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SLAVA ISUSU CHRISTU!
SLAVA NA VIKI BOHU!

Hi all!

When I was little, I remember my Dad and my uncles going to church in the middle of the night on Great Friday. They went to "stand watch" or "stand guard" over the Grave.

Variouis families and individuals would sign up to spend 1/2 hour to an hour praying at the Grave.

My Baba said this was to make sure that the Body of Our Lord wasn't stolen.

Do any of you still follow this custom?

I mentioned it at our mens club meeting that this might be a good custom to bring back to our parish but on a scaled down version. The vigil lasting until 11pm on Great Friday and then resuming on Saturday.

What do you think??

mark

Mark,

This is still a custom in a number of parishes.

At Epiphany parish in Annandale, Virginia, there is a continuous vigil from the time of the entombment until the beginning of Resurrection Matins on Saturday night.

I know several other parishes that retain this custom but some only go to midnight. My choice would be that all parishes had the custom up until midnight and then celebrated Jerusalem Matins. If your parish is just starting this custom you might wish to keep the vigil until midnight for a few years and then add from there.

Admin

At the Albanian Orthodox Church of St. John Chrysostom in Philadelphia, the youth and several adults "keep watch" on Holy Friday after the Lamentations.

I came in at 7:00 AM on Holy Saturday in the morning in order to begin preparations for the Divine Liturgy at 10:00 AM and found them all asleep on the pews!

The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

The seminaries also keep this beautiful tradition of vigilance.

In Christ,
Andrew.

When I was in seminary, we had the tradiditon of spending Friday evening until Saturday morning praying the entire Psalter and Scriptural Odes. I continued that tradition in my parishes. We made a schedule of hour long slots and assigned Psalms and Scriptural Odes to each hour. We started at 7:00 p.m. on Friday evening (after Vespers and Complne) and went until 7:00 a.m. on Saturday when Jeruslaem Matins was served. In the first year we were hard pressed to find people to fill all the hours as it was something new. However, we never had a problem after that. There were some who even decided to stay the entire night. We did not, however, have anyone "guard" the tomb, although it was a practice throughout Manitoba at one time (I think there are a few parishes that still have this practice, at least for a few hours).

father michael

It is still a custom in some Ukrainian communities that members of the various youth organizations (Plast Scouts, etc.) stand watch over the "Bozyj Hrib" (God's Tomb) after the Vespers of Great and Holy Friday and throughout the day on Saturday. Alas, I fear that the custom on an all-night vigil has been all but lost in the UGCC. I wonder if this has something to do with the practice of celebrating the Jerusalem Matins on Friday evening?

Yours,

kl

SLAVA ISUSU CHRISTU!
SLAVA NA VIKI BOHU!

Krylos Leader wrote:"...I wonder if this has something to do with the practice of celebrating the Jerusalem Matins on Friday evening..."

I think it's more the fact we are a more urbanized society today. We no longer live within walking distance of the church as we did in Europe and the early days of emmigrant ancestors in this country.

I belong to a small parish and we have families that drive an hour each way to attend Divine Liturgy. I doubt very seriously if they would be traveling an hour each way at 2 in the morning to stand watch. I can only hope I'm wrong...

Well, I brought the topic up at our mens' club meeting and they're going to approach our priest and see what he says...

I'll keep everyone posted.

marko

Regarding the Lamentations of Holy Saturday being pushed to Friday evening by the slippage of the Vesperal Divine Litugy of Pascha (commonly and improperly known as Holy Saturday Divine Liturgy) from Saturday afternoon at 4:00 PM to Saturday morning, this definitely impacted upon the vigil.

There were two vigils:

(a) from the Vespers on Holy Friday through the night to the lamentations early on Saturday morning.

(b) Saturday after the lamentations was the day of silence and complete fasting. No Divine Liturgy permitted.

(c) according to the rubrics, we read the 3rd, 6th, and 9th hours [at 9 AM, 12 noon, and 3 PM] before commencing the Vesperal Divine Liturgy of Basil the Great at 4:00 PM (according to rubrics from 1555). This commences the Paschal Vigil. This liturgy was a baptismal litugy during which the catechumens were baptized, chrismated, and communed. Then it says, "let us eat a few dates..." along with bread and some light (white?) wine and immediately begin to prepare for the Nocturne, Matins, and Paschal Divine Liturgy of John Chrysostom around midnight.

In effect, two Divine Liturgies, both on Sunday, liturgically speaking. The Feast of Feasts!!!!

The midnight service was clearly added later. This is evidenced by the readings and colors for the "Saturday" Vesperal Liturgy (resurrectional readings, hymns, and white garments and coverings). Also, imagine hundreds of catechumens being baptized. Regular folks, the elderly, children, pregnant women needed the later "non-baptismal liturgy" for the reasons of endurance. And those being baptized needed the quieter, earlier liturgy for reasons of, we should say, holiness.

Much of this (and explained more coherently) is in a book by Fr. Alkividas Calivas titled, "Holy Week and Pascha" available from Holy Cross Press through Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Theological Seminary in Brookline, Massachusetts. SVS also has texts on the same theme at www.svots.org [svots.org]

In Christ,
Andrew.

So, I've read through all this and I still have a question.

If the vigil is silent, what should the vigilant do? Pray, I assume, meditate, but should one pray anything in particular? I'm getting ready to do my first, and I'm not sure what to do.

Aside from the reasons already mentioned, keeping Vigil at the Tomb allows the church to stay open, and encourages others to come in and take some extra time to pray, reflect, meditate, read the Scriptures, etc., before Pascha. I know that my home parish has tried to keep some sort of Vigil, at least until late at night on Friday, but it is often hard to get people to sign up, especially if they live far from the church.

Regarding what should be done during this time, I lean towards keeping silence in the church. "Let all mortal flesh be silent" ya know. We live in a time where we are rarely silent. So many of us are afraid of quiet: we always need the radio on, the TV on, music playing; we get antsy when it is silent. It can also be eeire sitting in an empty and silent church! At the same time, it can be an equally moving experience.

Having said this, I don't see anything wrong with reading (aloud) the Psalter, chanting an Akathist or Canon, or singing all 33 verses to "O Isuse Poranenyj" while keeping a vigil at the Tomb.

Also, the Typikon instructs that the Book of Acts be read in the church after the Vesperal Liturgy on Great Saturday. This has its history in the All-Night vigils of the Great Church of Constantinople; some parishes will read Acts, or at least portions of it, while Keeping Watch on Holy Saturday.

I've also encountered CDs of liturgical music left playing in the church. Think what you will of that practice.

As an interesting side note, it is a Jewish custom to never leave a dead body unattended. So, those of us who keep watch are just doing what Jesus would have known.

Dave

The church in Fort Pierce, FL, SS Cyril & Methodius also has an all night vigil from Good Friday to Resurrection Matins Sat. evng.
The church is open all night.
I have traveled down there in the wee hours to be in that very serene and "holy" feeling place
A wonderfully cleansing, and cathartic experience.
I can remember the "babas" walking on their knees to the grave down the isle. Some still can, and when you see young people doing it at 3AM, it is very moving.
Roman Catholic (Hispanic) groups come and pray at all hours through the night, because their churches are locked up tight.
JMVFTTP

The Latin Rite church where I am organist, also keeps an all night vigil. Sign-up sheets are circulated the week before, so it can be assured someone will be there, and that no one will be there alone. Those who come are free to pray whatever they choose, as long as silence is maintained.

So many things that can be done. Silence is not a bad thing at all in this case, as we gaze in silent spiritual wonder at our Lord who made all things and now lies in a tomb.

We usually intersperse times of silent meditation before the Tomb with some subdued services sung by one reader recto tono, such as the Small Compline with the Canon for Good Friday (which is very profound in its hymnographic content), the Akathist to the Passion and the Akathist to the Life-Giving Tomb of Christ.

These Akathists are both in the Jordanville
"Book of Akathists" and can also be found on-line at http://www.saintjonah.org/services/akathists.htm

Waht a beautiful tradition! Thank you for letting us (who were unaware) know about it.

When I was with the Antiochian Orthodox, we would keep vigil before the tomb, reciting the psalter, theoretically in one hour shifts (ironically, we used the New American Bible for this!). I once was "stuck" when the next person did not show up, and ended up going through almost the entire psalter myself, in about three hours--standing, of course. But that was when I had "Orthodox legs of steel".

This is a custom that I wish we Latins could introduce or reintroduce into the Roman Church.