Church Time: Hours. About the service on the day of Christ's bright resurrection
Since apostolic times, the holiday of Christian Easter lasts seven days, that is, the whole week, and therefore this week is called “Bright Easter Week.” Each day of the week is also called bright - Bright Monday, Bright Tuesday, etc., and the last day is Bright Saturday, writes RIA Novosti.
On Easter Week, church services are held daily according to the Easter rite. Morning and evening prayers are replaced by the singing of the Easter hours.
After each Divine Liturgy there is a festive procession, symbolizing the procession of the myrrh-bearing women to the tomb of Christ. At the Procession of the Cross, worshipers walk with lit candles.
The royal doors in the iconostasis (separating the altar from the main space of the temple) remain open throughout the week as a sign that on these days the invisible, spiritual, Heavenly world seems to be opening up before the believers. The open Royal Doors are an image of the Holy Sepulcher, from which an Angel rolled away the stone. During the whole of Bright Week they do not close even during the communion of the clergy, and only on Saturday before 9 o’clock they will close.
Throughout the entire Week, all bells are rung every day. According to tradition, any lay person, with the blessing of the abbot, can climb the bell tower and ring the bells.
On Bright Week, one-day fasts (Wednesday and Friday) are canceled.
Starting from the day of Holy Easter, believers greet each other with words of Easter joy: “Christ is risen! “Truly he is risen!”
Before the Feast of the Holy Trinity (on the fiftieth day after Easter) they are not performed. prostrations. There are no weddings or funeral prayers on Bright Week. Funeral services for the dead are performed, but more than half of them consist of Easter hymns.
On Tuesday of Bright Week a special celebration is held in honor of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God.
On Friday of Bright Week, the memory of the icon of the Mother of God “Life-Giving Spring” is celebrated (according to tradition, on this day after the Divine Liturgy, the consecration of water is carried out, and if local circumstances allow, a religious procession to reservoirs or water sources).
Throughout Bright Week, there is a special bread called artos near the open Royal Doors. This custom has been established since apostolic times. It is known that after His resurrection the Lord repeatedly appeared to His disciples. At the same time, He either ate the food Himself or blessed the meal. In anticipation of these blessed visits, and later in memory of them, the holy apostles left the middle place at the table unoccupied and placed part of the bread in front of this place, as if the Lord Himself was invisibly present here. In continuation of this tradition, the Fathers of the Church established the placing of bread in the church on the Feast of the Resurrection of the Lord. On Saturday of Bright Week after the Divine Liturgy, the artos is solemnly blessed and read special prayer to crush the arthos. After this, pieces of this sacred bread are distributed to the believers. Then this shrine is given to the sick or to those who cannot be admitted to Holy Communion.
Those praying, having received part of the artos after the end of the Liturgy, keep it throughout the year (usually by cutting it into small pieces and eating them on an empty stomach, especially during illness).
On Saturday of Bright Week, for the first time after Easter, the Royal Doors in churches are closed.
On the eighth day after Easter, as the end of Bright Week, there follows a special celebration called Antipascha, which means “instead of Easter” or the second Easter.
On the eighth day, the Holy Church also remembers the appearance of the Risen Lord to the Apostle Thomas, who refused to believe in the Resurrection of Christ. On this day, the Lord again appeared to His disciples, especially to the Apostle Thomas, to convince him with His wounds that it was with Him that all the witnesses of His Resurrection met.
Concluding the bright celebration of Easter with the week, the Church continues it, although with less solemnity, for another thirty-two days - until the Ascension of the Lord. This entire period (40 days after Easter) is considered the Easter period, and Orthodox Christians greet each other with the greeting “Christ is Risen! ” and the answer “Truly He is Risen!”
Liturgical hours are a special order of prayers that are read in church at a certain time.
Usually this is a fairly short rite, reading and listening to which does not take more than fifteen to twenty minutes.
It seems to me that the emergence of the prayers of the hours in the Old Testament and New Testament Churches is associated primarily with the Divine establishment of the habit of continuous prayer in man. After all, in essence, Angels and saints in paradise are in continuous praise to the Lord. Figuratively speaking, in the Kingdom of Heaven, in His sublime and spiritual temple, worship is constantly going on. And in order for a person to acquire the skill for this heavenly continuous prayer, he acquires it here – in earthly life. Hence the services of the clock at a certain time.
This can be compared to a monastic meal. To prevent the monk from plunging headlong into devouring food, the meal is interrupted somewhere in the middle by the sound of a bell. Everyone gets up. They are baptized. A short prayer is said. Then they sit down again and eat food. By this, a person seems to be knocked out of the earthly rut, from mental and heartfelt concentration on his stomach, and again learns to focus his attention on what is above - on the heavenly.
A watch, I think, has the same function - to distract a person’s attention from the material concerns of the day. And turn your gaze to the Lord God.
The fact that the Old Testament Church knew the services of the hours is evidenced by the first chapters of the Book of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke, Acts of the Holy Apostles: “Peter and John went together to the temple at the ninth hour of prayer” (Acts 3:1); “The next day, as they walked and approached the city, Peter, about the sixth hour, went up to the top of the house to pray” (Acts 10:9).
The fact that the apostles knew and used certain hours of the day for prayer is evidenced by a book written at the beginning of the 2nd century after the birth of Christ, “The Teaching of the 12 Apostles.” She prescribes reading the Lord's Prayer “Our Father” three times a day.
These short services received the names of the 1st, 3rd, 6th, and 9th hours because of a slightly different calculation of the time of day in ancient Israel than ours.
The ancient Jews divided the night into four watches (the sentries guarding the locality), and the day - by four hours (changes in the movement of the sun relative to the earth). The first hour corresponds to our seventh hour in the morning. The third hour is nine o'clock in the morning. Sixth - twelve o'clock - noon. Ninth hour - three o'clock in the afternoon.
In the New Testament Church, the meaning of the service of the hours became even more symbolic. It acquired significant evangelical significance associated with the most important events in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Church.
So, let's start with the first liturgical hour, which is used in the temple. Since the church liturgical day begins in the evening (vespers), the first (not in the arithmetic or chronological sense) hour is the ninth. He is also first in the spiritual sense.
We know for sure from the Holy Gospel that the Savior died on the cross at the ninth hour (third pm in our reckoning). Therefore, the prayerful memory of the ninth hour is dedicated to the death on the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, as well as His descent into hell. Therefore, the prayers of this hour are mournful, but at the same time they already contain nascent Easter joy, because very soon the Bright Resurrection of Christ will occur. Therefore, the ninth hour precedes all other daily services: Vespers, Matins, the first, third, sixth hours, Liturgy. After all, the church veil is torn in two, and humanity has the opportunity to enter heaven. The era of the New Testament is coming - the era of salvation. Humanity is taking a new step towards God, who has brought it as close as possible to Himself.
The first hour, with God's help, was set later than the other three. As Mikhail Skaballanovich, professor of the Kyiv Theological Academy, writes in his book “Explanatory Typikon”: “The 1st hour was established in the 4th century. in Palestinian monasteries for ascetic purposes...” That is, the Church of the apostolic times did not know him. It was already established with the development of monasticism in the 4th century in connection with asceticism and ascetic discipline such as “sleep less and pray more.” The fact is that to intensify the prayer vigil, the ancient monks also divided the night into several watches, during which they stood up to pray. The last prayer watch of the night is the first hour.
In addition, it also carries a spiritual gospel meaning. The Church recalls in his prayers the taking of Christ into custody in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Sanhedrin, the suffering and beating of the Savior by the Pharisees' servants, the trial of Pilate and the unjust death sentence imposed on the Righteous.
The main memory of the third hour is the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Most Holy Theotokos and the apostles, which occurred precisely in the third hour (see Acts 2:15). And also Christ’s way of the cross to Golgotha, which also took place around the third hour and later.
Remembrance of the sixth hour - The Crucifixion of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ. The execution took place, according to the Holy Gospel, precisely at twelve o'clock in the afternoon.
Thus, we see that the services of the hours are dedicated primarily to the Passion of Christ and are called upon to prayerfully awaken in a person the spiritual vision of the Cross, Death, Resurrection of Christ, as well as the birthday of the Church, one of the main events in our history - Holy Pentecost. Many holy fathers said that remembrance and living of the heart, inner man Holy Week is very saving and beneficial. It unites the human soul with Christ and revives it to life. The holy chief apostle Paul reminds us of this: “If we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him...” (Rom. 6:8).
Because the memories of the liturgical hours are connected with the Passion of Christ, in these prayers there is no singing, only reading, which is less solemn and more mournful.
So, the structure of the clock... It is typical for all four, and based on this, each hour takes about twenty minutes. In the prayers of the hours, after the “cap” or immediately after “Come, let us worship,” there are three selected psalms (they are different for each hour), followed by troparia (special prayers) dedicated to the memory of the day, the event being celebrated, or the saint(s). This is followed by special “Theotokos” prayers dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. “Theotokos” are also different for each hour. Then “The Trisagion according to Our Father” (see any Orthodox prayer book: the beginning of morning prayers). Next is the special prayer book “kontakion”, dedicated to memory day. Then forty times “Lord, have mercy”, the prayer “For all time”, priestly dismissal (for the 3rd and 6th hours this is “Through the prayers of our holy fathers...”, and for the 9th and 1st this is “God, be generous with us...”) and the prayer of the hour (different for each).
The hours always begin with the prayer “Come, let us worship,” which is a kind of confession of our faith in the Holy Trinity; they continue with psalms, and after them with New Testament prayers, which shows the deep organic relationship between the Old Testament and New Testament Churches. Troparions and kontakia of the day are also mounted on the clock - i.e. special short prayers, dedicated to the event celebrated on this day or the saint commemorated. The central part of the clock, according to the will of the holy apostles, is the reading of the prayer “Our Father”. The in-depth repentant prayer “Lord, have mercy,” repeated forty times, and the prayer “And for all time,” telling us that at every time and at every hour we must worship God and glorify Him. Then dismissal and prayer of the hour. All psalms and prayers of the liturgical hour were selected by the holy fathers with God's help in such a way as to remind us of the above-mentioned memories of the hour. An example of this is the 50th Psalm in the third hour, the verses of which “O God, create in me a pure heart, and renew a right spirit in my womb. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me,” as if they were directly telling us about the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles. And in Great Lent at this hour, the troparion directly says about the remembered event: “Lord, Who sent down Thy Most Holy Spirit in the third hour by Thy Apostle, do not take Him away from us, O Good One, but renew it in us who pray to Thee.”
By the way, the hours undergo changes throughout the liturgical year. During Great Lent, they are supplemented by readings of kathismas, the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian “Lord and Master of my life...”, and certain troparia. On Holy Easter and Bright Week, the structure of the clock changes by ninety percent. Then they include hymns glorifying the Holy Resurrection of Christ: the troparion and kontakion of Easter, the hymn “Having seen the Resurrection of Christ,” etc. Because of the special solemnity of the holiday, the Easter hours are often not read, but sung.
In addition, on the eve of such major holidays as the Nativity of Christ and the Holy Epiphany (Baptism of the Lord), great hours are read. They have the usual structure of the services of the hours, with the only difference being that the Old Testament readings of the Proverbs, the Apostle, and the Holy Gospel are read at them. In Rus' they are often called the royal clock. This is a historical name, as monarchs were often present.
In ancient times, clocks were served as expected - at 7 and 9 am, at 12.00 and 15.00. But, unfortunately, such a schedule is not suitable for a modern person with his rush and busyness. Therefore, now Vespers begins at the ninth hour, and Matins ends at the first hour. And the third and sixth hours are added to the beginning of the Divine Liturgy with the need for the priest to have time to perform proskomedia during the reading of these hours. Since the daily divine service begins from the ninth and third hours, these prayers have a “cap”: the priestly exclamation “Blessed is our God...”, then the usual beginning “Heavenly King”, Trisagion, “Our Father”, “Come, let us worship...” And The first and sixth hours begin only with “Come, let us worship...”
I would like to say that there is nothing unimportant or insignificant in the Church. This also applies to liturgical hours. Unfortunately, we often observe how people try to come to the beginning of the Liturgy, but are hours late. One gets the impression that the reader, standing alone on the choir and reading the hours, does this only for himself, and for the priest, in extreme cases. Many others are busy with candles, notes, conversations - in a word, with the usual bustle of the temple. And only when the cry “Blessed is the Kingdom...” sounds, everyone quiets down.
But the third hour is the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Most Holy Theotokos and the apostles, this is the way of the cross to the Savior’s Golgotha, and the sixth hour is the Crucifixion of Christ. He tells us that nails were driven into His most pure hands for our sins. And God voluntarily gave himself up to suffering in the name of saving us all! Can we ignore it? Can we neglect the clock?
Yes, there are extreme cases when, for objective reasons, a person is late for the start of the Liturgy, perhaps oversleeping once or several times. It happens to everyone? But there is an established tradition of treating watches as something of little importance. Like you can “cut off”, be late. And this is already scary. After all we're talking about about the remembrance of the Passion of the Lord.
Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, let us remember that arriving half an hour before the start of the Liturgy does not mean arriving to the cry of “Blessed is the Kingdom,” hours late. No. This means arriving before the reading clock begins. So that you have time to give notes, and light candles, and kiss holy images. And then, having caught your breath and calmed down, begin to listen to the clock and heartily delve into the memory of the Passion of Christ and the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles.
After all, whoever is crucified with our Lord Jesus Christ will rise with him.
Priest Andrey Chizhenko
Before Vespers - the 9th hour according to the Paschal rite.
At the end of the 9th hour, the priest, dressed in all priestly robes (in cathedral services - the primate) 161, stood before the throne with a censer in right hand, with a Cross and a three-candlestick in his left, creates a cross with a censer and proclaims: “Blessed is our God...”. Singers: "Amen." Priest: “Christ is risen from the dead...” (three times), singers - the same troparion (three times). Priest – verses: “May God rise again, and His enemies will be scattered…” and so on Easter start(as at the beginning of the Liturgy). Great Litany.
On “Lord, I cried” there are 162 Sunday stichera (see in the Colored Triodion), voice 2 – 6. “Glory” – Triodion, the same voice: “Singing the song of salvation...”, “And now” - dogmatist, that voice same: “Pass away the lawful shadow...”.
Entrance with the Gospel. "Quiet Light." The Great Prokeimenon, tone 7: “Who is the great God, even as our God...”, with verses. After completing the prokeemna, the priest, according to custom, standing in the royal gates facing the people, reads the Gospel. The reading is preceded by the exclamation: “And may we be honored...”, and so on. Gospel – John, 65 credits. (XX, 19–25): “I am present later in that day...”
Note. According to the Charter, “the rector reads the Gospel in the altar” (cf.: Typikon, chapter 50, “On the Holy and Great Week of Easter in the evening”).
After reading the Gospel, the litany is intense: “Everyone recits...”. “Vouchsafe, Lord.” Litany of petition: “Let us fulfill the evening service...”, and prayer of adoration.
One Sunday stichera is sung on the stichera (see in the Colored Triodion), tone 2: “Thy Resurrection, O Christ the Savior...”, then the stichera of Easter, tone 5, with the verses: “May God rise again...”. “Glory, and now” - Easter, the same voice: “Resurrection day...” - “Christ is risen from the dead...” (once, as the end of the stichera). And then “Christ is risen from the dead...” (three times), as a troparion at the end of Vespers.
According to the performance of the stichera and troparion - “Wisdom”. Singers: “Bless.” Priest: “He who is blessed...” Singers: “Confirm, O God...” The priest sings: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death.” Singers: “And to those in the tombs he gave life.” The priest with the Cross in his hand and, according to custom, with the tricandle, pronounces the dismissal: “Christ, risen from the dead...”, and so on, as at the end of Matins.
The sequence of Easter hours takes place in Small Compline.
148 There is a custom to carry icons in such a way that those who look at the approaching religious procession see them arranged in the same way as in the altar (the altar cross is on the right, the image of the Mother of God is on the left).
149 “The abbot also speaks poetry...” (cf.: Typikon, chapter 50, “On the Holy and Great Week of Easter”).
150 “And again follow the face of Irmos. Lastly, at the gathering there was a catavasia and an irmos: Resurrection day... And according to him: Christ is Risen: three times" (cf.: Typikon, chapter 50, "On the Holy and Great Week of Easter").
151 This order is indicated in the Tsvetnaya Triodion (M., 1914) and in the book. “Followment on the Holy and Great Week of Easter” (M., 2003). Wed: Handbook of a clergyman. M., 2001r.
T. 4. P. 568.152 According to M. N. Skaballanovich (see. his"Explanatory Typikon". Vol. 2. Ch. 2. P. 326), the name of the Catechetical Word (with the name of the author) is not pronounced.
153 Predvedevy.
154 For more information about vacations, see the appendix of the “Liturgical Instructions” for the current year, as well as: Vanyukov S. A. Liturgical holidays // Liturgical instructions for 2005. M., 2004. P. 646.
155 See note below.
156 See note below.
157 Wed: Irmologii, service for Holy Easter; Triode Tsvetnaya, “On the Holy and Great Week of Easter”; Typikon, ch. 50, “On the Holy and Great Sunday of Easter.”
158 “And the first hour. The Sitse sings: Christ is Risen..., three times... And dismissal of the 1st hour. The 3rd hour, the 6th, and the 9th are sung in Sitsa, except for dismissal, and it happens together. We also sing for Compline and the Midnight Office. According to The most honest... and by Through the prayers of the saints, father... for every vacation with the verb: Christ is Risen..., three times" (Irmology, service for Holy Easter).
159 The Holy and Great Sunday of Easter opens a series of evangelical liturgical beginnings from John, extending to the Sunday of Pentecost.
160 See in the Trebnik or in the book: Follow-up on the Holy and Great Week of Easter and throughout Bright Week. M., 2003. pp. 54–55.
161 “At the 9th hour of the lamp, the abbot will put on all the sacred clothing. And standing before the holy table with a censer, he makes the sign of the cross and proclaims the verb: Blessed be our God..."(cf.: Typikon, chapter 50, “On the Holy and Great Week of Easter in the evening”).
162 During the singing of “Lord, I have cried,” the usual censing of the entire temple is performed. Deacons perform censing with a candle in their left hand.
The colored triodion, its origin and content.
The Tsvetnaya Triode contains prayers glorifying the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and the events that took place after Christ's Resurrection. The Colored Triodion begins on the first day of Easter and extends until All Saints' Week. Its Greek name is Pentikostarion (Pentecost).
The Triodion is called Colored because in ancient times it sometimes set out together the sequence of Holy Week and Vai Week, also called Flowering Week; The original name of the Colored Triodion is explained by the fact that the beginning of its use coincides with the beginning of spring, the time of the appearance of flowers, which serve as an excellent symbol of the spiritual beauty and grace of the chants of the Colored Triodion themselves. The Colored Triodion, in structure, is similar to the Lenten Triodion, and also partly to the Octoechos. The Colored Triodion partially includes the hymns of the Octoechos with a direct indication of what voice these hymns are sung in each week and week.
The main memories to which the service of the Colored Triodion is dedicated relate to three most important events: the Resurrection of Christ, the Ascension of the Lord and the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles. All days from Easter to Pentecost, in relation to these holidays, can be called days of forefeast or afterfeast. Therefore, according to the peculiarities of the service, the entire period of singing of the Colored Triodion is divided into three sections:
1. Easter week;
2. Weeks after Easter - from the Week of the Apostle Thomas until the giving of Easter;
3. Weeks from the giving of Easter to the Ascension of the Lord and from the Ascension of the Lord to the Sunday of All Saints.
The Colored Triodion, as a collection of works by many songwriters who lived at different times, was formed during the 5th-14th centuries. Many hymns of the Colored Triodion, including one of the most sublime and inspired creations - the canon for Holy Pascha, belong to Saint John of Damascus. The collection of hymns in one book is attributed to the same fathers who compiled the Lenten Triodion - Saints Theodore and Joseph the Studites, but even after them the Triodion was replenished until the 14th century.
EASTER - BRIGHT RESURRECTION OF CHRIST
Neither the “great stone,” which was rolled to the door of the tomb of Christ by the zeal of the noble Joseph of Arimathea, nor the seal placed on the stone by the malice of Christ’s enemies, nor the military guards assigned by them to the tomb of the Life-Giver, nothing kept the Most Pure Body of the Lord in the tomb. The very moment of the glorious Resurrection of Christ the Savior is not narrated in the Holy Gospel. The holy myrrh-bearing women were the first to hear the news of the Resurrection. It was announced by the Angel sitting at the Holy Sepulcher. The appearance of the Angel, who rolled away the stone from the door of the tomb, was accompanied by an earthquake, which the soldiers who were on guard were very afraid of; they fled from the tomb, but subsequently testified about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ before His enemies. After this, the Lord appeared to His Most Pure Mother (as the church liturgical books and the Synaxarion on Holy Pascha tell about this) and Mary Magdalene, and then to the other myrrh-bearing women. On the same day, the Risen Lord appeared to the Apostle Peter, the two apostles going to Emmaus, and “by the closed door” (through closed doors) to the eleven apostles who had gathered together “for fear of the Jews.”
In the series of moving Lord's holidays, the holiday of Easter occupies a central place, and in the series of all Christian holidays it is the highest, most joyful and solemn holiday. “The holiday of holidays” and “the triumph of celebrations,” as St. Epiphanius of Cyprus speaks about it in his word for Easter: “The holiday of Easter is more solemn than all holidays: it constitutes for the whole world the triumph of renewal and salvation. This holiday is the head and summit of all holidays ". The Church in its sacred hymns calls Easter the great one that opens the doors of heaven to us, the Holy Week, the bright Resurrection of Christ; calls to its triumph the earth and the sky, the visible and invisible world, for “Christ is risen, eternal joy.” Saint Gregory the Theologian in his 45th homily on Easter says: “Now is salvation for the world, the visible and invisible world. Christ has risen from the dead: rise with Him also you; Christ in His glory - rise also you; Christ from the grave - free yourself from the bonds sin; the gates of hell are opened, the old Adam is laid aside, the New Passover is celebrated. And I will also say in honor of the Trinity: Easter is a holiday and a triumph of celebrations for us; accomplished as much as the sun exceeds the stars."
The bright holiday of the Resurrection of Christ is called Easter. This holiday received this name due to its internal correlation with the Old Testament holiday of Passover, which, in turn, was named from the Hebrew word “passover” (“pass by”) - to designate the event that took place during the exodus of the Jews from Egyptian slavery. The Angel of the Lord, who destroyed the firstborn, seeing the blood of the Passover lamb on the doors of Jewish homes, passed by them and left the Jewish firstborns untouched. In accordance with the event of the Resurrection of Christ commemorated on this holiday, the name Easter in the Christian Church acquired a special meaning and began to mean the passage from death to life, from earth to heaven, which is expressed in the Holy hymns of the Church: “Easter, the Lord's Easter! From death to life and from earth to heaven, Christ God brought us a victorious (song) singing (to Him)"; "Christ is our Easter, the cleansing Easter."
With the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, the Theanthropic feat of salvation and the re-creation of the human race was completed. The Resurrection was evidence and proof that Jesus Christ is the true God, our Lord, Redeemer and Savior. Christ died in His flesh, but His flesh was the flesh of God the Word, hypostatically united with Him in the tomb. Christ rises, for death could not hold in its power the body and soul of Christ, who were in hypostatic unity with the Source of eternal life, in unity with Him who, by the nature of His Divinity, is “Resurrection and Life.”
In the economy of our salvation, the Resurrection of Christ is a manifestation of Divine omnipotence: Christ after death descended into hell - “as He willed”, overthrew death - “as God and Master”, resurrected on three days - and with Him He resurrected Adam and freed the entire human race from the bonds of hell and smoldering.
In the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, it was revealed that He is the True Son of God (“risen as God”), and the glory of His Divinity, which was previously under the cover of humiliated human nature, was revealed. The body of the Risen Jesus Christ rose immortal and glorious to live an eternally new, spiritual, heavenly life. A great and saving new creative action takes place in Christ: He in Himself renews our nature, which has fallen into decay. Having destroyed the gates (stronghold) of death, Christ showed the way to life and opened the door of immortality, He rose again as the firstfruits, the firstborn from the dead (Col. 1:18). Having risen, He sanctified, blessed and approved the resurrection of all who will rise from the earth on the universal day of resurrection, just as ears of corn emerge from seeds.
The resurrection completes the victory over sin and its consequence - death: "Now we celebrate the mortification of death, the destruction of hell, the beginning of another life - eternal." Death has been overthrown, the ancient condemnation of death has been rejected and condemned, the hitherto “unsolvable” mortal bonds of hell have been broken, we have been delivered from the “torment of hell.” Death after the Resurrection of Christ no longer has the “pious” power of those who lived and died, for Christ “destroyed the power (power) of death by His death and gave life in the Resurrection.” Death! You no longer rule over people, for the Lord Christ has destroyed Your power.
Christ is Risen and appears as the Conqueror of death. But even after His Resurrection, death in humanity temporarily continues to gather its harvest, as if melting down the vessels of our soul and body in order to recreate them on the day of resurrection in a new, renewed form. And since flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God and corruption does not inherit incorruption, then our mental-physical life is only grain for sowing, which must decay in death in order to give life to the ear. Our corruption in death is the path to incorruption. “You see, you see, for I am your God, having established the limits of life with righteous judgment, accepting all the departed into incorruption from aphids in the hope of eternal resurrection.” The resurrection of Christ was not the abolition of death for mental-physical life, which even after the resurrection is subject to death, but was a resurrection in the spiritual body. Christ defeated death, destroyed its power, freed us from the law of death. This does not mean that death has no power over our mental and physical life, but just as He really died in the flesh and came to life in the Spirit, so we are freed by Him from the law of sin and death only according to the law of the Spirit of life in Him (cf. Rom. 8, 2)". "The joy of all is Christ, Truth, Light, the Life of the world, the Resurrection, who appeared on earth with His goodness and was the image of (our) Resurrection, grant Divine repose to all."
The Resurrection of Christ is already potentially the resurrection of all. “All who are of Adam die for the reason that they have already died in him: and all will live in Christ for the reason that all are already quickened in Him. The dying of all is the manifestation in reality of what was accomplished in possibility in Adam; and the quickening of all will be the fulfillment in reality of that which was given in possibility in Christ."
Already now, through the resurrection, the sting of sin - death - has been dulled. The slavery of the fear of death is overcome by the firm hope of the Resurrection. Moreover, through His Resurrection, Christ the Savior made us conquerors of death. Already here, by life in Christ, we receive the first fruits of the immortality granted by the resurrection to our mortal nature. “Let no one fear death,” exclaims Chrysostom, “for Savior’s death free us.”
The guarantee and hope of this glorious resurrection and renewal of ours is the “bright, peace-joying, God-named and luminous” Resurrection of Christ, which completed the building of the economy of our salvation.
Therefore, the soul of a Christian experiences such genuine joy on the day of Holy Easter: the saving and radiant night of Christ’s Resurrection is a harbinger of the future day of our “rising” (resurrection). This is truly “Great Easter”, “Easter that opens the doors of heaven to us”, for death passes, incorruption appears and immortal life. This is God’s cleansing, saving Easter, “Easter of incorruption, the salvation of the world.” And he did it - “Christ the Deliverer”, “Sun of Truth”, “Christ - New Pascha, Living Sacrifice, Lamb of God, take away the sins of the world.” The “life-receiving rise of Christ” enlightened the entire universe, all creation. Christ “illuminated the entire universe with the Divine sparkles of His Resurrection.” “Now everything is filled with light: heaven and earth, and the underworld; let all creation celebrate the rise of Christ, in Him we are established.”
The whole world (cosmos) is “established” by the Resurrection of Christ in the hope of complete renewal. All creation is called to feel this joy of renewal: “Let creation rejoice and flourish like a lily, for Christ has risen from the dead like God.” “Christ is risen from the dead, destroy the bonds of death: bring great joy to the earth, sing to the heavens the glory of God!”
Easter is the oldest holiday of the Christian Church. It was established and celebrated already in the Apostolic Church. The ancient Church, under the name of Easter, combined two memories: the suffering and the Resurrection of Christ and, in accordance with this, dedicated two weeks to its celebration: the one preceding the day of the Resurrection and the one following it. To designate both parts of the holiday, special names were used: Easter of the Cross, Easter of Suffering and Easter of Resurrection, Easter of Resurrection. The first of these names related mainly to the day of the Savior’s death - Good Friday, and the second - to the day of the Resurrection. In accordance with the nature of the memories, the first half of the holiday was celebrated with fasting, the second with solemn joy. After the first Ecumenical Council (325), these names fell out of use and the current name came into use - Holy and Bright Weeks, and the day of resurrection was called Easter.
In the first centuries of Christianity, Easter was not celebrated at the same time everywhere. In the East, in the Churches of Asia Minor it was celebrated on the 14th day of Nisan (March), no matter what day of the week this date fell on. And the Western Church, considering it inappropriate to celebrate Easter together with the Jews, celebrated it on the first Sunday after the spring full moon. An attempt to establish agreement between the Churches was made under Saint Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, in the middle of the 2nd century, but it was not crowned with success. Two different customs existed before the First Ecumenical Council, at which it was decided, in accordance with the rules of the Alexandrian Church, to celebrate Easter everywhere on the first Sunday after the spring full moon, within the extreme limits between March 22 (April 4 n.st.) and April 25 (May 8 n. . Art.), so that the Christian Easter is always celebrated after the Jewish one. At the VI Ecumenical Council (692), another disagreement was resolved: about the time of termination of fasting before Easter. According to Rule 89 of this Council, it is necessary to stop fasting in the middle hours of the night after Holy Saturday and then begin to celebrate Easter.
SERVICE FOR THE HOLY EASTER FEAST
GENERAL FEATURES OF THE EASTER SERVICE
The divine glory of the Risen Lord and the greatness of the bright holiday of Easter correspond to the high solemnity with which the divine service is performed both on the first day of Easter and throughout Bright Week. In accordance with this, worship acquires the following features:
In the temple, dark clothes are replaced by light ones.
Before the start of the Easter service, in the evening the Book of the Acts of the Holy Apostles is read in the church, containing irrefutable evidence of the truth of the Resurrection of Christ.
Before the start of Easter Matins, the church, according to ancient custom, is filled with incense as a sign of the abundance of grace we received through the Resurrection of Christ (for this purpose, in ancient times, the church was supplied with vessels with burning coal and fragrant incense).
During the Easter service, all the lamps in the temple are lit and everyone in the temple stands with lit candles as a sign of complete joy.
Since the time of the Apostles, the Church has celebrated the Easter service at night. Like ancient Israel, which was awake on the night of its deliverance from Egyptian slavery, the New Israel is awake “on the sacred and pre-festive saving night of the Bright Resurrection of Christ,” a luminous night (full of light), the herald of the luminous day of our resurrection, spiritual renewal and liberation from slavery to sin. and the devil.
The clergy on Easter and at Vespers on Easter Day perform divine services in full, bright vestments.
Divine services on Easter and throughout Bright Week are performed with the royal doors open to commemorate the fact that by the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ the Kingdom of God is open to everyone. The Royal Doors do not close even during communion at the altar of the clergy, and also when there is no service in the church.
On Easter and Bright Week, the priest begins Matins, Liturgy and Vespers, all incense - with the Cross and the Paschal tricandlestick (or candle) in his left hand and the censer in his right. The deacon performs censing with a candle (in his left hand).
Deacons on Easter and Easter week proclaim litanies with a candle (in their left hand); they go out to the litanies (and leave after them) through the royal doors.
At Easter Matins and the matins of the entire Bright Week there is no sixth psalm, no polyeleos or magnification are sung, the Gospel is not read, and the great doxology is not sung (on Bright Week, but not on the first day of Easter, polyeleos occurs only on the Feast of the Annunciation, a temple feast or the day of remembrance of the Holy Great Martyr George the Victorious).
On Easter and Easter week neither Vespers, nor Compline, nor the Midnight Office, nor the Hours are served as usual. Instead of the psalms included in these services, special stichera are sung, glorifying the Resurrection of Christ and His victory over hell and death (only the psalms on “Lord, I cried” and on praises are preserved).
The poetry of the kathisma of the Psalter ceases throughout Bright Week.
Expressing an abundance of joy, the Holy Church performs all services with almost continuous singing.
Midnight Office before Easter Matins
This service also refers to the singing of the Lenten Triodion. The Midnight Office begins well in advance - an hour or half an hour - before the start of Matins. Before the start of the Midnight Office, all clergy perform entrance prayers.
The Midnight Office begins with the exclamation: “Blessed is our God.” Reader: Trisagion after “Our Father”; “Come, let us worship” (3) and Psalm 50. Then the canon of Great Saturday is sung: “By the wave of the sea.” According to the 3rd canto - sedalen, according to the 6th - kontakion of Great Saturday. On the 9th canto, the Shroud is taken to the altar. While singing the irmos “Do not weep for Me, Mother,” the priest leaves the altar through the royal doors and, after censing the Shroud, lifts it onto the head and takes it to the altar through the royal doors, which immediately close. The priest places the Shroud on the Throne and censes again. This transfer of the Shroud and the position on the Throne signifies that the Savior, who suffered, died and Resurrected was given<...>all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). The Shroud, in memory of the Lord's forty-day stay on earth after the Resurrection, is on the Throne until Easter is celebrated.
After the canon - the Trisagion after the “Our Father”; the choir sings the troparion “When You Descended” (in the usual chanting in the 2nd tone). Then, in front of the royal doors, a short, intense litany is pronounced, as at the beginning of Matins, and a small dismissal (outside the altar) “Christ, our true God.” This ends the singing of the Lenten Triodion.
EASTER MAINTENS
The service of the Resurrection of Christ begins already at Vespers on Holy Saturday, but in all its solemnity it is revealed at Easter Matins.
The beginning of Easter Matins is preceded by a solemn procession of the cross around the temple in order to meet Christ outside it, like the myrrh-bearing women who met the Risen Lord outside Jerusalem. Before Matins begins, the clergy put on all priestly vestments. The rector, carrying the Easter three-candlestick with the Cross in his left hand, and a censer in his right hand, censes the Holy See together with the deacon (three times).
At 12 o'clock at night the bell rings.
After censing, the clergy sing the stichera “Thy Resurrection, O Christ the Savior, the angels sing in heaven, and vouchsafe us on earth” in the altar with a pure heart Glory to you"(3), the royal gates and the curtain are closed. When the stichera is sung, the curtain is opened for the second time, the royal doors are opened for the third time, the clergy goes out to the soleya, and the choir picks up: “And grant us to the earth.” And everyone goes procession of the cross. After going around the temple once with the singing of the stichera “Thy Resurrection, O Christ the Savior,” the procession of the cross enters the porch (or porch) and stops in front of the closed western doors of the church.
The rector and the deacon incense the icon, those present and the deacon, then the deacon incenses the rector himself. After this, the rector, standing facing the East, marks the closed church doors with a censer three times in the shape of a cross and says in a loud voice the beginning of Matins (without the deacon’s preliminary exclamation “Bless, Master”): “Glory to the Holy, Consubstantial, Life-Giving, and Indivisible Trinity, always, now and ever and ever." Chorus: "Amen." The clergy sings the troparion three times: “Christ is risen.” The choir repeats the troparion three times.
Then the clergy sings the verses: “May God rise again”, the choir after each verse of the troparion - “Christ is risen.” After “And now” the clergy sing the first half of the troparion “Christ is Risen”, the choir finishes singing: “And to those in the tombs he gave life.”
At this moment, the church doors open, and the procession, singing the troparion “Christ is Risen,” enters the temple. Everyone enters the temple, rejoicing and rejoicing, “seeing the King Christ from the tomb, like the Bridegroom coming.”
The rector and his concelebrants enter the altar, and the deacon on the solea pronounces the great litany. After the great litany, the Easter canon is sung, filled with unearthly joy - the creation of the great and divinely inspired hymn-maker St. John of Damascus (8th century). The initial words of the irmos of each song are sung in the altar, the choir continues the following words of the irmos. After each troparion of the song there is a refrain “Christ is risen from the dead.” Each hymn ends with the repetition of the irmos and the final singing of the troparion “Christ is Risen.”
According to the rules, the canon should be sung at 16, the irmos at 4 and the troparia at 12.
During each song of the canon, the priest and deacon cense the altar, the iconostasis and those standing next to them (cense is required for the entire church). While censing the people, the priest greets those praying with the words “Christ is risen.” Believers answer: “Truly he is risen” and, looking at the Cross in the hand of the priest, make the sign of the sign of the cross. On the 8th song, the deacon performs incense with a candle in his left hand. He also greets the people with the words “Christ is risen.”
After each song and the final singing of the troparion “Christ is Risen,” the deacon pronounces a small litany, concluded with a special exclamation. These exclamations are given in the Typikon, the Colored Triodion and in the special book “Followment during the Holy and Great Week of Easter and throughout Easter Week.” After the 3rd song and litany - ipakoi: “Having preceded the morning of Mary (Mary’s companion), and having found the stone rolled away from the tomb” (The myrrh-bearing women who arrived before dawn with Mary and found the stone rolled away from the tomb). After the 6th canto and litany - the kontakion “Although thou didst descend into the grave, O Immortal” and the ikos “Even before the sun, the sun sometimes set into the grave.” On the 8th canto, before the trinitarian “Father Almighty,” the chorus is sung “ Holy Trinity, Our God, glory to Thee." For the 9th song, the chorus "Christ is risen from the dead" is not sung, but special choruses for the irmos and troparia are sung. The first chorus for the irmos is "My soul magnifies the risen three days from the grave of Christ the Giver of Life." For the 9th songs - exapostilary "Having fallen asleep in the flesh, as if dead" (three times) - in the altar and on the choir.
On the praises: “Every breath” (chapter 1) and the stichera of the resurrection on 4, after which the stichera of Easter are sung with the verses “May God rise again, and His enemies be scattered. The holy Easter has appeared to us today.” When singing the stichera of Easter, the clergy usually pose with Christ in the altar. Christening with believers is usually postponed until the end of the service due to the large crowd.
After the stichera the “Catechetical Sermon of St. John Chrysostom” is read, beginning with the words: “If anyone is pious and God-loving.” In this word, based on the parable of those who worked in the vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16), everyone is called to enjoy the bright celebration and enter into the joy of our Lord. After this Easter word, the troparion to St. John Chrysostom is sung - the only hymn to the saint in the Easter service.
Then two litanies are pronounced: “Have mercy on us, O God” and “Let us fulfill morning prayer our Lord." After the exclamation, "For Thine is the hedgehog to be merciful," the deacon exclaims: "Wisdom." Choir: "Bless." Rector: "Blessed be Christ our God." Choir: "Amen. Establish, God." The rector with a cross in his hand sings: "Christ is risen from the dead" (instead of: "Glory to Thee, O Christ our God"). The choir finishes singing: "and to those in the tombs he gave life." The rector with the cross makes the dismissal: "Christ, risen from the dead, trampling down death by death and bestowing life on those who are in the tombs, our true God." Such a dismissal occurs at all Easter services.
After the dismissal, overshadowing the people with the Cross on three sides, the abbot three times says the greeting: “Christ is risen,” and the people three times answer: “Truly he is risen.” The choir sings the troparion: “Christ is Risen” (three times). “And we have been given eternal life; we worship His three-day resurrection.” Then the choir proclaims many years to His Holiness the Patriarch.
EASTER CLOCK
The Easter Hours are sung on Easter and Bright Week. On Easter (Light) Week, the 1st hour is sung after Matins, the 3rd and 6th hours before the Liturgy, and the 9th hour before Vespers.
1st hour After the exclamation: “Blessed is our God,” the choir sings the troparion: “Christ is risen” (three times); “Having seen the Resurrection of Christ” (three times); ipakoi: “Preceding the morning even about Mary”; kontakion: “Although you descended into the grave, Immortal”; troparion: “In the grave carnally, but in hell with the soul like God”; “Glory”: “Like the Life-Bearer, like the reddest of Paradise”; “And now”: “Hallowed Divine Village on High, rejoice”; “Lord, have mercy” (40); “Glory, even now”: “More honorable Cherub”; "Bless you in the name of the Lord, father." Priest: "Through the prayers of our holy fathers." Choir: "Amen. Christ is Risen" (three times); "Glory, even now"; “Lord, have mercy” (3); "Bless."
A priest with a cross in his hand performs the dismissal: “Christ, risen from the dead, trampled down death by death” (the saints are not remembered during the dismissal during the entire week).
3rd, 6th and 9th hours. They are sung in the same way as the 1st hour. In the daily cycle of worship they take the place of Compline and Midnight Office. The 3rd and 6th hours are usually sung together (no release after the 3rd hour).
The 3rd and 9th hours, like the 1st hour, begin with the exclamation of the priest: “Blessed is our God.” The 6th and 9th hours also end with dismissal.
During the singing of the hours on Easter, proskomedia and the usual censing are performed. Immediately after the hours, the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is celebrated.
LITURGY
The Liturgy on Easter is “poranu,” labor for the sake of the vigil, which lasted throughout the entire Easter night.
The beginning of the Liturgy (with the exception of the Liturgical exclamation) is the same as that of Easter Matins. Deacon: “Bless, Master.” Priest: "Blessed is the Kingdom." Chorus: "Amen."
Then the priest in front of the Throne, holding the Cross and a three-candlestick in his left hand, and a censer in his right, and the deacon, standing with a candle in a high place, sing the troparion three times: “Christ is risen.” The choir repeats it three times.
After this, the clergy sing the verses: “May God rise again.” After each verse, the choir sings the troparion once: “Christ is risen.” At this time, the priest and the deacon perform incense on the Throne, the altar, the iconostasis and the people. During the censing of the people, the priest greets those praying with the words “Christ is Risen.”
Returning to the altar, the clergy at the Throne sing “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death.” The chorus ends: “And to those in the tombs he gave life.” Next - peaceful litany and singing holiday antiphons: “Shout to the Lord, all the earth,” in which the entire universe is called upon to give glory to the Lord in spiritual joy.
Entrance with the Gospel. Entrance verse: "In the churches you shall bless God, the Lord of the fountains of Israel." After this, the choir sings the troparion “Christ is risen from the dead,” and then the hypakoi “Who preceded the morning of Mary” and the kontakion on “Glory, even now”: “Even though you have descended into the grave, the Immortal One.” Instead of the Trisagion, “Be baptized into Christ” is sung. Prokeimenon: “This day which the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad on it.”
The Gospel is read from John (chapter 1) - about the Divinity of Christ, Who by the Resurrection from the dead revealed to the world His Divine power. The Gospel is usually read by several clergy at different languages, including the ancients, in commemoration of the fact that the apostolic preaching spread throughout the whole earth among all nations (cf. Mark 16:15). This custom is based on another goal - so that none of those standing in the church will be left deprived of the gospel on the first day of Holy Easter. After reading in different languages, the deacon reads the Gospel in Church Slavonic.
At the Liturgy the venerable hymn is sung: “The angel cried out with grace” and the irmos of the 9th canto: “Shine, Shine, new Jerusalem.” Communion verse: “Receive the Body of Christ, taste the Immortal Source.”
At the end of the Liturgy, instead of the usual chants: “Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord,” “Let our lips be filled,” “We have seen the true light,” the troparion is sung (once): “Christ is risen from the dead.”
After the prayer behind the pulpit, instead of “Be the Name of the Lord” and Psalm 33, the choir sings (“quickly”) the troparion: “Christ is Risen” (12). The priest, instead of: “Glory to Thee, Christ our God,” sings the beginning of the troparion: “Christ is risen,” the choir finishes singing. After this, the priest administers the Paschal holiday.
This ending of the Liturgy occurs throughout Bright Week. The priest with the Cross in his hands says dismissal.
Following the prayer behind the pulpit, the artos is consecrated in a special manner. At the end of the Liturgy, the consecration of Easter cakes and Easter cakes is performed.
After the end of the Liturgy, the clergy celebrate Christ with the people. To do this, the clergy come out in front of the royal doors: the rector with the Cross, and the others stand in order to his right with the Gospel and the icon of the Resurrection. Believers kiss the Cross, the Gospel and the icon and greet with the Easter greeting "Christ is Risen" and the kiss of the clergy. The clergy answer: “Truly he is risen.” Christians then kiss each other with the Easter greeting. This greeting recalls the joy of the apostles when they heard the news of the Resurrection of the Savior and serves as an expression of the joy of the believers themselves, a sign of mutual peace and brotherly love. Since ancient times, Christians have given each other red eggs when kissing and greeting. The egg is a symbol of the life hidden in it; it reminds us that our new life arose in the depths of the tomb, and this new life was acquired by the Most Pure Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The custom of giving Easter eggs according to ancient church tradition, it owes its beginning to the saint Mary Equal to the Apostles Magdalene, who, appearing before Emperor Tiberius, presented him with a red egg with the greeting: “Christ is risen.”
ORIGIN OF CONSECTION OF ARTHOS
At the end of the Liturgy on Easter Day, after the prayer behind the pulpit, the artos is consecrated according to a special rite. Artos (Greek “artos” - bread) is a prosphora with the Cross or Resurrection of Christ depicted on it. Artos on Easter Day and throughout the week is on the lectern in the temple (usually at the local icon of the Savior) along with the image of the Resurrection of the Lord. In parish churches, every day of Bright Week after the Liturgy there is a procession of the cross around the church. During a religious procession with a lantern, banners, the Gospel, icons of the Resurrection of Christ and the Most Pure Mother of God, while singing the Easter canon, the artos is usually carried, and in monasteries after the liturgy it is transferred to the meal during the singing of the troparion. Here, after the meal, the artos is raised, after which it is transferred to the temple while the 9th song of the Easter canon is sung. On Bright Saturday, artos is crushed and distributed to believers to eat before eating regular food.
Historically, the use of artos arose in imitation of the apostles. The apostles, accustomed to eating a meal with the Lord, and after His Ascension into heaven, set aside part of the bread for Him, thereby representing Him as if present among them. Artos reminds us that the Lord Jesus Christ through His death on the Cross and Resurrection became for us the true bread of eternal life.
The very rite of consecration of the artos is as follows. On the salt, on the prepared table, artos is placed (there may be several of them). Following the prayer behind the pulpit, the priest censes the artos. Deacon: “Let us pray to the Lord.” The priest reads a prayer from the Book of Breviaries (part 2) for the consecration of the artos: “God Almighty and Lord Almighty.” Chorus: "Amen." The priest sprinkles the artos with holy water, saying: “This artos is blessed and sanctified by sprinkling the holy water, in the Name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen” (3). The choir, instead of: “Be the name of the Lord,” sings: “Christ is risen” (3). The priest, instead of “Glory to Thee, O Christ God,” sings the troparion: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death.” The choir finishes singing: “And to those in the tombs he gave life.” And there is a dismissal of the Liturgy, just like at Matins.
On the day of Easter, the consecration of Easter cakes (homemade artos), pasokh, as well as eggs and “brown meat” is also performed as the first fruits of food, which from now on the laity are allowed to eat. The consecration of the “trash of meats” takes place outside the temple, since meat is not supposed to be brought into the temple. The priest reads a prayer from the Breviary: “To bless the meat on the Holy and Great Week of Easter.”
During the sprinkling of the brushes with holy water, the Easter canon and others are sung Easter chants.
If the consecration of Easter cakes and Easter eggs is performed on Holy Saturday before Bright Matins, then Easter hymns are not supposed to be sung during this consecration - the troparion of Great Saturday should be sung: “When you descended to death, Immortal Life.”
GREAT VESPERS ON THE FIRST DAY OF EASTER
The features of Great Vespers on Easter Day are as follows:
Vespers begins at the 9th hour, which is sung according to the Easter rite. During the 9th hour the priest dresses in full priestly vestments.
The priest pronounces the initial exclamation of Vespers, “Blessed be our God,” while tracing a cross with a censer. Then the same beginning as at Matins and the Liturgy.
Entrance with the Gospel.
The Great Prokeimenon: “Who is the great God, like our God? You are God, work miracles.”
After the prokeme, the deacon: “And may we be worthy to hear the Holy Gospel.” The priest in the royal doors, facing the people, reads the Gospel of John (chapter 65, John 20, 19-25) about the appearance of the Lord to the apostles in the evening on the day of the Resurrection. The reading by the priest of the Gospel in the royal doors facing the people serves as a reminder of the first appearance of the Lord to the apostles, when He gave them peace as a sign that the Gospel sermon about the Savior “went out into all the earth”, to all nations.
“Vouchsafe, Lord” is sung. After the stichera “Thy Resurrection, O Christ the Savior,” the stichera of Easter are sung. Then there is the end of Vespers, as well as Easter Matins. The deacon says: “Wisdom.” Priest: “Blessed be Christ our God.” Chorus: "Confirm, O God." Priest: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death.” Chorus: “And to those in the tombs he gave life.” A priest with a cross in his hands makes a dismissal: “Christ, risen from the dead.”
FEATURES OF WORSHIP
ON EASTER (LIGHT) WEEK
Easter has always been the brightest, most universal, and longest celebration for Christians. Since the time of the apostles, the holiday of Christian Easter, like the Easter of the Old Testament (Exodus 12:14-15), lasted seven or eight days, if we count all the days of the continuous celebration of Easter until St. Thomas Monday. The Church Fathers and church canons (VI Ecumenical Council, canon 66) command believers throughout Bright Week “in the holy churches to practice psalms and chants and spiritual songs, rejoicing and triumphant in Christ.” This entire week, called Great or Bright, is, as it were, one great and brightest holiday.
Therefore, in liturgical terms, Easter week is, as it were, one holiday: on all days of this week, services (matins, hours, Liturgy and Vespers), in general, are the same as on the first day of Easter:
All services on Bright Week are performed with the royal doors open to commemorate the fact that the Lord, by His Resurrection, opened the doors of heaven to those who believe in Him.
The Royal Doors remain open after the service (starting from the day of Easter) throughout the entire week.
Throughout Easter week, the beginning and end of church services are performed in the same way as on the first day. Only the procession of the cross takes place not before Matins, as happens on the very day of the holiday, but at the end of the Liturgy.
At Matins, the Easter canon is sung, in addition, at the end of each hymn, the Theotokos of Saints Theophan and Joseph, printed in the Colored Triodion in succession to the Week of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women, are sung, as well as in a separate book of Easter services. The interval is indicated only at the beginning of the canon, but usually it also occurs on the 1st, 3rd, 6th and 9th cantos. The priest performs each ceremony at all services with a candle (or three-candlestick) and a cross. The litanies are not pronounced after each song, but only after the 3rd, 6th and 9th.
At Matins the “Catechetical Sermon” of St. John Chrysostom is not read and there is no Consecration of Christ. The poems at Matins each day are sung in a different voice.
The hours are like Easter.
The liturgy is performed exactly the same as on the first day. The Prokeimenon, the Apostle, the Alleluary and the Gospel are different for each day; but the Gospel is read only by the deacon. The sacrament for all days is the same: “Receive the Body of Christ.” After the Liturgy, there is a procession around the church and ringing in remembrance of the holy myrrh-bearing women who met the Lord after the Resurrection. During the procession of the cross, an artos is also carried around the temple.
On Saturday after the Liturgy, the artos is cut into pieces and distributed to the people.
Vespers on Easter week is preceded by the Paschal 9th hour and has the same sequence as on the first day, in addition, at Vespers there is an entrance with a censer (and not with the Gospel). The Gospel, accordingly, is not read.
Prokimny are great, special for every day. At Vespers every day there are different voices. Vespers is served only in stole and phelonion.
If on Bright Week, starting on Monday, there is a feast day of a great saint (for example, the Great Martyr George - April 23, Old Style) or a temple holiday, then the hymns of Easter are joined by hymns in honor of the saint: stichera, troparion, canon, etc. At Vespers, paremias are read, at Matins, the polyeleos, sedate, 1st antiphon of the 4th tone are sung, the Gospel and prayer are read: “Save, O God, Thy people.” There is no great doxology. At the Liturgy - the Apostle, the Gospel and is involved in the day and the saint.
There is a custom on Friday of Bright Week to perform a ceremony in honor of the renovation of the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos, called the Life-Giving ("Life-Receiving") Source. At Vespers and Matins special stichera are sung in honor of the Mother of God, and at Matins the canon of St. Nikephoros Callistus (14th century) is sung.
At the Liturgy - the prokeimenon, the Apostle and the Gospel - of the day and the Virgin Mary. After the Liturgy, a small consecration of water is usually performed.
FOMIN'S WEEK (FOMIN'S SUNDAY)
Bright Week ends (on the eighth day) with the Week (Sunday) of the Apostle Thomas, also called the Week of St. Thomas, which, as the end of Bright Week, from ancient times constituted a special celebration, as if a repetition of the Easter day itself, which is why it was called Antipascha (Greek - “instead of Easter").
From this day begins the circle of Weeks and Weeks of the whole year. On this day, the memory of the Resurrection of Christ is renewed for the first time, therefore the Week of Antipascha was also called the New Week, that is, the first, as well as the Day of Renewal or simply Renewal. This name is all the more appropriate for this day, since it was on the eighth day that the Lord deigned to “renew” the joy of the Resurrection by His appearance to the holy apostles, including the Apostle Thomas, who, by touching the wounds of the Lord, became convinced of the reality of His Resurrection (in memory of this event, the Week received the name "Weeks of Fomina").
Calling the Sunday about Thomas the Day of Renewal also indicates the need for our spiritual renewal. We find an indication of this in many hymns of the Week service. Already in the troparion of the holiday, the risen Lord, who appeared to the Apostle Thomas, is glorified as “the Resurrection of all,” as the One who renews the right spirit in us: “The right spirit is renewed by those (i.e., the apostles) to us.” “Having made us new instead of old by His Cross, incorruptible instead of corruptible, Christ commanded us to live worthily in the renewal of life.”
The suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross was followed by His glorious resurrection, which made us a “new creation.” The spring of renewal of our souls has come. “Today is spring for souls, for Christ has driven away the dark storm of our sin.” "The Queen of Times (spring) cheers the chosen people of the church." “Today spring is fragrant, and the new creation rejoices.”
Pointing to the spring renewal of nature, awakening under the life-giving rays of the sun after a winter sleep, the service on the Sunday of St. Thomas encourages Christians to awaken from sinful sleep, turn to the Sun of Truth - Christ, open their souls to the life-giving action of grace and, strengthening their faith, together with the Apostle Thomas joyfully exclaim: “My Lord and my God!”
At the same time, the Holy Church in her hymns of the Week of St. Thomas, pointing us to the joyful truth of the Resurrection of the Lord, turns her reverent gaze to the truth of His Divinity and humanity. As the God-man, Christ appeared as the Conqueror of death and hell. Having risen from the grave, “as if from a palace, with His most pure flesh,” He appeared to the disciples and the Apostle Thomas, who were together behind closed doors. Christ, showing His sores on His hands and feet, convincing all the apostles and the Apostle Thomas that He was resurrected not with illusory, but with real former flesh, said to them: “In Me you see, oh friends, the acceptance of flesh, I do not carry the spirit with my nature. You commanded the doubting disciple (Thomas) to touch (Yourself) reverently.<...>he (i.e. Thomas), feeling with his hand Your Sublime Being, with fear cried out faithfully, with faith he drew: My Lord and my God.”
And the Gospel, which is read at the Liturgy this Week (chapter 65), inspires us that blessed are those who have not seen and who have believed (John 20:29). Blessed are those who, under the guidance of the holy fathers Orthodox Church they come to know the Word of God, approach Him with humility, “feel Him, experiencing” His Divine truths, in order to gain wisdom for salvation, be experimentally confirmed in the faith and, together with the Apostle Thomas, exclaim: “My Lord and my God!”
FEATURES OF THE SERVICE DURING THE WEEK OF ANTI-EASTER (FOMINO SUNDAY)
Before the start of the all-night vigil (before 9 o'clock), the royal doors are closed (usually they are closed on Saturday of Bright Week after the dismissal of the Liturgy). The Week of Fomin is the Week of Renewal of the Feast of the Resurrection of Christ, but in terms of the content of the service it is devoted mainly to the remembrance of the appearance of Christ after the resurrection to the apostles, including the Apostle Thomas. The charter says that on the Sunday of Antipascha, just as on the twelve feasts, Sunday hymns from the Octoechos are not sung, but the entire service of the holiday is performed according to the Triodion. Easter hymns are not sung either: at Vespers and Matins the stichera of Easter are not sung, at Matins there is no Easter canon, which is repeated in the following Weeks; The irmos of the Easter canon are sung only as a form of confusion.
This structure of the service aims to make more obvious the subject of the present celebration, which in itself is the most excellent testimony and proof of the truth of the resurrection of Christ, which we celebrated throughout the entire Easter week.
Beginning with St. Thomas Sunday, the versification of the Psalter is resumed at services (singing “Blessed is the man,” kathismas at Vespers and Matins, polyeleos, etc.). The All-Night Vigil and all weekday services, as well as the Liturgy, after Bright Week are performed in the usual manner (with the exception of some peculiarities).
At the beginning of Great Vespers on the Sunday of Antipascha, before the Six Psalms at Matins and after the initial exclamation of the Liturgy, the troparion is sung three times: “Christ is risen from the dead”; the same thing before the dismissal of the Liturgy (see more about this below).
At Matins according to the polyeleos, the troparia: “The Council of Angels” are not sung. Before the icon of the “Descent into Hell” (the Resurrection of Christ) or before the Gospel after the polyeleos, the magnification is sung: “We magnify You, Life-Giving Christ, for our sake you descended into hell and raised everything with You.” It is not the current 1st tone that is powerful, but the first antiphon of the 4th tone - “From my youth.”
The canon is a “holiday”, but not Easter: “Let all the people eat.” Katavasia - Easter Irmos: "Resurrection Day". Chorus to the troparions of the canon of the “holiday” according to the Triodion: “Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee.” On song 9, “The Most Honest Cherub” is not sung; The deacon performs the usual incense and, in front of the local image of the Mother of God, sings the irmos: “To you, bright candle.” The choir continues: “And we magnify the Mother of God, of most wonderful glory and above all creatures, with songs.”
At the Liturgy: figurative, honorable: “The Angel cried out with Grace” and “Shine, shine.” At the end of the Liturgy, instead of “We have seen the true light,” “Christ is Risen” (once) is sung. By the exclamation: “Glory to Thee, O Christ God” - “Christ is risen” - three times. And the dismissal: “Christ is risen from the dead, our true God” (the same dismissal at Matins).
The after-feast of Antipascha Week continues until Saturday; on Saturday - giving. Throughout the entire week of Fomina there is a troparion, kontakion, prokeimenon and communion - a holiday.
On the Sunday of Antipascha, Great Vespers is celebrated in the evening. After the initial exclamation, the reader reads the troparion three times: “Christ is risen,” then: “Come, let us worship,” and Psalm 103. There is no kathisma. Entrance with censer. The Great Prokeimenon: “Who is the great God, like our God? You are God, work miracles.” Then the usual sequence of Great Vespers. According to the Trisagion and "Our Father" - the troparion of the Holy Menaion; “Glory, even now” is the troparion of the holiday.
After the Week of Thomas, vespers on Sundays until Pentecost are without entrance and the great prokemena - like daily ones.
On the Monday or Tuesday after Fomin Sunday is the day of Easter remembrance of the dead, known as Radonitsa. There is no service for this day in Triodion. Usually, after the evening or morning service (Liturgy), a full funeral service is held, at which Easter hymns are sung. Remembrance of the dead (requiem service) is also performed on this day in cemeteries, at graves, where believers, together with prayer, bring to their deceased relatives and all Orthodox Christians the joyful news of the Resurrection of Christ, foreshadowing the general resurrection of the dead and life “in the unevening days of the Kingdom of Christ.”
With St. Thomas Week, the usual commemoration of the dead begins every day (requiems, thirds, destinies, magpies, etc.), and the sacrament of marriage also begins to be celebrated.
FEATURES OF SUNDAY SERVICES
AND DAYS OF THE WEEK FROM FOMINAS WEEK (FOMINAS SUNDAY) UNTIL EASTER
The Weekly services from Easter (from the Sunday of St. Thomas) to Pentecost include hymns: 1) Easter; 2) Sunday (according to the voice of the Week) and 3) Colored Triodion. All these chants are collected and sequentially presented in the Colored Triodion.
Easter chants are designated in liturgical books with the word “Easter” (for example, “Easter canon”). Sunday chants are designated by the word “resurrection” (for example, “stichera are resurrected”). The chants of the Triodion are designated by the words: “Triodion”, “holiday”, “feast of the Triodion”, “real Week”, or the name of the Week: the myrrh-bearer, the paralytic, the blind; or the word - “dne” (for example, “sedalen dne”).
During the seven days after the day of Midnight, that is, on the days after the feast of Midnight, the word “holiday” indicates the hymns of Midnight, but not the hymns of the Week of the Paralytic or the Week of the Samaritan Woman.
During all the Weeks of the Colored Triodion, the Menaion is not sung, with the exception of the services of the Holy Great Martyr George the Victorious, the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and the temple holiday: the services of the holy Menaion are sung at Compline.
On the weekdays, from the Week of St. Thomas until Easter, the services of the Colored Triodion are combined with the services of the Menaion, while the hymns of the Triodion (stichera, troparia, canons) always precede the Menaion.
SINGING AND READING THE TROPARION: "CHRIST IS RISEN."
From St. Thomas Week until Easter, all services begin after the priest’s exclamation by singing three times or reading the troparion: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death.”
The troparion “Christ is Risen” is sung by the clergy at the beginning of the all-night vigil and by the singers in the choir before the Six Psalms after the exclamation: “The blessing of the Lord is upon you.”
At the Liturgy, after the exclamation “Blessed is the Kingdom,” the clergy in the altar sing the troparion “Christ is Risen” twice, and the third time is just the beginning; the choir ends: “and to those in the tombs he gave life” (the royal doors open to the singing of “Christ is Risen”). At the Liturgy, instead of “We have seen the true light,” “Christ is Risen” is sung (once); the rest of the Liturgy is as usual. So, after the exclamation: “With the fear of God,” the choir sings: “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” (but not “Christ is risen,” as at Easter). After the exclamation: “Always, now and ever,” the chant “Let our lips be filled” is sung. At the end of the Liturgy, before dismissal, after the exclamation: “Glory to Thee, Christ our God,” “Christ is Risen” is sung three times (quickly). At the end of all other services (vespers, matins and others) before dismissal after the exclamation: “Glory to Thee, Christ God” - the usual end: “Glory, and now” and so on.
According to other practice, adopted, for example, in Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, the troparion “Christ is Risen” at the beginning of the all-night vigil, before the Six Psalms, at the beginning and at the end of the Liturgy, is sung once in the altar by the clergy and twice in the choir.
Troparion: “Christ is Risen” is also sung at the beginning of a prayer service, requiem service, baptism, funeral service and other services.
The troparion “Christ is risen” is read at the beginning of all other services of the daily circle: at daily vespers, matins, at the hours, with the exception of the 6th hour, which, connecting with the 3rd hour, usually begins with the reading “Come, let us worship.”
The prayer “To the Heavenly King” is not read or sung until the Feast of Pentecost. Weekly Matins begins with the sixth psalm (the double psalm is not read).
On Sunday all-night vigil Easter stichera with the refrains “May God rise again” are sung only after the stichera at the stichera of Great Vespers, while at “Glory” the stichera of the holiday is sung. At the end of the stichera, “Christ is Risen” is sung only once, at the conclusion of the last stichera. In the stichera for praises, the stichera of Easter are not sung. On weekdays, the Easter stichera are also not sung.
At Sunday all-night vigils, “Having seen the Resurrection of Christ” is sung three times. This distinctive feature Weeks of the Colored Triodion before Easter compared to the Weeks after Pentecost. On weekdays at Matins, “Having seen the Resurrection of Christ” is sung (after the kathismas) once.
The canon of Easter with the Mother of God is sung in conjunction with the canon of the Week on the Sunday of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women, as well as in the Sunday of the Paralytic, the Samaritan and the Blind. The chorus to the Theotokos troparia is: “Most Holy Theotokos, save us.” To the Troparion of the Triodion the chorus: “Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee.” The final “Christ is Risen” (3) is not sung at the end of each song.
On the 9th canto the Easter choruses are not sung; we sing the 9th canto immediately after the 8th in the following way. Irmos: “Shine, shine,” chorus: “Christ is risen from the dead” and troparion: “Oh, Divine, oh, dear,” then chorus and troparion: “Oh, great Easter,” theotokion troparions with chorus: “Most Holy Theotokos, save us,” after which the troparia of the Triodion canon are read with the refrain to the troparia: “Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee.” After the canon there is the exapostilary of Easter.
On weekdays the Easter canon is not sung. On some holidays it is necessary to sing the Easter irmoses (but not the entire canon) at the katavasiya. The instruction of the charter about singing on weekdays from the Week of St. Thomas until the celebration of Easter “canon of the holiday” should be understood in the sense that on these days the canon of the previous Week (of St. Thomas, the Myrrh-Bearing Women, etc.) or Mid-West is sung from the Colored Triodion ( from the feast of Midnight until its giving).
Regarding the singing of the Easter canon, it should be noted that it is sung at matins only 12 times a year, namely: on all seven days of Easter week, in the Week of the Myrrh-Bearing Women, about the paralytic; about the Samaritan and the blind man, as well as about the celebration of Easter.
During all the weeks before Easter, I do not sing “The Most Honest Cherub.” (“The most honorable Cherub” is not sung on occasions when the Easter canon is sung). But at daily services, “The Most Honest Cherub” is sung.
We sing the Exapostilary “Flesh Asleep” in the same weeks when the Easter canon is sung. When the canon and exapostilary are sung, the royal doors open.
At the first hour, it is customary to sing instead of “The Chosen Voivode” the kontakion “Even on Sundays (unless the Twelfth Feast occurs) during the singing of the Colored Triodion at the Liturgy, the Fine (but not daily antiphons) are always sung.
At the Liturgy, after the small entrance, after the Sunday troparion and the kontakion of the Triodion, the kontakion of Easter is sung.
At the Liturgy, instead of “Worthy,” the following are sung: “Angel crying with grace” and “Shine, shine.”
Participated in Easter: “Receive the Body of Christ” is sung on all days before Easter, except for the Week of St. Thomas and Midsummer with its afterfeast.
On Sundays and weeks from St. Thomas Week until the celebration of Easter, the Sunday vacation is pronounced: “Christ risen from the dead, our true God,” but not the Easter vacation (it is pronounced after Easter week only once - after the Liturgy on the day of Easter).
The statute abolishes prostrations during public worship before the day of Pentecost.
EASTER WEEKS
(before Easter)
The weeks after Easter, starting from the Sunday of St. Thomas and until Pentecost, are counted as seven, and before the giving of Easter - six.
According to their memories, these Weeks and Weeks refer to the Divine glorification of the Risen Christ, who ascended into heaven and sent down the Holy Spirit on His disciples and apostles. All Easter Weeks before the celebration of Easter have a commemoration of a special event, but at the same time they are dedicated to the remembrance of the Resurrection of Christ, which is reflected in the services of these Weeks and the weeks following them.
THIRD WEEK OF EASTER - HOLY Myrrh-BEARING WOMEN
After the second Week and week of Easter - St. Thomas, comes the Week of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women. On this Sunday of Pentecost, the Church remembers the myrrh-bearing women and secret disciples of Christ - the righteous Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, who are “the truest essence and most meaningful dogma for us” and who were witnesses to the death and Resurrection of the Lord.
Remembering the witnesses and witnesses of the burial and Resurrection of the Lord, the Church, with its divine service on the 3rd Sunday after Easter, seems to place us on Calvary at the Cross, from which the righteous Joseph and Nicodemus take down the Most Pure Body, and then in Vertograd at the tomb, where they lay the Body of Jesus Christ and where the myrrh-bearing women are the first to see the Risen Lord. In the present service, the Church glorifies the cross, the saving death and glorious Resurrection of the Lord, as well as the holy exploits of the now remembered disciples and disciples of Christ, thereby teaching us that the first and primary subject of remembrance and glorification should now, as always, be the Lord Himself, who suffered for us and the Risen One.
The holy feat, devotion and love for His Teacher and the Lord of the holy myrrh-bearing women are especially touchingly described in the service of this Week. “Why do you dissolve the world with merciful tears, O disciples?” (troparion of the “Cathedral of Angels”). "Why do you mix myrrh with tears of pity?" - this is how, according to the depiction of the church song, the Angel of the Lord spoke to the holy myrrh-bearing women when they came to the Tomb. Myrrh is a precious fragrant ointment that was very expensive, on which the holy women spent, perhaps, all their savings in order to anoint the Body of the Savior with it, not hoping that He would look at them with His closed, as they thought, forever, grateful eyes. Myrrh and tears are the last gift of their love and reverence for the Heavenly Teacher.
The closest disciples fled for fear of the enemies who had seized Christ, the best of them denied Him three times, and they were timid, weak women, but strong with love and compassion, they do not leave the Divine Sufferer, do not take their eyes off the cross, on which His life melts away in torment. After the death of the Savior, they - one of the entire multitude of His followers and listeners - are fearlessly present at His burial, being unable to leave His tomb. After the Sabbath has passed, they buy incense and take it to the tomb of their Teacher.
The example of the myrrh-bearing women shows how much warmth, mercy and love the Lord put into the soul of a woman, who thanks to this is capable of great deeds of love and self-sacrifice, if she lives in Christ and with Christ, as the Apostle commands, in the incorruptible beauty of the meek and silent spirit (1 Pet. 3, 4).
The Gospel read at the Liturgy of this Week tells of the burial of the Lord, His resurrection and appearance to the myrrh-bearing women. It teaches us that faith and diligence do not go unrewarded. The zeal of the myrrh-bearers for the Savior was, first of all, rewarded with the joyful news of His resurrection and the appearance of the Risen One. And “the act of the prudent Joseph, who laid the Body of the Lord in a new tomb,” says Saint Gregory of Nyssa, “let it be a rule for us so that we, having received the gift of the Body and Blood of Christ, do not accept Him in an unclean robe of conscience and do not lay Him in the tomb a heart full of dead bones and all uncleanness."
At Sunday matins, after “God is the Lord,” the hymns of Great Saturday are sung - three troparions: “When You Descended to Death,” “Blessed Joseph,” “To the Myrrh-Bearing Women,” but with the difference that the glorification of the Resurrection of the Lord is added.
FOURTH WEEK OF EASTER - ABOUT THE RELAXED
On the fourth Sunday after Easter, the Church remembers miraculous healing the paralytic, who was sick for thirty-eight years (John 5:1-14). Jesus Christ performed this miracle in the second year of His preaching during the Jewish Pentecost.
Since the healing of the paralytic was performed on the annual Jewish holiday, it is remembered in the present day. holidays. At the same time, in the healing of the paralytic we see the gospel of the power and glory of the Crucified and Risen Christ, who illuminated the Universe with the light of His Resurrection, which is God’s power and God’s wisdom for everyone (1 Cor. 1:23–24).
On the days of Pentecost, the Church presents to us these Gospel events, in which both God’s power and God’s wisdom are clearly visible (cf.: The Apostle at the Liturgy - Acts 9: 32–42). In the healing of the paralytic, the Church sees an image of the renewal of the life of all humanity through the Resurrection of Christ.
Along with the remembrance of the healing of the paralytic, some troparions of the canon also glorify the holy Archangel Michael as the leader of the Heavenly army serving the believers. Therefore, the Gospel of the Week about the paralytic preaches that the Angel of the Lord “troubled the waters” in the pool of Siloam.
On Wednesday of the 4th week, Mid-Pentecost is celebrated, that is, half the time that has passed from Easter to Pentecost. Midnight connects two great Christian celebrations - Easter and the Descent of the Holy Spirit. “On the celebration of Your, O Christ, Resurrection and the Divine coming of Your Holy Spirit, having come together, we sing the sacraments of Your miracles.” On this day, an event from the life of Christ the Savior is remembered, when, at the Midsummer of the Old Testament Feast of Tabernacles, He taught in the temple about His Divine Messenger and about the mysterious water, which means the grace-filled teaching of Christ and the grace-filled gifts of the Holy Spirit. This water is also spoken of in the troparion of Midsummer. “I have rejoiced at the holiday, and give water to my thirsty soul for piety, as you cried out to everyone, O Savior: “Let him come to me thirst and drink.” Source of our life, O Christ our God, glory to Thee.”
The entire service of the Midnight is performed according to the Triodion. On the eve of the Feast of Midsummer, Great Vespers is celebrated. But it is not “Blessed is the man” that is sung, but an ordinary kathisma: at Vespers there is an entrance with a censer and three proverbs are read. At Matins there is no polyeleos, but a great doxology is sung. Canon - according to Triodion. There is no Easter canon. Catavasia "You have thickened the sea." Instead of “Most Honorable Cherub” - at Matins and instead of “Worthy” - at the Liturgy it is sung not “Shine, shine”, but the irmos: “Virginity is alien to mothers.” On this day, after the Liturgy, the blessing of water is usually performed in remembrance of the Divine teaching about the living water of the Holy Spirit.
Midwifery is celebrated for 8 days. Delivery is on Wednesday of the 5th week. At the dedication during the Liturgy, the deserving hymn is sung: “Virginity is alien to a mother.” Between the feast of the Midsummer and its celebration, the worthy hymn is sung: “The angel cried out” and “Shine, shine.”
FIFTH WEEK OF EASTER - ABOUT THE SAMARIANIAN
The Sunday service of the fifth Week and the services of a number of the following weekdays are dedicated to the gospel conversation of the Lord Jesus Christ with the Samaritan wife, a conversation that took place in the first year of His gospel preaching on the days of Pentecost, when the Lord walked after Easter from Judea to Galilee (John 4:5-42 ). This conversation dates back to the days of Pentecost and at the same time serves as clear evidence of the Divine glory of the Risen Lord, who supplies “living water, drying up the fountains of sins” and “washing away the filthiness of the soul” (canon and Synaxarion of the 5th Sunday after Easter).
The holiday services talk about how the Lord Jesus Christ, with His gracious word, lively wise conversation, and His Face, completely regenerated the souls of people, raised up the spiritually fallen, returning them to the straight line, true path who have strayed from this path. Thus, the Samaritan woman, “having known the mercy of the Lord,” from whom She asked for the water of life, and, “drinking abundantly of the water of the Wisdom of God,” inherited the Kingdom of Heaven and appeared “eternally blessed.” The service of the Samaritan is sung on four days: Sunday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. On Monday and Tuesday there is a service for the celebration of the Midsummer, on Wednesday there is a celebration of the Midsummer.
THE SIXTH WEEK OF EASTER - ABOUT THE BLIND
This Week we remember how Jesus Christ, in the third year of His Gospel preaching on the Feast of Tabernacles and on the Feast of the Renewal of the Temple in Jerusalem (John 7:2; 10:22), gave sight to a man born blind (John 9:1-41). This miracle, like the events recalled above in the previous Weeks, also reveals the Divine power and glory of the Risen Lord, Who is “the Giver of Light, from the Light this Light.” The chants of the service also tell about another miracle - about the spiritual insight of the blind man, about the gradual increase in his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The hymns of the Sunday service for the blind man, composed by the inspired fathers, are imbued with deep thoughts and holy feelings. Here we find deep compassion for the unfortunate man, for whom the world of God with all its wondrous beauty was closed from birth, and reverent reverence for the unspeakable omnipotence of the Lord, Who opened the eyes of the blind. One can hear in them grief over the spiritual blindness of the Pharisees, who, even after such a great undoubted miracle, did not see their spiritual eyes and continued in blind malice to say about Christ: “This Man is not from God.”
The service leads the Christian to the realization that every person is subject to spiritual blindness and has darkened the eyes of his soul with sin. “Blinded by my spiritual eyes, I come to You, Christ, as if blind from birth, I call You with repentance: You are the Most Bright Light of those who are in darkness.”
The commemoration of the miracle over the man born blind is performed by the Church on the sixth Sunday after Easter, on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of the sixth week after Easter.
The celebration of the Easter holiday takes place on Wednesday of the 6th week of Easter. At the same time, the pre-celebration of the Ascension of the Lord begins, which lasts only one day.
The service for the celebration of the Easter holiday is performed similarly to the services for the celebration of the twelve feasts. Easter hymns are sung for the last time. The beginning of Vespers, Matins and Liturgy is the same as on Bright Week: the priest with the Cross, Easter tricandlestick and censer makes the initial exclamation and then sings the verses: “May God rise again” and so on. But dismissal with the Cross occurs only after the Liturgy (after the Liturgy, the full, paschal dismissal is pronounced: “Christ, risen from the dead, trampling death by death” with the remembrance of the holy day). At the celebration of Easter, the pre-festive hymns of the Ascension of the Lord are also sung. Before the services there is a solemn ringing, reminiscent of Easter days.
At Matins after the Kathisma, the Sunday hymn that is constant for all days of Holy Pascha is sung: “Having seen the Resurrection of Christ.” There are three canons: Easter, the Week of the Blind and the forefeast of the Ascension of the Lord. On the 9th song, “The Most Honest Cherub” we do not sing, but the irmos of the 9th song of the Easter canon is sung with choruses, as on Easter, and after the canon - the Easter exapostilary: “Having fallen asleep in the flesh” (twice), and the second exapostilary is from the service of the Week about the blind man.
The hours are read as usual (thripsalm), not Easter.
After the Liturgy, the clergy lift the Shroud from the Throne and place it in the ark built for it (the so-called “tomb”). The charter does not require a special order for the transfer of the Shroud.
THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD
Troparion, tone 4.
Thou art exalted in glory, Christ our God, who brought joy to the disciple, by the promise of the Holy Spirit, by the former blessing communicated to them, for Thou art the Son of God, the deliverer of the world.
Kontakion, tone 6
Having fulfilled your concern for us, and having united us on earth with the heavenly, you ascended in glory, Christ our God, in no way departing, but remaining persistent, and crying out to those who love You: I am with you and no one is against you.
Greatness
We magnify Thee, / Life-giving Christ, and honor the Hedgehog in heaven, with Thy Most Pure flesh, the Divine Ascension.
The establishment of the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord undoubtedly dates back to ancient times. Thus, the Apostolic Constitutions already prescribe that it should be performed on the fortieth day after Easter (Book 5, Chapter 18). The testimonies of St. John Chrysostom and Blessed Augustine are especially important in this regard. John Chrysostom calls this holiday the most important and great and attributes it to the holidays that, like Easter and Pentecost, were established by the apostles. Blessed Augustine, mentioning the widespread celebration of the holiday according to tradition, directly attributes to it an apostolic institution. The canons for the Ascension were written by Saints John of Damascus and Joseph the Songwriter. Kontakion and Ikos belong to Roman the Sweet Singer.
The Feast of the Ascension of the Lord is celebrated on the fortieth day after the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ - on the day on which the Lord ascended into heaven (Acts 1, 1-12; Mark 16, 9-20; Luke 24, 36-53). This day always falls on Thursday of the 6th week after Easter. Christ, having risen by the power of the Divine, through the Ascension, honored our deified and spiritualized human nature with the greatest honor and glory - “mercifully exalted” it. Thus, “our fallen nature is honored by sitting with the Father.”
Through the Ascension, fallen human nature is raised by Christ, the Head of our salvation, from earth, corruption and death to endless life - to heaven. “The nature of Adam, which had descended to the lowest lands of the earth, having renewed in Yourself, O God, Thou hast today exalted it above every principle and power; for having loved, Thou hast placed it with Thyself; as having had mercy, Thou hast united it in Thyself; for having united, Thou hast suffered with Him “For having suffered without passion, you have glorified.”
According to the gospel narrative and liturgical hymns, the Lord ascended into heaven and “sat at the right hand of God the Father.” The apostles saw the ascension of the Lord. The Savior was lifted up into the clouds and then hidden from their eyes by the clouds. Thus, the apostles were given to understand that after His Ascension Christ would no longer be visible on earth in His bodily form, as was the case before and after His resurrection, because with the Ascension He became even closer in His humanity, in His body and soul. to the Father. The Lord Jesus Christ assumed that place according to humanity and received the glory that He always had according to Divinity, that is, a place equal to God the Father in dignity and power, which is expressed by the words: “sat at the right hand of the Father.”
After His ascension into heaven, Christ the Savior did not leave, did not leave the earth with His presence. He ascended from us, He is no longer visible among those who believe in Him with bodily eyes, but, according to the words of the kontakion of the holiday, He remains “as if separated” from us. He promises those who believe in Him and love Him: “I am with you, and no one is against you.” With His Ascension, the Lord became even closer to humanity, to those who believe in Him, for He is now on earth not only as His Divinity, but also as the Glorified Body in the great sacrament of the Eucharist, in which all believers partake of His Body and Blood.
The Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ in glory with the flesh evokes reverent astonishment throughout the spiritual, angelic world: “O Lord of the angels, O Savior, having seen human nature ascending with Thee, we are astonished to continually sing Thee.” The glorious Ascension of the Savior into heaven in the flesh was the continuation and completion of His glorification through humanity (and the glorification of humanity itself), which began in the Resurrection, and the basis of which was the Cross of Christ. Here the mystery of the economy of our salvation, which Christ performed while remaining in the flesh on earth, is completed. “Having completed the viewing of the sacrament,” the Lord ascends to heaven, “having fulfilled<...>Fatherly favor." And all this "great and wonderful" was done by the Lord "for the salvation of our souls." "Thou art born as thou didst will; You appeared as You yourself willed; You suffered in the flesh, our God; You rose from the dead, trampling death; You ascended in glory, fulfilling all things, and you sent us the Divine Spirit to sing and glorify Your Divinity."
The Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ into heaven, being the glorification of Himself according to humanity, is at the same time the opening for all believers of a free path to heaven, just as His death and Resurrection is a victory over sin and death for all humanity. Christ ascended into heaven as the Firstborn from the dead, representing with Himself the firstfruits of the redeemed and restored by Him. human nature. He “ascended in glory” to His Father of Light, “having pacified all things,” delivering humanity from condemnation, destroying the mediastinum of hostility with His cross and passion. “The earth mysteriously rejoices, and heavenly joy is fulfilled at the ascension of Christ, who of old was separated by grace and destroyed the barrier of Eve.”
Everything is now fulfilled through Christ the Father's good will and "peace", and everything is brought to unity - both heavenly and earthly - by the Author of salvation, the Lord and Savior. And now we are called “to heavenly life” by the power of the intercession of “exhausted even to the sight of a slave” of Christ the Lord, who exalted and glorified us. In fact, all this has not yet been completely accomplished, but it will undoubtedly happen. Where the Head is, there must also be members of the one Body of Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 12:27). The head is in heaven, in glory, where at the end of time all who believe in Him will be with Him. And all this will happen when the world is finally “completed” through the revelation of good and evil in it and Christ appears again on earth. According to the Angels during the ascension, the Judge of the living and the dead “will come again in the same way you see Him going to heaven,” “to judge the whole world.” Therefore, in the hope of the general resurrection, Christians expect “the consummation of the end” (the end of everything), according to the Lord’s promise: “I am going to prepare a place for you.”
FEATURES OF THE SERVICE OF THE FEAST OF THE ASSUMPTION OF THE LORD
The Feast of the Ascension of the Lord is one of the moving feasts of the Lord. It lasts ten days, has one day of forefeast, coinciding with the celebration of Easter, and eight days of afterfeast. The celebration of the holiday occurs on the Friday following the holiday, the 7th week of Easter.
The entire service on the day of the holiday is performed according to the Colored Triodion with the features of the Lord's Twelfth Feast.
At Great Vespers there is no kathisma (i.e. “Blessed is the man” is not sung). At the litia, at “God is the Lord” and at the end of Matins, the troparion of the holiday is sung (chapter 4): “Thou art exalted in glory, O Christ our God, who brought joy to the disciple, by the promise of the Holy Spirit, by the former blessing communicated to them, for Thou art the Son of God, Savior of the world."
At Matins: polyeleos of the holiday; magnification: “We magnify You, Life-Giving Christ, and honor the Divine Ascension into heaven with Your Most Pure flesh”; sedate - first antiphon of 4 voices.
Some features in the worship of the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord are due to the fact that this holiday has a close connection with the holidays of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Descent of the Holy Spirit. The main features of the holiday service are as follows:
After the Gospel at Matins the following is sung: “Having seen the Resurrection of Christ” (once).
The confusion of the canon of the Ascension of the Lord is the irmos of the canon for the Feast of the Descent of the Holy Spirit (“Divine Veil”).
Other features of the service of the Ascension of the Lord are the same as those of the other twelve holidays.
There are two canons: the first - of St. John of Damascus - “God the Savior”; the second canon is of St. Joseph the Songwriter. I don’t sing “The Most Honest Cherub,” but the choruses of the Ascension are sung. First chorus (the deacon sings): “Glorify, my soul, Christ the Giver of Life, who ascended from earth to heaven.” The choir sings the irmos: “More than mind and words, the Mother of God, who in the yearless summer ineffably gave birth to you, we magnify you with one and the same wisdom.” Then - the rest of the choruses and the troparion. At the end of the 9th song, the confusion is sung: “Rejoice, O Queen, mother-virgin glory.”
On all weekdays of the after-feast, up to and including the celebration of the holiday, the katavasiya - the Irmos of the Ascension: "To God the Savior" is sung at the morning canon.
At the Liturgy: antiphons of the holiday; entrance (also participatory) verse: “God arose with a shout, the Lord with a sound of a trumpet.” After the entrance: troparion and kontakion. Zadostoynik (before giving) - irmos: “You are more than the mind and word of the Mother of God” with a refrain. Instead of “We have seen the true light,” the troparion of the Ascension of the Lord is sung. Dismissal of the holiday: “Who was ascended from us into heaven in glory and is seated at the right hand of God the Father, Christ our true God.”
If the day of the Ascension of the Lord falls on a temple holiday or the day of remembrance of a great saint, then the service is performed as indicated in the Typikon (May 8) - to the holy Apostle John the Theologian and the Ascension (see Temple Chapter 51).
On the day of the holiday there is Great Vespers. Entrance with censer. The Great Prokeimenon: “Our God, in heaven and on earth, do whatever He pleases.”
In the after-feast before the Ascension of the Lord, at the Liturgy after the small entrance, “Come, let us worship” is sung with a festive chorus at the end: “Save us, Son of God, ascended in glory, singing Ti: Alleluia.”
On all days from the Ascension of the Lord to the day of Pentecost, at the beginning of the hours and other services, “The King of Heaven” is not read, but the services begin with the Trisagion. At the end of the Liturgy from the Ascension of the Lord to Pentecost, instead of “We have seen the true light”, the troparion of the holiday or day is sung (“Thou art ascended in glory, O Christ our God” - before Trinity Saturday, “In the depth of wisdom” - on Trinity Saturday).
SEVENTH WEEK (SEVENTH SUNDAY) OF EASTER -
OF THE HOLY FATHERS OF THE FIRST Ecumenical Council
This Week commemorates the three hundred and eighteen Fathers of the first Ecumenical Council. This Council took place in Nicaea on the days of Pentecost 325, and served the glory of the Risen Lord, mainly proclaimed by the Church on the days of Pentecost. The Council, as stated in the Synaxarion, preached the Son of God “of the same essence and consummation with the Father” and confessed that He is truly the Son of God and a perfect Man. Our Lord Jesus Christ completed the entire economy of our salvation, ascended and sat at the right hand of God the Father. The Church, wanting to show that the Son of God was incarnate and became a true and perfect Man, “ascended and sat at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven,” established a real holiday.
The Council of Nicea also decided to celebrate the bright holiday of Easter for all Christians on no other day of the Week than the first, or Sunday. Rule 20 of the Council decides not to kneel in churches during the entire Pentecost period, as well as on Sundays, in order to depict the resurrection of Christ by the very position of the body.
The Feast of the God-Bearing Fathers is celebrated on one day and has no after-feast. At the morning canon the chaos is the same as at the Ascension - “Divine veil”.
TRINITY PARENTS SATURDAY
Before the Feast of Pentecost, on Saturday, the remembrance of the dead is always performed. At this service, all Orthodox Christians, our fathers and brothers, “dead from time immemorial” are remembered.
The observance of the Saturday before Pentecost is the same as that of the Meat Saturday (see above). Funeral chants (stichera, troparia and canon) are the same as on Meat Saturday. The differences in services are as follows:
Where the hymns of the Octoechos are placed, in the service of Trinity Saturday they are always taken in the 6th voice, because on the previous Sunday the 6th tone is always sung, and therefore they are placed in a row in the Colored Triodion, while on the Meat Saturday the hymns of the Octoechos are taken in the voice that is sung on that week.
If on the Saturday of Pentecost a saint happens to have polyeleos (Typikon, follow-up on May 25), then the service to the saint is postponed to Thursday of the 7th week. If a temple saint happens, the Saturday service is moved to Thursday (Temple chapter 54)
PENTECOST
Troparion, tone 8
Blessed art thou, O Christ our God, Who art wise as fishers of things, having sent down unto them the Holy Spirit, and with them caught the universe, Lover of mankind, glory to Thee.
Kontakion, tone 8
When the tongues of fire descended, dividing the tongues of the Most High, and when the fiery tongues were distributed, we all called into unity, and accordingly we glorified the All-Holy Spirit.
Greatness
We magnify You, Life-Giving Christ, and honor Your All-Holy Spirit, Whom You sent from the Father as Your Divine disciple.
ORIGIN, MORAL AND DOGMATIC MEANING AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE HOLIDAY OF PENTECOST
The holiday commemorating the great event of the descent of the Holy Spirit was established by the apostles themselves, who annually celebrated the day of Pentecost and commanded all Christians to remember the day of the descent of the Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Cor. 16:8; Acts 2:1-4; 20:16). In the "Apostolic Constitutions" there is a direct commandment to celebrate Pentecost: "Ten days after the Ascension, the fiftieth day comes from the first day of the Lord (Easter): this day shall be a great holiday. For at the third hour of this day the Lord Jesus sent the gift of the Holy Spirit." The Feast of Pentecost, also called the Day of the Holy Spirit, has been solemnly celebrated by the Church since the earliest times of Christianity. The custom gave it special solemnity. ancient Church to perform the Baptism of the catechumens on this day - a reminder of this ancient custom is that at the Liturgy, instead of the Trisagion, “Be baptized into Christ” is sung. In the 4th century, Saint Basil the Great composed prayers read at Vespers to this day. In the 8th century, Saints John of Damascus and Cosmas of Maium composed hymns in honor of the holiday, which the Church still sings to this day.
This holiday received the name Pentecost because the event remembered on this day took place on the Old Testament holiday of Pentecost, and also because this holiday takes place on the fiftieth day after Easter. It is also called the day of the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles (after a memorable event) and the day of the Holy Trinity. This name is explained mainly by the fact that the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles revealed the final action of the Third Person of the Holy Trinity and the participation of the three Persons of the Divine in the economy of salvation of the human race. Therefore, on this holiday the Church especially calls upon believers to worship the Trinitarian Divinity: the Son in the Father with the Holy Spirit.
The descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles is the fulfillment of the New Eternal Covenant of God with people. In order to be worthy of those blessings that the Savior has prepared for us, we must assimilate the salvation Christ has done for us and for our sake, that is, make this salvation our own, our own in our earthly life, become Christ’s, put on Christ, “grafted in” to Christ and to life in Christ, as a branch is grafted into grapevine. This is accomplished in the unity of the Body of Christ’s Church by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter Spirit, whom the Lord Jesus Christ on the day of Pentecost, in fulfillment of His promise, sent down from the Father to His disciples and to all believers. “Thou art ascended in the glory of the Angels to the King (so that) the Comforter may be sent to us from the Father.”
On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit appeared into the world visibly and perceptibly for the human soul with the gifts of saving grace. “You ascended in glory on the Mount of Olives, O Christ God, before your disciples, and you sat down at the right hand of the Father, filling everything with the Divine, and you sent them the Holy Spirit, enlightening and confirming, and sanctifying our souls.”
The Holy Spirit, united and inseparable with the Father and the Son in every action, accomplishes the reconstruction and revitalization of man, filling us with streams of the life-giving life of Christ. The Holy Spirit is the Source of holiness and life. He enlightens and sanctifies every person living in Christ. He is Life and the “Giver of Life” - the Spirit, the Soul of the Church. The Lord, having founded His Church in the form of a society of disciples, ascended to Heaven. Until the day of Pentecost, this society of disciples was like a human body created by God from the earth, until the breath of life was breathed into it, giving it a living soul (Gen. 2:7). On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended on the community of the Lord’s disciples, who represented the beginning of the Church of Christ, and it became a single Body, animated by the Soul. From that time on, the Church of Christ received the opportunity to grow through the assimilation and joining of other souls.
The Holy Spirit who descended on the apostles had an extraordinary and gracious effect. They were completely changed and became new people. They were filled with the greatest love for God and people. It was the outpouring of the love of Christ into their hearts by the Holy Spirit. They felt within themselves the strength, boldness and highest calling to devote their entire lives to serving the Glory of God and the salvation of people. “God, the true Comforter, who spoke before through the prophets, is today revealed to the ministers and witnesses of the Word.” “Devoted to the Savior, they were filled with joy, and the once timid were given courage when the Holy Spirit descended from above.”
The Holy Spirit - "the coming Father's Divine autocratic Power", "the Almighty shining Light emanating from the unborn Light", "coming from the Father and coming through the Son" - "enlightened the disciples, revealed them initiated into the secrets of heaven", enlightened the whole world and taught to honor The Holy Trinity, “revealed to everyone the meaning of Christ’s economy.”
“The Holy Spirit is... Life and life-giving Light and Giver of Light, Self-Good and Source of goodness. By Him the Father is recognized and the Son is glorified and is known from all.” "The Holy Spirit is Light, Life and a living, mental Source. He is the Spirit of Wisdom, the Spirit of understanding, good, right, mental, sovereign, cleansing sins. He is God, performing the deification of man. He is Fire emanating from Fire. He is speaking, acting, distributing gifts. Through Him all the prophets and divine apostles were crowned with martyrs. This is an unusual phenomenon for hearing and contemplation. This is Fire, divided for the communication of gifts."
The Holy Spirit brings into being ("exists") and vivifies all creation: in Him everything lives and moves: "everything created, as God strengthens it, preserves it in the Father through the Son." The Holy Spirit gives the depth of gifts, the wealth of glory, knowledge of God and wisdom. They provide everyone with the source of divine treasures, holiness, renewal, deification, reason, peace, blessing and bliss, for He is Life, Light, Mind, Joy, Love, and Goodness. “The Holy Spirit gives everything: it sharpens (exudes) prophecies, the priests perfect, teach the unbooked wisdom, the fishermen show theologians, the church council gathers everything.” The Holy Spirit called everyone to unity in the one Body of Christ Church. By the Holy Spirit we receive the teaching of knowing the Holy Trinity and worshiping It. “Everyone bows their knees before the Comforter, the Son of the Father and akin to the Father (glorified “to the Father united”), for everyone saw in the Trinity Person a truly unapproachable, timeless, united Being, when the grace of the Spirit shone with light.” In worship of the One Trihypostatic God, we all say: Holy God, who did everything through the Son, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit; Holy Mighty One, who knew the Father and the Holy Spirit came into the world; Holy Immortal, Comforter of the Soul, proceeded from the Father and rested in the Son: Holy Trinity, glory to You.
Thus, on the day of Pentecost, the mystery of the Divine Being, the mystery of the Holy Trinity, was revealed. The dogma of the Holy Trinity is fundamental in Christianity. They explain the whole work of the redemption of sinful humanity. The entire Christian faith is based on faith in the Triune God.
The dogma of the Holy Trinity also has a deeply moral meaning for all believers. God, Trinity in Persons, is Love. Divine love was poured out into the hearts of believers by the Holy Spirit through the Son. The service for the Feast of the Holy Trinity teaches Christians to create their lives in such a way that in their mutual relationships, if possible, that grace-filled unity is realized, the image of which is shown by the Persons of the Most Holy Trinity: that they may be one, even as We are one (John 17:22). “May all the servants of the Trisvellous Being be filled with the most divine (i.e., the Divine grace of the Holy Trinity). "Draw near to us (Christ)<...>and unite those who wish to You, O Generous One, so that we may unite with You and praise Your All-Holy Spirit."
All worship - both public and private - begins with the glorification of the Most Holy Trinity. Prayers to the Holy Trinity accompany a person from birth to death. The first words with which the Church addresses a newborn: “In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” The baby is baptized "in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." In the sacrament of Confirmation, the Church places on it the “seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit.” From adolescence, the penitent is forgiven his sins in the sacrament of Confession - “in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” In the name of the Holy Trinity, the Sacrament of Marriage is celebrated. Finally, the last prayer of the priest at the burial of the deceased: “For You are the Resurrection” ends with a prayerful appeal to the Holy Trinity.
The service of Pentecost in troparia, stichera and canons, Old Testament and gospel readings reveals the essence of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and the Holy Spirit. Pentecost, according to church hymns, is a “post-festival and final” holiday. It is the completion of all the great holidays from the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Easter and the Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Feast of Pentecost is the end of the Cross, the path traversed by the God-Man Christ for the salvation of the world, the day of the creation of the Church of Christ, within the fence of which the salvation of people is accomplished by the grace of the Holy Spirit.
FEATURES OF THE SERVICE OF THE FEAST OF PENTECOST
The features of the holiday service are basically the same as on other Twelve Feasts of the Lord. At Great Vespers, at the stichera, for the first time after Holy Saturday, the stichera “To the Heavenly King” is sung. The same stichera is sung at Matins according to Psalm 50 and at praises on “and now.”
and the litia, on “God is the Lord” and after the great doxology - the troparion of the holiday. At Matins, according to the polyeleos, there is the magnification, “Having seen the Resurrection of Christ.”
There are two canons for the holiday: “Pontom (sea) is covered” (tone 7) and “Divine veil” (tone 4). To the troparions the chorus: “Holy Trinity, our God, glory to Thee” (in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra to the troparions of the canon at Pentecost the chorus: “Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee”). On song 9, instead of “The Most Honest Cherub,” the chorus is sung: “The Apostles, seeing the descent of the Comforter, were amazed at how the Holy Spirit appeared in the form of a fiery tongue.” And then the irmos of the first canon. The same chorus is for the troparions of canto 9. Katavasia: "Hail, Queen." “Holy is the Lord our God” - it is not sung.
According to the charter, Pentecost, like the Week of Vay, does not have special holiday choruses for 9 songs, because both of these holidays fall on a Sunday, on which in ancient times the hymn of the Mother of God (“More Honorable than the Cherub”) was never omitted. Subsequently, it became church practice to sing the above chorus before the Irmos.
In the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, on the 9th hymn on Pentecost, choruses are sung: the first - “Magnify, my soul, the One Divinity that exists in Three Persons” and the second - “Magnify, my soul, Who proceeds from the Father the Holy Spirit.” At the Liturgy in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, the saint is sung with the first or second chorus.
At the Liturgy there are antiphons of the holiday (only on the day of the holiday). Entrance: “Be exalted, O Lord, in Thy power; let us sing and sing of Thy strength.” Instead of the Trisagion, “Elits were baptized into Christ” is sung (only on the day of the holiday). Pentecost is one of the five great holidays, when the Trisagion at the Liturgy is replaced by a baptismal song: “As many as you are baptized into Christ.” Zadostoynik - irmos "Hail, Queen" without chorus (sung before the celebration of the holiday). At the end of the Liturgy, after the exclamation: “Save, O God, Thy people,” “We have seen the true light” is sung for the first time after Holy Saturday. Vacation is a holiday.
The peculiarities of the service of the Feast of Pentecost also include the fact that the Liturgy is supposed to be served later, and Vespers earlier than the appointed time. Therefore, Great Vespers on the day of Pentecost is usually celebrated immediately after the Liturgy.
At Vespers, special petitions are added to the regular petitions of the Great Litany. The entrance occurs with a censer and the great prokeimenon is sung: “Who is the great God.” A special feature of Vespers is that three prayers of St. Basil the Great are read with kneeling. On the day of Pentecost, the knees are bowed for the first time since Easter. These prayers are read:
a) after the entrance and singing of the great prokemene “Who is the great God”;
b) after the litany: “Rtsem all”;
c) after the prayer: “Grant, Lord.”
The priest reads prayers on his knees in the royal doors, facing the people. In the first prayer offered to God the Father, Christians confess their sins, ask for their forgiveness and grace-filled heavenly help against the machinations of the enemy. In the second prayer to God the Son, believers pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit, instructing and strengthening them in keeping the commandments of God to achieve a blessed life. In the third prayer, also addressed to the Son of God, who fulfilled all the work of salvation of the human race and descended into hell, the Church prays for the repose of the souls of our departed fathers and brothers. After each reading there is a small litany, beginning with the petition: “Intercede, save, have mercy, raise up and preserve us, O God, by Your grace.” After the prayers, the litany is said: “Let us fulfill our evening prayer,” stichera are sung on the stichera, and the usual end of vespers occurs. Dismissal at Vespers is special.
Vespers on the day of Pentecost is celebrated ahead of its time - immediately after the Liturgy - so that the people, in a spiritually focused and reverent state, without going home, attend vespers while reading the mentioned sublime prayers of St. Basil the Great.
Since ancient times, the custom has been preserved on the holiday of Pentecost to decorate churches and homes with greenery - tree branches, plants and flowers. This custom came to us from the Old Testament Church. Obviously, this is how the Zion Upper Room was removed, where the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles on the day of Pentecost. Since apostolic times, Christians have been decorating churches and houses with green branches and flowers. The decoration of temples and houses with green branches also recalls the sacred oak grove of Mamre, where the patriarch Abraham was honored to receive the Triune God in the guise of three strangers (Gen., ch. 18). At the same time, the trees and flowers of a renewing nature point us to the mysterious renewal of our souls by the power of the Holy Spirit, and also serve as a call to spiritual renewal and life in Christ our Lord and Savior (John, ch. 15).
DAY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT ("SPIRIT DAY")
On the Monday after Pentecost, a holiday is celebrated in honor of the “All-Holy, Life-Giving, and All-Powerful Spirit,<...>One of the Trinity of God, One of Honor and One in Essence and One in Glorification of the Father and the Son." The glorification of the Holy Spirit after the celebration of the Holy Trinity is performed "for the sake of honor to the All-Holy Spirit."
The hymns on this day are almost the same as on Pentecost, only at Little Compline the canon to the Holy Spirit is sung.
There is no all-night vigil on the Day of the Holy Spirit. There is no polyeleos. Great doxology. “The most honorable Cherub” is not sung (Irmos 9 of the song is sung).
At the Liturgy there are pictures and “Blessed”; entrance (as on the day of Pentecost); instead of "Elitsa" - "Holy God". Dismissal of the day of Pentecost.
The after-feast of Pentecost lasts 6 days. There are no forefeasts, but in the service of the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord there are many hymns with which the Church prepares believers to receive the Holy Spirit, which in a sense replaces the forefeast of the Holy Trinity. The service takes place on the Saturday after Trinity Day. At the Liturgy from Tuesday until the service at the entrance: “Come, let us bow and fall before Christ, save us, the Good Comforter, singing Ti: Alleluia.”
In the week after Pentecost, as well as in Bright Week, there is no fasting on Wednesday and Friday: the week is continuous - meat-eating. Exemption from fasting during this week is not due to the upcoming Fast of Peter, but in honor of the Holy Spirit, whose coming we have just celebrated for two days (Sunday and Monday) and in honor of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. This entire week is dedicated to the glorification of the Holy Spirit, just as Easter week is dedicated to the glorification of the resurrection of the Son of God. Likewise, the permission of fasting was established in honor of the entire Holy Trinity. The church writer and canonist of the early 13th century, John, Bishop of Kitra, writes in canon 26: “We allow fasting during the week after Pentecost in honor of our Savior Jesus Christ, for the Holy Spirit is equal in honor to the Father and the Son, and by Their good pleasure the sacrament of our re-creation was accomplished and shone upon us enlightenment of the knowledge of God."
ONE WEEK THROUGH PENTECOST -
ALL SAINTS
“On the Week following Pentecost,” says the Synaxarion for this Week, “the Orthodox Church celebrates the Feast of All Saints, who are the grace-filled fruit of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Fathers established it to be celebrated after the descent of the Holy Spirit with the intention of showing us those fruits what the coming of the Holy Spirit brought through the Apostles, how it sanctified our fellow humans, made them wise, raised them to the level of Angels and led them to God: crowning some for the exploits of martyrdom, others for virtuous life in the person of all the saints who were glorified in various ways, Now he brings to God, as it were, some of his first fruits.” This holiday, in addition, honors and glorifies those saints of God for whom, due to their numbers and obscurity, special celebrations are not established. The magnification on the Sunday of All Saints, which is sung only at the vigil in the Church of All Saints, tells us about this: “We magnify you, apostles, martyrs, prophets and all saints, and we honor your holy memory, for you pray for us to Christ our God.”
When establishing a holiday in honor of All Saints, the Church also had future saints in mind, in order to honor together all the saints - revealed and not revealed, all former and future ones. And finally, the saints are all remembered on one day, although many of them are glorified especially, in order to show that they all labored by the power of one Lord Jesus Christ, they all constitute one Church, animated by the Holy Spirit, and live in one Heavenly world.
In the hymns of the Sunday of All Saints, the Church, counting the various ranks (faces) of saints, thereby reminds us of imitation of their many different deeds and virtues.
The Week (Sunday) of All Saints ends the Colored Triodion and the daily singing of the Octoechos begins. The liturgical book Octoechos is used from the Monday after All Saints Sunday until the fifth Sunday of Great Lent inclusive. During the period of singing the Lenten Triodion - from the Week of the Raw Fat and throughout the entire Lent - the Octoechos is used only on Sundays.
Peter's Fast begins on the Monday after All Saints Sunday.
SECOND WEEK AFTER PENTECOST -
MEMORY OF ALL SAINTS,
IN THE LAND OF THE RUSSIAN SHINED
At the All-Russian Local Council" of 1917–1918, the ancient general celebration of the memory of all Russian saints on the first Sunday of Peter's Lent (on the second Sunday after Pentecost) was restored. The purpose of the holiday is to unite on one specific day all the faithful children of the Russian Orthodox Church in glorifying the saints of God - revealed and not revealed, shining on the Russian land.
All believers are called by the Church, worshiping their great feat, to imitate the saints of the Russian Land, to learn from them, to follow them. The service to the Russian saints is full of deep edifying thoughts. “One after another, wonderful images of Russian saints pass by, amazing in spiritual beauty, great in all virtues. The Russian saints, who once shone, appeared as never-ending luminaries of our land, never dimming, always shining with an even light and appearing for us - their descendants - faithful assistants, given to us by Christ, showing us the path of salvation" (see the luminaries of canto 9).
The service is performed according to a special book: “Service to all the saints who have shone in the lands of Russia,” published under Patriarch Tikhon in 1918 and by the Moscow Patriarchate in 1946 (see “Liturgical instructions for 1950.” Part 2).
PETROV POST
A week after Pentecost - on the Monday after All Saints' Sunday - the Apostolic Fast begins, also called Peter's Fast, which was established before the feast of the holy supreme apostles Peter and Paul (June 29/July 12). This fast was established by the Church to imitate the example of the apostles, who, after receiving the gifts of the Holy Spirit, prepared through fasting and prayer for the worldwide preaching of the Gospel (Acts 13:2-3), and also in order to make us worthy of the gifts of the Holy Spirit communicated to us through the feat of fasting and to establish us in these gifts of grace.
Fasting the Week after Pentecost is mentioned in the Apostolic Constitutions. The duration of fasting varies. Depending on when Easter occurs, this fast can be longer or shorter. At its longest duration, this fast is six weeks; at its shortest, it is a week with one day (the beginning of Peter's fast occurs between May 18 and June 21, Art.).
According to the definition of the All-Russian Local Council of 1917–1918. on the Petrov, Dormition and Nativity fasts, on days not marked in the charter by any holiday (before the service “on 6” inclusive), “Alleluia” is sung with bows and the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian, as indicated in Chapter 9 of the Typikon in sequence before the 15th November.
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On Easter Week, church services are held daily according to the Easter rite. Morning and evening prayers are replaced by the singing of the Easter hours.
Since apostolic times, the holiday of Christian Easter lasts seven days, that is, the entire week, which is called Bright Easter Week. The days of Bright Week have special names: Bright Monday, Bright Tuesday, etc., and the last day is Bright Saturday.
After each Divine Liturgy, a festive procession of the cross is held, symbolizing the procession of the myrrh-bearing women to the tomb of Christ. At the Procession of the Cross, worshipers walk with lit candles.
The Royal Doors (the central gates of the altar) remain open during the Week as a sign that on these days the invisible, spiritual, Heavenly world seems to be opening up before the believers. The open Royal Doors are an image of the Holy Sepulcher, from which an Angel rolled away the stone. They do not close throughout Bright Week until the ninth hour of Saturday. On Saturday afternoon, before the closing of the Royal Doors, a large candlestick
, on which believers light candles with prayer.
On Bright Week, one-day fasts (Wednesday and Friday) are canceled.
Throughout the entire Week, all bells are rung every day. According to tradition, any lay person, with the blessing of the abbot, can climb the bell tower and ring the bells. In our cathedral, the largest bell is located at the entrance to the cathedral territory, and you are invited to ring it.
Starting from the day of Holy Easter, believers greet each other with words of Easter joy: “Christ is risen! “Truly he is risen!”
On Tuesday of Bright Week a special celebration is held in honor of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God.
On Friday of Bright Week, the memory of the icon of the Mother of God “Life-Giving Spring” is celebrated (according to tradition, on this day after the Divine Liturgy, the consecration of water is carried out, and if local circumstances allow, a religious procession to reservoirs or water sources).
Before the Feast of the Holy Trinity (on the fiftieth day after Easter), prostrations are not performed. There are no weddings or funeral prayers on Bright Week. Funeral services for the dead are performed, but more than half of them consist of Easter hymns.
Throughout Bright Week, there is a special bread called artos near the open Royal Doors. This custom has been established since apostolic times. It is known that after His resurrection the Lord repeatedly appeared to His disciples. At the same time, He either ate the food Himself or blessed the meal. In anticipation of these blessed visits, and later in memory of them, the holy apostles left the middle place at the table unoccupied and placed part of the bread in front of this place, as if the Lord Himself was invisibly present here. In continuation of this tradition, the Fathers of the Church established the placing of bread (artos) in the temple on the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord.
On Saturday of Bright Week after the Divine Liturgy, the artos is solemnly blessed and a special prayer is read for the fragmentation of the artos. And then pieces of the sacred bread are distributed to the believers. Particles of artos received in the temple are reverently kept by believers as a spiritual cure for illnesses and infirmities. Artos is used in special cases, for example, in illness, and always with the words “Christ is risen!”
