Good and Holy Friday

Some clips from services for Good and Holy Friday from Holy Cross Orthodox Church in High Point, North Carolina:

Matins of Holy Friday

Christ is Laid in the Tomb:

Lamentations/Procession

“Do Not Lament Me, O Mother” from the Ninth Ode of the Paschal Nocturnes (celebrated Saturday evening  just before Midnight)  at St. Maximus the Confessor Orthodox Church in Denton, Texas:

And the Lord Added to the Church Those Being Saved

6 Baptisms and 10 Chrismations at St. Ignatius of Antioch Orthodox Mission in Mesa, Arizona:

Lazarus Saturday & Palm Sunday Chants

Lazarus Saturday Stichera, from Presanctified Liturgy for Lazarus Saturday, Friday, April 15, 2011 at St. Maximus the Confessor Orthodox Church, Denton, Texas:

Let My Prayer Arise in Thy Sight As Incense:

O Gladsome Light:

Palm Sunday Troparion from Elevation of the Holy Cross Orthodox Church in Sacramento, California:

Procession of Palms:

Part of Monday’s Bridegroom Service from Holy Apostles Orthodox Church in Beltsville, Maryland:

Behold the Bridegroom cometh at midnight, and blessed is that servant whom He shall find watching; but unworthy is he whom He shall find heedless. Beware, therefore, O my soul, lest thou be weighed down with sleep; lest thou be given up to death, and be shut out from the kingdom. But rouse thyself and cry: Holy, Holy, Holy art Thou, O God: through the Theotokos, have mercy on us.

“Eat the Living Bread, Drink With Faith the Blood Shed From My Divine Side At My Death”

From Compline for Wednesday of Holy Week:

Eating, O Master, with your disciples, you have mystically revealed your holy end, whereby we who honor your sacred Passion are delivered from corruption….

He who wrote the tables of the Law on Sinai, himself fulfilled the ordinance of the Law. He ate the old Passover which was but a shadow, and he became the new Passover, a mystical and living Sacrifice.

Revealing in a mystery the wisdom hidden from all ages, O Christ our Savior, You have disclosed it at the Supper to all your apostles: and, inspired of God, they delivered it to the Churches.

“One of you shall betray me by guile this night and sell me to the Hebrews,” Christ cried aloud to his friends, filling them with dismay; and then they turned one to another in doubt.

He who is rich made himself lowly for our sakes: rising from the Supper, he took a towel and girded himself, and bowing down he washed the feet of the disciples and the traitor.

Who would not be struck with wonder at the height of your knowledge, which no mind can understand nor tongue describe? You, the Creator of all, have drawn near to your creatures of clay, and washed their feet and dried them with a towel.

The disciple whom the Lord loved, lying on his breast, said to him: “Who is he that shall betray you?” And Christ answered, “It is he who dips his hand now in the dish.”

The disciple received the sop, yet was parted from the Bread; scheming how to sell him, he ran to the Jews and said to the transgressors: “What will you give me if I deliver him to you?”…

Sitting at supper with your companions, O Lord who loves mankind, you have revealed to them the great mystery of your incarnation, saying, “Eat the living Bread, drink with faith the Blood shed from my divine side at my death.”

The upper room wherein Christ kept the Passover was revealed as a heavenly tabernacle; the supper without shedding of blood is our reasonable worship; the table on which the Mysteries were celebrated there is our spiritual altar.

Christ is our great and honored Passover, eaten as bread and slain as a Lamb. He has been offered as a sacrifice for us, and mystically we all receive with reverence his Body and his Blood.

Having blessed the bread, O heavenly Bread, you have offered thanks to your Father, and taking the cup you have given it to your disciples, saying, “Take, eat, this is my Body and the Blood of Life incorruptible.”

Christ the true Vine spoke to his branches, the apostles saying: “Amen. I will not drink henceforth from the vine until I drink it new with you my heirs in the glory of my Father.”

For thirty pieces of silver do you sell him who is above all price; and do you not think, wicked Judas, of the mystery of the Supper and the holy washing of the feet? O how have you fallen utterly from the light, embracing with love the hangman’s noose!

The hands in which you have taken the Bread of incorruption, you have stretched out to take the money; and with the mouth in which you have received the Body and Blood of Christ, you have given a kiss deceitfully. But woe to you, as Christ has said.

Christ, the divine and heavenly Bread, gives food to all the world. Come, then, O lovers of Christ, and in our mouths of clay but with pure hearts let us receive in faith the Passover that is sacrificed and offered in our midst.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

Let us glorify the Father, let us exalt the Son, and with faith let us worship the divine Spirit, undivided Trinity and Unity in Essence. Let us adore Light and Lights, Life and Lives, giving life and light to the ends of the earth.

Both now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

From: The Lenten Triodion,  pp. 544-546, using modernized English.

Hymn of Kassiani in English

Sung on Holy Tuesday Evening (Wednesday Matins) of Holy Week:

Words and musical arrangement here.

Icon As Scripture

Fascinating lecture entitled “Icon as Scripture” by Archbishop Lazar Puhalo given at Christ the Savior Orthodox Church in Stafford, Virginia:

While visiting Virginia, he gave a lecture to students and faculty at the University of Mary Washington entitled “Models of Reality as Sources of Conflict”:

Laying the Foundation Stone for St Nicholas Cathedral in Mwanza, Tanzania

Laying of the foundation stone for St. Nicholas Cathedral in Mwanza, Tanzania (March 31, 2011). Presiding over the ceremony were His Eminence Metropolitan Jeronymos of Mwanza of the Orthodox Church in Tanzania and His Grace Bishop Savas of Troas. The first part is primarily in Greek and a local language, but the sermon towards the end is in English.