Today we mourn: Tenebrae Meditation from Seattle – 24th March

Today we mourn.

For promises unfulfilled

For wholeness unrealized

For brokenness still afflicting

Today there is only darkness.

Our hopes are buried

Our longings shrouded

Our desires entombed.

Today the grave engulfs us

We walk in hell

Empty, stripped of life

No light only darkness

Today God seems to have failed

Yet here we find freedom between death and resurrection

This is the night which empties us and makes us whole

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Meditation used in a Tenebrae Service at St Andrew's Episcopal Church in Seattle

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At a Tenebrae Service the church is lit with 16 candles. The story, based on the presentation in John’s Gospel of the trial, sentencing, execution, death and burial of Jesus is read out. After each reading a candle is snuffed and, after the reading that confirms Jesus died on the cross, a loud sound is made to symbolise the effect of his death on the universe. The story of the burial is read by the light of the last candle. Worshippers leave in silence to think about the impact of Christ’s death and to await the return of the Light of the World at the Resurrection.