Holy Week

Wow. This Great Lent has flown by for me. Happy Easter to all of those who are "Western Christians". It is not yet Easter for me. I am not a Western Christian. I'm an Eastern Orthodox Christian. Just for information's sake, Western Christians are Roman Catholics and all Protestants that evolved from the Reformation.

The reason for the difference in dating Western Easter and Eastern Pascha are complicated. In response to my original post here, someone commented that I was wrong about the dating and how the dates were determined. They were correct and rather than post their comment and make the blog seem like a "point, counterpoint", I decided to do a little more research and edit my original post, which had been written in somewhat of a hurry anyway.

From wikipedia:

Easter is a moveable feast, meaning it is not fixed in relation to the civil calendar. Easter falls at some point between late March and late April each year (early April to early May in Eastern Christianity), following the cycle of the Moon. After several centuries of disagreement, all churches accepted the computation of the Alexandrian Church (now the Coptic Church) that Easter is the first Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon, which is the first moon whose 14th day (the ecclesiastic "full moon") is on or after March 21 (the ecclesiastic "vernal equinox").

Still, that doesn't explain why Western and Eastern Easter continue to frequently fall on different dates. Basically, it has to do with the fact that the Western Church uses the Gregorian Calendar, and the Eastern Church uses the Julian Calendar.

So....today is Palm Sunday (also known as Willow Sunday, as we bring Pussy Willows to church that day). Several weeks ago, "Great Lent" began. Even 2 weeks prior to that, we began easing into the Great Fast. Two weeks before Great Lent, we gave up meat, and then the following week we gave up dairy. Sunday of Great Lent is called "Forgiveness Sunday" as we seek forgiveness from anyone we may have offended, knowingly or not. We all lined up around the inside of the church and asked each and every other member of the congregation personally to forgive us. And of course, we are encouraged to do the same in our private lives as well.

It is a very beautiful and appropriate way to begin something as serious and awe-inspiring as Great Lent. Throughout this season of Lent, I have had different people ask me what I'm giving up. But Eastern Orthodox Lent is different. We do not decide individually what we will give up for Lent. Instead, the entire Church across the globe fasts together. We fast from animal products, essentially eating a vegan diet. I struggle with it every single year, but I keep trying just the same. Of course, vegan is the "rule" but it is not legalistic. In collaboration with our spiritual fathers, we flex that rule to derive the most benefit for each of us in our Christian Lives.

Today is the end of Great Lent "proper" and the beginning of Holy Week. Today is Palm Sunday for us, though it is Easter for Western Christians. Tonight is the first of three "Bridegroom Matins" services. One tonight, one tomorrow night, and one on Tuesday night. Wednesday night is "Holy Unction" where we seek healing from anything that may ail us, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. During the Holy Unction service, we will each be annointed with a special mixture of oil and wine. Due to my work schedule, I have not been able to get to a Holy Unction service since my conversion 3 1/2 years ago. I plan to go this week though, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Thursday night is the night in which we go over the Gospels, re-living the last few days/hours of Christ's life. And it *is* a re-living. I honestly feel transported back in time, walking alongside Christ and His disciples. The music and the readings really take me back, and I feel like I've got one foot in the past, and one foot in the present.

Friday is the crucifixion, death, and burial. I have not been able to make it to the morning and afternoon services, but at night, we literally bury Christ in the tomb by burying an icon of Christ in a "tomb" in the center of the church, and adorning the grave with flowers. Throughout the night at least one person stays by the grave, "gravewatching". Saturday morning we have services again, and catechumins are received into the Church by Chrismation (anointing with oil). I remember when I was received. It was the week before Christmas. What a special time. Even now, 31/2 years later, I still feel like I am part of something SO MUCH BIGGER than myself, something even bigger than the Universe. There is so much to learn and I still feel that I've only scratched the surface!

Finally, after the build up of sad and yet joyful anticipation, we arrive again at the Church on Saturday at 10:30pm. The church is dark, and we light candles and sing hymns. It is 3 services rolled into one, so it generally takes 3-3 1/2 hours. The last part of the service is Divine Liturgy, and celebrates the resurrection of our Lord. Before we start that service, we proceed outside the dark church, walking in a procession around the church while singing quietly. The bell tolls several times, (we warn the neighbors every year so they will not be startled). And as we walk back into the church, the church is all lit up and we begin joyful singing and shouting "Christ is Risen!!!" and "Indeed He is Risen!!" in the many different languages that are spoken by present day Orthodox all over the world.

Divine Liturgy begins and we share in the Eucharist. And after the service ends, we all gather in the parish hall where a feast has been waiting for us. The feast and the people are blessed, and we finally break the long Lenten fast with foods we refrained from for 40 days. Someone plays music, and we sing songs and shout "Christ is Risen!!!" again and again.

The Orthodox sure do know how to have a party. And they know how to do Pascha. Its better than commercialized Christmas! (Orthodox Christmas is better than commercialized Christmas, and for much the same reason!) It is so hard to describe all the emotions one feels throughout Holy Week as we recount, and relive the last days, and then the resurrection of our Lord and Savour Jesus Christ. I look forward to it every year. And every year, I promise myself I will try to become even more involved with the parish and with church life. There are so many special services, feasts, and fasts throughout the year. It is true that Orthodoxy is not a religion, it is a Way of Life. Every day has some significance to it. And we participate in all of these feasts and fasts and special occasions in so many ways. The saints are ever before us, instructing us, each and every day, as we celebrate one or more saints' days. We name ourselves and our children after saints. We celebrate those name days and the day we are received into the church is like an annual birthday. We strive to imitate saints, as we grow to become more like Christ.

And no matter where I am, I know I can attend an Orthodox Church somewhere, and the Liturgy will be the same as the one being celebrated at home. We are all interconnected, all across the globe, throughout the universe. During Divine Liturgy and the Eucharist, we truly exist as the Church in its "wholeness", those who have gone before us, those of us struggling through life right now, and those who will come after us. We are all together in the Eucharist. The icons in the church truly are "windows into heaven" and I can feel the presence of the Church Triumphant and all the angels all around us. The Whole Church is a living organism, dynamic and alive. Its not just an exercise we go through on Sundays and Wednesdays. it is a living, dynamic, Entity that we align ourselves with, that extends into all of my life, in every detail. No other "denomination" has given me such a feeling of being alive.

And there is a security,a knowing, in being Orthodox.

Life and death and the universe is like a category 5 hurricane, and being Orthodox is like being inside the Ark that Noah built, instead of flailing around in a rowboat trying to survive. Before Orthodoxy, I had a lot of tough questions that needed answers, and my protestant pastors could not answer my questions. Those pastors became visibly uncomfortable with me and my questions. I sensed that I was touching on questions they themselves weren't sure of, and I could visibly *see* the doubt they had in their own faith. It was all over their faces. That was a scary time for me, to see my spiritual leaders visibly shaken. I even left the church for awhile and sought out Orthodox Judaism. I knew there had to be one church that had it right, and that one church had to be continuous with Judaism. I wanted to find some historical continuity. Christ had promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against His church, so I knew it had to exist somewhere.

Studying Orthodox Judaism answered a lot of questions for me, and helped me put things together that I hadn't understood before, but it wasn't enough by itself. I knew I still believed in a supernatural and mystical God and I believed that a supernatural God could become incarnate, so I still believed in Jesus and who He said He was. But having been involved with much of mainline Christianity, from fundamentalist groups to Roman Catholicism, I knew I couldn't go back to those denominations and the insecurity I felt there. And then "Russian Orthodox Church" popped into my mind. I knew absolutely nothing about Orthodoxy, but had seen a clip of the Russian Church on tv one time. I had heard of the Orthodox Church. So I started there. Its going on 4 years now, and I haven't looked back.

So tonight, I am off to the first of the Bridegroom Matins. And I extend an invitation to anyone else who is curious about what Orthodoxy is. I invite anyone who isn't completely satisfied with their Christian experience thus far. Come and see!