Daily worship: Recent Episodes
Basil
This Canon prepares us for the Gospel readings of Matins and Vespers of Holy and Great Tuesday.
The Gospel according to Matthew 22:15-23:39 offers us ‘examples which show how far we are from understanding the holiness, the majesty of God’ Bishop Anthony. ‘And yet the judgement is good news. It holds a promise that the Lord will come and gather his children and that there will be no suffering and no evil left. But it is good news also in another, more unexpected way: it is obvious from the Bible that we shall not be judged according to any human standards; the yardstick by which we shall be measured is God’s absolute and unrelenting claim that love alone counts, and moreover, a love pure of stain and fully expressed in life (James 2). From the book: ‘Meditations on a theme’ by Anthony Bloom, page 90.
The period of the Holy Week possess an inner coherence and unity that are not always apparent. Why, for example, should Jacob lamentation of Joseph be commemorated on Holy and Great Monday and not Holy and Great Tuesday? Also, what special connection have these observances and references of Gospel readings with the Passion of Christ? These questions we should ask ourselves entering this Holy Week as it looks like a micro projection of the whole Liturgical year and which makes us participants in the royal priesthood and not spectators of the holy communion.
The hymnography of Matins of the Great and Holy Monday is dedicated to the two themes (Joseph, as will see in the readings of the Vespers, and the Gospel reading of the fig tree incident; also in vespers ) as well as the theme of the Lord coming towards His Passion. The first troparion chanted, as an introduction, is the most beautiful and most solemn "Behold, the Bridegroom Comes," inspired by the Lord's Parable of the Ten Virgins. Due to this troparion, which is chanted on the next two days, the Services of Great Monday, Great Tuesday and Great Wednesday are called the "Services of the Bridegroom."
Let us quote this wonderful troparion:
"Behold, the Bridegroom is coming in the middle of the night, and blessed is the servant whom He finds watching. And again unworthy is he whom he shall find careless. See to it, my soul, that sleep does not overcome you, lest you be given over to death and are locked out of the kingdom. But arise and cry out: Holy, Holy, Holy are You our God, through the Theotokos have mercy on us."
Most beautiful as well is the following troparion:
"I see Your Bridal Chamber adorned, O my Saviour, and I have no wedding garment, that I may enter therein; O Giver of Light, make radiant the vesture of my soul, and save me."
Synaxar of the Holy and Great Monday
On this day we remember Joseph (son of the patriarch Jacob and grandson of Abraham), who is foreshadowing our Lord Jesus Christ. Joseph, the beloved son of his father, was at first thrown into a pit to be murdered by his brothers, but then was sold for twenty gold coins to merchants and by them to Potiphar who was the chief cook of the Pharaoh of Egypt. Joseph was a most handsome young man and for this reason the wife of Potiphar wanted to sin with him. Having refused her advances she slandered him to her husband, saying that he harassed her. Potiphar believed the slander and the innocent Joseph was cast into prison. At one point Pharaoh saw a strange dream and he wanted this dream to be interpreted. He was then told that there was a Hebrew young man in prison who had once interpreted the dreams of his fellow captives. Joseph, by order of Pharaoh, was brought before him, and being enlightened by God he interpreted the dream of Pharaoh, and told him how seven years of plenty are coming upon the land followed by seven years of hunger and famine. Then Pharaoh, fascinated by the divine wisdom of Joseph, clothed him in a royal robe, making him the general ruler of Egypt. Joseph administered his authority with admirable wisdom, and later, when famine came, due to the fruitlessness of the earth (in our contemporary case a pandemic could cause that) he opened the storehouses (this theme is connected with the eschatological theme of the Gospel; in case of a pandemic or a war we should be ready for the coming of the Kingdom of Christ which is not of this world). Joseph is considered a type and foreshadowing of the Lord, because He too, the beloved Son of the Father, was slain by those of His fellow race, namely the Jews, sold by His disciple, tortured, and thrown dead into the dark tomb. Then He rose gloriously and nourishes us through the Bread of life, that is, through His all-holy Body.
The Midnight service is standard on weekdays. It is the first office of the Horologion, and it is celebrated in the middle of the night, before daybreak. In the writing of St John Cassian and the life of St Paul the Simple from Palladius letter to Lausus, we learn the Desert Fathers in Egypt used initially a nocturnal psalmody of 12 psalms. The Sunday midnight office appears only later, beginning in the 15th century and consisting the Canon of the Lifegiving Trinity, in the tone of Octoechos. Beginning on September 22 until Palm Sunday there’s an additional prayer of St Basil the Great. The dismissal and conclusion is similar with that of the office of Compline because in the practice of the Desert Fathers in Egypt and Palestine monastics begin and end their day by seeking mutual pardon at the time of midnight.
The 1st stance of Midnight service includes the 17th kathisma (psalm 118). I have inserted instead the Canon of St Andrew which is appointed in the Small Compline. The Great Conpline is on Holy Monday and Holy Tuesday night the rest of the week we pray the Small Compline. The main theme of the Canon is eschatological; the kingdom of Christ is near and we must be ready. No re-enactments of the Passion like flowers and procession of the Cross which is an 19th century Antiochian innovation but make ourselves ready for the end and death of the “principalities” of this world. Jerusalem is our heart: “Prepare thy priests, O Judea, make ready thy hands to kill God” , “He comes willingly to His Passion” to “heal our passions”... The one reading of this eschatology is one the Sixth hour on Ezekiel.
“Passing from one feast to another” this hymn indicates that the coming Holy Week is a collection of feasts until the Great and Holy Thursday, the Great and Holy Friday and the feasts of feasts, the Holy Pascha. The hymns of Matins in the Service of the Bridegroom every day are repeated in Vespers as the Leavetaking ‘stichera’.
With the exception of the first prayer to the Trinity, this rule is following the structure of Optina monastery (nicknamed as Optina 500).
"Imagine the cloud of the Saints who are praying with you and prostrate at the same time with you in the end when you reach the final knot and say: Lord have mercy, All Saints pray for us"
St Nectary of Optina to nun Thecla.
These prayers are said within the midnight office but according to the life of St Symeon the New Theologian they were said individually.
In Mount Athos the order of the Ninth hour must be merged with Typica. That’s because the service of Typica is preceded from the Ninth hour. However, because is the Great Lent and the fast is strict the monks start with the Ninth hour then they do a reading of five chapters from the Ladder but they don’t finish off the Ninth hour. They go straight to the Beatitudes and then they finish with the prayer of the Ninth hour of St Basil the Great and straightway to the introduction of Vespers, unless a Presanctified Liturgy is following (whereas the order again is different).
This office was primarily celebrated when there was no eucharistic Liturgy. During Great Lent, this office served for the preparation of the catechumens, whence the biblical reading of Isaiah inserted in the sixth hour and followed by a sermon.
Vespers continuing straight from the 9th hour and the Typica, without the psalter.
It is divided into three parts; part 1, introductory psalm - part 2, Lord, I have cried unto Thee, Part 3, dismissal prayers.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, I have decided to pray an ancient prayer for those who are sick or have died.
Oh Lord, be with the families of those who are sick or have died. May they regain their strength and health through your mercy. Defend us and have mercy on us from illness and despair. Heal us from our fear, which prevents us from solidarity. Heal us from our pride.
For You are a Merciful and Loving God, and to You, we give glory, to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and to the ages of ages. Amen