April 9, 2026
Great and Holy Thursday
Institution of the Lord’s Supper

Our family is generally pious and church-going. As the children get closer to teen years, they like to have options which sometimes means attending divine services remotely or at another parish. Family traditions around church attendance naturally ebb and flow with the development of the human persons that make up each family organism. But there is one time of the year which proves irresistible even to our teens who like to make different plans: We are in the midst right now of Orthodox Holy Week, a time of rich pageantry and meaningful stories of repentance and triumph of evil.

It begins after Palm Sunday with three days dedicated to a service called Bridegroom Matins. At our own parish, Tuesday evening brings a local tradition called the Valaam Lights, named for the 10th century monastery in Russia where the tradition originates. The altar is adorned with a vast array of brightly lit candles symbolizing the bridal chamber of the Lord Jesus Christ, the bridegroom waiting to receive His Church who must adorn herself with a proper, and clean wedding garment.

Today, we celebrated the institution of the Mystical or Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday with a Vesperal Liturgy. Tonight in anticipation of Holy Friday will be the Twelve Passion Gospel passages outlining Our Lord’s path to suffering and dying on the cross; this service climaxes in the moment when one of the priests takes up the cross in procession around the church while the choir sings the very moving hymn, the 15th antiphon:

Today is hung upon the tree
He who suspended the earth upon the waters
A crown of thorns crowns him
Who is the King of the angels…

Ah, what profound depths of dispassion Our Holy Mother the Church brings us to in this hymn. Among other things, we learn the unmistaken identity of the one hanging on the cross: He is no mere human or even demi-god. He is none other than the Lord God who created all things and now voluntarily subjects himself to His own creation. What profound humility and deep abasement out of His love for us His creation, the ones made is His own image and likeness.

Time fails me to tell of all the other wonderful events about to transpire. All I can say is read about the rest in the Holy Week tag. And for those of you in my faithful readership who have yet to experience an Orthodox Christian Holy Week, now is your chance! At an Orthodox parish near you, a week of services has begun unlike any you have experienced anywhere else on the planet. Today is Great and Holy Wednesday. If you are local to Boston, you are cordially invited to attend all of the services our parish offers. On Holy Friday, for instance, one of my sons feels like heaven and nature weep, so he makes a special candle to resist the elements and howling of any storm. If you can only do one service, come to either Saturday morning Liturgy or late Saturday night, early Sunday morning for the Feast of Feasts, GREAT AND HOLY PASCHA.

Worse case scenario, if you are unable to appear hypostatically (in person), you can at least listen to a youtube channel created that has much of the key music or the ever-mellifluous Ancient Faith Radio. WARNING: Once you have gone to one service, you won’t be able to stop, so clear your schedule for God because He deserves your praise more than baseball games, concerts, or that addicting TV series. Let the divine drama begin!