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Excerpt from Treasures of the Fathers: The Holy Pascha series, which is available for purchase and download here. Without question, the Holy Pascha week is the holiest week of the entire year. The artistic beauty and spiritual depth of the rites of this week are at its zenith. Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection are the foundation upon which is built the whole fabric of Christianity. The Word, “Pascha” “He is the Pascha of our salvation.” Melito …

Today we read of the Lord’s anointing at Bethany and Judas plot to betray Him as mentioned in both the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark: And when Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, A woman came to Him having an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on His head as He sat at the table. But when His disciples saw it, they were …

On Holy and Great Friday we do not celebrate the full Liturgy, because the Lord, Who on the eve of Friday instituted the Mysteries in memory of His passion, on Friday itself endured the voluntary suf­ fering and offered Himself voluntarily on the Cross as a sacrifice to the Father, as is said: He gave Himself up… Since in His divine Body through the suffering a sacrifice was then offered, on Great Friday there is …

As we conclude our celebration of the Saturday of Light or Bright Saturday, commemorating our Savior’s entombment and descent into Hell, we recall that His tomb was only a short distance away from His Cross. As He hung on the Cross, He must have gazed on the tomb and remembered the words of the Righteous Job, “My spirit is wasted, my days are shortened, and only the grave remaineth for me” (Job 17:1).However, our Lord …