Holy Week and Pascha

Holy Week: After weeks of preparation and patience, it is finally here. I can't say it's ever really felt like Lent to me since I haven't been surrounded by people "celebrating" Lent and haven't been in church as much as I should. Not having a car this year has been really tough but the situation is of my own making so it would be wrong to complain too much; and I didn't take advantage of the free time I've had during this Lent to do some services at home.

One of my favorite services is the Bridegroom Matins service, done on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights. The hymn in the following video is my favorite hymn that we sing during this service. The words are in Russian but we sing it in English.

The lyrics in English are:

‎"Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight, and blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching; and again unworthy is he whom He shall find heedless. Beware therefore O my soul do not be weighed down with sleep, lest you be given over to death and be shut out of the kingdom; but rouse yourself crying 'Holy, Holy, Holy art Thou O our God! Through the prayers of the Theotokos have mercy on us!'"

There are several different ways this song can be sung but the above version is my favorite. I miss not being able to go to my home church in Michigan for Bridegroom Matins because our choir there is awesome and they sing this hymn so beautifully.

Holy Week is packed with services, especially towards the end of the week. On Holy Wednesday, my church here has Presanctified Liturgy, Holy Unction and the Service of the Last Supper. On Holy Thursday, there's the Liturgy of St. Basil; and the Holy Passion Service, in which all of the Gospels detailing the Passion of Christ are read. By the time Holy Friday comes around I wish I could live at church for the rest of the weekend. My Michigan church has an all-night Vigil after the Friday evening service. The young adults usually stick around to read the entire Psalter during the night until the liturgy on Holy Saturday starts. I've been able to do this three out of the five Pascha weekends I've been Orthodox. My Illinois church isn't able to hold an all-night Vigil. On Holy Saturday, those who have decided to join the church are chrismated. The Resurrection Service begins around 11:00 in the evening on Saturday. This is the big "Easter" service, though we call it Pascha, which is Greek for "Passover." It lasts about three hours and is followed by a huge dinner/party at the church. The final service on Pascha weekend is Agape Vespers. It's a short service (by Orthodox standards) and one of my other favorite services.

There are many things I could write about Holy Week and Pascha; however, this gives everybody a good idea as to how busy I will be over the next few days. I won't be posting again until next week and it will most likely be about Pascha and this weekend. My four-year anniversary of being Orthodox is coming up at the end of this month and so I'll dedicate a post about my conversion around that time. I wish all of my Orthodox friends a blessed Holy Week and an awesome Pascha. I wish all of my other friends a happy, post-Easter week.

Until next time,

~Staci~