April 23 - Great Wednesday - Sacrament of Holy Unction 7 P.M.
24 - Great Thursday - Vespers and Divine Liturgy 10 A.M.
- Matins (Reading of the Twelve Passion Gospels) 7 P.M.
25 - Great Friday - Vespers 2 P.M.
- Matins (Funeral of Christ) 7 P.M.
26 - Great Saturday - Vespers and Divine Liturgy 10 A.M.
- Nocturn - 11:15 P.M.
- General Confession 11:25 P.M.
- Procession, Easter Matins, Divine Liturgy 11:45 P.M.
Blessing of Easter food
27 - Easter Day - Pascal Vespers 1 P.M.
28 - Easter Monday - Matins and Divine Liturgy 10 A.M.
May 2 - Bright Friday - Visitation of Oakland Cemetery 10 A.M. to 1 P.M.
3 - Bright Saturday - Easter service with Bishop Mercurius and the clergy of the Patriarchal Parishes and Bishop Gabriel and the clergy of the Church Outside Russia at Saint Nicholas Cathedral in New York City beginning at 9:45 A.M. Everyone is encouraged to attend this very beautiful celebration in our magnificent Cathedral which was largely built through the efforts of Saint Alexander Khotovitsky, one of the founders of our parish 99 years ago.

Confession and Fasting in connection with the above services: from Palm Sunday on you do not have to have confession before every reception of Holy Communion unless serious sin has occurred. You are required to keep the Fast as best you can. You are required to keep the fast as best you can. If you are under doctor's care and must take medication at the direction of the doctor you are advised to do so, so as to not jeapordize your health. If there is any question consult with Father.

Christ's Resurrection is Mystically Reproduced in Each of Us
Let us look and carefully examine what is the mystery of that resurrection of Christ our God which takes place mystically in us at all times, if we are willing, and how Christ is buried in us as in a tomb and how He unites Himself to our souls and rises again, and raises us with Himself. Christ our God was hanged on the cross and nailed on it for the sin of the world. He tasted death and went down to the uttermost depths of hell. Again, He returned from hell in His own spotless body, from which He had in no way been separated as He descended there, and forthwith He arose from the dead. After that He ascended into heaven with great glory and power. So, likewise, as we have now come out of the world and entered into the tomb of repentance and humiliation by being assimilated to the sufferings of the Lord, He Himself comes down from heaven and enters into our body as into a tomb. He unites Himself to our souls and raises them up, though they were undoubtedly dead, and then grants to him who has been thus raised with Christ that he may see the glory of His mystical resurrection.
-- Saint Symeon the New Theologian (949-1022), for Monday of the second week of Easter.

Where Did it All Come From?
The services of the Eastern Orthodox Church which take place during the annual commemoration of the events of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ were not just invented by pious people. They originate in Jerusalem at the sites where the events actually took place. It would be wonderful if all Christians could also visit these sites at the appropriate times but this is not practical. Instead, each parish church and monast-ery does its best to in a variety of ways, approximate these places for the edification of the faithful. So, on Great Thursday we celebrate Divine Liturgy remembering that Christ Himself celebrated the first Divine Liturgy on that day, in the evening we read the twelve accounts of Christ's passion and death to make it fresh in our minds, on Great Friday we have two very touching serices. The first reminds us of the death of Christ on the Cross and the taking down of His body from the Cross. We make a replica of His tomb in the churches. The second service marks that very short period of time when Christ was put into the tomb that belonged to Joseph of Arimatheia. In most places the church is darkened as the physical tomb of Jesus was. On Great Saturday we celebrate Vespers and Divine Liturgy. This service contains a fair number of Old Testament readings which speak about the events at hand. There is also a long Gospel reading which is devoted to explaining the resurrection of Jesus. This Liturgy took place, in early times, at the location of Christ's resurrection. This service was, for the early church, the Easter service. The midnight service that we know and love, was originally something largely attended by the monks. The Gospel does not mention the resurrection, but marks the beginning of the Gospel cycle for the year: "In the beginning..." Because this service has universally become the Easter celebration it has taken on certain special features. The church remains dark at the beginning. In commemoration of the miraculous appearance of light from the Tomb of Christ (an annual miracle that takes place until today) the priest distributes light to the people before the service begins. A proceeion circles the darkened church three times (a symbolic search for the dead Christ). A resurrection Gospel is, in most places, read now. The priest proclaims that Christ is risen and the service goes on. At the present time, in most places, the Vespers for Easter are generally held sometime around noon rather than at five or six o'clock. We also continue our Easter joy on Bright or Easter Monday. In some place the celebration continues every day of the week after Easter.

Holiness Unto The Lord
For many years, I frequently passed by a church on the front of which were those words, "Holiness Unto the Lord". I took me a while, but those words, little by little, made their way into my consciousness. We are constantly reminded of the holy throughout our services, "Holy God, Holy Mighty....", "For You are holy, O our God..." "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God..." In becomes clear that the God we worship is a God of Holiness. That idea of a God of Holiness has a great meaning for Christians. What it tells us is that this God Who loved us enough to send His only Son to suffer and die for us intends that we be holy like Him. We need to know that no one who is steeped in sin has any part with God. There are Christians who feel that at some point in life have been saved. I think that everyone who has been Baptized has been given the great possibility of being counted a child of God. Each of us in that Baptism has had the original relationship that Adam had with God before the Fall, so in that way we can all be considered saved. We have to remember that Satan never sleeps and is constantly tempting us away from God and holiness. If you consider yourself one of the saved, you have to realize that if you fall into serious sin (the ancient Christians would tell us any sin) you have fallen from holiness and in your sinful state you cannot come near God, the God of Holiness.

It is for this reason that Jesus Christ, on the very day of His resurrection, established the Sacrament of Confession (see John 20, v. 21-23), so that those who sinned could regain their state of holiness and their closeness to God. Indeed, God wills that "all men should come to the knowledge of the truth", but we need to cooperate in His salvation. because we know the truth. In our culture Confession has been frequently the forgotten sacrament. Many people, even when they are near death themselves, seem to have nothing to con-fess. In some cases people may have lived a devout life and have nothing to confess, but most people really should keep themselves prepared always to meet their God....the God of Holiness.

Saint Sergius of Radonezh
Because we are making a pilgrimage to Russia next year we present here the life of Saint Sergius. We expect to be at the monastery he founded on July 18th for the pilgrimage for his feast day.

The terrible invasion of Europe by the Tatars caused a decline in all aspects of life in Russia. When a sort of normal life resumed there in the fourteenth century religious life, which had never ceased, began to see a rebirth. The growth of the monasteries is certainly an indication of this. The monks of this time, for the most part, left the cities and settled in the forests of central and northern Russia. Saint Sergius of Radonezh (+1392) was a part of this trend. Saint Sergius looked for solitude so that he could concentrate on intense prayer. Those monks who have come after him until our own time have largely followed his example, although solitude is now an even more precious thing than it was in his time.

Saint Sergius was born in Rostov, into a simple pious family.His parents were remarkably pious, so much so that the Russian Orthodox Church has canonized both of them. His family later settled in Radonezh where, to all outward appearances they led a quite ordinary life. When Bartholomew met a monk who explained to him the things of God, he set his eyes on the monastic life. He did not become a monk immediately, but waited patiently, caring for his parents until God called them to eternal life. He then became the monk Sergius. He built himself a small cell with a chapel. Initially, he lived alone. He was able to befriend the wild animals of the forest. Companions jouined him. He was later forced to become abbot of the large monastery after the death of Abbot Metrophan, who had tonsured him a monk. The monastery was dedicated to the Holy Trinity. Very soon, a village began to grow up around it. The monastery itself contnued to grow and had a large number of monks. Many pilgrims began to arrive. Because of Sergius austere way of life no one, looking at him dressed in rags could believe that he was the superior. His influence outside the monastery was extraordinary. Metropolitan Alexis of Moscow even sent him on diplomatic missions. It was he who blessed and encouraged Prince Dimitry Donskoi when he and his troops set out to begin freeing Russia from its oppression by the Tatars.

The monastery itself became a center of charity and social work remarable for its time. It inspired a national renewal. First and foremost, it remained a place of fervent prayer. Throughout his life Sergius continued to do the most humble work, but because of the strength of his prayer there were visions that occurred around him such as an angel concelebrating Divine Liturgy with him, or the radiance of a chalice he had just consecrated which was seen by people or the vision of the Virgin who visited him with the apostles Peter and John. At the end of his life he secluded himself in total silence. During his life he sought solitude and prayer, but was always surrounded by people. At the end, he left an impression of radiant sweetness and matchless goodness which have endured until now. His shrine is the object of the largest pilgrimages. Several years ago when a group of us were at the July pilgrimage we were participants along with approximately 70.000 others who came to honor the memory of this great saint.

Saint Alexander Khotovitsky
Saint Alexander was largely the person responsible for the building of Saint Nicholas Carthedral in New York City in 1902. He also took part in the founding of our parish `here in Philadelphia. He later died as a martyr in Stalinist Russia. Father Andrey, who painted the icons of the feastdays on the walls of our Church recently completed an icon of Saint Alexander for us. It will have its place in the celebration of our hundredth anniversary, It was donated to the Church by +Vera Anderson, a relative of Betty Borden and Theresa Procino, and Mary De Meo.

Russia in 2009
As part of our celebration we will again be making a trip to Russia in July of 2009. It will include both religious and historical sites. A highlight will be taking part in the great pilgrimage to the Trinity-Saint Sergius Lavra on Saint Sergius feastday, July 18th. As we go to press our travel agent has informed me that she has some preliminary information along with a preliminary price. Everything should be clear soon after Easter and our information will be available.