Holy Week: Great Thursday, Saturday Vigil, Easter Matins

Program: #05-17   Air Date: Apr 18, 2005

Dear Friends of Millennium of Music:

Even by the standards of our most popular program, we have
been gratified (and taken aback) by the overwhelming response we have received from this series dedicated to the work of the monks of Chevetogne. To this end, we are providing some extra information on how to reach the monks on line or by mail.

Monastère de l'Exaltation de la Sainte Croix
Rue du monastère 65
B - 5590 - Chevetogne
Belgique

Tel.: + 32 (0)83 21.17.63
Fax: + 32 (0)83 21.60.45

Email addresses of the Monastery: [email protected]
This is the current e mail address of Fr. Thomas
Pott, current music director--new as of January 2005.
Again, thank you for you enthusiastic support for the program;
we hope to continue this series for some time.

Robert Aubry Davis

The program is sponsored in part by the Belgian Tourist Office
and the Embassy of Belgium in Washington, D.C.
For more information on visiting Belgium (including the Abbey), you may contact the Belgian Tourist Office at:
www.visitbelgium.com

As Fr. Maxime writes in his notes, "The office of Great Thursday is the last threshold leading to the very heart of the Christian Mystery. It constitutes the "great initiation" of Christ's disciples into the Passover, his death and resurrection. The humble act of breaking bread and blessing the cup recapitulates the single and eternal mystery of death and life in which we are immersed in an extraordinary unity of time and space. The eternal Wisdom of god, which is the Word of Love and Knowledge spoken since all eternity and by which all things were created, accomplished his earthly destiny of voluntary self-abasement in his 'flesh.' "

I. Holy and Great Thursday: Matins Service (CD 105/389)

--Alleluia: "My spirit seeks Thee early in the morning."
--Troparion: "The glorious disciples were illumined at the supper."

--The Canon of Nine Canticles:
"The Red Sea was parted by a blow from Moses' staff."
"O God the Lord and Creator of All."
(Hymn): "He who made the lakes."
(Troparion): "Humbling Thyself in Thy compassion."
"Foreseeing Thy secret mystery.'
"United by the bind of love."
"The uttermost depths of sin."
"The traitor takes the Bread."
"In Babylon the children did not fear."
"Accepting danger for sake of their fathers' laws."
"Come ye faithful."

--Exapostilarion: "I see thy bridal chamber adorned."
--Lauds: "In haste the council of the Jews assembles.
--Theotokion: "The Lamb whom Isaiah proclaimed."
--Aposticha: "Today the Sanhedrin has assembled."
--Theotokion: "Instructing Thy disciples in the Mystery, O Lord."

II. The Holy and Great Feast of Easter (CD 108/495)

Saturday Midnight:
(Fr. Maxime: "The priests in shining vestments carry holy icons, the faithful follow holding lighted candles, the choir sings for as long as the procession last the sticheron of the REsurrection in time with the slow march of the throng, the bells chime out in a joyous trezvon.")
--Troparion for the Procession of the Clergy: "The Angels in heaven sing Thy resurrection."

("The procession halts before the closed doors of the church. In the expectant silence of the night, the priest's voice is raised to praise the Blessed Trinity, and then comes the long-expected announcement of the Lord's Resurrection in the Easter Troparion sung by the priest and deacon and repeated by the choir.")
--"Glory to the holy, consubstantial, life-creating and undivided Trinity."

Matins (With bells ringing, the priests and celebrants enter the church and celebrate the Litany of Peace)
--"It is the Day of Resurrection, let us be radiant, O ye peoples...for Christ God hath brought us from death into life."

CD Info

CD 105/389, CD 108/495