Tenebræ is the name given to the Offices of Matins and Lauds during the Sacred Paschal Triduum. Matins is the office of the night vigil, consisting of three divisions or ‘nocturns’. Each nocturn contains three psalms with their antiphons, followed by a reading punctuated by three responsories. Lauds is the office for the beginning of the new day and contains five psalms and the Benedictus Gospel canticle.
As each psalm is concluded, one more candle of the tenebræ hearse is extinguished until the church is left in darkness. At the end of the Benedictus, all the lights are put out. The final candle, which has been concealed behind the altar without being extinguished, is revealed: a symbol of Christ's resurrection. Tenebræ concludes with the ‘strepitus’. Originally a knock from the superior to signal the end of the office, the noise recalls the earthquake that accompanied Christ's death on the cross.
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