Archdiocese News
"Christ’s Resurrection... provides us with the strength to rise after every time we fall, to start building after every collapse, to once again spread the joyful spirit of life after every catastrophe," Metropolitan Saba writes.
Holy Week 2025 with His Eminence Metropolitan Saba
Over the course of ten days, Sayidna Saba will visit nine parishes in New York, New Jersey, Quebec and Ontario. Follow Antiochian.org, plus the Archdiocese's Facebook and Instagram pages, for regular updates and additional photos.
The Orthodox Celebration of Great and Holy Saturday
Father Alexander Schmemann calls the Vesperal Liturgy on this day "truly the liturgical climax of the Church. The very truth of Orthodoxy is given by it, the taste and the joy of that new, life which shown forth from the grave."
Our Lord's rising from the tomb after conquering hades, sin and death opens up for all of us the Kingdom of Heaven to be one with God.
Lamentations Orthros of Great and Holy Saturday
The funeral hymns which are chanted for our Lord Jesus Christ are poignant but never despairing. By His death, Christ is at this moment destroying the dominion of sin and death.
Pascha Message from Metropolitan Saba, 2025
"Thus, it is only the repentant—those who recognize their sins and feel the need to be freed from them—who know how to crucify their sins with Christ, bury them in His tomb, and rise with Him in His Resurrection," His Eminence writes.
Great Hours, Unnailing Vespers on Holy Friday
In the morning, the Church reads Psalms prophesying Christ’s suffering in Great (Royal) Hours. In the afternoon, the priest leads the removal of the life-sized icon of the Savior from the cross in Great Vespers.
Great and Holy Friday: The Crucifixion
On Great and Holy Friday, the Orthodox Church commemorates the sufferings of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. The richness of the liturgical actions and hymnography on this day are unsurpassed.
Great and Holy Thursday: The Mystical Supper and Foot Washing
On this day, we turn to the last events of our Lord before His Passion on the cross, including His humility when He washed the feet of His disciples and His Mystical Supper, during which He instituted Holy Communion.
Like the Thief Will I Confess Thee: A Reflection for Holy Friday
"As we approach Christ's death and holy resurrection, may we accept the Church's invitation to be 'like the thief'... And in confessing like the thief, may Christ, too, deliver us to Paradise with Him."
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