This year, our Campus Ministry team, along with the help of select Chorus members, XBSS leaders, and other student leaders within Campus Ministry, led the Xaverian community in a very powerful Easter Prayer Service: a Catholic Tenebrae service. 

The Catholic Tenebrae service is a solemn and powerful liturgical tradition held during Holy Week. The word Tenebrae means "darkness" or "shadows" in Latin, and the service is meant to reflect the sorrow and darkness of the Passion of Christ. It focuses on the events leading up to Jesus’ death, particularly His suffering and abandonment. The service often includes the singing of hymns and the reading of the Passion narratives from the Gospels. One of the central elements of Tenebrae is the gradual extinguishing of candles as the service progresses, symbolizing the growing darkness surrounding Christ’s death and the desertion of His disciples. The service typically ends in near-total darkness, often with the final candle—called the "Christ candle"—being hidden or extinguished.