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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520. Holy Monday night: Bridegroom Matins

Exaposteilarion at Bridegroom Matins, sung on the first three nights of Holy Week: “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.” from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgK0Fc8QUOs   Pat Tsalgakis at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFrdWVEVKYE Chanted in Arabic […]

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519. Holy Monday morning: Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts

   The Divine Liturgy is always a festival celebration. That explains why, on the penitential weekdays of Lent and also on the ordinary weekdays of Holy Week, there is no celebration of the full Divine Liturgy. Therefore, at these Liturgies, the Anaphora (the consecration of the Holy Gifts) is omitted, and Holy Communion is received […]

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514. Saints who get lost during Lent: One of the two Holy Theodoras of Thessaloniki (if there were two)

    Saint Theodora of Thessaloniki I’ll try to explain this Post’s title later. My Unplanned Visit to Saint Theodora It was during my 2002 trip to Mount Athos. I had an afternoon free in Thessaloniki * , before catching the boat to the Holy Mountain the next morning. I wandered around amazed: an Orthodox […]

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512. Saints who get lost during Lent: The Archangel Gabriel and other Invisible Beings

Worldly Introduction which has nothing to do with Gabriel I do not intend this Blog to be chiefly religious/political commentary but, on the other hand, I do not want it to be irrelevant to the world we’re living in at this moment. Therefore, before we speak of Heavenly things, I want to mention three earthly […]

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