I find that whenever I have a period of heavy liturgical responsibility, it is matched by heavy pastoral responsibilities during the same time. It was the same during this Holy Week. You need to know during Holy Week, the Orthodox have services in the morning and in the evening. Though very few people come nowadays […]
Archives for April 2009
Synaxarion of Pascha
Mary Magdalene, and the other women who were present at the burial of our Saviour on Friday evening, returned from Golgotha to the city and prepared fragrant spices and myrrh, so that they might anoint the body of Jesus. On the morrow, because of the law which forbids work on the day of the Sabbath, […]
Synaxarion for Holy Saturday
On Saturday, the high priests and Pharisees gathered together before Pilate and asked him to have Jesus’ tomb sealed until the third day; because, as those enemies of God said, “We suspect that His disciples will come and steal His buried body by night, and then proclaim to the people that His resurrection is true, […]
Synaxarion for Holy Friday
When Friday dawned, Christ was sent bound from Caiaphas to Pontius Pilate, who was then Governor of Judea. Pilate interrogated Him in many ways, and once and again acknowledged that He was innocent, but to please the Jews, he later passed the sentence of death against Him. After scourging the Lord of all as though […]
Synaxarion for Holy Thursday
On the evening of this day, which was the eve of the feast of unleavened bread (that is, the Passover), our Redeemer supped with His twelve disciples in the city. He blessed the bread and the wine, and gave us the Mystery of the Divine Eucharist. He washed the feet of the disciples as an […]
Synaxarion for Holy Wednesday
The more accurate and exacting of the commentators on the four Gospels, say that two women anointed the Lord, one long before his Passion, and one a few days before. One of these women was a harlot, and the other was a chaste, virtuous woman. On this day, the Church commemorates this act of piety […]
Synaxarion for Holy Tuesday
On this day we make remembrance of the Parable of the Ten Virgins which Jesus spake along with others as he was coming to the Passion. It teaches us not to rest as though safe in virginity, but to guard it whenever possible, and not to desist from any virtues and good deeds, especially deeds […]
Synaxarion for Holy Monday
On this day begins the anniversary of the holy Passion of the Savior, he of whom Joseph of exceeding beauty is taken as the earliest symbol; for this Joseph was the eleventh of the sons of Jacob, and because his father loved him exceedingly, his brothers envied him and threw him into a pit. Then […]
What are the Bridgegroom Services?
The Orthros for Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday and Holy Wednesday are called the Service of the Bridegroom. The Kingdom of God is compared to a bridal feast and a bridal chamber. The Christ of the Passion is the Bridegroom of the Church. The imagery connotes the final union of the Lover and the beloved. The last days were […]
Holy Week ahead
With Holy Week starting today for the Orthodox, my posting might become somewhat spotty. For those of you in a “Western” church, may the Lord give you a blessed Easter.
