527. Holy Friday evening Great Vespers “Service of Taking Down from the Cross”

At last! a Holy Week service (and the only one) that is “in sync” with the time of day. We’re going to cover: 1 The ceremonies, 2 The Scripture readings. Beginning with last night’s Procession of the Cross of Christ and continuing through Pascha, the ceremonies are intended to draw us more fully into these wonderful closing events of […]

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526. 1) Holy Friday morning “Royal Hours”. 2) Some Lessons from Holy Week

Before we begin: Palm Sunday at Saint Porphyrios Church, Gaza City:   The Royal Hours These are the short (by Orthodox Holy Week standards) daily services sung regularly in monasteries at certain “hours”  – First Hour (dawn), Third Hour (9 a.m.), Sixth Hour (Noon), Ninth Hour (3 p.m.). Before certain great feasts, Scripture readings are […]

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525. Holy Thursday night Matins: “The Twelve Gospels Service”

Some advice:  For the remaining three days of this Holy Week, if it’s a choice between reading this Blog and going to church, don’t read this Blog. Go to church. If you can’t get to church, try to watch Live-stream, either live or later by video. I hope these Posts may help you (and me) […]

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524. Holy Thursday Morning: Vesperal Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil

We all know that in the Orthodox Church the Divine Liturgy is always a celebration, not allowed during the penitential weekdays of the Great Lenten Fast. We also know that Holy Week is our most penitential period. Furthermore, running with our peculiar Holy Week schedule (which I’ll not go into again here), this actually turns […]

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523. Holy Wednesday morning: Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts

In case you’ve tuned in late to this series: These posts are “repeats” (with a little reworking each year) of my Holy Week posts of the past  seven years – which are based on talks I’ve gave for about 25 years at Holy Week services at Saint Nicholas Church, Cedarburg, Wisconsin. Why do I not […]

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