During this Great and Holy week, Jesus invites us to make a spiritual journey to the cross.  Let us join our hearts in sorrow with his Mother as we recount the events of his Passion in suffering for our sins — the sacrificial love he freely gives to us.

As Jesus invited his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, we may be reminded of the words he spoke to Peter, “So you could not keep watch with me for one hour?

We begin our watch on Holy Tuesday and Holy Wednesday with an opportunity for healing as we receive the Anointing of the Sick during the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts.   Jesus healed the physically sick but he also healed in other ways.   As Byzantine Catholics we receive this Sacrament knowing all of us need healing in some form.

The week continues with the Institution of the Eucharist on Holy Thursday, when Jesus spoke the words found in Scripture that is the summit of every Divine Liturgy and Mass in the world.  The Divine Liturgy is made available on this day in remembrance of this great gift and mystery.

On Good Friday, there are two services with Good Friday Vespers and the traditional Burial Procession to the tomb.  Here is another chance to pull away from everything distracting us and to realign our focus on the solemnness of this day.  The world may continue to race in its own way, but as Christians we can spend an hour meditating at Calvary and accompanying Jesus, his Mother and the disciples to the tomb.  Will you keep watch on Good Friday?

Early on Holy Saturday, we still keep watch — now with patient and hopeful expectation.  And while we go to church briefly to have our Paschal food blessed in anticipation, it is not yet time.  We keep our promise to continue a blessed vigil.

Our joy and hope is fulfilled at last in the Matins & Resurrection Services when the priest symbolically breaks through the barriers of sin and death and loudly exclaims, “Christ is Risen!”   Our Paschal Divine Liturgy is celebrated with all doors of the icon screen open wide, showing us visually that Christ has victoriously opened the way to our salvation.

Christ is risen from the dead, and by death he trampled death.  And to those in the tombs he granted life!”

Christ’s victory over sin and death unites each of us personally and as a Church when we proclaim our solid belief in his glorious Resurrection, “Indeed He has Risen!”