Almost to the end.....

Today is the last day of Lent.  Does that mean I don't have to fast anymore?  No, we still fast for one more week but I hardly notice the fast during this final week because it is Holy Week.  During Holy Week we follow Christ through every step from Bethany to His Passion on the Cross and finally His Resurrection, Pascha (Easter.)  The best is to be able to attend every service or at least any you can make it to because the more services you attend the more excited you are at the end, at Pascha.

Tomorrow is the first day of Holy Week, it is Lazarus Saturday.  So, tonight and tomorrow morning we will have services where we recall Christ coming to the town of Bethany where His friends Lazarus, Mary, and Martha lived.  We remember how he came to late for the death of His friend, Lazarus and the how tears of Lazarus' family are turned to joy when Christ raises him from the dead.

Next on Sunday it is on to Jerusalem, where we experience Christ making His triumphal entry into the city riding on a donkey.  Can it be that just a week later that some of these same people who are worshiping Christ will be cheering His Crucifixion?  When I say that we experience this service, I mean it fully.  In most Orthodox Churches, everybody in the Church will be holding palms just as the people did when Christ entered Jerusalem.  In the Russian Church people will usually be holding pussy willows either instead of the palms or with the palms.  Pussy Willows?!?  Yes, because in old Russia they were unable to have access to palms which are grown in a warmer climate so they held pussy willows instead.  We carry on this tradition.

We will continue following Christ through the week as we attend services for Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday night.  Then on Wednesday night and Thursday morning we come to church again.  This time we have a Liturgy on Thursday morning where everybody should try to take communion.  Why on Holy Thursday?  This is the day we remember the very first communion, the Lord's Supper.  We will recall how Christ taught us to partake of His Body and Blood in remembrance of Him.

Holy Thursday night is another wonderful service.  This service is called the 12 Passion Gospels because throughout the service the priest reads 12 segments of the Gospels that are about Christ's Passion.  During this service there is a large wooden Cross with an Icon of Christ on it standing in the middle of the Church.  It is hard to forget the meaning of this week when we are hearing about and looking at Christ hanging on the Cross.

We now come to Holy Friday.  This day is highly honored.  People are encouraged to strictly fast by not eating at all or at least only one small lenten meal in the late afternoon.  There really should be no goofy off and no laughing on this day for we should remember what Christ did for us on this day.  Christ hung on the Cross for us so we should be willing to give up anything for Him but yet our human passion makes this so difficult.

On Holy Friday, we have several services where we actually have a funeral service in a way.  We remember Christ's death on the Cross, His taking down from the Cross by St. Joseph of Arimathea and His burial.  This is what we remember from what was happening here on earth but there was more.  We recall that the Church teaches of Christ's descent into hell where then He raises the dead by taking the righteous to Heaven.  This is why this day is important to us, Christ made it possible for us to not die but to live eternally through His death on the Cross if we follow after Him and try to emulate His life.

During one of the Holy Friday services the Cross is removed from the center of the Church and a tomb is put in it's place.  This looks different in each Church but is is basically an Icon of Christ as He would have looked in the tomb that is on a cloth.  This is surrounded by flowers.  We also make a procession around the church with this Icon held up like at funeral procession.

We have made it to Holy Saturday and we are almost there.  During the service in the morning we continue to recall Christ's raising the righteous into Heaven.  It is during this service that all the vestments in the Church are changed from the dark colors they were during Lent (either black, dark purple, or dark red) to white.  It is very moving to watch this change.

We have finally reached Pascha but I will have to save that for another post because it is too grand to put in this one.

I would like to note the importance of the Cross is shown through our entire day.  We make the sign of the Cross over ourselves, over our food, over our car before we drive and over our room and bed before we go to sleep at night.  We remember what the Cross means to us every time we make the sign of the Cross. 

The smallest child even understands this importance.  Every night when I put Dimitri to bed I make the sign of the Cross with my Cross around my neck over the four sides of his room and then over him lying in his bed.  When I do this he smiles up at me and it reminds me that even he feels the presence of the what the Cross means.