Holy Saturday!

Holy Saturday Morning

Liturgy of St. Basil

Saturday morning's liturgy is one of the most exciting of Holy Week! Today we saw the church go through many changes, from the darkness and sadness of the past few days to the light of the coming Resurrection! We also see all of salvation history, from creation to Moses, through Jesus, all in one service.

Can you still see the Epitaphios?

One of the most important parts of today's liturgy were the 15 Old Testament readings (well, we only read seven of them.) Traditionally, this liturgy was the service at which new Christians were baptized. They had been spending many weeks learning about the church, and it was at this service that everything was brought together for them. This is was their final "lesson" before their baptism. We'll let Fr. Edward explain:

You probably would have recognized a few of these Old Testament stories. Do you remember when we read about Moses and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea? Well, we read that same story today!

And we even sang the exact same song that those Israelites did once they had finished their crossing. (It is a very old song indeed!)

Finally, in the last reading we hear about the Three Holy Youths in the Fiery Furnace.

[video coming soon]

As they walked around in the furnace, in the middle of all that fire, they sang a hymn praising God and asking the whole world, nature included, to praise him too! We sang their song as well.

[video coming soon]

Right before the reading of the Gospel sometime amazing happened. As you can see from the pictures and videos, the Church is still covered in purple (for Great Lent), but suddenly everything changes to white. The priests vestments, altar boy robes, altar clothes--everything is now white to symbolize the Resurrection!

Everyone helps to get the Church ready!

Fr. Philip read the Gospel, in which we hear about how the myrrh bearing women went to the tomb in order to anoint Jesus' body (because they hadn't been able to have a real funeral for him).

Instead of finding His body, they find an angel who tells them that Jesus has gone; He has Risen! While the women are on their way to tell they disciples they meet Jesus himself, who tells them to let the disciples know that He is alive and that He will come to meet them. This is the first time we get to hear about Jesus' Resurrection!

To celebrate, Fr. Edward sprinkles flowers and laurel leaves all over the whole Church! (They stay there the whole week.)

Now the church has been make ready for Pascha/Easter. The time has nearly come!!!