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It is a strange thing in the Byzantine Rite that our services for the holiest days of the year are often so liturgically ordinary .  In so many ways, they resemble the same service—Vespers, Matins, a Liturgy—that we might hold on any day of the year.  Holy Thursday has its propers and its long Gospel, but, otherwise, it is like a Vespers and Liturgy we might hold on any feast.  Holy Friday is, again, simply Vespers with an extra Gospel reading, until the unique and beautiful procession with the Shroud and the rite of entombment.  And the Paschal Liturgy is just a Liturgy, though with every possible hymn replaced with "Christ is risen!" This is not the case with every service: Holy Wednesday adds an anointing service in the middle of the Pre-Sanctified Liturgy.  The Matins services stretch their structure to the breaking point, with the Twelve Gospels of Holy Friday, the Lamentations of Holy Saturday, and the unique and glorious remix of Resurrection Matins. The ...

 Introduction The Byzantine Rite's Vespers for Great and Holy Friday ends with a beautiful and solemn procession with the shroud, with has an image of the dead Jesus lying in the tomb; the procession ends by placing the shroud in a replica tomb.  The faithful then approach the tomb—traditionally, on their knees—to venerate the shroud.    Below is a description of this procession, which I wrote in 2015.  At the time, my parish was housed in the basement of a former convent; as we walked through the darkened halls with the shroud, we would pass an old mural of a deer in the forest ("As the hart panteth after the fountains of water, so my soul panteth after thee, O God" (Ps 42:1, Douay-Rheims)).  This is my literary recollection of this experience. Great and Holy Friday  For that night, we were outside the gates of Jerusalem, accompanying a bloodied corpse. That Missouri basement faded away as the penumbra enwrapped us and angels’ wings carried us to that...

  In English, Holy Thursday is traditionally known as Maundy Thursday , that is “Commandment Thursday” ( maundy coming from the Latin mandatum , “commandment”). For this day is the day that Christ gave His Apostles a commandment, and not just the commandment of the Eucharist, but a commandment of love: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love each other, even as I have loved you” (Jn 13:34). 1 Though this commandment is given later in the Last Supper, as Jesus is beginning His long Johannine discourse, it is typically linked back to the foot-washing at the beginning of John 13, where Jesus similarly declares “If I, therefore, the Lord and master, have washed your feet, you too ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example so that, just as I have done to you, so you, too, should do” (Jn 13:14-15). So the “Maundy” of Maundy Thursday is taken to mean the commandment of foot-washing, of service, of love, rather than the commandment of the Eucharist....

In a blog post from 2014 , reflecting on Good Friday, I included a hymn I had written, to be set to the tune JESU DULCIS MEMORIA.  Almost ten years later, I have finally prepared this musical setting: Scribd mirror: https://www.scribd.com/document/706718005/When-Time-Had-Come-for-Christ-to-Die   The bare text of the hymn is here:   When time had come for Christ to die, and Judas had betrayed Him by a twisted kiss for silver's gain, the sky did not hold back its rain. His Blood upon the ground did fall as guards brought Him the bitter gall. The sun did darken in that hour for sorrow did it overpower. In two spots did blood run that day, from the betrayer, from betrayed, in Akeldama's soiled field, on Golgotha where thunder pealed. Sixth hour passed when He was nailed, Ninth hour now the One who's hailed as He Who comes in the Lord's name will die the death of the infame. One thief to Heaven, one to Hell: the Psalm is now the L...

  Introduction It was long a tradition for unknown writers to sign a famous author's names to their works; sometimes, the work was half by the purported author anyway.  The homily translated below is nominally attributed to St. Augustine, but scholars reject it as spurious.  Some pieces of it can be traced to other writers: a large portion of §1 is copied from St. Gregory the Great's Homilies on the Gospels XXII.6 (PL76:1177B-D).  The editor of the Latin text claims portions of §§2-3 are taken, respectively, from the homilies on Pascha and on the Ascension by a certain Eusebius, but I have not yet located the source.   Sermon CLX On Pascha II The Biting and Slaying of Hell   The Passion or resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, beloved brethren, all of the volumes of the Old Testament spoke of beforehand in many ways, so that, even through the mouth of David the prophet, the Holy Spirit clearly shows this, ...

Today we remember Christ, the conqueror of Hades.  For death could not restrain Him, but He broke the bounds of death to bring the faithful departed to eternal life.  While His Body lay in the tomb, His soul was liberating the just.  Let us praise the Lord's mighty work this day, and let the following words of the great Aphrahat the Syrian (270-345) help us recall Jesus' glorious victory: For when Adam transgressed the commandment whereby the sentence of death was passed upon his progeny, Death hoped that he would bind fast all the sons of man and would be king over them for ever. But when Moses came, he proclaimed the resurrection, and Death knew that his kingdom is to be made void. For Moses said:— Reuben shall live and not die, and shall be in number (Deuteronomy 33:6). And when the Holy One called Moses from the bush he said thus to him:— I am the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob (Exodus 3:6). When Death heard this utterance, he trembled and feared an...

   "And immediately approaching Jesus [Judas] said, 'Rejoice, rabbi': and he kissed Him."--Mt 26:49 The apostate who ran to the high priests with the Bread of Heaven still in his mouth betrayed our Lord with a kiss.  What is a symbol of filial love, the kiss (φιληματος), Judas turned into a symbol of betrayal.  He who was one of the twelve chosen by Christ to follow Him gave full rein to his greed and allowed Satan entrance into his heart.  Since he betrayed with an act of love the Lover of Mankind, it is fitting that Jesus said, "It would be better for this man if he were never born."  And if the betrayal by an act of love were not horrific enough, ponder the words Judas spoke: "Rejoice, rabbi." "Rejoice."  It is the same greeting spoken to the Theotokos those decades before by the angel at the announcement of the Lord's coming.  It is the greeting the risen Lord Himself will speak to the myrrh-bearers on the Paschal morn.  H...

Jesus Curses the Fig Tree (1684) by Ilyas Basim Khuri Bazzi Rahib "O faithful let us fear the punishment of the fig tree which was dried up for not having borne any fruit; let us offer worthy fruits of repentance to Christ, who grant us His great mercy." --From the Aposticha of Bridegroom Matins on Great and Holy Monday When Christ hungered and approached the fig tree, He expected it to be bearing fruit; when it was not, He cursed it.  Just so, the foolish virgins not possessing oil were barred from the feast.  It is as if Christ said to them as He said to the high priests and the presbyters of the people, "For this I say to you that will be taken from you the kingdom of God, and it will be given to a nation producing the fruits of it."  This too will occur to us if we are not watchful, if we are not prepared in a wedding garment when the Lord comes to invite us into His bridal chamber engulfed in light.  Let us beg Him, "Fill the garment of my...