Great and Holy Friday
Great and Holy Week. Strict Fast. Abstention from meat, dairy and eggs, and foods that contain these ingredients. According to liturgical prescriptions, the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated today.
Read
Matins – John 13:31-18:1; John 18:1-28; Matthew 26:57-75; John 18:28-19:16; Matthew 27:3-32 Mark 15:16-32; Matthew 27:33-54; Luke 23:32-49; John 19:25-37; Mark 15:43-47; John 19:38-42; Matthew 27:62-66
First Hour – Zechariah 11:10-13; Galatians 6:14-18; Matthew 27:1-56
Third Hour – Isaiah 50:4-11; Romans 5:6-11; Mark 15:16-41
Sixth Hour – Isaiah 52:13-54:1; Hebrews 2:11-18; Luke 23:32-49
Ninth Hour – Jeremiah 11:18-23; 12:15,9-11,14,15; Hebrews 10:19-31; John 18:28-19:37
Vespers – Exodus 33:11-23; Job 42:12-16; Isaiah 52:13-54:1; 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:2; Matthew 27:1-38; Luke 23:39-43; Matthew 27:39-54; John 19:31-37; Matthew 27:55-61
Every Divine Liturgy, the priest plays the prosthesis rite, preparing the bread that will become the Holy Eucharist. The priest cuts into the prosphora, reciting the words from Isaiah: “Like a lamb led to the slaughter; like a sheep without blemish that is silent before the shearer, he opened not his mouth. In his humiliation Judgement was taken from him. Who shall declare his generation?”
We don’t hear these words. They are prayed privately between the priest and deacon. In the same way, Christ quietly fulfilled these words on the cross of Calvary, preparing a banquet for us. Good Friday is a time to relive this experience quietly offered. It is the Lord’s gift to us, one we don’t notice. We are caught up in the celebration of our lives, the joy of the Eucharist. Christ sacrifice is when “he gave himself up for the life of the world” and is the heart of the anaphora, the Eucharistic prayer. Just as the cross is planted in the middle of Lent. Good Friday reminds us: this humble act, passed over by so many in silence, in the heart of our lives.