Canon of Great and Holy Saturday - Ode 9
Do not lament me, O Mother,
Seeing me in the tomb,
The Son conceived in the womb without seed,
For I shall arise and be glorified with eternal glory as God.
I shall exalt all who magnify thee in faith and in love.
Canon of Great and Holy Saturday - Ode 9
Do not lament me, O Mother,
Seeing me in the tomb,
The Son conceived in the womb without seed,
For I shall arise and be glorified with eternal glory as God.
I shall exalt all who magnify thee in faith and in love.
Canon of Great and Holy Saturday - Ode 9
Do not lament me, O Mother,
Seeing me in the tomb,
The Son conceived in the womb without seed,
For I shall arise and be glorified with eternal glory as God.
I shall exalt all who magnify thee in faith and in love.
Canon of Great and Holy Saturday - Ode 9
Do not lament me, O Mother,
Seeing me in the tomb,
The Son conceived in the womb without seed,
For I shall arise and be glorified with eternal glory as God.
I shall exalt all who magnify thee in faith and in love.
Canon of Great and Holy Saturday - Ode 9
Do not lament me, O Mother,
Seeing me in the tomb,
The Son conceived in the womb without seed,
For I shall arise and be glorified with eternal glory as God.
I shall exalt all who magnify thee in faith and in love.
Alleluia of Great and Holy Saturday
Arise, O God, judge the earth, for to Thee belong all the nations! (Ps 81/82:8)
v: God has taken His place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods He holds judgment. (Ps 81/82:1)
v: How long will ye judge unjustly and accept the faces of sinners?
(Ps 81/82:2)
v: Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute! (Ps 81/82:3)
v: Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the sinner! (Ps 81/92:4)
v: They have neither knowledge nor understanding; they walk about in darkness. (Ps 81/82:5)
v: Let all the foundations of the earth be shaken! I say: “Ye are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, ye shall die like men, and fall like any prince.” (Ps 81/82:6)
Lamentations of Great and Holy Saturday - Third Stasis
Every generation
Offers Thee its hymn of praise
At Thy burial, O my Christ.
Lamentations of Great and Holy Saturday - Second Stasis
Right it is indeed, life-bestowing Lord, to magnify thee:
for upon the Cross were thy hands outspread,
and the strength of our dread foe hast thou destroyed.
In a grave they laid Thee, O my Life and my Christ,
And the armies of the Angels were sore amazed
As they sang the praise of Thy submissive love.
Exaposteilarion of Holy Friday
The wise thief didst Thou make worthy, O Lord,
Of paradise in a single moment.
By the wood of Thy cross
Illumine me also, and save me.
Antiphon 15 of Holy Friday
Today He who hung the earth upon the waters is hung on the tree.
The King of the Angels is decked with a crown of thorns.
He who wraps the heavens in clouds is wrapped in the purple of mockery.
He who freed Adam in the Jordan is slapped on the face.
The Bridegroom of the Church is affixed to the cross with nails.
The Son of the Virgin is pierced by a spear.
We worship Thy passion, O Christ.
We worship Thy passion, O Christ.
We worship Thy passion, O Christ.
Show us also Thy glorious resurrection.
Antiphon 15 of Holy Friday
Today He who hung the earth upon the waters is hung on the tree.
The King of the Angels is decked with a crown of thorns.
He who wraps the heavens in clouds is wrapped in the purple of mockery.
He who freed Adam in the Jordan is slapped on the face.
The Bridegroom of the Church is affixed to the cross with nails.
The Son of the Virgin is pierced by a spear.
We worship Thy passion, O Christ.
We worship Thy passion, O Christ.
We worship Thy passion, O Christ.
Show us also Thy glorious resurrection.
Antiphon 15 of Holy Friday
Today He who hung the earth upon the waters is hung on the tree.
The King of the Angels is decked with a crown of thorns.
He who wraps the heavens in clouds is wrapped in the purple of mockery.
He who freed Adam in the Jordan is slapped on the face.
The Bridegroom of the Church is affixed to the cross with nails.
The Son of the Virgin is pierced by a spear.
We worship Thy passion, O Christ.
We worship Thy passion, O Christ.
We worship Thy passion, O Christ.
Show us also Thy glorious resurrection.
When the glorious Disciples were enlightened at the washing of the feet before the supper,
Then the impious Judas was darkened, ailing with avarice,
And to the lawless judges he betrays Thee, the Righteous Judge.
Behold, O lover of money, this man who because of money hanged himself!
Flee from the greedy soul which dared such things against the Master!
O Lord, Who are good towards men, glory to Thee!
Aposticha Doxasticon of Great and Holy Wednesday
The woman had fallen into many sins, O Lord,
Yet, when she perceived Thy divinity,
She joined the ranks of the myrrh-bearing women.
In tears she brought Thee myrrh before Thy burial.
She cried: “Woe is me!
For I live in the night of licentiousness,
Shrouded in the dark and moonless love of sin.
But accept the fountain of my tears,
O Thou, Who didst gather the waters of the sea into clouds!
Bow down Thine ear to the sighing of my heart,
O Thou, Who didst bow the heavens in Thine ineffable condescension!
Once Eve heard Thy footsteps in Paradise in the cool of the day,
And in fear she ran and hid herself.
But now I will tenderly embrace those pure feet
And wipe them with the hair of my head.
Who can measure the multitude of my sins,
Or the depth of Thy judgments, O Savior of my soul?
Do not despise Thy servant in Thine immeasurable mercy!”
Exaposteilarion of Bridegroom Matins
Thy bridal chamber I see adorned, O my Savior,
And I have no wedding garment that I may enter therein.
O Giver of Light,
Enlighten the vesture of my soul, and save me.
Exaposteilarion of Bridegroom Matins
Thy bridal chamber I see adorned, O my Savior,
And I have no wedding garment that I may enter therein.
O Giver of Light,
Enlighten the vesture of my soul, and save me.
Troparion of Bridegroom Matins
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 thou be given over to death,
And lest thou be shut out of the Kingdom.
But rouse thyself, crying: "Holy! Holy! Holy! art Thou, O our God.
Through the Theotokos have mercy on us!"
Priest (quietly) No one who is bound with the desires and pleasures of the flesh is worthy to approach or draw near or to serve Thee, O King of Glory; for to minister to Thee is great and awesome even to the heavenly powers. Nevertheless, through Thine unspeakable and boundless love for mankind, Thou didst become man, yet without change or alteration, and as Ruler of All didst become our High Priest, and didst commit to us the ministry of this liturgical and bloodless sacrifice. For Thou alone, O Lord our God, rulest over those in heaven and on earth; who art borne on the throne of the Cherubim; who art Lord of the Seraphim and King of Israel; who alone art holy and dost rest in the saints.
Therefore, I entreat Thee who alone art good and ready to listen. Look down on me, a sinner, Thine unprofitable servant, and cleanse my soul and my heart from an evil conscience, and by the power of the Holy Spirit enable me, who am endowed with the grace of the priesthood, to stand before this, Thy holy table, and perform the sacred mystery of Thy holy and pure Body and precious Blood. For I draw near to Thee, and bowing my neck I implore Thee. Do not turn Thy face away from me, nor cast me out from among Thy children; but make me, Thy sinful and unworthy servant, worthy to offer gifts to Thee. For Thou art the Offerer and the Offered, the Receiver and the Received, O Christ our God, and to Thee we ascribe glory, together with Thy Father, who is from everlasting, and Thine all-holy, good, and life-creating Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.
¶9. Some inquire and wonder: 'Why, when the remembrance of death is so beneficial for us, has God hidden from us the knowledge of the hour of death?' - not knowing that in this way God wonderfully accomplishes our salvation. For no one who foreknew his death would at once proceed to baptism or the monastic life; but everyone would spend all his days in iniquities, and only on the day of his death would he approach baptism and repentance. From long habit, he would become confirmed in vice, and would remain utterly incorrigible.
Historic concelebration of the Divine Liturgy by OCA Metropolitan Jonah, ROCOR Metropolitan Hilarion
NEW YORK, NY [OCA] -- His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah, Primate of the Orthodox Church in America [OCA], and His Eminence, Metropolitan Hilarion, First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia [ROCOR], concelebrated the Divine Liturgy at Saint Nicholas Cathedral here on Tuesday, May 24, 2011, the Feast of Saints Cyril and Methodius.
The Liturgy was an historic one, in that it marked "the first joint service of the American Bishops and the Russian Orthodox Church after nearly 70 years of the liturgical period of absence of communication," according to the web site of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA. It represents the fruit of the diligent labors undertaken by the joint OCA-ROCOR Commission.
Also concelebrating were His Eminence, Archbishop Justinian of Naro-Fominsk, Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA; His Grace, Bishop Tikhon of Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania [OCA]; and His Grace, Bishop Jerome of Manhattan [ROCOR].
At the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy, Metropolitan Jonah presented relics of Saints Herman of Alaska and Alexis Toth to Metropolitan Hilarion, who in kind presented relics of Saint John Maximovich to Metropolitan Jonah. The Metropolitans also sent a message to His Holiness, Patriarch Kyrill of Moscow, on the occasion of his patronal feastday. The text of the message reads as follows.
“We thank the Lord, Who on this festal day has vouchsafed us to offer unto Him the Bloodless Sacrifice in the Patriarchal Cathedral of St. Nicholas of the Russian Orthodox Church in New York City!
“On this, the feast day of the holy Equals-of-the-Apostles, Sts. Cyril and Methodius, Enlighteners of the Slavs, having communed in the One Holy Spirit of the One Chalice of Christ, with sincere love we greet Your Holiness on the occasion of your Namesday.
“By God’s beneficent Providence you have been fated to serve as the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, of which the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia is an inseparable part, and which is the Mother—and Sister—Church of the Orthodox Church in America.
“We are certain that the long-desired concelebration of the Hierarchs of the American Church and the Russian Church Abroad will be a glad tiding to Your Holiness, and to the innumerable Orthodox clergy and laity.”
Among the OCA clergy serving at the historic Divine Liturgy were Archpriests Joseph Lickwar and Samuel Kedala; Igumen Joseph [Hoffman]; Hieromonk Gerasim [Eliel]; Igumen Sergius [Bowyer], Abbot of Saint Tikhon’s Monastery; Protodeacon Joseph Matusiak; and Hierodeacon Philip [Majkrzak].
[Source www.oca.org]
NEW YORK, NY [ROCOR] -- On May 24, 2011, the feast day of SS Cyrill and Methodius and the namesday of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, His Beatitude Metropolitan Jonah, Primate of the Orthodox Church in America, and His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion, First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, officiated at Divine Liturgy at St Nicholas Patriarchal Cathedral in New York. This was the first joint service by hierarchs of the OCA and ROCOR after the almost seventy-year absence of liturgical communion.
Joining the two metropolitans in the service was His Eminence Archbishop Justinian of Naro-Fominsk, Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the US; His Grace Bishop Tikhon of Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania (OCA); and His Grace Bishop Jerome of Manhattan (ROCOR), along with clergymen of the Moscow Patriarchate, the OCA and Church Abroad.
After Divine Liturgy, Metropolitan Jonah and Metropolitan Hilarion read a joint greeting sent to Patriarch Kyrill on his namesday:
Your Holiness Vladyka!
We thank the Lord, Who allowed us on this feast day to offer His Bloodless Sacrifice at the Patriarchal Cathedral of St Nicholas of the Russian Orthodox Church in New York City.
On this feast day of SS Cyril and Methodius, Equal-to-the-Apostles, Illuminators of the Slavs, having partaken of the Holy Gifts in the One Holy Spirit, from One Holy Chalice of Christ, we greet Your Holiness on your namesday with genuine love.
By All-Blessed Divine Providence, it was granted to you today to be the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, of which the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia remains an indissoluble part, and which is honored as its spiritual Mother and also Sister by the Orthodox Church in America.
We are confident that fact of the long-awaited concelebration between Hierarchs of the American and Russian Church Abroad are joyful tidings to Your Holiness’ heart and to the souls of many, many Orthodox clergymen and laypersons.
Metropolitan Jonah then greeted his fellow archpastors, clergymen and laity, expressing his joy over the joint celebration of Divine Liturgy with Hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. His Beatitude also expressed his confidence that this concelebration is very symbolic in that it took place at St Nicholas Patriarchal Cathedral on the namesday of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill. As a sign of fraternal love and in prayerful memory of the Liturgy we celebrated, Metropolitan Jonah gave the Primate of the Russian Church Abroad a portion of the relics of the Illuminators and Missionaries of America, St Herman of Alaska and St Alexei (Toth).
Responding to the greeting from the Primate of the Orthodox Church in America, Metropolitan Hilarion, who noted his certainty that “an historic event has taken place, on the feast day of the Illuminators of the Slavs, Equals-to-the-Apostles, as we have gathered at St Nicholas Patriarchal Cathedral to celebrate Divine Liturgy together with the Primate of the Orthodox Church in America, and to congratulate His Holiness Patriarch Kirill.” Metropolitan Hilarion gave Metropolitan Jonah a gift of a portion of the relics of St John of Shanghai, in whose honor one of the monasteries of the OCA is devoted.
The heads of the OCA and ROCOR, as well as Bishop Tikhon and Bishop Jerome, greeted Archbishop Justinian: “Today is truly a great day: in these bright days of the Pascha of Christ, we share the joy of common prayer on the namesday of the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, who gathered us all here at St Nicholas Patriarchal Cathedral.
“This day will enter the history books of our Churches and will remain in the memory of many Orthodox Christians. The canonical demands, the claims of one part of the Orthodox Church against another have erected high walls which separate the One Church, and it seemed to each side that it is correct in its demands, and right in its view of the life of the Church. But the Lord judges us by His mercy, and He desires the same mercy from us in our interrelationships, for if He judges us by the law, then we shall have no forgiveness. Commissions established by the American Church and Russian Church Abroad worked in the spirit of brotherly love and the desire for Eucharistic unity, and their Councils of Bishops approved the need for Liturgical communion, and today I wish to thank everyone who labored for the sake of today’s celebration. But first of all, we thank His Beatitude Vladyka Jonah and His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion, who as divinely-wise Archpastors of the flock of Christ, took upon themselves the noble duty and brought their flock to join service at Divine Liturgy.”
Vladyka Justinian, in prayerful memory of the celebrations and the namesday of His Holiness, gave Metropolitan Jonah and Metropolitan Hilarion icons of the Mother of God of Vladimir and of the Most-Holy Mother of God of Kazan to Bishop Tikhon and Bishop Jerome.
Divine services ended with the singing of Many Years to His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, Metropolitan Jonah and Metropolitan Hilarion. The celebration then continued at a fraternal trapeza.
[Source www.russianorthodoxchurch.ws]
After Pascha, people complain of ‘Post Paschal’ depression. After the intensive prayer life during Great Lent, frequent church services, fasting, Confession, doing good deeds for others in a special way, and the great spiritual, emotional and psychological build up to the celebration of Pascha, the Feast of Feasts and celebration of all celebrations, it’s logical that people would feel a sort of let-down after all that. Some people feel a real void and find it truly difficult to re-integrate themselves into their postlenten life.
The Apostles gathered in the upper room later on the day of the Resurrection, and, huddled there in fear, in walked Jesus through the door. And a week later, Jesus came in again to appear once more to Saint Thomas, putting an end to his doubts. The Myrrhbearers, as they neared the tomb early on the morning of the Resurrection, were met by an angel who said to them that they should not be looking for The Living One in the tombs, but gave them the order to go proclaim the good news that Christ is Risen. And the Paralytic, who waited 38 years for someone to put him in the water when the angel stirred it up, was met by Christ who told him to take up his bed and walk – and who met him later in the Temple and told him to go and sin no more lest something worse happen.
In all three of these Gospel lessons, we see people who had been stopped from spreading the Good News of Christ, His Holy Gospel, and who were healed by our Lord or by the Holy Spirit.
At the time of a man’s ordination to the priesthood, the Bishop lays his hands on the head of the priest-to-be, praying ‘the Grace Divine, which heals that which is infirm, orders all things and fills all that is wanting,’ elevates N to be a priest. It’s this same Divine Grace which healed the Paralytic, set straight the Myrrhbearers and provided for the weaknesses of the Apostles and gave them courage to face the world and to preach to all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That same Divine Grace, which we all received at Baptism and shared again at Pascha, heals us and gives us the gift to make up for our shortcomings and even heals our physical and spiritual illnesses, gives us the command to go and preach the Good News of Christ’s Resurrection to the entire world.
Perhaps we’re not all called to be apostles, preachers, ascetics, confessors, martyrs, or other saints who function in very open and dramatic ways, but we are all called to be the friends, co-workers, children and apostles of Christ, showing the Good News as the motivating force in our lives so strongly that people would look at us and say ‘there goes a true Christian’! Christ is Risen! and we have work to do! Since we believe in the Risen Lord, we have no more shortcomings, laziness or illness. Let us all live this commandment of our Lord to teach everyone His Good News, which fulfills the Resurrection and shows it through us to the whole world.
The celebration of the Greatest of Feasts, the Resurrection of our Lord, has passed for this year. But we are all called to do as the Apostles and Disciples of the Lord did after the Resurrection. The Lord said that He will send the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth. He said that, “The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you.” (John 14:17) The Lord promised that the Spirit will teach us all things. The Lord promised that the Holy Spirit will be with us forever, living in the Church, available and accessible for every Christian. The Holy Spirit was given to us on the Day of Pentecost and of our individual Baptisms.
It only makes sense that the Lord sends us the Spirit so that we can be useful. The Holy Spirit is never sent into a void, but only into hearts burning with the Love of God, desiring to continue the work that Our Lord began. This is our function as Christians. He sends us out into the world, to work and teach and help and be kind and generous, as a Divine command. “Go ye therefore and teach all nations…” He commands us.
[Source pravmir.com]
Exaposteilarion of Holy Friday
The wise thief didst Thou make worthy, O Lord,
Of paradise in a single moment.
By the wood of Thy cross
Illumine me also, and save me.
Being protected by Thy Cross,
We struggle against the Enemy,
Not fearing his deceit or cunning;
For the Proud One was destroyed
And trampled down
By the power of Christ crucified on the Tree.
Enter eagerly into the treasure house that lies within you, and so you will see the treasure-house of heaven: for the two are the same, there is but one entry to them both. The ladder that leads to the Kingdom is hidden within you, and is found in your own soul. Dive into yourself, and in your soul you will discover the rungs by which to ascend.
Ascend, brothers, ascend eagerly, and be resolved in your hearts to ascend and hear him who says: Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of our God, who makes our feet like hind's feet, and sets us upon high places, that we might be victors with His song.
Run, I beseech you, with him who said: Let us hasten until we attain to the unity of faith and of the knowledge of God, unto a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, who, when He was baptized in the thirtieth year of His visible age, fulfilled the thirtieth step in the spiritual ladder; since God is indeed love, to whom be praise, dominion, power, in whom is and was and will be the cause of all goodness throughout endless ages. Amen.
