Loading ...On Palm Sunday, celebrating the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, the Orthodox and the Greek Catholic believers enter the last week of the Lent, namely the Holy or the Greater Week when Christians prepare to welcome the great feast of the Resurrection of Our Saviour Jesus Christ.
The Holy Week services help us understand Christ's passage from death to life.
The Holy Week services help us understand Christ's passage from death to life.
Thus, on Monday, the first day of the Greater Week, the Christian Orthodox Church commemorates and prays for The Blessed Joseph, the son of David in the Old Testament, whom his brothers sold into slavery to Egypt, for 30 silver coins, and who later became a powerful ruler. Patriarch Joseph is seen as a forerunner of Our Saviour Jesus Christ whom His Apprentice Judas sold to the priests bartering Him away for thirty pieces of silver.
In the same way, Christ was rejected, betrayed and crowned with Glory in God's Kingdom. On the same day, it is mentioned The Barren Fig Tree, which Christ cursed and withered because it bore no fruit. The tree is like those who have heard God's word but fail to bear fruit by not obeying.
From Monday till Friday during this week, the Church officiates the Easter Vigils , earmarking the dramatic moments related to Jesus Christ's Passions and Sacrifice. At the Great Tuesday Vespers it is read the parable of the Ten Virgins, or the Wise and Foolish Virgins, is a parable told by Jesus in the Gospel of Mathews (Mathews 25:1-13).
In it, the 5 virgins who are prepared for the bridegroom's arrival are rewarded and the five who are not prepared are excluded, the parable's conclusion being that Jesus must live inside each of us, any time.
The Holy Wednesday service reads the parable of the Sinful Woman, who stood behind Jesus at His feet weeping and she began to wet His feet with her tears, and to anoint them with oil. The Sinful Woman is the symbol of penance and the redemption of the sinner. But the Easter Vigils on the Maundy Thursday and on Good Friday have special meaning and structure.
Thus, that of the Maundy Thursday also known as the Vigil of the Twelve Gospels, commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles, along with four special events namely the washing of the Disciples' Feet by Jesus Christ, the institution of the Mystery of the Holy Eucharist at the Last Supper, the agony of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, and the betrayal of Christ by Judas, Jesus condemnation and judgment by Pilate, Crucifixion, Death and Burial.
The Good Friday Vespers includes beautiful, profound burial songs evoking both the unspeakable pain and sorrow of seeing God's Son crucified and the hope and triumph of His Resurrection to come. The service ends with the believers' walking around the church, which symbolizes Jesus Christ's Burial, this time.
On the Greater Saturday, the last day of the Holy Week and the Lent , Jesus corpse lay in the Tomb for a whole day, and the church tradition says that it was on that Saturday that Our Saviour and His Spirit went down into Hell to redeem the Righteous of the Old Testament.
On the same day, at midnight it is officiated the service of Resurrection when believers are given light and the good news that Christ is Risen.
On the same day, at midnight it is officiated the service of Resurrection when believers are given light and the good news that Christ is Risen.
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