Is it necessary to explain that Easter is much more than one of the feasts, more than a yearly commemoration of a past event?
Anyone who has, be it only once, taken part in that night which is "brighter than the day," who has tasted of that unique joy, knows it. [...]
On Easter we celebrate Christ's Resurrection as something that happened and still happens to us. (Continue reading excerpt "An Introduction to Great Lent" by Fr Alexander Schmemann)
What is the Lenten Triodion?
The Lenten Triodion is the service book of the Orthodox Church that provides the texts for the divine services for the pre-Lenten weeks of preparation, Great Lent, and Holy Week. The Lenten Triodion is the title of a classic and popular English book translated with an extensive and helpful introduction by Metropolitan Kallistos and Mother Mary; it provides many (but not all) of the texts necessary to observe the great fast. In Greek and Slavonic it is simply called the triodion. It is called the triodion because the canons appointed for Matins during this period are composed of three odes each.
The weeks of preparation, and especially the Sunday gospel readings, serve to exercise the mind, whereas the fasting of Great Lent focuses on the body, and Holy Week's services exercise the spirit.
Scripture Readings
Sunday, February 4, 2018
Today’s commemorated feasts and saints
SUNDAY OF THE PRODIGAL SON — Tone 2. Afterfeast of the Meeting. Ven. Isidore of Pelusium (ca. 436-440). Rt. Blv. George, Great Prince of Vladimir (1238). Ven. Kirill (Cyril), Abbot and Wonderworker of Novoezérsk (Novgorod—1532). Ven. Abraham and Coprius, of Pechenga (Vologdá—15th c.). Martyr Jadorus (3rd c.). Hieromartyr Abramius, Bishop of Arbela in Assyria (ca. 344-347). Ven. Nicholas the Confessor, Abbot of Studion (868).
Scripture Readings
Sunday, February 11, 2018
Today’s commemorated feasts and saints
SUNDAY OF MEATFARE — Tone 3. Sunday of the Last Judgment.Hieromartyr Blaise, Bishop of Sebaste (ca. 316). Ven. Dimitri (Demetrius), Wonderworker of Prolix (Vologdá—1392). Rt. Blv. Great Prince Vsevolod (in holy Baptism Gabriel), Wonderworker of Pskov (1138). Righteous Theodora, wife of the Emperor Theophilus the Iconoclast (ca. 867).
Scripture Readings
Sunday, February 18, 2018
Today’s commemorated feasts and saints
SUNDAY OF CHEESEFARE — Tone 4. The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise. St. Leo the Great, Pope of Rome (461). Ven Cosmas of Yakhromsk (1492). St. Agapitus the Confessor, Bishop of Synnada in Phrygia (4th c.). St. Flavian the Confessor, Patriarch of Constantinople (449-450).
Scripture Readings
Sunday, February 25, 2018
Today’s commemorated feasts and saints
FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT — Tone 5. Sunday of Orthodoxy. St. Tarasius, Archbishop of Constantinople (806).
Scripture Readings
Sunday, March 4, 2018
Today’s commemorated feasts and saints
SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT — Tone 6. St. Gregory Palamas. Synaxis of the Venerable Fathers of the Kiev Caves Lavra. Ven. Gerasimus of the Jordan (475). Ven. Gerásim of Vologdá (1178). Ven. Joasaph of Snetogórsk (Pskov—1299). Rt. Blv. Prince Basil (Vasilko) of Rostov (1238). Rt. Blv. Prince Daniel of Moscow (1303). Martyrs Paul and his sister, Juliana (ca. 273). St. James (Jacob) the Faster of Phœnicia (Syria—6th c.). Translation of the Relics of Rt. Blv. Prince St. Wenceslaus (Viacheslav), Prince of the Czechs (935). St. Gregory, Bishop of Constantius in Cyprus.
Scripture Readings
Sunday, March 11, 2018
Today’s commemorated feasts and saints
THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT — Tone 7. Veneration of the Cross. St. Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem (638-644). St. Euthymius, Bishop of Novgorod (1458). Hieromartyr Pionius of Smyrna and those with him: Asclepiades, Macedonia, Linus, and Sabina (250). Translation of the Relics of Martyr Epimachus of Pelusium. St. Sophronius, Bishop of Vracha (Bulgaria—1813). Ven. Sophronii, Recluse, of the Kiev Caves (Far Caves—13th c.).
Scripture Readings
Sunday, March 18, 2018
Today’s commemorated feasts and saints
FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT — Tone 8. Repose of St. Nikolai of Zhicha(1956). St. John Climacus (of The Ladder). St. Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem (386). Martyrs Trophimus and Eucarpus of Nicomedia (ca. 300). Ven. Aninas of the Euphrates.
Scripture Readings
Sunday, March 25, 2018
- Exodus 3:1-8
- Proverbs 8:22-30
- Luke 1:39-49, 56
- Galatians 3:23-29
- Luke 7:36-50
- Hebrews 9:11-14
- Mark 10:32-45
- Hebrews 2:11-18
- Luke 1:24-38
Today’s commemorated feasts and saints
FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT — Tone 1. The Annunciation of our Most Holy Lady, Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary . St Mary of Egypt.
Please see Schedule of Services/Calendar Page for Holy Week Services
Scripture Readings
Sunday, April 1, 2018
- Genesis 49:1-2,8-12
- Zephaniah 3:14-19
- Zechariah 9:9-15
- Matthew 21:1-11, 15-17
- Philippians 4:4-9
- John 12:1-18
Today’s commemorated feasts and saints
ENTRY OF OUR LORD INTO JERUSALEM. Palm Sunday . Ven. Mary of Egypt (522). Ven. Euthymius of Suzdal’ (1404). Martyr Abraham of Bulgaria (1229). Ven. Gerontius, Canonarch, of the Kiev Caves (Far Caves—14th c.). Ven. Macarius, Abbot of Pelecete (ca. 830). Martyrs Gerontius and Basilides (3rd c.). Righteous Achaza.
Scripture Readings
Sunday, April 8, 2018
Today’s commemorated feasts and saints
HOLY PASCHA — THE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST. [Beginning of the Pentecostarion]. Holy Apostles of the Seventy: Herodion, Agabus, Asyncritus, Rufus, Phlegon, Hermes, and those with them (1st c.). St. Niphon, Bishop of Novgorod (1156). Ven. Rufus the Obedient, of the Kiev Caves (Far Caves—14th c.). Martyr Pausilippus of Heraclea in Thrace (2nd c.). St. Celestine, Pope of Rome (432). The SPANISH Icon of the Most-holy Theotokos.
Watch and learn about six of the foremost icons of Orthodox Lenten: The Icon of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, The Icon of the Ladder of Divine Ascent, The Icon of the Raising of Lazarus, The Icon of the Resurrection, The Icon of the Ascension, and The Icon of Pentacost.
For more children's books. . . visit Orthodox Christian Children.com
Online resources to aid in teaching children, teens & young adults about Triodion, Great Lent & Pascha:
- Family Gospel Lessons - Goarch.org
- Ways to Share Great Lent & Pascha with your Children - Antiochian.org
- Let Us Attend: Sunday's Gospel for Children - Antiochian.org
- "Be the Bee" - Official YouTube channel of the GOA's Department of Youth & Young Adult Ministries: Complete Series
Holy Week: A Liturgical Explanation for the Days of Holy Week click here click here
In the Orthodox Church the feast of Easter is officially called Pascha, the word which means the Passover. It is the new Passover of the new and everlasting covenant foretold by the prophets of old. It is the eternal Passover from death to life and from earth to heaven. It is the Day of the Lord proclaimed by God’s holy prophets, “the day which the Lord has made” for His judgment over all creation, the day of His final and everlasting victory. It is the Day of the Kingdom of God, the day “which has no night” for “its light is the Lamb” (Rev 21.22–25).
The celebration of Easter in the Orthodox Church, therefore, is once again not merely an historical reenactment of the event of Christ’s Resurrection as narrated in the gospels. It is not a dramatic representation of the first Easter morning. There is no “sunrise service” since the Easter Matins and the Divine Liturgy are celebrated together in the first dark hours of the first day of the week in order to give men the experience of the “new creation” of the world, and to allow them to enter mystically into the New Jerusalem which shines eternally with the glorious light of Christ, overcoming the perpetual night of evil and destroying the darkness of this mortal and sinful world:
Shine! Shine! O New Jerusalem! The glory of the Lord has shone upon you! Exult and be glad O Zion! Be radiant O Pure Theotokos, in the Resurrection of your Son! continue reading