6pm - Bridegroom Matins‍ ‍

The Matins of the first several days of Holy Week takes its name from the Gospel reading about the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins waiting for the Bridegroom (Matt. 25), and from the hymn: “Behold! The Bridegroom comes at midnight, and blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching…” (Kievan, Byzantine).

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, not asleep, but watchful for the Lord’s appearance. 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, 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. One of the most beloved hymns from these services says the following: “Thy Bridal Chamber I see adorned, O my Savior, but I have no wedding garment that I may enter; O Giver of Light, enlighten the vesture of my soul and save me” (Byzantine, Appalachian).

6pm - Bridegroom Matins

On Holy Tuesday Evening, we hear the beautiful Hymn of Kassiani (text).

6pm - Holy Unction Healing Service

On Holy Wednesday Evening, we come to the Holy Unction service, where the oil is sanctified and the faithful approach to be anointed for the healing of soul and body. In preparation for the holy sacrament, we fast and make sure that we have had a recent confession.

9am - Vesperal Liturgy (Mystical Supper)

The name “Last Supper” for Christ’s meal with His Apostles is only last in earthly terms, but first in its initiating the Apostles and us into the Eucharistic Love offered to us in 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 and the glory of God’s humility.

The hymn, Of Thy Mystical Supper, is repeated several times at this service.

6pm - Matins of Holy Friday (12 Passion Gospel Readings)

In this dramatic, yet very sober Thursday evening Matins service (Matins for Holy Friday by anticipation) we hear twelve selections from the Holy Gospel about the Passion of the Lord. The first reading from St. John Chapter 14 is especially lengthy, and sets the context for everything else that is to happen. These Gospel readings are interspersed between the profound hymnography, which is our response to the dreadful occurrence of the betrayal, trial, beating and crucifixion of the Lord of Glory.

One tradition is to light (or extinguish) a candle with each reading, usually from a candelabra in the middle of the church. The faithful also hold candles throughout the service and bells are tolled at the beginning of each reading. After the 5th Gospel reading, during the chanting of Antiphon XV (Byzantine, Russian), the Crucified Christ is processed to the center of the Church, where He remains until being “taken down from the tree” during the Gospel reading at Holy Friday vespers on the following day. This unique and soul-stirring service is one of the highlights of Holy Week and one in which all Orthodox Christians ought to participate.

8am - Royal Hours

This day is kept as one of the most significantly holy days 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 the entire day, eating only after sundown, only if we must. We work toward an attitude of inner and outer quietness (with radios and TVs off). Friday begins the Three-Day Pascha of our Lord. We have reached the destination of our Lenten Journey.

3pm - Holy Friday Vespers

Today is a revelation of the spiritual darkness in which we see God rejected, yet also a day of redemption, of God’s unsurpassable love for us. The death of Jesus Christ is revealed to us as a saving death and the destruction of death itself by the Divine Love in Christ. In Greek, this service is also referred to as the “Unnailing from the Cross” (Apokathelosis). At the end of Vespers, the Icon of Christ in the life-giving tomb, the Holy Shroud or Winding Sheet, called the “Plaschanitsa” in Slavonic, or the “Epitaphios” in Greek, is solemnly carried out of the Altar and placed in the center of the Church while the choir chants, “The noble Joseph, when he had taken down Thy most pure Body from the Tree …” We venerate this image of Christ in the Tomb, giving honor to the One Who gave His life as a ransom to death. With Vespers, and the new Liturgical Day—the Blessed Sabbath— begins.

7pm - Matins of Holy Saturday with Lamentations

Today is the “Blessed Sabbath,” the Day of Rest, “El Sábado de Gloria” (the Saturday of Glory), 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 Psalm 118 (119), the longest Psalm in the Bible, which is a pure expression of the love for the law of God, His Will and Providence for mankind, and the very song of the Word of God Himself. During the end of the Lamentations, at the line, “Early in the morning, the myrrh-bearing women came to Thee and sprinkled myrrh on Thy tomb,” the priest sprinkles the church with rose water while young girls scatter flower petals.

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 join in the procession around the Church, holding candles, singing “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us.” This is not a “funeral procession,” but a procession of the Son of God, the Holy Immortal One, the Light of Life dispelling the darkness of Hades and death, 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. When Matins has ended, people will take turns reading the Psalms all night long at the Shroud, keeping watch until the next service on Saturday morning.

9:30am - Baptism + Vesperal Liturgy of St Basil

There is no other day in the entire Church year with this level of expectation. Come to the Church early just to feel this sense of preparation and focus, as we enter into the great Sabbath Rest of Christ. This is also the traditional day for Baptisms and Chrismations. 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, which are the last catechesis of the Catechumens prior to Baptism—and the way in which we too rekindle the baptismal Grace given personally to each one of us. The purple covers throughout the Church are put away and white covers take their place 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 with bread, dried fruits, nuts and wine. This is a strict Fasting day, with no food or drink taken prior to the receiving of Holy Communion. No olive oil is consumed on this day. We resume our fasting for only a little longer, from about 6 PM until the Paschal Communion. Naturally, kids, the sick, elderly or infirm fast with less strictness. At the conclusion of the Vesperal Liturgy volunteers read the Book of the Acts of the Holy Apostles before the grave until the start of the Pascha Vigil.

11:30pm - Midnight Office, Paschal Matins & Divine Liturgy

Pascha is the Feast of Feasts, and the Holy Day of Holy Days; the day that fulfills the old Sabbath, and is called the Eighth Day, the day beyond the 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 hymns of the Midnight Service solemnly chanted before the Shroud, including “Do Not Lament Me, O Mother” from the Holy Saturday canon sung the night before. At the conclusion of the Midnight Service all the candles in the Church are extinguished. Out of the darkness comes the voice of the priest, holding the only lit candle, and singing, “Come receive the light from the Light, that is never overtaken by night. Come and glorify Christ, risen from the dead.” We then sing, “Thy Resurrection, O Christ our Savior, the angels in heaven sing, enable us on earth, to glorify Thee with purity of heart” as the light is distributed from person to person. We then process around the Church— recalling the baptismal procession of the newly-illumined and that Christ has illumined the darkness of the grave once and for all.

When all have exited the Church and made the procession, we read the Gospel describing the empty tomb from the front steps of the Church. We then begin the magnificent hymn: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life” along with, “Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered…” In some traditions, the priest has a dialogue with the “Gatekeeper”: “Lift up your gates, O ye princes! And be lifted up, O ye everlasting gates, and the King of glory shall enter in!” We all enter into the magnificently lit Church, hearing again and again the greeting: “Christ is risen! Indeed, He is risen!” during the exuberance of Paschal Matins. As children doze on the floor we begin to celebrate the Divine Liturgy of Pascha, fully celebrating His Resurrection and the death of death and of sin. As the service comes to an end, we each receive a red egg from the priest, a symbol of new life in Christ. We bless the Artos (bread representing the Risen Christ), the Pascha baskets, flesh meats and cheeses and break the fast together.

2pm - Agape Vespers & Fellowship

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.

10am - Bright Monday Divine Liturgy

Bright Week–Monday through Saturday after Pascha–is considered as one festive day. It was in ancient times the completion of the catechism for those who had been just baptized. At the services on each day we sing some of the hymns from the Paschal celebration. It’s important that we see these services not as “add-ons,” but the continuation of the Paschal celebration offering us a new perspective.