Eastern Orthodox Christians to observe Holy Week, celebrate resurrection

Apr. 28—While many Christians celebrated Easter March 31, those of the Eastern Orthodox rite who adhere to the Julian calendar will keep the observance May 5.

The faithful will observe Holy Week, during which clergy and church members have been doing what they call "reliving the great mysteries of salvation," which culminate with the celebration of Jesus' resurrection.

Easter, or Pascha, provides the basis for faith.

Throughout Holy Week, parishioners participate in public prayers at divine services. Praying, fasting and almsgiving have been the Lenten theme, and those practices are intensified during Holy Week.

The Very Rev. Protopresbyter Robert Buczak, dean of Christ the Saviour Cathedral, 300 Garfield St., Johnstown, said that during Holy Week, the faithful experience the last week of Jesus' life on earth before his resurrection.

"It is the holiest time of the year," he said. "We are Christians because Christ rose from the dead, so it makes it the most important time of the Christian life."

Bridegroom Matins will be celebrated at 7 p.m. Monday and Tuesday.

"This reminds us that Christ is going to come again and hold us all accountable for our actions and deeds," Buczak said.

A Holy Unction service will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday for the healing of the soul and the body and for the forgiveness of sins.

On Holy Thursday, the Liturgy of the Mystical Supper will be held at 9 a.m. At 7 p.m., the reading of the Twelve Gospels will be conducted.

A Good Friday service will be held at 7 p.m.

"We take down the burial shroud and place it in the tomb," Buczak said. "We celebrate that with a procession with the children."

At 8 p.m. May 4, Matins of the Resurrection will be celebrated.

"We begin to celebrate the risen Lord," Buczak said. "It's dark, and a single light carried by the bishop comes out of the altar area, signifying Christ's light coming out of the tomb, and then it's given to every member of the congregation and the whole church lights up with candles.

"We exit the church, and the bishop uses his staff to pound on the door, representing Christ pounding on the doors of Hades freeing those captive, and we start singing 'Christ is Risen' over and over again."

On May 5, Hierarchical Divine Liturgy will be celebrated at 9 a.m.

Buczak said the resurrection is the feast of feasts.

"It's the most important feast of the church and of Christianity, and its importance can not be matched by anything else," he said. "It is the day without evening, and it reveals the mystery of the eighth day, so it's not merely a historic reenactment of the events of Christ's resurrection, but the experience of a new world and a taste of what will come, a taste of the unending day of the kingdom of heaven."

Metropolitan Gregory of Nyssa, of the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese, which is headquartered in Johnstown, requested that his message to all the parishes of the diocese be delivered at the conclusion of Divine Liturgy.

"The reign of life has begun, the tyranny of death is ended," Gregory writes. "A new birth has taken place, a new life has come, a new order of existence has appeared, our very nature has been transformed. This birth is not brought about by human generation, by the will of man, or by the desire of the flesh, but by God."

"With the resurrection of Christ, all creation is filled with a new light of life and joy," Gregory writes. "On this Feast of Feasts, this Holy Day of Holy Days, we all proclaim the only truth that matters, the truth that Christ is risen."

Bright Week will be held May 5 through 11, a week set aside by Orthodox Christians for the celebration of the resurrection.

"The entire week is considered to be one continuous day, mystically," Buczak said. "The joy of the resurrection is unmatched and unexplainable; the more you put into it, the greater your experience."