Christ is Risen!
From www.goarch.org
Liturgical Roundup
Yesterday seems like a blur to me. Three services and many changes in the church for each one concluding with the evening service. Good Friday is a very solemn day in the church. We remember the Crucifixion the taking down, and the burial in the tomb of Jesus. We actually begin this the night before, as I mentioned in a previous post. Yesterday afternoon at 3pm was the service of the taking down from the cross. In this service we actually remove the corpus from the cross, wrap it in a clean linen cloth, and place it on the altar. Towards the end of the service we make a procession with the Epitaphios. This is an image of the taking down from the cross. The one here in the village is hand painted and placed on a board so one can move it around. The Epitaphios is carried by the priest in procession and then placed in the flower decorated Sepulchre. The ladies of the parish come in the morning to decorate the sepulchre for the service. After the service has ended, the Sepulchre is moved to the center of the solea and is left there for the faithful to come and venerate during the day.
The evening service is matins, but we ad the funeral procession. During the service we remove the Epitaphios from the tomb and carry it outside around the church. Four men carry followed by the congregation. Although it was called, all in attendance came outside for the procession. We make four stops to pray for, the parishioners, the clergy, the country, and for the dead. The Epitaphios is then raised in front of the door and the faithful walk under back into the church. The priest then takes it and places in the altar where it will remain for 40 days. Very moving service and one that takes much planning and coordination.
A few more confessions after the Liturgy and then we take all the decorations down for Saturday. This morning we celebrate the Vesperal Liturgy of St. Basil the Great. It is odd to sing about the evening while the sun is up but go figure… As is the custom in this parish, many faithful will come to Communion this morning as they will not be able to attend the liturgy tonight.
I am still working on the Easter Homily, and I think I will write this one out and post it latter on. Blessings to all for Easter and my the Risen Christ bless you and keep you!
Confession
I just heard another round of confessions. Although not physically taxing they sure are emotional and spiritual things. I always get exhausted hearing confessions. There is so much hurt in the world and I am happy that I can be part of bringing some healing to people and their souls.
Blessed Be God!
Yesterday I came across this kind of cool thing on the Internet. Twitter.com You post little notes about what your doing and you can follow others to see what they are doing. It is free to sing up and its neat to see what people are doing. You can add me by clicking here.
Boston Red Sox
Well yesterday was the first day of the season and our beloved Red Sox lost 7-1 to Kansas City. I guess all one can say is wait till next year!
Palm Sunday Recap
What a busy day yesterday! Well I guess it all began on Saturday morning rather than yesterday. Saturday was the Saturday of Lazarus and we had an all too rare Saturday morning Liturgy. After this Liturgy a cleaning of the church, bulletin preparation, homily finishing, newsletter stuffing, and then vespers and confessions. After all of that, the ladies were in the church kitchen preparing for our meal after Palm Sunday Liturgy. A little shut eye and ready for Sunday.
Sunday mornings always begin early for me. I usually rise about 6am and begin the day by looking over the Scripture passages again for the morning liturgy. Here in our little church we celebrate the service of Orthros at 9am. This is a great service that sets the mood for the day. Liturgy at 10am with the blessing of palms. I do this at the beginning of the liturgy and I was surprised at how many people were not there for the blessing, although liturgy always starts at 10! I guess we are still getting used to the time change… LOL
The church looked great, sorry I forgot to take pictures! Palm branches were all over and this year I used the Palm fans for decorations, man did they look good. The opened up over night and were about three feet across I was so shocked when I entered the church in the morning.
After liturgy off to the hall for a little simple meal as a community to begin Holy Week. It is nice to be able to sit and have some food with the folks here and get caught up on all of there comings and goings. We had some new faces in the crowd today and rumor has it they were brought to the church because they found these humble pages. That took me back a little to think that someone came to the church because of something I wrote here. Hmmmm that still needs some thought. The meal was simple tuna casserole prepared by the ladies and served buffet style. Most everyone came to the hall after liturgy. We had some food left over so I jumped in the truck and took it to my guys at the Fire House. They are always so appreciative of free food, as I am!
Back to the church to begin the transformation from Palm Sunday to Holy Week. The first liturgical celebration was last night with Bridegroom Matins. Actually this service is for the morning but we seem to mix things up a little during Holy Week and we do our service in “anticipation” of the next day. Thankfully we have one book for the entire week so no more shifting around looking for things. Last year we purchased several copies so the people can follow along. Fr. Greg has a great post on this little book, commonly know as the quarter pounder because of its size. I think these first few days of Holy Week are my favorite. I am not sure why, maybe because they are the lest complex services and the cantor has to do all the work, but I think it goes deeper than that. Look for more posts on this subject latter on.
Well blessed Holy Week to all and if you are in the neighborhood stop by for a service. I posted the Schedule earlier so scroll on down to see.
Holy Week Liturgical Line Up
Below is the Schedule of services for Holy Week here at St. Michael’s. If you are in the area pop in and say hi.
Palm Sunday
Matins 9am
Liturgy 10am
Bridegroom Vespers 7pm
Holy Monday
Bridegroom Vespers 7pm
Holy Tuesday
Bridegroom Vespers 7pm
Holy Wednesday
The Mystery of Holy Unction 7pm
Great & Holy Thursday
Vesperal Liturgy of St. Basil the Great 10am
Holy Passion (Reading of the 12 Gospels) 7pm
Great & Holy Friday
Royal Hours 9:30am
Vespers with Taking Down from the Cross 3pm
Lamentations – Matins of Holy Saturday 7pm
Great and Holy Saturday
Vesperal Liturgy of St. Basil the Great 10am
Vigil of Pascha 11:30pm
Great & Holy Pascha
Resurrection Service 12:00am
Holy Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom 12:30am
Vespers of Agape 11:00am
Palm Sunday
Today on both the Eastern and Western calendar is Palm Sunday. How nice it is that we are able to celebrate Holy Week and Easter together this year. Maybe this is a sign of things to come! Well we can dream any way. Continuing the previous post I am linking to the website from St. Barbara Greek Orthodox Church for information on Palm Sunday. Once again I must say thanks to the folks from the church for this great resource.