April | 2008 | presvlisa's Xanga Site

Month: April 2008

*UPDATED with new video and explanations.*
~Christ is Risen! Happy Bright Week to All! ~
Here are some more video and photos from Good Friday. Stay tuned for photos from Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday celebrations! We had such a glorious Easter. The boys didn’t go to school on Good Friday or Bright Monday, we are all just now recovering from the festivities! Maria~Angelica stayed awake for the entire midnight Easter Liturgy until 4 in the morning and we celebrated with friends on Easter Sunday until 12:30 in the morning on Bright Monday! I have lots of photos to share. It is just taking me a lot of time to go through them and edit them. The boys all went back to school today and Maria~Angelica slept 14 hours last night!

The Kouvouklion/funeral bier of Christ, decorated with flowers and the crucifixion icon.

Basil and fellow altar boys.

Jonah- the littlest altar boy in the front  and Maria~Angelica watching the procession

The procession – Nicholas the little blonde altar boy in the front left photo and Basil in the fore front next to Fr.

Fr. and Basil- I love this photo.                                   The Kouvouklion now dressed with white linen.

                              Maria~Angelica and Stephanie.   Maria~Angelica entering the Church after passing under the Kouvouklion.

We are singing The Trisagion prayer, which is considered one of the oldest prayers in Christianity. It may be that the prayer was originally an expansion of the angelic cry recorded in Revelation 4:8 (sometimes called the Sanctus).
In Greek the Trisagion prayer is:
Ἅγιος ὁ Θεός, Ἅγιος ἰσχυρός, Ἅγιος ἀθάνατος, ἐλέησον ἡμᾶς.
Agios o Theos, agios ischyros, agios athanatos, eleison imas.
In English this is:
Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us.

In response to the Priest’s petitions (prayers to God) we are signing:
Κύριε ἐλέησον, Κύριε ἐλέησον, Κύριε ἐλέησον.
Kyrie eleison; Kyrie eleison; Kyrie eleison.
“Lord have mercy; Lord have mercy; Lord have mercy.”

                                            New video and an explanation of  the Lamentations, Holy Saturday and the Epitaphios service .

The Burial of Christ. During Matins, Lamentations (Greek: Επιτάφιος Θρήνος, epitaphios thrênos, lit. “winding-sheet lamentation”; or Εγκομια, enkomia, “praises”) are sung before the Epitaphios as at the tomb of Christ, while all hold lighted candles. The verses of these Lamentations are interspersed between the verses of Psalm 118 (the chanting of this psalm forms a major part of the Orthodox funeral service). The psalm is divided into three sections, called stases. At the beginning of each stasis, the priest or deacon will perform a censing. In the Greek use, at the third and final stasis, the priest will sprinkle rosewater on the Epitaphios and the congregation, symbolising the anointing of Christ’s body with spices.
Near the end of Matins, during the Great Doxology, a solemn procession with the Epitaphios is held, with bells ringing the funeral toll, commemorating the burial procession of Christ. In Slavic churches, the Epitaphios alone is carried in procession with candles and incense. It may be carried by hand or raised up on poles like a canopy. Many Greek churches, however, will carry the entire bier, with its carved canopy attached. In societies where Byzantine Christianity is traditional, the processions may take extremely long routes through the streets, with processions from different parishes joining together in a central location. Where this is not possible, the procession goes three times around the outside of the church building. The procession is accompanied by the singing of the Trisagion, typically in a melodic form used at funerals. Those unable to attend the church service will often come out to balconies where the procession passes, holding lit candles and sometimes hand-held censers. In many Greek villages, the Epitaphios is also paraded in the cemetery, among the graves, as a covenant of eternal life to those who have passed away.
At the end of the procession, the Epitaphios is brought back to the church. Sometimes, after the clergy carry the Epitaphios in, they will stop just inside the entrance to the church, and hold the Epitaphios above the door, so that all who enter the church will pass under it (symbolically entering into the grave with Christ) and then kiss the Gospel Book. In Greek churches, the Epitaphios is then brought directly to the sanctuary, where it remains on the Holy Table until Ascension Thursday. In Slavic churches, it is brought back to the catafalque in the middle of the church (and may be honoured further with more petals, rosewater and incense), where it remains until the Midnight Office at the Paschal Vigil on Great Saturday night. Where the Epitaphios remains in the centre of the church, the faithful will continue to venerate it throughout Great Saturday
.

The Paschal sermon of St John Chrysostom is read aloud in every Orthodox parish on the morning of the Great and Holy Pascha Jesus Christ.

According to the tradition of the Church, no one sits during the reading of St John’s sermon, but all stand and listen with attentiveness.

Paschal Homily of St. John Chrysostom

If any man be devout and loveth God,
Let him enjoy this fair and radiant triumphal feast!
If any man be a wise servant,
Let him rejoicing enter into the joy of his Lord.

If any have laboured long in fasting,
Let him now receive his recompense.
If any have wrought from the first hour,
Let him today receive his just reward.
If any have come at the third hour,
Let him with thankfulness keep the feast.
If any have arrived at the sixth hour,
Let him have no misgivings;
Because he shall in nowise be deprived therefore.
If any have delayed until the ninth hour,
Let him draw near, fearing nothing.
And if any have tarried even until the eleventh hour,
Let him, also, be not alarmed at his tardiness.

For the Lord, who is jealous of his honour,
Will accept the last even as the first.
He giveth rest unto him who cometh at the eleventh hour,
Even as unto him who hath wrought from the first hour.
And He showeth mercy upon the last,
And careth for the first;
And to the one He giveth,
And upon the other He bestoweth gifts.
And He both accepteth the deeds,
And welcometh the intention,
And honoureth the acts and praises the offering.

Wherefore, enter ye all into the joy of your Lord;
Receive your reward,
Both the first, and likewise the second.
You rich and poor together, hold high festival!
You sober and you heedless, honour the day!
Rejoice today, both you who have fasted
And you who have disregarded the fast.
The table is full-laden; feast ye all sumptuously.
The calf is fatted; let no one go hungry away.
Enjoy ye all the feast of faith:
Receive ye all the riches of loving-kindness.

Let no one bewail his poverty,
For the universal Kingdom has been revealed.
Let no one weep for his iniquities,
For pardon has shown forth from the grave.
Let no one fear death,
For the Saviour’s death has set us free.
He that was held prisoner of it has annihilated it.

By descending into Hell, He made Hell captive.
He embittered it when it tasted of His flesh.
And Isaiah, foretelling this, did cry:
Hell, said he, was embittered
When it encountered Thee in the lower regions.

It was embittered, for it was abolished.
It was embittered, for it was mocked.
It was embittered, for it was slain.
It was embittered, for it was overthrown.
It was embittered, for it was fettered in chains.
It took a body, and met God face to face.
It took earth, and encountered Heaven.
It took that which was seen, and fell upon the unseen.

O Death, where is thy sting?
O Hell, where is thy victory?
Christ is risen, and thou art overthrown!
Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen!
Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is risen, and life reigns!
Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave.
For Christ, being risen from the dead,
Is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

To Him be glory and dominion
Unto ages of ages.

Amen.

~Photos From Last Night’s Service of the Lamentations~
The Service of the Lamentations–The Service centers around two dramatic events. The first is a series of short hymns which are sung at the Tomb of Christ (which give the service its popular title). These hymns lament the death of Christ, but see in His defeat on the Cross the ultimate source of victory over sin and death. The second is the procession with the kouvouklion. This procession, which was originally the procession of the people into the Church, has come to be understood as the burial procession of Christ. As the people reenter the Church, they pass under the icon of the Burial of Christ (the Epitaphios) which again reminds us that we pass through the death of Christ to true life.

The Epitaphios the icon depicting the burial of Christ, is place in the Kouvouklion/funeral bier, which represents the tomb of Christ.
Hymns from the Anoi
“Come, let us see our Life lying in the tomb, that He may give life to those that in their tombs lie dead. Come, let us look today on the Son of Judah as He sleeps, and with the prophet let us cry aloud to Him: Thou hast lain down, Thou hast slept as a lion; who shall awaken Thee, O King? But of Thine own free will do Thou rise up, who willingly dost give Thyself for us. O Lord, glory to Thee.”
“Today a tomb holds Him who holds the creation in the hollow of His hand; a stone covers Him who covered the heavens with glory. Life sleeps and hell trembles, and Adam is set free from his bonds. Glory to Thy dispensation, whereby Thou hast accomplished all things, granting us an eternal Sabbath, Thy most holy Resurrection from the dead.”

At the Third Stasis when the verse “Eranan ton Tafon ai miroforoi mira lian proi elthousai-early in the morning the myrrh-bearers came to Thee and sprinkled myrrh upon Thy tomb” is sung the priest sprinkles the Epitaphios with rosewater, using the rantistirion (sprinkler). This verse is usually repeated three or more times. It has become the custom to sprinkle the people as well.

At the conclusion of the service, the faithful go in procession with the Epitaphios and often the entire structure that represents the Tomb of Christ around the Church chanting the Thrice-Holy hymn, in a similar manner to the traditional procession for a funeral.

It is customary for the clergy and people to hold candles during the singing of the Lamentations and at the procession of the Epitaphios. This practice is rooted in ancient Christian burial practices. Candles were lit in order to symbolize the victory of Christ over death, and to express as well the Church’s belief in the Resurrection.
The Scripture readings for the Matins service are: Ezekiel 37:1-14; I Corinthians 5:6-8; Galatians 3:13-14; and Matthew 27:62-66.

On Great and Holy Saturday the Orthodox Church commemorates the burial of Christ and His descent into Hades. It is the day between the Crucifixion of our Lord and His glorious Resurrection. The Matins of Holy Saturday is conducted on Friday evening, and while many elements of the service represent mourning at the death and burial of Christ, the service itself is one of watchful expectation.
On Great and Holy Saturday the Church contemplates the mystery of the Lord’s descent into Hades, the place of the dead. Death, our ultimate enemy, is defeated from within. “He (Christ) gave Himself as a ransom to death in which we were held captive, sold under sin. Descending into Hades through the Cross … He loosed the bonds of death” (Liturgy of St. Basil).
On Great Saturday our focus is on the Tomb of Christ. This is no ordinary grave. It is not a place of corruption, decay and defeat. It is life-giving, a source of power, victory and liberation.
Great Saturday is the day between Jesus’ death and His resurrection. It is the day of watchful expectation, in which mourning is being transformed into joy. The day embodies in the fullest possible sense the meaning of xarmolipi – joyful-sadness, which has dominated the celebrations of Great Week. The hymnographer of the Church has penetrated the profound mystery, and helps us to understand it through the following poetic dialogue that he has devised between Jesus and His Mother:
“Weep not for me, O Mother, beholding in the sepulcher the Son whom thou hast conceived without seed in thy womb. For I shall rise and shall be glorified, and as God I shall exalt in everlasting glory those who magnify thee with faith and love.”
“O Son without beginning, in ways surpassing nature was I blessed at Thy strange birth, for I was spared all travail. But now beholding Thee, my God, a lifeless corpse, I am pierced by the sword of bitter sorrow. But arise, that I may be magnified.”
“By mine own will the earth covers me, O Mother, but the gatekeepers of hell tremble as they see me, clothed in the bloodstained garment of vengeance: for on the Cross as God have I struck down mine enemies, and I shall rise again and magnify thee.”
“Let the creation rejoice exceedingly, let all those born on earth be glad: for hell, the enemy, has been despoiled. Ye women, come to meet me with sweet spices: for I am delivering Adam and Eve with all their offspring, and on the third day I shall rise again.” (9th Ode of the Canon)
Great Saturday is the day of the pre-eminent rest. Christ observes a Sabbath rest in the tomb. His rest, however, is not inactivity but the fulfillment of the divine will and plan for the salvation of humankind and the cosmos. He who brought all things into being, makes all things new. The re-creation of the world has been accomplished once and for all. Through His incarnation, life and death Christ has filled all things with Himself He has opened a path for all flesh to the resurrection from the dead, since it was not possible that the author of life would be dominated by corruption.
Saint Paul tells us that:
“God was in Jesus Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19). Hence, eternal life – real and self-generating – penetrated the depths of Hades. Christ who is the life of all destroyed death by His death. That is why the Church sings joyously “Things now are filled with light, the heaven and the earth and all that is beneath the earth” (Canon of Pascha).
The Church knows herself to be “the place, the eternal reality, where the presence of Christ vanquishes Satan, hell and death itself.
The solemn observance of Great Saturday help us to recall and celebrate the great truth that “despite the daily vicissitudes and contradictions of history and the abiding presence of hell within the human heart and human society,” life has been liberated! Christ has broken the power of death.
It is not without significance that the icon of the Resurrection in our Church is the Descent of Christ into Hades, the place of the dead. This icon depicts a victorious Christ, reigned in glory, trampling upon death, and seizing Adam and Eve in His hands, plucking them from the abyss of hell. This icon expresses vividly the truths resulting from Christ’s defeat of death by His death and Resurrection.
~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 He were a runaway slave, he surrendered Him to be crucified.
Thus the Lord Jesus was handed over to the soldiers, was stripped of His garments, was clothed in a purple robe, was crowned with a wreath of thorns, had a reed placed in His hand as though it were a sceptre, was bowed before in mockery, was spat upon, and was buffeted in the face and on the head. Then they again clothed Him in His own garments, and bearing the cross, He came to Golgotha, a place of condemnation, and there, about the third hour, He was crucified between two thieves. Although both blasphemed Him at the first, the thief at His right hand repented, and said: “Remember me, O Lord, when Thou comest in Thy Kingdom,” to which our Saviour answered, “Today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.” As He hung upon the Cross, He was blasphemed by those who were passing by, was mocked by the high priests, and by the soldiers was given vinegar to drink mixed with gall. About the ninth hour, He cried out with a loud voice, saying, “It is finished.” And the Lamb of God “Which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) expired on the day when the moon was full, and at the hour when, according to the Law, was slain the Passover lamb, which was established as a type of Him in the time of Moses.
Even lifeless creation mourned the death of the Master, and it trembled and was altered out of fear. Yet, even though the Maker of creation was already dead, they pierced Him in His immaculate side, and forthwith came there out Blood and Water. Finally, at about the setting of the sun, Joseph of Arimathea came with Nicodemus (both of them had been secret disciples of Jesus), and they took down the all-holy Body of the Teacher from the Cross and anointed it with aromatic spices, and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth. When they had buried Him in a new tomb, they rolled a great stone over its entrance.
Such are the dread and saving sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ commemorated today, and in remembrance of them, we have received the Apostolic commandment that a fast be observed every Friday.
Apolytikion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone
As the glorious disciples, in the washing of the feet, were enlightened, the profane Judas, ravaged by greed, was benighted. And to the lawless judges he surrenders You the just judge. Consider, you who love money, the one who hanged himself for the sake of it. Shun the insatiate heart that could dare such a deed against the Teacher. Lord, benevolent above all humans, glory to You.
Kontakion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone
Come, let us all praise Him Who was crucified for us. Mary beheld Him on the Tree and said, “Though You endure even the Cross, You are my Son and my God.”
~Holy Unction Service- Holy Wednesday~
The biblical basis for the Sacrament of Holy Unction is found in James 5:14-16:
“Is any among you sick, let him call for the presbyters of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.”
Video of Nicholas, Jonah and Maria~Angelica being annointed with Holy Oil.

Order of the Service for Holy Unction
1. Introductory Prayers and Psalms 143 & 51
  In these Psalms we confess our sinfulness before God and ask Him to cleanse us and make a “new and right spirit within us” (Psalm 51:10).
2. Canon
  In this series of verses that are read or sung, we ask God to show mercy upon us and cleanse our souls, to drive away all evil powers, to grant salvation to those who are sick or suffering, and to grant us the healing of our souls and bodies. At the end of several sets of verses, we ask God to renew our lives so that we may bless, thank and glorify Him forever.
3. Short Prayers or Troparia to the Saints
  We pray to the saints – especially those who have helped the sick and suffering, and to those who have been martyred for the glory of God – and to the Mother of God to intercede for us for the salvation of our souls.
4. Epistle and Gospel Lessons and Prayers
  There are seven sets of Epistle and Gospel readings and prayers.
  a. James 5:10-16; Luke: 10:25-37
  b. Romans 15:1-7; Luke 19:1-10
  c. I Corinthians 12:27-31;13:1-8; Matthew 10:1,5-8
  d. II Corinthians 6:16-18, 7:1; Matthew 8:14-23
  e. II Corinthians 1:8-11; Matthew 25:1-13
  f. Galatians 5:22-6:2; Matthew 15:21-28
  g. I Thessalonians 5:14-23; Matthew 9:9-13
  Each of the seven prayers asks for the remission of the our sins, for the healing of our souls and bodies and for life everlasting.

I thought this was fascinating. Last night, at the Bridegroom Service of Holy Tuesday, the Hymn of Kassiani is sung. The following is written by composer Christos Hatzis and taken from his website. It is well worth the read!

My relationship with the text of this Troparion goes back to my childhood. For approximately ten years (until my late teens) I sung drones in a chorus every Sunday at the psaltery of my parish church in Volos, my home town in Greece. The Troparion of Kassiani, sung late in the evening on the HolyTuesday was one of the highlights of the church year. By far the longest chant of liturgical music, it often became a vehicle for display of cantorial virtuosity, but also of expressive prowess, a quality rather foreign to the normally stern and impersonal ideal for musical delivery in a church setting. When I became versant in classical Greek, at least enough to understand the actual meaning of the text, I realized that the reason for this hyper-expressivity in the musical renderings of this particular chant is the text itself.

One of the few liturgical texts in the orthodox canon written by women, The Troparion of Kassiani literally bursts at the seams with emotion and feminine energy. It is a confessional by Mary Magdalene to her Master as she pours myrrh over His head just before His Passion, an act that was met with criticism by the disciples and particularly Judas who after that incident decided to part company with His Master and the rest of the group. Maria Magdalene’s predicament was in some ways similar to the author of the text, Kassia a ninth century poet, composer and abbess; the first woman composer in history whose work survives today. According to tradition Kassia was shunned by emperor Theophilus as a possible bride during an imperial bridal show because of her response to a sexist slur of his (he said that women were the source of sin, implying Eve, and she responded that women were the source of salvation implying Mary the mother of Christ). Rejected by men, both women found solace in God. In exploring Magdalene’s emotional state, Kassia is in fact exploring her own and the result is powerful and sublime at the same time.

For many years this chant was in my mind as something that I should visit creatively when the time was right. I am fascinated with the biblical character of Mary Magdalene, more so than any of the other members of Jesus’ inner circle. She is a powerful and at the same time elusive figure, one clearly not understood by Jesus’ disciples. That she was close to Him is evident from the scriptures. She was singled out for the honour of witnessing Christ’s Resurrection before anyone else. Jesus chastised Martha, her and Lazarus’ sister, for chastising her during one of His visits to their home. Some esoteric proto-Christian traditions like the Gnostics considered her the first and most important of the Apostles. Probably in reaction to the emphasis placed on her by the Gnostics, the Orthodox literature does not mention her at all after the Resurrection: not a single mention in the Acts or in subsequent literature. What happened to her after Jesus’ Ascension? What role did she play during Christ’s life on earth?

It is certain that Jesus was the subject of extensive criticism by orthodox Jewry for indulging such a woman of low repute in His company. It is probable that, at least in the early stages of His ministry, His own disciples, who on the evidence of the scripture appear quite confused about the ways and teachings of their Master did not harbour any noble feelings or attitudes toward her. Their patriarchical and morally strict culture was probably at odds with Christ’s forgiving attitude towards the prostitute who became part of their circle. All this must have forced her into a more direct relationship with Jesus, one that was not mediated by others, except perhaps the other women of the group, many of whom might have had similar reservations towards her as did the men due to her well known past.

How did she feel towards Jesus? The short answer must be ‘intensely’. She was so grief stricken by His passion and death and harboured such a sense of loss and despair that she failed to recognize Him when she visited His grave mistaking Him instead for the gardener. Her blinding sense of loss betrays a woman in conflict: worshiping her God, but at the same time devastated by the loss of the physical man. When she realized her mistake in the garden she instinctively rushed towards him to physically touch him —a habitual reaction, one would assume—and He stopped her, for the regeneration of His resurrected body was not yet complete (not too long afterwards, when that regeneration was complete and His body could transform at will into either its physical or its ethereal state, He challenged Thomas to touch Him).

Kassia’s Magdalene constantly bounces between depths of despair and heights of spiritual passion, often with wild mood swings in the process. The depictions of utter darkness and cosmic majesty often within a single sentence, as well as the passionate pleading for mercy and the intense spiritual devotion that borders on the erotic (“I will wash your immaculate feet with a thousand kisses and wipe them with the locks of my hair”) makes this a quintessential text for setting to music. In my musical scrutiny of this enigmatic figure, I have followed my own intimations on the text and its central character, but in addition, I have taken into account my own personal history with this text and its subject. The Byzantine (Greek Orthodox) music is ever-present in this work. My setting starts and ends with it but in the course of the work one encounters other, quite diverse music genres, such as Western European classical music, minimalism and atonality. At one point members of the choir are even asked to improvise freely in the ‘Blues’ style. Far from being a stylistic smorgasbord, this eclecticism in the music is meant to serve the emotional/psychological underpinnings of the text.

In terms of its content, I have divided the text into five sections: the first and the last are devotional and confessional in nature; the second is dark (Magdalene describing the pull that sin and darkness has upon her); the third is full of cosmic splendour while the fourth is a brief description of the original fall in Paradise. Each of these sections is delineated musically in a different manner: the first and last in predominately Byzantine and Western European sacred music genres; the second with rather dark tone clusters and disconcerting, continuous vocal glissandi; the third in the style of high Romanticism while the fourth is set in a style of Western minimalism and Blues (the description of the fear that overcame Eve at the sound of God’s feet in Paradise). Furthermore, the fact that the commission of this work was intended from the outset for a premiere at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, one of the great churches of Christendom with an amazingly long acoustic resonance, was taken into account in the composition of the Troparion. The work is designed to thrive in a large acoustic space where intense moments in the music (and continuous glissandi) become animated and three-dimensional.

During the late eighties I made a brief pilgrimage to Mt. Athos, a monastic self-governing community of men in Northern Greece, which is one of few remnants of the once powerful Byzantine Empire that have enjoyed uninterrupted existence since the first Christian Millennium. On that occasion I had the privilege of meeting in person the late Elder Paisios, a man who has by now become a legend amongst the Eastern Orthodox communities, and who is informally worshipped as a Saint. “Gheron Paisios” as the Greeks called him, said that at some point in my career I should pay homage to the music that I grew up with, that is the Byzantine music tradition of the Greek Orthodox Church, “for that is the music of the Angels”. I still don’t know what kind of music the Angels sing (although I suspect it is much less self-conscious than mine) but the composition of The Troparion of Kassiani has accorded me moments of pure spiritual delight and deep communion with our common source and ultimate destiny. I am, therefore, grateful to Elder Paisios for his suggestion and to my Lord and Master for the inspiration; for without Him, “nothing could be made that was made”.

~Composer Christos Hatzis

The Text:

Kyrie, i en poless amartiess
peripessoussa ghini,
tin syn esthomeni theotita, myrophorou
analavoussa taksin, odhyromeni,
mira si pro tou entaphiasmou komizi.
Imi! leghoussa, oti nyx mi iparchi,
isstross akolassiass,
zophodhiss te ke aselinoss,
eross tiss amartiass.
Dhekse mou tass pighass ton dhakryon,
o nepheless dhieksaghon tiss thalassiss to (h)ydhor.
Kamphthiti mi pross touss stenaghmouss
tiss kardhiass,
o klinass tous ouranouss, ti aphato sou kenossi.
Kataphilisso tous achrandouss sou podhass,
aposmikso toutouss dhe pallin,
tiss tiss kephaliss mou vosstrichiss;
on en to paradhisso Eva to dhilinon,
kroton tiss ossin ichithissa, to phovo ekrivi.
Amartion mou ta plithi,
ke krimaton sou avissouss,
tis eksichniassi psychossosta Sotir mou?
Mi me tin sin dhoulin paridhis,
o ametriton echon to eleoss.

Sensing your divinity Lord,
a woman of many sins,
takes it upon herself
to become a myrrh bearer
and in deep mourning
brings before you fragrant oil
in anticipation of your burial; crying:
“Woe to me! What night falls on me,
what dark and moonless madness
of wild-desire, this lust for sin.
Take my spring of tears
You who draw water from the clouds,
bend to me, to the sighing of my heart,
You who bend the heavens
in your secret incarnation,
I will wash your immaculate feet with kisses
and wipe them dry with the locks of my hair;
those very feet whose sound Eve heard
at the dusk in Paradise and hid herself in terror.
Who shall count the multitude of my sins
or the depth of your judgment,
Saviour of my soul?
Do not ignore your handmaiden,
You whose mercy is endless”.

Holy Week: A Liturgical Explanation for the Days of Holy Week

Icon of the ten virgins

“Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. Watch therefore; for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh” (Mt. 25:1-13).
3. MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY: THE END These three days, which the Church calls Great and Holy have within the liturgical development of the Holy Week a very definite purpose. They place all its celebrations in the perspective of End ; they remind us of the eschatological meaning of Pascha. So often Holy Week is considered one of the “beautiful traditions” or “customs,” a self-evident “part” of our calendar. We take it for granted and enjoy it as a cherished annual event which we have “observed” since childhood, we admire the beauty of its services, the pageantry of its rites and, last but not least, we like the fuss about the paschal table. And then, when all this is done we resume our normal life. But do we understand that when the world rejected its Savior, when “Jesus began to be sorrowful and very heavy… and his soul was exceedingly sorrowful even unto death,” when He died on the Cross, “normal life” came to its end and is no longer possible. For there were “normal” men who shouted “Crucify Him [” who spat at Him and nailed Him to the Cross. And they hated and killed Him precisely because He was troubling their normal life. It was indeed a perfectly “normal” world which preferred darkness and death to light and life…. By the death of Jesus the “normal” world, and “normal” life were irrevocably condemned. Or rather they revealed their true and abnormal inability to receive the Light, the terrible power of evil in them. “Now is the Judgment of this world” (John 12:31). The Pascha of Jesus signified its end to “this world” and it has been at its end since then. This end can last for hundreds of centuries this does not alter the nature of time in which we live as the “last time.” “The fashion of this world passeth away…” (I Cor. 7:31).

Pascha means passover, passage. The feast of Passover was for the Jews the annual commemoration of their whole history as salvation, and of salvation as passage from the slavery of Egypt into freedom, from exile into the promised land. It was also the anticipation of the ultimate passage – into the Kingdom of God. And Christ was the fulfillment of Pascha. He performed the ultimate passage: from death into life, from this “old world” into the new world into the new time of the Kingdom. And he opened the possibility of this passage to us. Living in “this world” we can already be “not of this world,” i.e. be free from slavery to death and sin, partakers of the “world to come.” But for this we must also perform our own passage, we must condemn the old Adam in us, we must put on Christ in the baptismal death and have our true life hidden in God with Christ, in the “world to come….”

And thus Easter is not an annual commemoration, solemn and beautiful, of a past event. It is this Event itself shown, given to us, as always efficient, always revealing our world, our time, our life as being at their end, and announcing the Beginning of the new life…. And the function of the three first days of Holy Week is precisely to challenge us with this ultimate meaning of Pascha and to prepare us to the understanding and acceptance of it.

1. This eschatological (which means ultimate, decisive, final) challenge is revealed, first, in the common troparion of these days:

Troparion – Tone 8

Behold the Bridegroom comes at midnight, And blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching, And again unworthy is the servant whom He shall find heedless. Beware, therefore, O my soul, do not be weighed down with sleep, Lest you be given up to death and lest you be shut out of the Kingdom. But rouse yourself crying: Holy, Holy, Holy, are You, O our God! Through the Theotokos have mercy on us!

Midnight is the moment when the old day comes to its end and a new day begins. It is thus the symbol of the time in which we live as Christians. For, on the one hand, the Church is still in this world, sharing in its weaknesses and tragedies. Yet, on the other hand, her true being is not of this world, for she is the Bride of Christ and her mission is to announce and to reveal the coming of the Kingdom and of the new day. Her life is a perpetual watching and expectation, a vigil pointed at the dawn of this new day. But we know how strong is still our attachment to the “old day,” to the world with its passions and sins. We know how deeply we still belong to “this world.” We have seen the light, ‘We know Christ, we have heard about the peace and joy of the new life in Him, and yet the world holds us in its slavery. This weakness, this constant betrayal of Christ, this incapacity to give the totality of our love to the only true object of love are wonderfully expressed in the exapostilarion of these three days:

“Thy Bridal Chamber I see adorned, O my Savior And I have no wedding garment that I may enter, O Giver of life, enlighten the vesture of my soul And save me.”

2. The same theme develops further in the Gospel readings of these days. First of all, the entire text of the four Gospels (up to John 13: 31) is read at the Hours (1, 3, 6 and 9th). This recapitulation shows that the Cross is the climax of the whole life and ministry of Jesus, the Key to their proper understanding. Everything in the Gospel leads to this ultimate hour of Jesus and everything is to be understood in its light. Then, each service has its special Gospel lesson

On Tuesday: At Matins: Matthew 22: 15-23, 39. Condemnation of Pharisees, i.e. of the blind and hypocritical religion, of those who think they are the leaders of man and the light of the world, but who in fact “shut up the Kingdom of heaven to men.”

At the Presanctified Liturgy: Matthew 24: 36-26, 2. The End again and the parables of the End: the ten wise virgins who had enough oil in their lamps and the ten foolish ones who were not admitted to the bridal banquet; the parable of ten talents “. . . Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh.” And, finally the Last Judgment.

3.These Gospel lessons are explained and elaborated in the hymnology of these days: the stichiras and the triodia (short canons of three odes each sung at Matins). One warning, one exhortation runs through all of them: the end and the judgment are approaching, let us prepare for them: ‘”

“Behold, O my soul, the Master has conferred on thee a talent Receive the gift with fear; Lend to him who gave; distribute to the poor And acquire for thyself thy Lord as thy Friend; That when He shall come in glory, Thou mayest stand on His right hand And hear His blessed voice: Enter, my servant, into the joy of thy Lord.” (Tuesday Matins)

4. Throughout the whole Lent the two books of the Old Testament read at Vespers were Genesis and Proverbs. With the beginning of Holy Week they are replaced by Exodus and Job. Exodus is the story of Israel’s liberation from Egyptian slavery, of their Passover. It prepares us for the understanding of Christ’s exodus to His Father, of His fulfillment of the whole history of salvation. Job, the Sufferer, is the Old Testament icon of Christ. This reading announces the great mystery of Christ’s sufferings, obedience and sacrifice.

5. The liturgical structure of these three days is still of the Lenten type. It includes, therefore, the prayer of St Ephrem the Syrian with prostrations, the augmented reading of the Psalter, the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts and the Lenten liturgical chant. We are still in the time of repentance for repentance alone makes us partakers of the Pascha of Our Lord, opens to us the doors of the Paschal banquet. And then, on Great and Holy Wednesday, as the last Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is about to be completed, after the Holy Gifts have been removed from the altar, the priest reads for the last time the Prayer of St Ephrem. At this moment, the preparation comes to an end. The Lord summons us now to His Last Supper.

by THE VERY REV. ALEXANDER SCHMEMANN

~Palm Sunday~

Matthew 21:1-11; Mark 11:1-10; Luke 19:28-38; and John 12:12-18

On the Sunday before the Feast of Great and Holy Pascha and at the beginning of Holy Week, the Orthodox Church celebrates one of its most joyous feasts of the year. Palm Sunday is the commemoration of the Entrance of our Lord into Jerusalem following His glorious miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead. Having anticipated His arrival and having heard of the miracle, the people went out to meet the Lord and welcomed Him with displays of honor and shouts of praise. On this day, we receive and worship Christ in this same manner, acknowledging Him as our King and Lord.

Prayer at the Blessing of the Branches

O Lord our God, Who sits upon the Cherubim, You have reaffirmed Your power by sending Your Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to save the world through His cross, burial and resurrection. When He came into Jerusalem to suffer His voluntary passion, the people that sat in darkness and in the shadow of death took boughs of trees and branches of palms as signs of victory, thus foretelling His Resurrection. Do You, Yourself, O Master, keep and preserve us who, in imitation of them, carry palms and branches in our hands. As we join the crowds and the children who sang Hosanna to You, may we, with hymns and spiritual songs, attain the life-giving resurrection of the third day.

Icon of the Feast

Icon of the Entrance Into Jerusalem provided by Athanasios Clark and used with permission.

In the Icon of the Feast of Palm Sunday, Christ is the central figure, depicted seated upon the colt of a donkey as He enters Jerusalem, a fulfillment of the prophecy found in Zechariah 9:9 (1). Christ is blessing with His right hand, and in His left hand is a scroll (2), symbolizing that He is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah, the Anointed One who has come to redeem us from our sins and break the power of death. The colt, one of the animals that were considered unclean according to the Law, is symbolic of the inclusion of all peoples of all nations in the new covenant that will come through the death and Resurrection of Christ (Isaiah 62:10-11). It is also a sign that our Lord has revealed a heavenly and spiritual kingdom that offers true and enduring peace.


1. “…See your King comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Zechariah 9:9	2. Christ blesses the crowd with His right hand and carries a scroll in His left.

On the left, the disciples accompany Jesus in His Triumphal Entry (3). Depicted on the right are the Jews (4) who greet Him crying “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” The word “Hosanna” means “Save, I pray” or “Save now.”


3. The disciples accompany Christ on his entry into Jerusalem.	4. The crowd greets Christ with palm branches and shouting “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”

The children are the small people who are greeting Christ with palm branches (5) and laying these and their garments on the ground before Christ as tokens of honor for one who is acknowledged as a King. The city of Jerusalem is shown as the walled buildings, and the temple is depicted as the building with the dome (6).


5. The children also greet Christ with palm branches and lay their garments on the ground honoring Him as King.	6. The walls of Jerusalem.

Today is the Saturday of Lazarus and tomorrow is Palm Sunday! It is 82 degrees and sunny, gorgeous outside; perhaps we will have a warm and sunny Holy Week and Pascha (Easter) Sunday! Although, in my experience, it is always a bit gloomy and dark on Good Friday- which is only fitting. Wishing everyone a peaceful, thoughtful and blessed Holy Week may you all grow closer to Christ as we anticipate His resurrection!
Today, April 19th, is my dad’s birthday.
Happy 70th Birthday Papou!! We love you and miss you!!

Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday

Visible triumphs are few in the earthly life of our Lord Jesus Christ. He preached a kingdom “not of this world.” At His nativity in the flesh there was “no room at the inn.” For nearly thirty years, while He grew “in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52), He lived in obscurity as “the son of Mary.” When He appeared from Nazareth to begin His public ministry, one of the first to hear of Him asked: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John I :46). In the end He was crucified between two thieves and laid to rest in the tomb of another man.
Two brief days stand out as sharp exceptions to the above – days of clearly observable triumph. These days are known in the Church today as Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday. Together they form a unified liturgical cycle which serves as the passage from the forty days of Great Lent to Holy Week. They are the unique and paradoxical days before the Lord’s Passion. They are days of visible, earthly triumph, of resurrectional and messianic joy in which Christ Himself is a deliberate and active participant. At the same time they are days which point beyond themselves to an ultimate victory and final kingship which Christ will attain not by raising one dead man or entering a particular city, but by His own imminent suffering, death and resurrection.

By raising Lazarus from the dead before Thy Passion, Thou didst confirm the universal resurrection, 0 Christ God! Like the children with the palms of victory, we cry out to Thee, 0 Vanquisher of Death: Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord! (Troparion of the Feast, sung on both Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday)

Lazarus Saturday

In a carefully detailed narrative the Gospel relates how Christ, six days before His own death, and with particular mindfulness of the people “standing by, that they may believe that thou didst send me” (John I I :42), went to His dead friend Lazarus at Bethany outside of Jerusalem. He was aware of the approaching death of Lazarus but deliberately delayed His coming, saying to His disciples at the news of His friend’s death: “For your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe” (John 11:14).
When Jesus arrived at Bethany, Lazarus was already dead four days. This fact is repeatedly emphasized by the Gospel narrative and the liturgical hymns of the feast. The four-day burial underscores the horrible reality of death. Man, created by God in His own image and likeness, is a spiritual-material being, a unity of soul and body. Death is destruction; it is the separation of soul and body. The soul without the body is a ghost, as one Orthodox theologian puts it, and the body without the soul is a decaying corpse. “I weep and 1 wail, when I think upon death, and behold our beauty, fashioned after the image of God, lying in the tomb dishonored, disfigured, bereft of form.” This is a hymn of St John of Damascus sung at the Church’s burial services. This “mystery” of death is the inevitable fate of man fallen from God and blinded by his own prideful pursuits.

With epic simplicity the Gospel records that, on coming to the scene of the horrible end of His friend, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). At this moment Lazarus, the friend of Christ, stands for all men, and Bethany is the mystical center of the world. Jesus wept as He saw the “very good” creation and its king, man, “made through Him” (John 1:3) to be filled with joy, life and light, now a burial ground in which man is sealed up in a tomb outside the city, removed from the fullness of life for which he was created, and decomposing in darkness, despair and death. Again as the Gospel says, the people were hesitant to open the tomb, for “by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days” (John 11:39).
When the stone was removed from the tomb, Jesus prayed to His Father and then cried with a loud voice: “Lazarus, come out.” The icon of the feast shows the particular moment when Lazarus appears at the entrance to the tomb. He is still wrapped in his grave clothes and his friends, who are holding their noses because of the stench of his decaying body, must unwrap him. In everything stress is laid on the audible, the visible and the tangible. Christ presents the world with this observable fact: on the eve of His own suffering and death He raises a man dead four days! The people were astonished. Many immediately believed on Jesus and a great crowd began to assemble around Him as the news of the raising of Lazarus spread. The regal entry into Jerusalem followed.

Lazarus Saturday is a unique day: on a Saturday a Matins and Divine Liturgy bearing the basic marks of festal, resurrectional services, normally proper to Sundays, are celebrated. Even the baptismal hymn is sung at the Liturgy instead of Holy God: “As many as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ.”

Very Rev. Paul Lazor
~Stylish Orthodox Fashion in Russia~
My friend Phyllis sent me a link to this wonderful blog that included an article on a fashion show for Orthodox women’s clothing that took place in Russia in February. I enjoyed the lovely photos and article. You can translated the article on Bable Fish. The article translation is a bit awkward but you can get the gist.

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Month: April 2008

~Holy Unction Service- Holy Wednesday~

Icon of the Feast

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