Fr. John Whiteford: Holy Week at Home, Part 2
What follows are numerous links to liturgical resources for praying the Holy Week services at home, as compiled by Fr. John Whiteford of St. Jonah Orthodox Church in Spring, Texas. An especially useful resource during this time of isolation and quarantine!
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The following is a continuation of Holy Week at Home, Part 1. This concludes the most important services of Holy Week that can be done as reader services.
You will also find a lot of answers to practical questions about how to do reader services on the Reader Service Horologion Page.
Holy Saturday Morning
(April 18th)
- You can do the 3rd, 6th, and 9th Hour, for Holy Saturday:
http://www.saintjonah.org/services/3rd6th9th_holysaturday_rs.doc
- Followed immediately by Typika and Vespers for Holy Saturday:
http://www.saintjonah.org/services/holysaturday_vespers_rs.doc
- Alternatively, you could just read the Holy Saturday Old Testament Readings:
http://www.saintjonah.org/services/holysat_readings.doc
- On Holy Saturday afternoon, or evening, you could read through the book of Acts, which is what is appointed by the Typikon.
- At about 11:30 p.m. on Holy Saturday, you would do the Midnight Office:
http://www.saintjonah.org/services/paschal_midnightoffice_rs.doc
- The Midnight Office is the last service of the Triodion, and we then immediately begin the services of Pascha. Paschal Matins is served at approximately 12:00 a.m., April 19th:
http://www.saintjonah.org/services/paschal_matins_rs.doc
- Then you do the Paschal Hours. If you were doing what the Typikon calls for, you would do this service three times, for the 1st, 3rd, and 6th hours. In parish practice, it is usually only done once.
http://www.saintjonah.org/services/paschalhours_rs.doc
Bright Week
- During Bright Week, the Paschal Hours are what we do for our morning and evening prayers. For more on how they can be sung, see:
https://fatherjohn.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-paschal-hours.html
- And then, in the place of the Paschal Liturgy, we do Typika:
http://www.saintjonah.org/services/typika_pascha.doc
- The above order of Typika incorporates the Festal Antiphons, and so is a bit more like the Paschal Liturgy. Fr. George Lardas has also put together the Typika according to the order found in the Slavonic Great Horologion, and he provides it in various languages, and combinations of languages:
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1-HaeJSqEnxFYbvnsuNB0RueAxmBMl7PR
- On the Afternoon of Pascha, you can serve the Agape Vespers:
http://www.saintjonah.org/services/agape_vespers_rs.doc - If doing the other Paschal services is too much, Typika is fairly simple, and the Paschal Hours are also short and simple, so you should at least do those services.
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Update: If you prefer ePub format, some of the above services have been converted to that format, and are available here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1nF7NEF3N6SxQf6jp-aReuNj1VwpuioZs
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Update 2: The Carpatho-Russian Diocese has a document that has some useful ideas for doing Holy Week at home, especially with children. It also has some icons at the end that with a color printer could be very useful for the services:
https://www.acrod.org/assets/files/PDFS/Bishop/2020-archpastoral/HOLY%20WEEK%20FROM%20HOME%20Letter%20Size.pdf
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This information is compliments of Fr. John Whiteford, and originally appeared on Fr. John's blog. The text has been slightly edited for formatting and readability.
