PALM SUNDAY

Divine Liturgy: 9:30 am

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Bridegroom Matins: 5 pm (1 hour)

The first of three Bridegroom Matins sung on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday evenings. The central theme is taken from the parable in Matthew’s gospel about the wise virgins who waited for the “Bridegroom [who] comes and midnight”. We, like these wise virgins, should be ready and prepared to greet Christ, who comes in the middle of the night.

 

GREAT & HOLY MONDAY

Bridegroom Matins: 6:30 pm (1 hour)

The parable of the Ten Virgins and the parable of the Talents (Matthew 22:15–23, 39). We ponder the Lord’s condemnation of religious hypocrisy.

 

GREAT & HOLY TUESDAY

Bridegroom Matins: 6:30 pm (1 hour)

We commemorate the sinful woman who anointed Christ. The Gospel readings switch to John 12:17–50, and we hear about the rejection of Christ. The betrayal of Judas is contrasted with the repentance of the sinful woman.

 

GREAT & HOLY WEDNESDAY

Presanctified Liturgy: 9 am (1.5 hours)

At this last Presanctified of the year, we hear the Gospel (Matt. 26:6–16), and the beautiful hymns about the woman who poured precious ointment on Jesus. We will also pray for the last time the Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian, “O Lord, and Master of my life…”

 

Matins of Holy Thursday with Anointing: 6:30 pm

Matins commemorates the washing of the disciples' feet, the Last Supper, the agony in Gethsemane, the betrayal of Judas. At the end of Matins, everyone may come forward to be anointed with holy oil.

 

GREAT & HOLY THURSDAY

Vesperal Liturgy of St Basil for the Mystical Supper: 9 am (2 hours)

The Last Supper initiates us into the Divine love offered to us in the Mystery of the Body and Blood of Christ. The Kingdom is revealed as True Food, which is the antidote to death and the Medicine of Immortality. This scene of love and offering is the context for the ultimate betrayal of Christ by the disciple Judas.

 

Matins of Holy Friday: 6:30 pm (2.5 hours)

In this dramatic service we hear in 12 Gospel readings about the Passion of the Lord. The readings are interspersed between the profound hymnography, which is our response to the dreadful occurrences. Bells are tolled at the beginning of each reading, indicating the number Gospel being read. We leave the Church having venerated the Holy Icon of the Savior on the Cross, “The Lord of Glory.”

 

GREAT & HOLY FRIDAY

Holy Friday is kept as the most solemn holy day of the year for Orthodox Christians. We take the day off from work in honor of the Lord’s voluntary crucifixion, and fast strictly from all food and drink, at least until after Vespers. We work toward an attitude of inner and outer quietness (with computers, phones, radios and TVs off). This day brings us to the Three-Day Pascha of our Lord. We have begun the end of our Lenten Journey.

 

Royal Hours: 8 am (1.5 hours)

This is a quiet Service with the reading of 4 Passion Gospels, along with Old Testament prophecies of the Crucified Messiah, New Testament commentaries of the events of the Day and hymns from the evening before.

 

Vespers of the Shroud or Winding Sheet, Epitaphios, Plaschanitsa: 3 pm (1.5 hours)

The Day of the Cross is a day of darkness, in which we see God rejected, a day of redemption on which the death of Christ is revealed to us, a saving death for us and for our salvation, and a day of the destruction of death itself by Divine Love in Christ. At the end of Vespers we place in the center of the Church the image of Christ in the life-giving tomb, the Holy Shroud. We all kiss it, giving honor to the One Who gave His life as a ransom to death.

 

Matins of Holy Saturday with the Lamentations: 7 pm (2 hours; served on Friday evening)

At the conclusion of Holy Friday comes the “Blessed Sabbath”, the Day of Rest, and the revelation of the Life-Giving Tomb of Christ. This is the Day that connects Great Friday with the Resurrection: sorrow is transformed into joy, and so, this is one of the most favored of Holy Week Services. We gather around the “Tomb” in the center of the Church, and like the Theotokos, and the women bearing myrrh, we sing our lamentations—short verses of profound theological depth, interspersed with that most magnificent of hymns, Psalm 118 (119), the longest Psalm in the Bible, which is a pure expression of the love for the law of God, His Providence, His Will and Providence for mankind. When the Lamentations are finished, we continue singing Resurrectional hymns which offer to us the meaning of what the Lord has done and does for us. Near the end of the service we process out of the church, with candles, in a solemn Procession, singing “Holy God.” The Son of God, the Holy Immortal One, proceeds through the darkness of Hades, announcing to “Adam of all generations” the joy of the forthcoming Resurrection. He proclaims that the “dead in the graves will arise.” We re-enter the church passing under the Shroud. Once within the Church we hear the Prophecy of the Resurrection from Ezekiel (37), the Lessons from Galatians 3:13–14, and I Cor. 5:6, and the reading from Matthew (27:62–66). Psalms are read all night long at the Shroud, keeping watch until the next Service.

 

GREAT & HOLY SATURDAY: The Blessed Sabbath

Holy Saturday is the liturgical center of the Orthodox Church year, a day which leads us from sorrow to joy, from death to life, from prophecy to fulfillment, the day of the destruction of death and the victory of the Cross.

 

Vesperal Liturgy of Great and Holy Saturday 10:00 am (3 hours)

There is no other day in the entire Church year with this kind of prayerful and inner stillness. In this most liturgically magnificent of creations of the Church, we hear the choir chant: “Today Hades groans and cries aloud: ‘my power has been destroyed. I accepted a Mortal Man as one of the dead. Yet I cannot keep Him prisoner…’” We hear 15 readings from the Old Testament, prophecies concerning Baptism, Resurrection and Salvation. The black cloths throughout the Church are put away and replaced by white cloths during the hymn “Arise, O God, and judge the earth…”. We hear the Gospel of the Empty Tomb, sing the hymn “Let all mortal flesh keep silence…”, receive Holy Communion, and break our fast in a modest way. This is a strict Fasting day, with no food or drink taken prior to the receiving of Holy Communion. We resume our fasting until the Paschal Communion. 

(Pascha Services begin at 11:15 pm on Holy Saturday) 

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PASCHA: The Resurrection of Our Lord

Nocturnes, Procession, Matins and the Divine Liturgy begins at 11:15 pm on Holy Saturday (3 hours)

The Feast of Feasts, and the Holy Day of Holy Days. Pascha is the day that fulfills the old Sabbath, and is called the Eighth Day, the day beyond the time and days of this world and age, and the image of the Age to Come, the Eternal Day. We begin the Service in a darkened Church with the Nocturnes solemnly chanted before the Shroud. At the conclusion of Nocturnes all the candles in the Church are extinguished. Out of the darkness comes the voices of the priest singing “Come, receive light from the Light that is never overcome by night!” And with this hymn, the new light is brought out and passed from person to person. Then, the clergy sing “Your Resurrection, O Christ our Savior, the angels in heaven sing, enable us on earth, to glorify you with purity of heart.” Everyone, with lit candles in hand, exits the church in procession— recalling the myrrhbearers—singing the same hymn over and over. When all have made the procession, we stand before the closed doors and begin the hymn: “Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered…Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.” We all enter back into the fully lit Church, hearing again and again the greeting: Christ is risen! Indeed, He is risen! After Matins and the Liturgy, we bless baskets filled with festive foods, and feast together in the joy of our Risen Lord.

 

Vespers of Pascha 1 pm (1 hour)

After sleeping for a few hours, we return to the Church for a bright, beautiful Vespers Service—exuberantly melodic with the joy of the Resurrection of the Lord, our own spiritual resurrection, and the pledge that we too will rise from the dead.