Sunday, April 8, 2018
Great Saturday and Annunciation feast at the Annunciation Hermitage
This year the feast of the Annunciation fell on Great Saturday, according to the typikon of St Savvas, which is used in the Russian Church.
The festal hymns for the “beginning of our salvation” were combined with the hymns to the very culmination of our Saviour’s great self-emptying Passion for the salvation of us all.
All present stood around the tomb and chanted the moving lamentations together in English.
The next morning we read the hours, then the Old Testament prophesies of the Resurrection of Christ at the Liturgy of St Basil the Great.
The Gospel at the Liturgy of St Basil the Great.
Vladyka blessed wine and bread for our refreshment, but we did not serve a festal meal in the trapeza, keeping the fast until the Resurrection of Christ.
