Paschal Schedule and Reflection on Our Spiritual Journey Through Passion Week
Great Thursday, April 17
- 9:00 AM: Matins, Vespers with Liturgy
- 6:30 PM: Matins (12 Passion Gospels)
Great Friday, April 18
- 2:30 PM: Vespers
- 5:00 PM: Matins (Burial of the Shroud)
Great Saturday and The Bright Resurrection of Christ (Pascha), April 19-20
- 9:00 AM: Matins, Vespers with Liturgy
- 11:30 PM: Midnight Office, Paschal Matins, Divine Liturgy
- Approximately 1:30 AM on Sunday: Baskets will be blessed at the end of the Paschal Matins prior to Divine Liturgy.
- Approximately 3:00 AM on Sunday: Breaking of the Fast at the Parish Hall
Resurrection Sunday, April 20
- 2:30 PM: Vespers, followed by
- A potluck trapeza in the parish hall to which each guest is expected to contribute a dish. The sisterhood will set up, make coffee/tea and clean up afterwards.
Bright Monday, April 21
- 10:00 AM: Hours, Divine Liturgy, Cross Procession, followed by
- A potluck trapeza in the parish hall to which each guest is expected to contribute a dish.
During Passion Week, we experience a journey through various lands before reaching the Holy Land. Finally, on Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week, we enter Jerusalem with Our Lord. During the Divine Services of Passion Week, we experience the Gospel account of our Lord’s passion, death, and Resurrection at the Midnight Paschal Matins.
During Great Thursday and Great Friday Matins, we commemorate the events of the final days of Christ’s Passion. While reading the Twelve Passion Gospel before the Crucified Christ, the faithful held candles, reliving the sufferings of our Lord and burning with love for Him. Following the ancient custom of Russian Orthodox Christians, many of our parishioners took home a flame to light a lamp before their icon corner as a sign of reverence.
The Hours of Great Friday repeats the Gospels of Christ’s passion with readings from Old Testament prophecies concerning our redemption and from letters of Saint Paul relative to personal salvation through the sufferings of Christ. The psalms used are also prophetic. Vespers of Good Friday was celebrated mid-afternoon to commemorate Christ’s burial. Before the service, the “tomb” was erected in the middle of our church and was decorated with flowers. A special icon painted on the symbolic Shroud (in Slavonic, plaschanitsa) depicting the reposed Saviour was placed on the altar table. Later, when the Troparion of the day was chanted, Fr Oleg and acolytes circled the altar table with the Shroud carried above his head, placing it on the tomb for veneration by the gathered faithful.
On Great Saturday morning, a Vespers service is held before the Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great. Originally, this Liturgy served as the Paschal baptismal liturgy of Christians. Today, it remains an annual experience for every Christian to die and rise with the Lord. Although Christ is dead, he is alive. He lies in the tomb, yet he is already “trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.” There is nothing left to do at this point but live through the evening of the Blessed Sabbath, during which Christ sleeps, waiting for the midnight hour.
Paschal Matins and Divine Liturgy. On Saturday, just before midnight, our priest will go to the tomb and remove the Shroud. He will then carry it through the Royal Doors and place it on the altar table, which will remain for forty days until the day of Ascension. At midnight, the Paschal procession will begin. The faithful will leave the church singing: “The angels in heaven, O Christ our Savior, sing of Thy Resurrection. Make us on earth also worthy to hymn Thee with a pure heart.” The procession will circle the church and return to the closed doors at the front of the church. This procession symbolizes the original baptismal procession from the darkness and death of this world to the light and life of the Kingdom of God. Before the church’s closed doors, Christ’s Resurrection will be announced. The Paschal Troparion will be sung for the first time: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.” The faithful will then re-enter the church and continue the service of Paschal Matins, which is entirely sung.
After the Paschal Matins, the Hours will also be sung, and before the Divine Liturgy, our priest will proclaim the famous Paschal Sermon of Saint John Chrysostom. It is an invitation to all the faithful to forget their sins and to fully participate in the feast of the Resurrection of Christ.
Breaking of the Fast. After the Divine Liturgy, everyone is invited to Elizabeth L. Skok Memorial parish hall to joyously break the fast together. Parishioners are expected to bring their own foods for this occasion, including from their blessed baskets.
On Sunday and Monday, the Elizabeth L. Skok Memorial parish hall will host potluck trapezas, to which each guest is expected to contribute a dish.
Baskets will be blessed at approximately 1:30 AM on April 20 (Sunday) at the end of the Paschal Matins prior to Divine Liturgy.
10 years ago during Great Lent an assembled choir under the direction of retired parish Music Director, Aleksander Ignatow, gave a Lenten and Paschal concert at St. Xenia – The Passage to Easter. During these last days of Passion Week it is helpful for parishioners to listen to the live recording available on YouTube at this link: The Passage to Easter – Путь к Пасхе, St. Xenia Cathedral, Ottawa.
The painting shown at the beginning of this post was painted by Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia, who spent her last years in Canada. She was well known among the Russian émigré community of Toronto and Ontario as a shining example of Orthodox humility and grace.
On behalf of Fr. Oleg Mironov and the St Xenia Parish Council
