A variety of Christian renewal weekends are available to people today. Many of them are experiential in nature and focus on Christian community. While they may run for two to three days over a weekend, they are sometimes jokingly spoken of as "one day with a couple of naps."

That is a really good way to think of the Triduum as well. The Triduum consists of the final sacred days of Lent-Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. But rather than three days, it is really one experience-"one day with a couple of naps."

The experience begins on Holy Thursday evening with the Mass of the Lord's Supper, followed by some kind of walk to a separate place for prayer during the remaining hours of the night. Much like the disciples and the people of Jesus' own day, the community drifts in and out of the separate place throughout the night hours. Sometime on Good Friday the community gathers in silence to celebrate the passion and death of Jesus. This is a quiet, somber, and reflective time.

Following this, the community disperses again. It reassembles on the night of Saturday to vigil its way to Easter. Scriptures, fire, water, Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist (at last) make it a truly grand night. The liturgy itself calls it the "night of nights." Thus what we began on Thursday evening has been brought to fulfillment.

In real life, suffering, death, and resurrection are also one experience. They usually cover a span of days or maybe even several years. But they really are one experience. We do well to understand them as such, and we do great disservice to ourselves when we try to separate them. Begin to view and celebrate the Triduum as "one day with a couple of naps." It will help you live suffering, death, and resurrection in life much better . . . spiritually and emotionally.

© Harcourt Religion Publishers/BROWN-ROA