Thursday Services

Posted in St. Aidan Community | Tagged , - by Rebecca

Thurs. April 9; 10:30am – 12:30pm, St. Basil Vesperal Divine Liturgy

The Lord’s supper is given to us as a saving sacrament to strengthen and transform us from this day until His second coming. “Unless you eat my body and drink My blood you have no life in you.” We celebrate this every Liturgy with thankfulness and see the start of our Lord going to His voluntary passion to redeem all of mankind. On this day the Reserve Sacrament for the sick for the year to come is consecrated.

Thur. April 9; 5:30pm – 8:00pm, Matins with the 12 Passion Gospel Readings

“Today He who hung the earth upon the waters is hung on the tree. The King of the angels is decked with a crown of thorns. He who wraps the heavens in clouds is wrapped in the purple of mockery…We worship Your Passion O Christ. We worship Your Passion O Christ. Show us also Your glorious Resurrection.” Today we accompany Christ our Lord as He voluntarily goes from the Garden of Gethsemane to be crucified and laid in his tomb by Joseph of Arimathea and the righteous Nicodemus. We contemplate our Lord’s journey in the 12 Gospel readings and in the moving verses in the Canon and interspersed between the Gospel readings, the Beatitudes and the Praises throughout this touching service. We are called to experience the power of this eternal and ever-present reality of Christ’s work for our sake, not as a distant historical event, but personally in Kairos time – the eternal here and now of our lives.

Mary Magdalene and the Red Egg

Red eggs are the traditional food to break fast at Pascha.

Red eggs are blessed and handed out at the midnight service and again at Agape Vespers on Sunday. Feel free to contribute to this tradition by dying half a dozen eggs red and bring them to the church on Friday or Saturday.

Also, don’t forget, we need flowers to decorate the tomb. Cut flowers should be at the church Thursday night or Friday morning to be arranged. If you have an eye for flower arranging, please feel free to help in this endeavor. The tomb will be built and decorated after Royal Hours on Friday (around 11:00 hrs) in time for Venerations at 16:00 hrs.

Red Eggs: After Mary Magdalene proclaimed the Lord is risen to the apostles, she became an itinerant preacher of the gospel. Our tradition had bestowed on her the title ‘Equal to the Apostles.’

She journeyed to Rome to preach and to seek an audience with Tiberius Caesar, in part to report Pilate for executing an innocent man, but also to tell Caesar about that man. Mary had connections and was able to get her audience and since it was customary to bring a gift to Caesar, she brought an egg.

Upon meeting Caesar, she greeted him with ‘Christ is Risen’ and then explained what she meant. He scoffed at her saying ‘No man can rise from the dead any more than this egg you gave me can turn red’…. and then the egg turned red. Mary explained the egg was like Christ’s sealed tomb, the red is the colour of Christ blood, and breaking the egg releases the life within, in this case, Christ rising from the dead.