LITURGICAL SCHEDULE 2021

9.00 AM Divine Liturgy for Lazarus SATURDAY, MARCH 27 4.30 PM Divine Liturgy for LAZARUS SATURDAY

SUNDAY, MARCH 28 9.30 AM Divine Liturgy of St. PALM SUNDAY with Blessing of the Palms

MONDAY, MARCH 29 9.00 AM Bridegroom Matins (recited) HOLY AND GREAT 7.00 PM Presanctified Divine Liturgy MONDAY

TUESDAY, MARCH 30 9.00 AM Bridegroom Matins (recited) HOLY AND GREAT 7.00 PM Presanctified Divine Liturgy TUESDAY

WEDSNESDAY, MARCH 31 9.00 AM Bridegroom Matins (recited) HOLY AND GREAT 7.00 PM Presanctified Divine Liturgy WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY, APRIL 1 9.00 AM Matins (recited) HOLY AND GREAT 7.00 PM with Divine Liturgy of St. Basil THURSDAY 8.30 PM Matins with the Reading of 12 Passion

FRIDAY, APRIL 2 9.00 AM Royal Hours HOLY AND GREAT FRIDAY 7.00 PM Vespers with Burial Service Strict Fast 8.30 PM Public Veneration of the Holy Shroud

SATURDAY, APRIL 3 9.00 AM Jerusalem Matins HOLY AND GREAT 4.30 PM Vespers with Divine Liturgy of St. Basil SATURDAY 11.30 PM Midnight Office “At the Tomb”

SUNDAY, APRIL 4 9.00 AM Matins HOLY AND BRIGHT Paschal Divine Liturgy PASCHA: Blessing of the Baskets (Gym) THE FEAST OF THE 12.00 PM Blessing of the Baskets (Drive-Through – RESURRECTION Parking Lot) Great Feast

MONDAY, APRIL 5 9.00 AM Resurrection Matins BRIGHT MONDAY Divine Liturgy with Solemn Holyday

Please Read the Notes on the Next Page. All Services Will Be Streamed Online at http://HolyResurrectionByz.org Notes

1. The church will be open for private prayer from the Friday Vespers service until the Saturday evening Divine Liturgy. Please take this opportunity to spend some time in prayer before the shroud of Our Lord, God, and Savior .

2. The blessing of the baskets will take place on Sunday after the Divine Liturgy. After that, from 12PM - 1PM, there will be drive-thru blessing for those participating remotely in the services because of the pandemic.

3. I see the necessity to clarify the theology of the Saturday evening Divine Liturgy and to emphasize that this Liturgy is significantly distinct from the Sunday Easter Liturgy. It is true that we are changing the of the church to the white color in the middle of the Liturgy, but this is taking place because of the baptismal character of this Saturday evening Vespers with the Divine Liturgy. In the past, those who were prepared for throughout Great were baptized in the baptistery, which was located apart from the main nave, during the Old Testament readings (this is the reason why there are so many readings and we do not read all of them but only a few). After their Baptism, and to symbolize the new life in Christ, the church was vested in white and the reading was the one about the Resurrection. However, other important signs still stay: the burial shroud is in the middle of the Church, the practices are kept, and we do not yet greet each other with “Christ is Risen”. The service for the moving of the burial shroud from the grave to the altar is the midnight service from Saturday to Sunday, to express the mystery of the Resurrection where no one was present. In the case that this midnight service is omitted, it takes place silently before Matins on Sunday.

4. The Saturday evening Divine Liturgy carrying the validity for the Sunday obligation is a very recent development, approved first in 1965 in Germany for experimental use for 5 years. After that, it became more popular and the Latin Codex of 1983 included it for all Roman Catholics. However, our Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches from 1989 did not include it and the practice of Saturday evening liturgies is only tolerated in the parishes of significant size (ours certainly does not qualify). So, unless there is a moral dispensation for you, you cannot replace the Saturday evening liturgy for the Sunday liturgy in the case of Easter. It simply does not work at this time. You cannot fit a liturgical practice developed for hundreds of years and make it work within the framework that has been tolerated as pastorally prudent for only 40 years.

5. The Christ took place immediately after his death on the cross and then it took 3 days for us to learn about it and to be proclaimed to us. Thus, on Easter Sunday we rejoice about the message of new life that the bondage of death was destroyed and we are not slaves to deaths and corruption anymore. Therefore, our services imitate this joy in shouting and rejoicing. We can learn when it happened in Matthew 28:1: "In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first [day] of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the tomb." The Greek original literally says: "when the light began to come up for the next day", using the word "epiFOSkouse" (gr. fos = light). Therefore, the traditional time of the Easter Matins is 4 a.m. according to the Typicon which some parishes still preserve even to this day.

6. Do not forget to approach the sacrament of reconciliation before Easter.