Great and Holy Tuesday
Great and Holy Week. Abstention from meat and foods that contain meat. According to liturgical prescriptions, the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated today.
Read
Matins – Matthew 22:15-23:39
Sixth Hour – Ezekiel 1:21-2:1
Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts – Exodus 2:5-10; Job 1:13-22; Matthew 24:36-26:2
During the first three days of Great and Holy Week, the appointed morning service is known as Bridegroom Matins. It is named this for the hymn that is sung near the beginning of Matins which is:
“Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight, And blessed is that servant whom He shall find watching, And again, unworthy is the servant whom He shall find heedless. Beware, therefore, O my soul, do not be weighed down with sleep, Lest you be given up to death, and lest you be shut out of the Kingdom. But rouse yourself crying: Holy, Holy, Holy, art Thou, O our God, Through the Theotokos have mercy on us.”
This hymn is not particular to Holy Week, as it is appointed for weekday Midnight Office, which is served almost exclusively in monasteries. However, its meaning is more widely opened to us during this week with its inclusion at Matins during the first three days and through our hearing of the Parable of the Ten Virgins on Holy Tuesday evening.
The Church reminds us, through the parable and the hymn, that there is no better time than now, the present, for us to be prepared for the return of the Lord. Our life is our lamp and the oil is our living faith, one of living according to the commandments of God and precepts of the Church. We may be tempted to think that we have enough faith “in reserve” for the potential return of Christ, that we have enough oil for our lamps. As the parable shows us, we can never have “enough” oil for our lamps as we do not know when the Lord will return.
Brothers and sisters, replenish your lamp with oil every day!