I AM THE
RESURRECTION
AND THE
LIFE
As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you; continue ye in My love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love. These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.
Saint John 15:11 KJV
Rejoice, thou who makest manifest
the life of the Angels.
HOLY & GREAT THURSDAY
THE MYSTCAL SUPPER
• Holy Martyr Matrona of Thessalonica
FAST DAY
March 27/ April 9 ns 2026
GREAT THURSDAY MORNING
during the Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil, we commemorate our Savior's establishment of Holy Communion during the Mystical Supper wherein He proclaims that the bread and wine become His Body and Blood given to us for Eternal Life. We are also reminded of the betrayal by Judas Iscariot and Christ's vigil in the Garden of Gethsemane.
GREAT THURSDAY EVENING
retells the entire story of Christ's Passion through the reading of the twelve Gospel lessons. After the fifth Gospel reading, the Crucifixion is re-enacted when the priest carries the Crucifix in procession and places It in the center of the Church for veneration. The following Antiphon is chanted.
Today is suspended upon the Tree, He who suspended the earth over the waters. x3
A crown of thorns crowns Him, who is the King of the angels.
He is wrapped in the purple robe of mockery, who wraps the heavens with clouds.
He receives smiting, who freed Adam in the Jordan.
He is transfixed with nails, Who is the Son of the Virgin.
We worship Thy passion, O Christ. x3
Show us also Thy glorious Resurrection!
Photo: Where they laid Him
Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Jerusalem
1962
It is not meet for you to be unknown Holy Martyr Matrona even though you died secretly in prison.
As an orphan girl Matrona was a servant in the home of a Jew in Thessalonica.
The wife of the Jew continuously mocked Matrona because of her faith in Christ and tried to persuade her to deny Christ and to attend the synagogue. But the meek Matrona went about her work conscientiously and did not say anything to her mistress. But in secret she prayed to Christ the God.
On one occasion the Jewess discovered that Matrona was attending church unbeknown to her and, in anger, questioned her as to why she did not attend the synagogue rather than the church? To that, Matrona replied, "Because in the Christian churches, God lives and He withdraws from the Jewish synagogues." Furious, because of this type of bold reply, the Jewess beat Matrona, locked her up in a dark room, and, in addition to that, bound her hands. The next day as she was kneeling in prayer and glorifying God, her ropes had fallen off by the power of God.
Afterwards, on two occasions, she was locked up again and, in the end, died of starvation. This evil Jewish woman then took the body of this holy maiden and hurled it to the ground from the heights of her home. Christians took the body of this martyr and buried it with honors. Alexander the bishop, learning of the many miraculous works of this holy martyr, erected a church over her grave. The evil Jewess received her just punishment when she slipped, fell to the pavement, and was smashed to death from the same spot at the top of the house from which she hurled down Matrona's body.
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