From the Central Regional Pastor: Marking the Easter Vigil

By: Rev. David Haberstock

Rev. David Haberstock

What’s your favourite day in the church year? Some of my favourites are the quiet joy of the faithful few celebrating Christ’s taking on our flesh on Christ-Mass Day and His flesh being pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities on Good Friday. Many love the candlelight and hymns of Christmas Eve or the lilies and alleluias of Easter Sunday. But for me a new favourite last year was the Easter Vigil.

I have to admit, I am a somber, melancholy sort of soul. I love the minor keys of Lenten hymns, the constant hammer strokes of “repent” from works of death in the three-year lectionary this year, or Christ’s victory over sin, death, and Satan (in the one-year lectionary). So, for me Lent is a time I greatly cherish.

I get too “hangry” for my family to live with me if I should fast during the 40 days (Quadragesima) of Lent. But inwardly I am renewed by the extra helping of God’s Word at Lenten mid-week services, and this year I am enjoying some Lenten disciplines like chanting the Litany and Athanasian Creed daily, and listening through the New Testament on the Bible Gateway app. Lent is a blessed time of repentance and renewal in our Saviour whose cross has accomplished all that is needed for life and salvation.

I’m also a fidgety sort with attention challenges. So for me the extra liturgical practices are a joy and help me focus, such as the ashen cross on your forehead, more opportunities to receive Christ’s body and blood unto salvation, and liturgical ceremonies like palm branches and pounding three spikes into a life-size cross during the singing of “O Sacred Head Now Wounded.” All of these instruct me body and soul in the mystery of Christ’s death on my behalf (and yours!).

Godly traditions and ceremonies teach and remind us of profound truths, and they provide important transitions too. After the solemnity of Holy Thursday services (where the New Covenant in Jesus’ blood is instituted on the night in which He was betrayed, and our altars are stripped in remembrance of the beginning of our Lord’s suffering that night); after the silent sober-mindedness of Good Friday’s nails; the joy of Easter is kind of a shock to the system. But last year the pastors of the Wascana circuit (where I formerly served and still reside) discovered the Church’s transition point from our mourning into dancing: the Easter Vigil.

Though it is an ancient practice and the conclusion of the “Three Days” (Triduum)—Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday—we have not practised it much in North American Lutheran circles. You may have noticed that on Holy Thursday everyone departs in silence without a Benediction. Maybe you’ve even connected the fact that Good Friday is supposed to begin, just as we left the night before, in silence often without an Invocation of God’s holy name and also concludes without a Benediction. The reason for this is that the Easter Vigil, which begins in the evening as the sun sets on Holy Saturday, is the conclusion of this three-day service.

The service has many parts, but one of the highlights was the lighting of vigil candles by all from the Paschal Candle (lit from a bonfire outside the church building). Led by the Paschal Candle we all entered the darkened sanctuary at dusk. The first hour of the service is a series of Scripture readings of the story of salvation from Creation and the Fall to the expectation of  salvation of the exiled Israelites with the Three Men in the Fiery Furnace. Since the service starts at dusk, the sanctuary gets darker and darker as the readings progress. I was convinced that I would get terribly distracted but in the darkness with your small light your mind is not distracted from the Word of God on this most holy night of our Lord’s rest in the tomb.

It continues with a section on baptism (at which catechumens would be baptized or confirmed in ancient times—we will have one confirmation this year). And, finally, the naked altar is dressed again and the lights are flipped on to the proclamation that Christ is risen and we receive Christ’s victory in His body and blood. What a somber and joyous occasion it was. It enriched my observance of Holy Week and is a tradition I look forward to this year!

A blessed Holy Week and Easter be yours in Christ our Lord,

Pastor David Haberstock

P.S. Here is a link explaining last year’s Vigil: https://www.gracelutheranregina.com/events/easter-vigil/2018-03-31

Print this article