10 Apr

2023

Easter Vigil at St. Mary’s Part 1: Easter Fire, Exsultet, Prophecies

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The Easter Vigil at St. Mary’s Church, Norwalk, CT, Part I. (Descriptions courtesy of John Pia)

The celebrant and ministers—vested in penitential violet, the celebrant in cope, the ministers in folded chasubles—approach to sanctify the new fire, in anticipation of the light of Easter Day.
The fire and the grains of incense are sprinkled with hoy water and incensed.
The deacon changes his penitental folded chasuble into the white dalmatic of joy.
The deacon takes up the triple-branched reed, whose staff represents the bronze serpent which Moses fashioned on a rod to heal the Israelites in the desert, and whose three candles mystically symbolize the three days in the tomb, as well as the three Marys approaching the tomb on Easter morn.  A procession is formed; the faithful follow the clergy into the church.
Three times along the way the procession stops, and one of the three candles in lighted with the taper lit from the new fire: at each lighting the faithful should genuflect, save the subdeacon who bears the cross.  The deacon sings “The light of Christ” each time on a higher pitch, to which the people respond “Thanks be to God”.
The deacon proceeds to consecrate the unlit Paschal candle by the great Easter proclamation, the ancient “Exsultet.”  The deacon and his retinue face towards the North: towards those dark regions that do not yet know the Light of Christ.
The deacon pauses to pierce the Paschal Candle with the five grains of incense in the form of a cross, symbolizing the five Holy Wounds of our Lord at His crucifixion.
The deacon lights the Paschal Candle with the flame taken from the reed, which itself was lighted from the new fire.
The dedication candles and the lamps of the church are now lighted from the Paschal Candle.

The Prophecies:  The Twelve Prophecies of the Vigil are among the oldest cycle of readings known in the Roman Rite, prefiguring our salvation and recounting the duties, trials, and hardships of the Christian, they form the final catechesis for the elect who are to be baptized.  They are sung by a series of lectors to their own tone.

Please continue to Part 2.

Published in Masses, St. Mary's Holy Week 2023