Category Image Explanation of Holy Week


Apologies to my 3 readers on not having kept up with my goal of blogging about all of the different services of Lent, now that Lent is about to come to an end. Let me provide at least a very superficial overview of the season:

I have referenced the Akathist (literally meaning without sitting, a reference to the fact that the hymn was originally offered without sitting) to the Theotokos. This is done every Friday for the first five weeks of Lent. The last Friday is done the complete Akathist. During the week we have the Liturgy of the Presanctified, which is supposed to be a Vespers and Divine Liturgy put together (without the sanctification), although it is not always done this way. Fr. Freeman gives a good description of the Lenten Eucharistic services at his blog. Saturdays are reserved for praying for the departed, which beyond the direct purpose of the service, also provides us a means to look forward to Pascha and the resurrection.

Each of the Sundays, both leading up to and during Lent, have a special focus. I'll simply list them here, occasionally with a brief comment, and then simply provide a link to our Archdiocesan website's information on each Sunday:
• Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee.
• Sunday of the Prodigal Son - I blogged a bit about this Sunday and the previous here .
• Judgement Sunday - My blog entry on this .
• Forgiveness Sunday - I blogged a bit about this here .
• First Sunday of Lent, the Sunday of Orthodoxy.
• Second Sunday of Lent, the Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas.
• Sunday of the Veneration of the Holy Cross.
• Sunday of St. John Climacus. He is the author of the Ladder of Divine Ascent, probably one of the greatest works on the spiritual life ever written.
• Sunday of St. Mary of Egypt . In this day of increasing cultural approval of sexual immorality, her story is of great importance.

This brings us now to the end of Lent. For those from the West, I know you're probably wondering what happened to Palm Sunday, etc., which is traditionally viewed to be part of Lent in the West. Well, in the East, Lent ends today. Holy Week is an entirely new "season" (if one week can be a season), leading up to Pascha. The intensity of Holy Week is incredible, as I've mentioned before. We begin tomorrow with the Saturday of Lazarus. Fr. Honeycutt has a great summary of the services of Holy Week at his blog. I would just like to highlight the interesting aspect of tomorrow's service, which will be a resurrection service (i.e. Sunday service) placed on a day normally used to commemorate the departed. With Lazarus, we get to do both. He both died, and was raised from the dead - thus pointing us to the General Resurrection at the second coming. This begins the tension of Holy Week, where we both focus with great intensity on Christ's passion, and the role our sinfulness plays in that, and where we begin to anticipate Pascha and the coming of the bridegroom.

A quick edit. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese has a nice PDF bulletin insert that provides a nice summary of the services of Holy Week. You can access it here .

Posted: Friday - March 30, 2007 at 09:04 AM          

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