the Saturday of Lazarus, ‘Today Bethany proclaims beforehand the — Lenten Triodion

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Resurrection of Christ.’ ‘Today Christ enters the Holy City’ , we affirm on Palm Sunday. ‘Today Christ comes to the house of the Pharisee’ , we state on Holy Wednesday, ‘and the sinful woman draws near and falls down at His feet. . . . Today Judas makes a covenant with the chief priests.’ ‘Today the Master of Creation stands before Pilate’ , we say on Great Friday: ‘ . . . Today He who hung the earth upon the waters is hung upon the Cross.’ So also at Easter Midnight we affirm: ‘ Yesterday I was buried with Thee, O Christ, and today I rise with Thine arising. Yesterday I was crucified with Thee. . . . ’ We shall not understand the meaning o f these last two weeks in the Triodion unless we listen to this word Today that

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resounds at each service. It is not a mere metaphor or an instance of poetic licence, but embodies a specific spiritual experience. All that was witnessed by the crowds in Holy Week, all the words addressed to the disciples, all the sufferings undergone by Christ - these are all to be experienced here and now by me.3

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Holy W eek (in its entirety). Altogether this represents about two-thirds of the total contents of the Triodion. At one point only have we departed from the Jordanville selection: whereas the Velikii Sbornik omits the Canon at Com pline for the Saturday of Lazarus, we have included this because of its great importance both doctrinally and liturgically.

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P R E SE N T T R A N S L A T IO N

scan noise in the printed source

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Omitted from our translation are the offices for the following days: