tenebrae's origins

[Tim Durkin]

A paragraph from the mass guide handed out at my parish on Saturday night:

				Tenebrae
The office of Tenebrae (meaning darkness or shadow) is a Holy Week devotion 
dating back to the 7th or 8th century A.D. and is characterized by 
scripture readings and the successive extinguishing of candles as the 
service progresses.  The candles represent Jesus and His apostles; their 
extinguishing represents the apostles' desertion of Jesus.  Tenebrae roots 
us in the darkness of Jesus' abandonment and lifts us in hopeful 
anticipation of the Lord's Resurrection.

Tim