St. Elizabeth Seton Parish in Orland Hills welcomed the triduum by celebrating a Tenebrae service on the Wednesday of Holy Week, April 16.

A devotion of prayer in a darkened church on the evenings of Wednesday, Thursday or Friday of Holy Week, the name “Tenebrae” is taken from the Latin word meaning “shadows” or “darkness.”

In the Catholic Church, such services used to be an optional form of liturgical prayer, commonly observed in religious communities, until the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

Now strictly a devotional service, Tenebrae is making a comeback of sorts with several parishes around the Archdiocese of Chicago holding the service on the Wednesday of Holy Week, once known as “Spy Wednesday,” for when Judas made a bargain with the Pharisees to betray Jesus.

St. Elizabeth Seton associate pastor Father Dan Korenchan officiated at the service and said he is happy to see parishes revive Tenebrae services.

“It has been part of the church’s patrimony for hundreds of years,” Korenchan said. “I think us being able to make these beautiful traditions available — there is so much symbolism behind them, everything we do in Tenebrae — so I hope that more and more parishes do it. It is a very, very moving part of Holy Week.”

The service began with six candles carried into the church and placed before the altar, with the paschal candle in the center. Six meditations were read, and after each meditation, a candle was extinguished while the choir sang.

At the end, only the paschal candle was lit. Korenchan processed out of the church with it while a deacon struck a gong several times to symbolize Christ’s death and the veil torn in two on Good Friday.

The church remained in darkness, allowing members of the congregation to stay for private prayer.

St. Elizabeth Seton Parish began holding Tenebrae services during the COVID-19 pandemic, when parishioner and codirector of religious education Mary Vlaming learned about the service from her sister and watched a service online from a parish in Minnesota.

“It was so beautiful, and I said, ‘We’ve got to do this,’” Vlaming said. “This is a night where we recall all the events of Jesus’ life that brought darkness into his life and put his light out. But in the end, we see that nothing can snuff that light. Nothing can extinguish his light. He always reigns.”

The service is emotional and solemn, Vlaming said, and allows people to reflect upon their own experiences of betrayal and denial.

“I think it brings to light all of our humanness, or it brings to light all of the times that maybe we betrayed someone,” she said. “Being that this is the eve of the triduum, it’s sort of an appetizer to what we are going to receive and partake in in the next few days. It’s like the warmup to the great event of the week.”

This was the third year Susanne Dubel attended the service because it is so moving, she said.

“If you don’t feel the Spirit during this ceremony, you’ll never feel it,” Dubel said. “It’s absolutely wonderful. I don’t know how else to describe it.”

Everything — the darkened church, the focus on minimal light from the candles, the content of the mediations and  the music from the choir — contributes to an emotional service, she said.

“It is a good thing to do during Holy Week because we are getting very close to Good Friday and this brings us closer to that event,” Dubel said. “I tell everybody to come.”

Maryola Ward participated as one of the candle bearers and readers.

“It’s so meaningful, especially the day before Holy Thursday, the service of light,” Ward said. “The church goes into darkness and you’re just able to absorb all that’s happening in the beginning of the triduum.”

She looks forward to it each year.

“It brings you such as sense of peace and comfort. You’re just ready for the triduum,” she said. “I just think Lent is amazing.”

Bernadette Rutkiewicz participated in the service, returning to church for the first time since the pandemic because she felt God calling her back. Afterward, she said, “Now I know why I’m here.”

Rutkiewicz’s mother took her to her first Holy Thursday service when she was 12, she said, and that was always her favorite liturgy until now.

“I’ve been away from the church for four years, and I think the Lord pushed me today,” Rutkiewicz said, with emotion in her voice. “I’m hoping I’m back on the right path.”

It was also the first time Mary Ann Hornick attended a Tenebrae service.

“It was very solemn, and it makes you think a lot about everything before Christ’s death, and what he went through in the garden and when the apostles left,” Hornick said. “We go through that on Palm Sunday, but this was more solemn.”

The service’s simplicity and the effect of the light slowly being extinguished and the darkness increasing in the church added to the solemnity, she said.

“It makes you think more with all of the symbolism and everything going on. It was more thoughtful,” Hornick said.