391. Holy Friday morning: 1) The Royal Hours, 2) Some often-overlooked Lessons to be Learned from Holy Week

The Royal Hours of Holy Friday These are the relatively short (by Orthodox standards) 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 great feasts they are appointed also for parish churches – this week on Holy Friday morning, or […]

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390. Holy Thursday Night Matins: The Twelve Gospels

courtesy of Pravmir Some advice:  For the remaining three days of this Holy Week, do not read this Blog. Or rather: Do not read this Blog in place of going to church. Go to church. If you can’t get to church, worship Live-stream either live or by video.  This Blog may help you (and me) […]

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389. 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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388. Holy Wednesday night: Matins (Orthros) and Holy Unction

Note that we’re still on our Holy Week “topsy-turvy” schedule, always “anticipating” the next appointed service. As I said, despite my not understanding this, somehow it feels just right for this Week when the whole world gets turned upside down. Introduction For most of our Orthodox history the Holy Wednesday night service was Matins/Orthros, which […]

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387. 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 five years – which are based on talks I’ve given (off and on) for about 25 years at Holy Week services at Saint Nicholas Church, Cedarburg, Wisconsin. Why […]

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