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Hello,

Next week I am hoping to attend at least a few Great Week services at a local Melkite Church. However, I have never been to any Melkite services during Great Week (I'm a Latin Catholic), and it is quite confusing to see all the different names and types of services. Could anyone point me to a basic explanation of them somewhere (google didn't seem to help)?

Here are a few I'm unfamiliar with:

Bridegroom Service
Service of the 12 Gospels
Vespers and Descent from Cross
Epitaphios Service

Thanks for any help!

A brief reply.
Some of these are not celebrated in the same way by those from the Russian rather than the Greek tradition. (Melkites are from the Greek tradition, in this sense.)

First problem to get your head around: all liturgies during Great and Holy Week are anticipated. This effectively means that Orthros (morning prayer and praises) is sung the evening before, and that the vesperal liturgies (evening prayer, may include communion service or divine liturgy on appointed days) occurs in the morning.

The Bridgegroom Service is actually the prayer of Orthros of Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. These are sung on the evenings of Palm Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.

Service of the 12 Gospels (we do not normally use this name in Arabic or Greek--at least not alone) is the Orthros (i.e., morning) prayer from Good Friday. It is sung in the evening of THursday of Holy Week. It is one of the most beautiful and saddest liturgies during the week, at which we nail Christ to the cross and worship at the foot of the cross in the darkened church. Never to be missed!

Vespers and Descent from the Cross is the Vesperal Liturgy from Good Friday sung on the morning of Good Friday. Christ's body is taken down from the cross, while we sing the troparia of Joseph of Aramathea, and carried in procession to the bier. Also a lovely and sad service.

Epitaphios is the Greek name for bier. It is the Orthros of Great and Holy Saturday sung in the evening of Good Friday. It is part sad, part joyful in anticipation. Some long and lovely chants (dirges in English?) of lamentation, the tunes of which are known and loved by all parishioners. (Many can sing more than ten verses of each by heart, in Greek or Arabic!) The bishop or priest figurately sprinkles us with myrrh as the flower-bedecked bier is carried around in procession, and in turn we process under it to take part figurately in Christ's death and (anticipated) resurrection.

You have not mentioned some of the other liturgies. Among these is the liturgy on Saturday Morning, we call "Saturday of Light", it is like a mini-resurrection, a foretaste of the real event. We sprinkle the church with bay leaves in joy and astonishment as we hear about the three women finding the tomb empty. It is traditionally the end of the fast, although most will continue to fast until the midnight service of the resurrection.

We had this in the Latin Rite too until the 1962 Missal. The Maundy Thursday Mass & Procession (and the Chrism Mass in the Cathedral) were moved from the morning to the evening; Tenebr� (Matins & Lauds for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday) were moved from the previous night to the following morning; Mass of the Pre-Sanctified on Good Friday was moved from morning to afternoon; and the Easter Vigil Services were moved from morning to late night so that the Mass would begin near midnight.

A special hymn included in morning prayer on these days of Great and Holy Week, from which the service gets its "common" name is:

Behold, the Bridegroom is coming in the middle of the night. * Blessed is the servant He shall find awake. * But the one He shall find neglectful will not be worthy of Him. * Beware, therefore, O my soul! Do not fall into a deep slumber,* lest you be delivered to death and the door of the Kingdom be closed to you. * Watch instead, and cry out: * Holy, Holy, Holy are You, O God. * Through the intercession of the Mother of God, have mercy on us.

The Russian parishes I attended during my years at university served the Presanctified Liturgy on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evenings of the Great and Holy Week. The Passion Gospels were served on Thursday evening. The Royal Hours were served on Friday morning. Vespers was served in mid afternoon and another service in the evening was the entombment of Christ. The Royal Hours were among the longest collection of services I've ever been to, save the Vespers Liturgy of St. Basil for Great and Holy Saturday.

BOB

Francis-

I think the other posts have covered it.

All the "evening" services of Great Week are Orthros for the next day.

Additionally, there is Divine Liturgy on Thursday and Saturday, as well as Vespers on Friday.

PM me if you want more specifics.

Markos

Thanks for all the information. I think I'm only going to be able to go to the Epitaphios Service, which is on Friday night, but I'm quite looking forward to it.

I was also thinking about going to the Service of the 12 Gospels on Thursday night, but I think my whole family is going to our parish's Holy Thursday Mass instead.

Maryland has a fair number of parishes which retain the Julian Calendar - for Pascha, all the Orthodox parishes will do that, and so does the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic parish in Silver Spring. So wait five weeks and go to the whole set of services!

Fr. Serge

I hope you'll foregive me if I make a slight correction.Referring to services such as the Holy Friday Orthros with the 12 Gospels or Holy Friday Vespers with bringing out of the Epitaphios as "liturgies" is incorrect.Perhaps you meant "liturgical services".You are correct in your other descriptions,the Vesperal Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is called for Monday,Tuesday,and Wednesday of Holy Week.The Vesperal Liturgy of St.Basil is served on Holy Thursday and Holy Saturday.The Vespers of Good Friday according to Orthodox and(as far as I know)Byzantine Catholic tradition is never combined with Liturgy EXCEPT when the Annunciation falls on Good Friday then Vespers IS combined with St.John Chysostom's Liturgy.I hope you aren't offended by my pointing out the inaccuracy of using "liturgy" to describe a service where no Communion takes place,but I think that terminology might confuse some Latin Rite Catholics reading this.BTW,I'd be interested in hearing how the Annuciation is celebrated in the Latin Rite when it coincides with Good Friday.

Fr. Al, As with this year in the West, when Annunciation falls in Holy (Great) Week or Easter (Bright) Week, it is transferred to the Monday after Low (St. Thomas) Sunday. There are no liturgical commemorations of any holydays/saints days during those two weeks at all. John K.

I went to the Bridegroom Service last night, and it was quite possibly one of the most beautiful services I've ever attended.

WOW!

I am confused by some things I have read.
1. It seems that Divine Liturgy is not to be served on good Friday (accept when feast of Annunciation falls). It also seems that it is common to see the evening as the start of a new day. Therefore Friday starts with Vespers of Thursday. Yet the Liturgy of St. Basil is celebrated Thursday night. So why is this not violating the idea of celebrating D.L. on good Friday? Am I being a bit too legalistic in approach and not realizing that each evening can have its own services and purposes?
2. What differences as far as the Easter narrative are there between Saturday Evening and Sunday morning. Would one be celebrating the same exact thing on Saturday as on Sunday morning, or does saturday evening leave you more in optimism as to what is about to come? Does the service end with news of a resurrected Christ or with anticipation of this reality?
3. I love the idea of Liturgy and time being in some way real and experienced as if for the first time and in a real way. That we are there. But it is also clear from my reading that Jesus does not literally suffer and die again. We are not re-crucifying him in our liturgy. He died once, and in Liturgy we enter into that one time eternally effective sacrifice. This is how the book of Hebrews is not offended. However I came across this quote in a wikipedia article. I like the second part, but the first part seems to present Jesus suffering as if happening a new time. Which seems to mean in a sense we believe by representing it that He suffers it again. But this can not be the case. Does he mean it in a more poetic/symbolic way? Is he somewhat misleading or inaccurate? Am I missing something? Why call it new, instead of saying we enter into it as if happening right now?

Each hour of this day is the new suffering and the new effort of the expiatory suffering of the Savior. And the echo of this suffering is already heard in every word of our worship service - unique and incomparable both in the power of tenderness and feeling and in the depth of the boundless compassion for the suffering of the Savior. The Holy Church opens before the eyes of believers a full picture of the redeeming suffering of the Lord beginning with the bloody sweat in the Garden of Gethsemane up to the crucifixion on Golgotha. Taking us back through the past centuries in thought, the Holy Church brings us to the foot of the cross of Christ erected on Golgotha, and makes us present among the quivering spectators of all the torture of the Savior.[1] Bulgakov, Sergei V. (1900), "Great Friday", Handbook for Church Servers, 2nd ed., Kharkov: Tr. Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris, pp. 543.

It is true that in the Byzantine world the day runs from sunset to sunset. But during the Great Fast the Lenten day runs from morning to night. So we have two cycles running concurrently. The first is the regular day of the year (the commemoration of the saint of the day running from sunset to sunset) and the second is the Lenten day (running from morning to night). The Vespers and Divine Liturgy of Holy and Great Thursday belongs to Holy and Great Thursday, is and not an anticipation of Holy and Great Friday.

Add into this that in the Byzantine worlds during Great and Holy Week all of the services were anticipated by half a day. So on Palm Sunday night you have Bridegroom Matins (which are the Matins of Great and Holy Monday). Monday morning would be Vespers and Presanctified Liturgy, and so forth. There have been efforts to attempt to move the services what some consider a more logical time (i.e., Vespers in the evening rather then the morning) but it doesn�t really work since all of the Holy Services continued to develop after they were already being anticipated by half a day. I�m not sure why anyone would consider the anticipation to be a problem.

Good question.

The traditional order would be:

-Holy Saturday Morning: Vespers and the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great (this was the baptismal Divine Liturgy and has 15 Old Testament readings).

-Holy Saturday Night at midnight (or on Pascha at dawn): Resurrection Matins and, in many places, the Paschal Divine Liturgy (St. John Chrysostom)

-No additional Divine Liturgies would take place unless needed to accommodate the crowds. In some places the Resurrection Matins are celebrated on Saturday evening (say 9 PM) and the Divine Liturgy on Pascha (in the morning).

As it stands now at the Vespers and Divine Liturgy of St. Basil on Holy Saturday (traditionally celebrated in the morning or at noon) the Liturgy included �theme� was mixed. We hear hymns of Holy Saturday (the Lord resting on the Sabbath and Hades trembling at his descent) together with the first announcement of the Resurrection (Matthew 28:1-20). But the music is not full of the joy of the coming Resurrection. Some say it is somber but I personally see it as anticipatory.

Everything changes at Resurrection Matins. The Church starts off in darkness and the dead Christ is still in the tomb. In darkness his shroud is removed and candles are lit. There is the procession around the church three times singing a hymn of the Resurrection. Then, at the doors of the Church (in many places, especially in the Greek tradition) the Gospel of the Resurrection is proclaimed (Mark 16:1-8) and the Paschal troparion (theme-song) is sung repeatedly. The people enter the church. The tomb is moved from the center to the side. All is brightly lit and the Light has overcome the Darkness.

So, yes, the entire theme changes with the proclamation of the Resurrection at Matins. [BTW, you can listen to all of these services by clicking the links on the home page.]

During each Divine Liturgy we do not re-create the Mystical Supper but instead participate in the one and only Mystical Supper. It exists in time and is also timeless.

During Great and Holy Week we participate in the events that took place: the Washing of the Feet, the Betrayal, the Mystical Supper, Gethsemane, Jesus Before Caiaphas and the Council, Peter Denying Jesus, the crowd choosing Barabbas, the Crucifixion, the Burial, the Guarding of the Tomb, the Women with Mary. Not a recreation but a real participation in these events.

Thank you for your answers. I suppose then the text I quoted was maybe a little vague as to how to understand this.
So, it would follow that any special fasts or abstinence (which seem to differ a little between Latin Rite, Eastern Rites and Orthodox) would be clearly observed from midnight to midnight as good Friday is considered thus, and one would not begin his good Friday fasting on Thursday night.

Seems where I am there is Liturgy of St. Basil as you say on Saturday, but it is in the evening and not earlier. Maybe to accommodate people who would be coming.

I read that there is to be no celebration of Divine Liturgy on days of fast. Does this mean that sundays are not days of fast during Great Lent? I thought they did count among the 40 days? Or are Sundays simply always a time to celebrate Divine Liturgy as it is always commemorating the resurrection?

I find it a little strange on Saturday's liturgy to announce the resurrection, and then on sunday morning (or midnight) to go back to it not having happened and Christ is still in the tomb? How does this work? It sort of makes me not want to go to saturdays service for not having to go back and feel like the wait is over and have the celebration and baskets blessed, and then wake up the next morning and start out with Christ still in the tomb. I would rather go on good Friday, and then wait for the Resurrection Matins.

Generally, yes. There are some exceptions. On Forgiveness Sunday (at the beginning of the Forty Day Fast) the fasting begins at Vespers, which would be celebrated on Sunday evening. Most ordinary people would not worry so much about midnight to midnight but from the time they awake until the time they go to sleep.

When considering the Byzantine Holy Week Services forget about clocks and forget about time. Forget about day and night. The Lord God � the Maker of heaven and earth � is being led to the Cross! He will be put to death! Darkness battles Light. Days and nights are all out of whack. Time is irrelevant. Think Matthew 27:45: �Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land�.� Darkness overtakes all the land! But does it overtake the Light or does it just seem that way? We know that the Light is all powerful! There is such incredible imagery here.

There is a modern tendency among some Byzantines to try to force the services back to their original shape and time. So you wind up with a Vespers and Divine Liturgy of St. Basil celebrated on Saturday evening as a kind of equivalent to the Latin Easter Vigil. The problem is that it continued to grow after it was moved to the morning and took on some of the themes of Holy Saturday, along with music that is more anticipatory then celebratory. In some places they have doctored with it by cutting out some of the texts and putting in texts from the Divine Liturgy on Pascha but it really doesn�t work since it crowds out the Paschal Matins (which did not really develop into the brilliant service that it is until well after the Vespers / Basil Liturgy was moved to earlier in the day).

Sundays are part of the Forty Days. If you follow the traditional Fast (no meat or dairy for 40 days) it includes Sundays.

The Forty Days Fast starts on a Monday (really on the Sunday before at Forgiveness Vespers) (this Monday is the one before Ash Wednesday) and runs for 40 days, including Sundays. Then Great and Holy Week begins with Lazarus Saturday, Palm Sunday (called �Flowery Sunday�) and the rest of Great and Holy Week.

Yes, the weekdays of the Fast are �aliturgical� (meaning no Divine Liturgy is celebrated on those days). The exception would be the Feast of the Annunciation.

If you pay attention to the liturgical texts throughout Holy Week you can detect that while we are participating in the events leading up to the Cross we are also, at a quieter level, singing of the Resurrection. We are citizens of the Kingdom. We know the outcome! Go. Participate. You will see for yourself.