Tenebrae

Tenebrae, the monastic office adapted for use during Holy Week, literally means darkness. We enter a fully lighted church which experiences, through the course of the liturgy, the gradual diminishing of light and sound until we are left in total darkness and silence. The forces of evil and darkness have apparently overcome the love of God; the Son of God is dead. But from that darkened silence a mighty earthquake sounds and the great stone at the tomb is rolled away; a single light -- the Christ candle -- returns, and by its light alone we depart in silence to reflect upon the truth of God made known in the Cross.