Holy Week is the last week of Holy Great Lent. This is the time for which every Christian believer has a special thrill, because it is during Passion Week that the Church remembers the last days of the Savior's earthly life.
The very naming of the last week before the Bright Resurrection of Christ as Passion Week indicates that the last week of Great Lent is dedicated to the passions (sufferings) of Christ. In large Cathedrals, temples and monasteries, daily services begin. In smaller parishes, services begin on Wednesday (from the day when the Church remembers the betrayal of Christ by Judas). However, all the days of Holy Week have a meaning and deep meaning for a believer.
The Gospels give us indications of the following events in the last week of the earthly life of the Lord Jesus Christ. On Great Monday, Christ expelled the merchants from the temple, urging them not to make a "den of robbers" out of the house of God. The temple, first of all, is a place of prayer, however, in the New Testament times of the earthly life of the Savior, the Jerusalem temple was a house of trade. Then Christ healed the sick in the temple. Also, the Evangelist Matthew tells about the curse of the barren fig tree and about the important words of Christ that everyone who has strong faith can even move mountains.
On Great Tuesday, the Lord announced to the disciples some of the signs of His second coming. Jesus Christ prophesied about wars, natural disasters, and the appearance of various false prophets. An important gospel story of Christ was the story of the sacrifice of a poor widow, who was able to donate a negligible amount for the temple (two mites). Christ drew the attention of the apostles to the fact that the widow made a feasible sacrifice to God not from material abundance, but from her heart.
Passionate Wednesday is the time of the betrayal of Jesus Christ by Judas. One of the twelve closest disciples of the Savior sold his Teacher for thirty pieces of silver.
Holy Maundy Thursday is a special day for every Orthodox Christian. It was on this day that the sacrament of holy communion by the Lord Jesus Christ was established. At present, believers are trying to partake of the holy mysteries of Christ on this day in memory of the establishment of the Eucharist. On Holy Thursday, Jesus Christ performed a prayer to God the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane. During prayer, the Lord asked that the cup of suffering should pass Him, however, the Savior humbly accepted the will of God the Father. This important point clearly expresses the teaching of the Orthodox Church that in the Lord Jesus Christ there were two natures - the divine and the human. As a man Christ was afraid of death, it was unnatural for Him (the Lord did not commit a single sin). However, human will and human nature in Christ takes upon itself the proper great feat of suffering for the sins of all mankind.
Good Friday is the day of a cosmic tragedy. This day is considered the most severe fasting period in the life of a believer, because it is on Good Friday that the Creator accepts death from his creation. The Lord Jesus Christ dies on the cross for the sins of mankind. On Good Friday, a great atoning sacrifice is offered to the entire Holy Trinity for the sins of all people.
Orthodox tradition says that the Great Passion Saturday is the time when Christ was in hell. There, the Lord preached to the dead people, after which the Savior led the people who believed in Him out of hell, thereby giving humanity the opportunity to regain paradise.
