Blog Posts

Holy Friday veneration

 

From Holy Week 2020.

When I wrote my thesis for my MDiv degree at St. Vladimir’s I chose Holy Friday Vespers: the development of a new service and icon in the 11th-12th – 13th centuries.  At this time of distancing during the Corona virus pandemic, I don’t know whether our churches will be open again, and whether we will be able to attend that most beautiful of Passion Liturgies. So, I decided to revisit my thesis and write a condensed blog about it.

Syriac Crucifixion illumination

“It is finished”.   John 19:30

The word “finished” here is translated from the Greek word telos which means accomplished, mission or goal achieved. After the Fall God sent us the Law, the Prophets and the inspired thing words of Scripture.  Then he sent us his Son who brought us the good news, taught us how to live, and went on to destroy death.  

Icon of Christ Suffering

“‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” That is ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46b; see also Mark 15:34).

Jesus cries out in anguish, in Aramaic, the common language of the first-century Jewish community. It is an ancient cry from Psalm 22, speaking for a royal individual like King David or Queen Esther and speaks for the people of Israel, who suffered mightily under Egypt’s Pharoahs, during the Babylonian exile, and under Roman rule.

“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent”  (Psalm 22).

Ethiopian Crucifixion

"I Thirst."  (John 19:38).   

Last Words 3.1

“Woman here is your son! … Behold your Mother”

Forty Martyrs of Heraklea

The mystery of suffering. 

"Christ did not come into the world to eliminate suffering.  Christ has not even come into the world to explain it.  Rather, He came to fill human suffering with His presence." -- Fr George Calciu

"Suffering is a fish bone . You can’t eat it or understand it. You just put it on the side of your plate, knowing you’ll understand it better by and by." --Martha Henry (the first person I met when we moved to Cincinnati when I was 5 years old) 

James 1:2 "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds..."

Drinking the cup of affliction is a prominent theme this week.

Tissot, Crucifixion Seen From the Cross

“Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”  Luke 23:34