A blessed Paschaltide to all!
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
So many of our ERite brethren know little about the Orthodox WRite and so I just thought I'd share here some of the riches of the Paschal Vigil here. It really is a beautiful service.
The Vigil begins between sunset on Holy Saturday night and ends before sunrise on the morning of Pascha. When the service begins, the church is in complete darkness. A tall candle - in former times about 36 ft. tall, but nowadays more usually about 3 ft. - is stationed at the east end of the quire. On it are carved a Cross, the letter Alpha above and the letter Omega below the Cross, and the digits of the current year between the arms of the Cross. This symbolises Christ as the beginning and the end, and his glorious Resurrection transcending all time.
In silence, the priest, ministers and people gather outside, the people with unlit candles in their hands. Five grains of incense are exorcised and then blessed with numerous prayers, and they are sprinkled with holy water. A bonfire is struck from flint and is then blessed and sprinkled with hoy water. Charcoal is taken from the fire and placed in the thurible. A taper on a spear is lit from the New Fire, symbolising the new light of the risen Christ, and the priest and people move in procession into the church, singing the hymn Thou leader kind, whose word called forth the radiant light.
By the light of the taper, the deacon, having received a blessing from the priest, faces north towards the unlighted Paschal Candle and sings the Exultet, the people gathered round about, still carrying their unlighted candles.
The Exultet is a splendid hymn in honour of the Resurrection. The deacon begins by calling on all creation to give praise to God, and then he asks those present to pray for him, so that he may receive the grace to proclaim the good news of the Resurrection. He then goes into the second part, in which he praises God for his mighty acts in the salvation history of mankind, and then invokes God's blessing on the tall Paschal Candle. I have tried to make some recordings of myself singing the first part of it. However, the plainsong is very complex and I was not able to master the whole thing. The recordings are here and here, and the text is here:
Rejoice now, all ye heavenly hosts of angels:
and let the divine Mysteries be celebrated:
and for so great a monarch victorious, sound the trumpet of salvation.Let the earth, brightened with such effulgence, delight herself,
and illumined by the splendour of the eternal King,
perceive the darkness of the universe to be done away.And let our Mother the Church rejoice,
brighten'd by the radiance of so great a light!
And let these courts resound with the mighty voices of the people.Wherefore, I pray and beseech you, beloved brethren,
attending the glorious brightness of this illumination,
that ye call with one accord upon the loving-kindness of our God, merciful and mighty.
That He, Who hath deigned graciously to number me, the most unworthy of his servants,
among the order of deacons,
would pour upon me the light of his Holy Spirit,
that I may worthily perform this sacred Paschal office.Through his Son Jesus Christ, our only Lord and Saviour,
Who with the Father liveth and reigneth, One God,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever,
world without end. Amen.The Lord be with you.
And with thy spirit.Lift up your hearts.
We lift them up unto the Lord.Let us give thanks unto our Lord God.
It is meet and right so to do.It is very meet and right, to proclaim with desire of heart and mind,
the invisible God omnipotent, the Father, and his Only-Begotten Son with the Holy Spirit.For He did pay for us the debt of Adam to the eternal Father,
and blotted out the old sin in his holy blood.For this is the Paschal Feast in which that very Lamb is slain,
and by his blood the doorposts are hallowed.This is the night in which thou madest our fathers, the children of Israel,
whom thou broughtest up out of Egypt,
to pass through the Red Sea dry-shod.This, therefore, is the night wherein were driven away the shades of sin
by the light of the pillar.O thrice-blessed night!
in which Egypt is utterly destroyed
and the Hebrews triumph;
night in which heavenly things are joined unto earthly.This is the night which even now restores to grace
and unites the believers in Christ throughout the universe,
set free from the evil of the world and the darkness of sin.This is the night in which Christ burst the bonds of death,
and from the grave is risen in triumph.For it had advantaged us nothing to be born,
except we had been redeemed.O wondrous condescension of thy love concerning us!
O inestimable love of thy fatherly compassion:
to redeem rebel servants thou didst give thine only Son!O truly blessed night! which alone was witness of the hour and season
wherein Christ perfected his Resurrection!This is the night whereof it is written, "The night is as clear as the day",
and, "My night is turned to day in my joy and gladness".Therefore, through the sanctifying power of this night
wickedness flieth, sin is purged,
and innocence restored to the fallen, and joy to the sorrowful;
hatred vanisheth, peaceful concord reigneth, low laid is tyranny.The five grains of incense are here inserted into the Paschal Candle in the form of a Cross, representing the glorious wounds by which we are redeemed.
Therefore, in honour of this night, receive, holy Father,
this illumination as our evening sacrifice,
which to Thee in this solemn oblation of wax, the work of the bees, thy creatures,
the Holy Church offereth at the hands of thy ministers.Full well we know the tidings of this fiery pillar,
which in honour of God the glowing flame is kindling.The Paschal candle is lighted from the taper, and from the Candle, the people's candles and all lights in the church shall be lighted. While the light is spreading through the midst of the faithful, the deacon continues:
Though it be dispersed in many quarters by borrowed radiance,
yet it suffereth no diminution; nourished it is by melting wax
brought forth for sustenance to this precious shining luminary by the labour of the bee.We pray Thee, O Lord, that this candle, consecrated to the honour of thy Name,
may last unfailing for the dispersing of the darkness of this night.Being acceptable for its sweet odour, let it be mingled with the lights above.
Let the morning star find it still burning, to wit that morning star which knoweth no setting;
yea He Who returned from the grave, and shone serene upon mankind.We, therefore, pray thee, O Lord, that unto thy servants, all the clergy and most devout people,
together with our Archbishop N. and our King N. and likewise our Bishop N.
Thou wilt grant quietness of times, and that in these Paschal joys, Thou wilt be pleased to preserve us:Who ever livest and reignest, governest, and also art praised, God, alone, only,
the Most High, Jesu Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father.
Amen.
After the Exultet, a series of Old Testament readings are read, calling to mind God's acts of salvation of his people from the Creation and throughout the Old Testament period. (Incidentally, these readings are largely the same as those in the ERite Liturgy of S. Basil on Holy Saturday). Each reading is followed by a tract (some psalm verses related to the reading) and a prayer.
After this, the Litany of the Saints is sung while the priest and others make their way to the font in procession, and those to be baptised and chrismated come forward for those Sacraments. There is an elborate blessing of the waters, filled with the imagery of regeneration and new life in the Risen Christ, and the Paschal Candle (if not too large) is involved in the blessing ceremonies.
After this, the priest and ministers process back to the altar during the hymn Thou, the holy angels' King. Then the Divine Liturgy begins. It is the first Eucharist of the Resurrection, and so is slightly different from the usual Divine Liturgy. Some differences are:
- that, near the beginning of the Liturgy, the priest solemnly intones the first "Alleluia" of Pascha. In the WRite the word Alleluia is suppressed in all liturgical texts during Lent, to be sung joyfully at Pascha.
- during the hymn Gloria in excelsis Deo bells are rung. This hymn, also usually a part of the Liturgy, is suppresed during Lent, and no bells are rung at all after Maundy Thursday until Pascha.
- Alleluia is added to the dismissal of the people at the end, by the deacon.
I hope that helps to give some sort of flavour of the nature of the Paschal celebration in the WRite.
Blessed be God!