Holy Thursday ~ many services, thanksgiving and the imprint of Holy Week within one's soul

It was a beautiful morning liturgy.

In the afternoon I slept and rested.

Met up with our dear friends for dinner, 

had delicious lenten middle eastern food!

Warm and comforting.

The 12 Gospels Service was tonight,

I still miss how we did it in Ottawa,

with bowing when saying

Glory to Your Long-suffering or

Glory to Your Passion O Lord...

on the other hand, I don't remember 

the Cross being taken out and the song that is sung

after the 6th Gospel...

so moving... 

It was a really wonderful time to have dear friends in church with us

for this service, they are moving in about 3 months and I really

treasure that we had this night together at church...

I think that was the most noticeable part for me tonight,

just being in church with these friends and seeing so many of my

church friends and their kids (including the Munchkin of course!) come

and just being together...

I realized that this is going to be my 5th Pascha here in New Jersey.

In a lot of ways I feel more settled and like I understand

what to look forward to/what to expect and that's a real blessing.

It's Mr Husband and I's 6th Pascha together, he came up to 

Ottawa for our first Pascha together

and we got engaged on Pascha / Sunday afternoon,

in my beautiful blue apartment that the Mother of God

got for me a few years before.

Such happy memories.

At times I have been surprised at how much struggle and sorrow we have had

in the last years, and this year with Mr Husband's illness,

and various losses we have had... 

But yet I am aware of how much warmth my Husband brings to my life.

How blessed we are to have our marriage. How blessed we are to have our

two NJ Churches and dear friends and church family... 

And I really appreciated the first Gospel reading and how Christ

says we will have sorrow but that in the end we will have joy.

I am feeling a deeper anticipation to be with our Lord tomorrow 

in His Passion.

It is a deep honour to be at His tomb and to lament with His Mother.

My dear friends in Ottawa still get roses for our dear Lord Christ 

for me to have by His tomb, there in my Ottawa church,

which will always have such a deep part of my life;

I feel like the ethos of Holy Week is imprinted on my soul

from my time there and I understand Pascha because of my 7

Paschas in Ottawa.  

I was given the blessing to understand how much Pascha is going

to the wedding feast to meet our Risen Christ,

our Bridegroom and it is to HIM that we are running to,

it is to Christ, our Bridegroom that our hearts long for 

and love...and it is only Christ who can comfort us completely

now and make everything new again when He comes...

may He remember us in His Kingdom as He remembers

the Wise Thief and promises Him Paradise! 

Holy Thursday in Pictures

The young munchkin served as a new altar boy

on Holy Thursday morning;

it was a very long liturgy and he did so well!

Tonight was the reading of the 12 Passion Gospels;

for every Gospel a candle is lit until all 12 are read....

At the end everyone bows before the Cross 

and my friend, who drove myself and her sister

to the monastery just the other week,

and I venerated the Cross together.

(Mr. Husband is minor clergy so he had gone already).

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It is a beautiful service and there is such a 

peaceful hush at the end,

like a day you never wish to say goodbye to...

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Many held lit lanterns with the fire from one of the 12

candles that they will take to their homes

and put by their icon corners.

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Holy Week: such a special week!

Holy Thursday

From the OCA website on Holy Thursday:

"When Thy glorious disciples were enlightened at the washing of their feet before the supper, then the impious Judas was darkened by the disease of avarice, and to the lawless judges he betrayed Thee, the Righteous Judge. Behold, O lover of money, this man because of avarice hanged himself. Flee from the insatiable desire which dared such things against the Master! O Lord who deals righteously with all, glory to Thee 

(Troparion of Holy Thursday).

In the regions of the Master, at the Table of Immortality, in the high place, with minds lifted up, come, O ye faithful, let us eat with delight. ...

(Ninth Ode of the Canon of Matins).

The Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil is served on Holy Thursday in connection with Vespers. The long gospel of the Last Supper is read following the readings from Exodus, Job, Isaiah and the first letter of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians (1 Cor 11). The following hymn replaces the Cherubic Hymn of the offertory of the liturgy, and serves as well as the Communion and Post-Communion Hymns.

Of Thy mystical supper, O Son of God, accept me today a communicant, for I will not speak of Thy mystery to thine enemies, neither like Judas will I give Thee a kiss, but like the thief will I confess Thee: Remember me, O Lord, in Thy kingdom.

The liturgical celebration of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday is not merely the annual remembrance of the institution of the sacrament of Holy Communion. Indeed the very event of the Passover Meal itself was not merely the last-minute action by the Lord to “institute” the central sacrament of the Christian Faith before his passion and death. On the contrary, the entire mission of Christ, and indeed the very purpose for the creation of the world in the first place, is so that God’s beloved creature, made in his own divine image and likeness, could be in the most intimate communion with him for eternity, sitting at table with him, eating and drinking in his unending kingdom.

Thus, Christ the Son of God speaks to his apostles at the supper, and to all men who hear his words and believe in him and the Father who sent him:

Fear not, little flock, it is Your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom (Lk 12:32).

You are those who have continued with me in my trials; as my Father appointed a Kingdom for me, so do I appoint for you that you may eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom. ...(Lk 22:28-31).

In a real sense, therefore, it is true to say that the body broken and the blood spilled spoken of by Christ at his last supper with the disciples was not merely an anticipation and preview of what was yet to come; but that what was yet to come—the cross, the tomb, the resurrection on the third day, the ascension into heaven—came to pass precisely so that men could be blessed by God to be in holy communion with him forever, eating and drinking at the mystical table of his kingdom of which there will be no end.

Thus the “Mystical Supper of the Son of God” which is continually celebrated in the Divine Liturgy of the Christian Church, is the very essence of what life in God’s Kingdom will be for eternity." ~ (on Holy Thursday)

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See here for more on Holy Thursday.

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Services:

Morning vesperal liturgy

Evening: Matins of the 12 Passion Gospels

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Both Holy Wednesday evening and Holy Thursday evening

we hear more and more Gospel accounts of our Lord's Passion

that we are about to enter into and are entering into 

through the services.