Rejoice, life-giving Cross of the Lord, Thou never-conquered battle trophy of piety, Support and staff of the faithful, The wall surrounding the Church And the door that leadeth unto Paradise; Through Thee hath corruption been made to vanish and be no more, Death’s mighty power hath been vanquished and swallowed up, And we have been raised from earth to celestial things. O truceless foe of demons, and our weapon invincible Thou art the glory of martyrs and true adornment of all the Saints, Calm port of salvation, That which granteth the great mercy of God unto the world!
from the Vespers Aposticha of September 14, HTM translation
There was once a time when I thought that praying to the Cross was extremely weird. And on some level, I suppose I think it still is.
However, I also do not think it is possible to understand the power of the Cross, the meaning of the Cross, and even the Cross itself without praying to it.
The early Christian martyrs (and the early Christians generally) had a much different relationship with the Cross than we do now (at least in my estimation). The Cross was the gate to Paradise — first because the Cross mediated the death of the God-man Christ and thus made possible the Resurrection, and second because it is by imitating the Cross and embracing the sufferings of martyrdom that they themselves gained Paradise. The Cross has active power and grace. The Cross is the key and the ladder to Paradise.
If it doesn’t make sense to pray to the Cross, I encourage you to try, and to stick with it for a while. The hymn above is a good place to start; the two that follow it in the service are also addressed to the Cross. It is what I prayed when I thought the entire expedition and effort was stupid, and it totally transformed how I see the Cross.
Blessed feast day, friends! Through the intercessions of the Cross, may God grant us the strength to do our homework, go to our medical checkups, clean the kitchen, stand up to tyrants, defeat idols, and be kind to all people, Amen.
“The springtime of the Fast has dawned, the flower of repentance has begun to open. O brethren, let us cleanse ourselves from all impurity and sing to the Giver of Light: Glory to Thee who alone lovest mankind.”
from the Aposticha of Wednesday Vespers of Cheese Week, third mode
This week in the tradition of the Church is called Clean Week. It is the first week of Lent, which started on Monday and ends with the celebration of the restoration of icons and the end of the iconoclast heresy on the Sunday of Orthodoxy.
The focus this week is on cleaning both the soul and the home in order to prepare for the season of Lent, which is itself preparation for Holy Week, which is preparation for Pascha or Easter. We do like our preparation in the Orthodox Church! Some people prepare for Lent also by keeping an extremely strict fast on the first three days, either by not eating anything, eating very little, or only eating dry food until the Presanctified Liturgy on Wednesday. Since I began Lent with a celebration of the Presanctified Liturgy at one of the parishes in the area, I didn’t see much of a point in doing this, but it is indeed a beautiful tradition. Some say it sets the tone for the entire rest of the fast.
Liturgically, this week is very full, as is the rest of Lent. Here at Holy Cross, we have services in the morning, evening, and night (Orthros, Vespers, Great Compline). The structure of the services changes. Many parts of weekday Orthros change to older hymns, such as Alleluias instead of God is the Lord, hymns to the Trinity (ὔμνοι τριαδικοί) instead of a hymn to the saint of the day, a Martyrikon or hymn for the martyrs as a whole in the mode of the week written for each day instead of a hymn for the specific saint of the day, and the Hymns of Light instead of the Exapostalaria (in Greek these are called Photagogika or φωταγωγικά, which is really fun to say in addition to just being cool hymns). The Hymns of Light are sung three times, first asking for the protection of the commemoration of the day of the week (ie, Monday is angels, Tuesday is St John the Baptist, and so on), second asking for the protection of the Cross, and third asking for the protection of the Mother of God.
In weekday Vespers, the beloved hymns of “Theotokos and Virgin, rejoice Mary full of grace…” and the following are sung instead of hymns for the saint of the day (or apolytikia).
The daily readings during the week shift from being from the Epistles and Gospels to being from the Old Testament, specifically Isaiah, Genesis, and Proverbs. The verses accompanying these readings come from the Psalms, going in numerical order from Psalm 1 onwards throughout Lent, which is one of those neat liturgical details that makes me love typikon so much.
St. Gregory the Dialogist (center), St. Theophanes the Confessor (left), and St. Symeon the New Theologian (right), all commemorated today!
Then, we get the great joy of celebrating Presanctified Liturgies! This service is held to have been composed or at least developed by St. Gregory the Dialogist, also known as the Great, pope of Rome, patron of Gregorian chant and the Gregorian (aka modern) calendar. He lived in the late 6th century and clearly did some amazing things. (Also, in a beautiful divine coincidence, he is commemorated today, March 12!)
“Every day you provide your bodies with good to keep them from failing. In the same way your good works should be the daily nourishment of your hearts. Your bodies are fed with food and your spirits with good works. You aren’t to deny your soul, which is going to live forever, what you grant to your body, which is going to die.”
(some wisdom from St. Gregory)
The Presanctified Liturgy as we know it today is a combination of the structure of Vespers plus a Liturgy with no anaphora, since the consecration of the Gifts takes place during the anaphora, and the Presanctified Liturgy has, well, pre-sanctified Gifts. The consecrated Lamb/Body/bread is set aside with the consecrated Blood/wine on Sunday and are kept in a special place on the Table of Preparation (told you we like preparation) until they are taken from that table to the altar during the Psalter readings at the beginning of the Presanctified Liturgy. (For more information about the Presanctified Liturgy generally, go here.)
Then (because we obviously don’t have enough going on yet), we take Small Compline, that beautiful short evening service that is perfect for just before going to bed, and add a bunch of extra psalms, hymns, and prayers, and produce Great Compline! I honestly think that Great Compline is best experienced rather than explained. It is extremely moving and very beautiful, but most especially when done in the Byzantine style of singing (this is probably the single service that I will contest is the best in Byzantine chant; all the others I will take what I can get). The fathers from the monastery of Simonopetra on Mount Athos have a great recording of it in Greek.
And then, during the first week of Lent, on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday night, the great canon of St. Andrew is broken into four pieces and added to Great Compline. It is later done in its entirety on Thursday of the Fifth Week, along with the reading of the life of St. Mary of Egypt by St. Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, which is another whole wonderful discussion for later in Lent….
It’s all quite wonderful and beautiful, and we get a solid six weeks of this liturgical beauty (plus Holy Week after that)! It makes a liturgical geek like me giddy. The Church is watered and fed by this liturgical downpour just like all the flowers outside are watered and fed by the snowmelts and rainstorms and spring sunshine.
Pray for me!
Kali Saracosti! Good Lent!
And of course, Kali Anastasi! Blessed Resurrection!
Even Thine Altars 