the vigil service of Palm Sunday, in order to celebrate Holy Week

together with their brethren. In isolated Orthodox parishes through­ out the western world, something similar occurs each year. Scat­ tered members of the parish community, living far from the church and scarcely ever able to attend the services at other times, start to appear in church at the vigil service before Palm Sunday, and as Holy Week continues their numbers steadily increase. Like the monks of ancient Palestine, we in the twentieth century can also say with truth on Palm Sunday, ‘Today the grace of the Holy Spirit has gathered us together. . . . ’ (c)

in the Tone o f the weeky and the Canon to the saint o f the day from the Menaion. The Midnight Office is also said in the cells. 4 Col. i : 26; 2 Cor. 8 : 9 5 2 Pet. 1 : 4 ; Gen. 3: $.

I f the Feast o f the Annunciation fa lls on this day9 the Service o f the

baptismal character, reflecting the period when this sacrament was administered on Easter night. The texts at Vespers are dominated by

the three connected themes of Passover, Resurrection and baptismal

on which we sing

initiation. O f the fifteen Old Testament readings - constituting the final stage in the teaching imparted to the catechumens before they were baptized - readings 3, £, 6 and 10 refer directly or symboli­ cally to the Passover; readings 4, 7, 8, 12 and 15· refer to the Resur­ rection; and readings 4, 6, 14 and 1 g refer symbolically to Baptism.