This is the Blessed Sabbath – Fr. Alexander Schmemann The “Great and Holy Sabbath” is the day which connects Good Friday, the commemoration of the Cross with the Day of His Resurrection. To many the real nature and the meaning of this “connection,” the very necessity of this “middle day” remains obscure. For a good […]
Tag: Fr. Alexander Schmemann
Holy Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday – Fr. Alexander Schmemann
Holy Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday – Fr. Alexander Schmemann These three days, which the Church calls Great and Holy have within the liturgical development of the Holy Week a very definite purpose. They place all its celebrations in the perspective of End; they remind us of the eschatological meaning of Pascha. So often the Holy […]
Palm Sunday: the Entrance of our Lord into Jerusalem
Palm Sunday: the Entrance of our Lord into Jerusalem The Saturday of Lazarus, from the liturgical point of view, is the pre-feast of Palm Sunday — the Entrance of our Lord into Jerusalem. Both feasts have a common theme: triumph and victory. Saturday reveals the Enemy, which is death; Palm Sunday announces the meaning of […]
Saturday of Lazarus: The Beginning of the Cross
Saturday of Lazarus: The Beginning of the Cross – Fr. Alexander Schmemann “Having fulfilled the Forty Days… we ask to see the Holy Week of Thy passion.” With these words sung at Vespers of Palm Friday, Lent comes to its end and we enter into the annual commemoration of Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection. It […]
Humility: Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee
Humility: Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee – Fr. Alexander Schmemann The next Sunday [after Zaccheus Sunday] is called the “Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee.” On the eve of this day, on Saturday at Vespers, the liturgical book of the Lenten season– the Triodion— makes its first appearance, and texts from it are added to the […]
The Same Feeling of Time Filled with Eternity and Joy
The Same Feeling of Time Filled with Eternity and Joy Yesterday, on the train coming back from Wilmington, Delaware, I thought: “Here I am, fifty-two years old, a priest and a theologian for more than a quarter of a century—what does it all mean? How can I put together, how can I explain to myself […]
Life of Christians in the early Church – Fr. Alexander Schmemann
What was the positive ideal of the Life of Christians in the early Church community? For the early Church, unity in love was the ultimate value; it was the supreme purpose of life that Christ Himself had revealed to men. The Church was the restoration of the unity that had been broken and torn asunder […]