Consequently, the sacred Triduum we’ve just celebrated started with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper and ends not with the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday but at second Vespers on Easter Sunday. This is a topic some family and friends don’t easily comprehend.
The essay “Liturgical Time and Space” in The Handbook for Liturgical Studies (in 5 vols) edited by Anscar J. Chupungco, OSB is an excellent resource for these matters liturgical.
