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Meditations for Holy Week: Dying and Rising with Christ
Unknown Binding
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 5, 2021
It was an inspirational guide on how to participate from Palm Sunday to Pascha, daily. It helped shift my focus onto Christ and the fulfillment of his promise to eternal life from the Old Testament to the New. It brought clarity on why certain hymnography is sung and why. It made the celebration of Pascha more meaningful and celebratory spiritually and emotionally. Christ Is Risen!
April 12, 2026
Beautiful insight into each service of each day of Holy Week. Gives more perspective to be able to connect with Pascha and appreciate the tiredness and struggle of Holy Week. It truly is the most beautiful time of the year. This book is great to read each day to preview each service. I’ll be returning to this book each year.
May 5, 2023
EXCELLENT book on Orthodox Holy Week. This is definitely one that is easy to read the portions for each day during the week itself.
April 16, 2023
It was so good at providing context and super helpful to dive into the depths of meaning and help with the understanding of all the services and structure that make up Holy Week.
Really appreciated his style and clarity. Will definitely be reading his Advent book this Christmas and his reflections on Lent next year!
Really appreciated his style and clarity. Will definitely be reading his Advent book this Christmas and his reflections on Lent next year!
May 4, 2019
Great book for anyone who wants to have a closer walk with God. Especially any Orthodox Christian walking through Holy Week. I read it every year.
May 4, 2024
A quick and simple must-read for Holy Week. I may just have to pull this out every year!
April 5, 2025
A revealing look into the meaning and rhythm of every service during Holy Week. Very informative and thought provoking.
April 12, 2026
Beautiful and easily digestible walk through Holy Week, including commentary on all the major services of the Week, leading up to, and including the great Easter vigil and Paschal Liturgy of the Holy Orthodox Church. Should make for a great annual reference or a quick read each year entering this most Holy Week.
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April 25, 2023Timely and a helpful worship tool to fully enter into Lent and Holy Week. Grateful for Papavassiliou and his sacred words that prompted reflection, confession, and worship.
April 2, 2014
Meditations for Holy Week is the third book in Fr. Vassilos Papavassiliou's "Meditations" series, with the previous two being Meditations for Great Lent and Meditations for Advent. The book is divided into two parts. Part I is "The Bridegroom Service," which covers Great and Holy Monday through Great and Holy Wednesday and Part II is "The Lord's Passion, Death, and Resurrection," which covers Great and Holy Thursday through Great and Holy Pascha.
The book is rich with hymns and readings from the liturgical services of Holy Week, which Fr. Papavassiliou meditates on to draw us deeper into this most sacred week of the Church year. Many will focus on Thursday through Sunday as this is where the "joyful sorrow" reaches its pinnacle with the Crucifixion and Resurrection. That is perfectly fine. There are sections in this book that all Christians, not just Orthodox, would do well to read, particularly Chapter 9 "The Suffering Servant." Many Christians and non-Christians have the wrong idea about Christ's words, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Fr. Papavassiliou first explains that this was a cry of pain. Christ was both fully divine and fully human after all, so to imagine that He experienced no pain on the cross is absurd. We then receive the explanation of Christ's words. He was not despairing, but instead was praying or reciting Psalm 21/22. This psalm is a prophecy of His Crucifixion, but it is not a psalm of despair. Christ was not murdered, but freely sacrificed His life for our salvation.
Despite the depth and beauty of Thursday through Sunday, I felt myself being drawn more to the meditations for Monday through Wednesday. As a Roman Catholic, we don't focus on these days much in our liturgical year. They just kind of blend into Lent until Holy Thursday arrives. For that reason, it was interesting to read how the Orthodox celebrate during this time. I was truly fascinated by the Parable of the Ten Virgins and the theme of Christ as the Bridegroom. Since the Bridegroom theme is one that focuses on Christ's Second Coming, we don't usually make the connection of Lent and Second Coming. However, we must be reminded that "The Suffering Servant will come again as Judge, and so we are exhorted to repent that we may not be shut out of 'the bridal chamber' of Christ (the Kingdom of heaven)."
This is the perfect meditation book to get you through Holy Week and is a worthy companion piece to Meditations for Great Lent. Fr. Papavassiliou once again shows himself to be a brilliant mind. He conveys the beauty of the Church seasons in easy to understand language and does so without watering down the message. We can only hope that he continues this series and give us a Meditations for Pascha or Meditations for the Twelve Great Feasts. Five stars.
The book is rich with hymns and readings from the liturgical services of Holy Week, which Fr. Papavassiliou meditates on to draw us deeper into this most sacred week of the Church year. Many will focus on Thursday through Sunday as this is where the "joyful sorrow" reaches its pinnacle with the Crucifixion and Resurrection. That is perfectly fine. There are sections in this book that all Christians, not just Orthodox, would do well to read, particularly Chapter 9 "The Suffering Servant." Many Christians and non-Christians have the wrong idea about Christ's words, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Fr. Papavassiliou first explains that this was a cry of pain. Christ was both fully divine and fully human after all, so to imagine that He experienced no pain on the cross is absurd. We then receive the explanation of Christ's words. He was not despairing, but instead was praying or reciting Psalm 21/22. This psalm is a prophecy of His Crucifixion, but it is not a psalm of despair. Christ was not murdered, but freely sacrificed His life for our salvation.
Despite the depth and beauty of Thursday through Sunday, I felt myself being drawn more to the meditations for Monday through Wednesday. As a Roman Catholic, we don't focus on these days much in our liturgical year. They just kind of blend into Lent until Holy Thursday arrives. For that reason, it was interesting to read how the Orthodox celebrate during this time. I was truly fascinated by the Parable of the Ten Virgins and the theme of Christ as the Bridegroom. Since the Bridegroom theme is one that focuses on Christ's Second Coming, we don't usually make the connection of Lent and Second Coming. However, we must be reminded that "The Suffering Servant will come again as Judge, and so we are exhorted to repent that we may not be shut out of 'the bridal chamber' of Christ (the Kingdom of heaven)."
This is the perfect meditation book to get you through Holy Week and is a worthy companion piece to Meditations for Great Lent. Fr. Papavassiliou once again shows himself to be a brilliant mind. He conveys the beauty of the Church seasons in easy to understand language and does so without watering down the message. We can only hope that he continues this series and give us a Meditations for Pascha or Meditations for the Twelve Great Feasts. Five stars.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews