Great and Holy Friday
Categories: orthodox-life, parish-life, feast-days
Date: 25 April 2008 08:55:26
Today He who hung the earth upon the waters is hung upon a tree (x3).
The King of Angels is decked with a crown of thorns.
He, who wrapped the Heavens in clouds, is wrapped with the purple of mockery.
He, who freed Adam in the Jordan, is slapped on the face.
The Bridegroom of the Church is transfixed to a Cross with nails.
The Son of the Virgin is pierced with a spear.
We worship Your Passion, o Christ (x3).
Show us also Your glorious Resurrection.
You can read about the Orthodox celebrations of Great and Holy Friday here. We started today with the service of the Royal Hours and had the Vesperal service, where Christ is taken down from the cross (that is me at right), laid on the altar table in the sanctuary, and then later laid in a decorated bier [the ladies at our church do such a wonderful job!] during the last few verses of the Gospel reading.
In between the services I spent some time with my Godfather at his place. I am so blessed to not only have him as a Godfather, but as a friend. Though younger than me, he far exceeds me in wisdom and knowledge, and it is always a great joy to talk to him. We covered areas as diverse as holidays, computer games of our youth and Byzantine Chant -- and several topics in between. May God grant him, and his wife, many, many years!
It has also been good to be able to spend a great deal of time in prayer and praise at these services: paticularly as I missed a great deal of the last two weeks of Great Lent due to a cold and a throat infection.
Tonight we have the Lamentations service, one of the most beautiful of the Church's services both in its hymnography and actions [the bier is carried outside the church while hymns are sung] -- it is, as the sun has set, actually the first service of Holy Saturday -- you can read more about it in that article and you can look at some more photos from last year's services at our parish here.
I leave you with the final part of the hymn sung while Christ is placed in the bier: it provides a good example of the kind of hymnography for today: creation is in distress; humans who knew Christ may be confused; and yet, together with the sorrow of Christ's death, there is also the mention, the expectation, of His Resurrection:
You Who clothed Yourself with light as a garment, Joseph with Nicodemus brought down from the Cross, and seeing You dead, naked, and unburied, felt deeply a sympathetic lament, and in grieving said, "Woe to me, sweetest Jesus! Whom, but a short while ago, when the Sun beheld You hanging on the Cross, enshrouded itself in darkness, and the earth quaked in fear, and the veil of the Temple was rent asunder. But lo, I now see, that you willingly underwent death for my sake. How then shall I array you for burial, my God? Or how I shall I wrap You in a shroud? And with what hands can I touch your sacred Body? Or what dirges shall I chant for Your funeral, O Merciful One? I magnify Your Passion; I praise in hymn Your Burial, with Your Resurrection, crying aloud: Lord, glory to You."