The Lamentations of the Great Saturday

  The Lamentations of the Great Saturday  

 The sources of our faith are the Holy Scripture and the Holy Tradition. And as Saint Paul says:...as it was handed down to us and we received.....

   So, in the route of time, we have the holy manners and customs, the sacred traditions and openings of devout souls, of those who love our faith and the divine things. These manners of theirs which come to pass and are expressive of the surplus of their love for God, are being accepted by the Church, as a part of the liturgical worship, since they help the soul in the spiritual warfare and in the efforts we put to shift from being in the image of God, to become in His likeness. 

 

   So, the Lamentations came to occupy an important place in worship, as an expression of piety, of longing, of faith, and of love for God. As an adoption of Christ‘s sacrifice on the Cross. And as an expression of participation in the Divine Passion, revealing the intensions and the efforts of the faithful ones, willing to struggle spiritualy.

The Lamentations, are mentioned to be sung in our Church since the 12th century. 

 

  The Greek word used for Lamentations is Εγκώμιa, (= engomia). That word literally means an admonitory sermon, a laudatory and exhortative hymn, conducted in procession with an entourage· 

 

  Τhe also so called “Engomia”, written by the Holy Fathers and referring to our Saints, are complimentary, instructive and praising homilies.

 

   Τhe Lamentations (in Greek engomia) of the Great Saturday are couplets which turn to be a lamentation, a mourning at the tomb, although nowhere in the gospels a lamentation is mentioned.

 

   Lamentations are of an average poetic merit. As for their theology and the nobility of their meanings they are inferior to the main, befitting God, service of that day, which is full of deep and high theological meanings. The hymnology of Great Saturday’s service is the resound of the Holy Spirit, 

the splendour of Orthodoxy, 

a descension of the Holy Spirit,

a gathering of the Holy Fathers, 

a choir of Highpriests, 

adornment of the priests,

glory of the monastics,

a result of ascetic and pure spiritual life, just like all the rest Holy services, and especially these of the Great and Holy Week. 

 

 All these draw the soul near to the One who was going up to Jerusalem, who was lifted up on the Cross at Golgotha, and Saint Ignatius the God-bearing's words are secretly expressed and experienced:…my beloved One is crucified, and I rush to partake of His Passion ....

 

   Τhe Lamentations reveal a simplicity of thoughts, a sentimental wealth, the eagerness of a soul that loves the Lord greatly. Sometimes they show an indignation against the unjustice and the conviction, and they somehow describe the Holy Passion as if it is something hate worthy and bad.

 

   But that is contrary, totally opposing and strange to the divine majesty, to the supreme love, to the voluntary acceptance of the divine Suffering and to the essence of the God-man who suffered for us voluntarily and who accepts everything in order to save man.

 

   Τhe meanings of Lamentations are somehow ... opposite to the meanings of the Troparia of the rest service and of the incarnate divine love.

 

  Christ, like a lamb that was led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb... He followed them and accepted the Passion.

 

   Anyway, Lamentations have been fervently welcomed by our faithful people, who feel compassion and sympathy for the divine Passion.

 

   They are divided in three stanzas, and each of them has a different number of Troparia. 

 

   The writer of the Lamentations, obviously versed in the ecclesiastical order, and especially in the monastic one, in the Typicon, has based his ouvre on the Amomos (Psalm 118), that marvelous Messianic psalm, which is the longest of all the psalms of the Psalter, and alone it forms a Kathisma. .

 

   That psalm is divided in three stanzas, just like all the Kathismata of the Psalter. So, the author of the Lamentations composed their Troparia accordingly  and he places before each Troparion of the Lamentations a verse of the 118th psalm...

 

e.g. He says...

 Blessed are the blameless in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord....(psalm 118, 1)

 

and then he puts a verse from the Lamentations....

e.g...

Christ, the life, you were laid in the tomb .....

 

   Then, the second verse of the psalm:...

...Blessed are those who search out His testimonies...

 

And again he puts the next Troparion of the Lamentations.

 

    This way, as many verses as the first, the second  an the third stanza of the psalm has, the same number of Troparia, verses do the three stanzas of the Lamentations have. 

 

   In each stanza, the priest conducts a petition, the small Litany, and after the final words that he reads out, he begins the following stanza himself and the choir continues.  

 

  Our PANAGIA seems to have the main and leading role in the Troparia and in the expressions of the Lamentations, which,  of course, are not HER words and phrases but the hymnographer's ones, who tries to make us elaborate and understand the heart and the soul of PANAGIA, as for the humane side.

 

   But, PANAGIA did not say a single word on Golgotha.  She had the fourth Cross of Golgotha pinned in Her heart, but being a participant in the work of Her Son and God, she keeps quiet  in a spiritual and divine nobility and magnitude.

 

  But it really thrills us when we sing the words that the composer puts in Her sacred lips:...O !!!!! My sweet springtime, my sweetest Child…

 

  Besides their simplicity some times we encounter a theological depth and some important messages in the Lamentations, like when we chant the :...

   Like the Pelican, when you were pierced your side O, Word, You bestowed live to your dead young, pouring out on them life giving fountains.

 

 What does it mean?

 

Pelican is the most affectionate bird. When it finds itself in need and it cannot provide food to nourish its young, it peckes at its side, the blood poures out and the pelican feeds its young with it· Of course,  the mother pelican may bleed to death, but the young are saved.

 

   This kind of affectionate love does the hymnographer attribute to Christ, who did the same thing in a godly and sacrificial manner and as befits God, He made immortal the humane nature· we were dead in sins, He was pierced His Divine side, His Blood poured out and he handed it to us as a drink for eternal life. 

 

   After the end of the third stanza, we continue by  singing the resurrective Benedictions (Evloyeetaria), slowly .

 

  The Lamentations are sung and prayed at the beginning of the service, after the Six-psalms, the hymn “God is Lord and has appeared to us…” and after the dismissal Hymns (Apolytikia), in the place where the psalter would have been recited, where the 118th psalm should have been prayed.

 

  Τhe whole Psalter (the book of Psalms of David) is recited in its entirety within the Great and Holy Week, until the Great Wednesday. Then, it stops until the Saturday of the Renewal week, and it begins at that day’s Vespers of St.Thomas feast...

 

   The whole psalter is prayed except the 118th psalm, which is put in the service of Great Saturday’s Matins at the Lamentations. 

 

   According to the monastic order, when the Lamentations and the 118th psalm are sung, the priest censes at every single verse round the Epitaphios, which in the monasteries is plain and simple, adorned on a table.

The duration of the Lamentations is one hour and ten minutes. 

 

   The verses of all the three stanzas of the 118th psalm are 176, and the Troparia of the Lamentations are equal to them. Then we add those prefixed with :...Glory to the Father... Both now...of the three stanzas, as well as those repeated ones, so they arrive to the total of 185.

 

   In parishes for short and due to practical reasons, the have chosen some Troparia from each stanza, and these are being sung by the choir, or by the cantors.

 

   What is really touching is that the faithful people and especially the youths are longing eagerly and await for the Lamentations. In this way, the deep roots of our faith are revealed which cannot be distorted no matter what distortions some people try to bring in .

 

   Let us settle our life and walk according to the law and the commandments of the Lord, so that our soul may become a suitable place,  like the furnished upper room, for Christ to dine our offered goods to Him, which are faith, piety and a correct route of life. This way Pascha and the mystical sacrifice comes true and our soul becomes a place receiving our Creator and our Maker. .

 

evloghite, 

Christ is risen...

truly the Lord is risen.