I have often pondered within myself why our fathers, having passed by the prayer houses that stand within the city, ordained that today we should gather outside the city, and there hold the divine service. Surely they did not do this without cause or in vain. I sought the reason—and by the grace of God,…
On the same Great Friday of Passion Week: a homily on the taking down of the Lord from the Cross, His burial, and the lamentation of the Most Holy Mother of God. Today let us praise the noble Joseph together with the myrrh-bearing women, for he ministered to the body of Christ after the Crucifixion….
On Holy and Great Friday, by our holy father Ephraim the Syrian, on the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. I tremble to speak with my tongue and to touch upon the awesome account of the Savior—for it is a fearful thing to speak of this. For today, our God has been delivered into the…
Great Friday is the day of the saving sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, offered for the salvation of the world. Seized by the Jerusalem guard at the command of the high priests, condemned by the Sanhedrin and handed over to Roman authority, the Eternal Son of God—the incarnate Word, the One of the Holy…