“We have already arrived at the last week of Great Lent. The piety of our people has named it “Silent” or “Deaf”, because during it there are no Salutations to the Theotokos. But there is another reason that such a week exists. The nickname is not at all by accident.

It is a time for us to prepare to follow our Lord to his Passion. It is a Passion which our Lord approached with silence. For three years He spoke. He taught. He healed. Now He is silent! He responds to all the accusations against Him with His silence. He walks the path towards His martyrdom as one who is deaf. No response. No condemnation.

Now, we are in a similar position. On a path towards a martyrdom. Towards our own Golgotha. Why not imitate Him? Why should we continuously talk by commenting on others, judging and condemning? Why on such holy days should we do the devil a favor and add more weight to our soul? We will ascend Golgotha which is before us. We will suffer our own “Cross”.

We will also need to endure our own “tomb”. But afterwards will come the Resurrection. This is our future. A Good Pascha! A Good Resurrection!!”

By Archimandrite Parthenios D. Asemides, Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Siderokastro, 

Translated by John Sanidopoulos, A Time for Silence

Adult/Family:

“Despite the thousand obstacles arising from our distracted and futile way of life, having overcome the languidness and sloth of our soul, at last we manage to approach the Holy Chalice, and our Lord receives us as ‘communicants’, participants in the Holy Supper. This participation and communion are a great joy and a great source of strength. But we must not deceive ourselves. After the Last Supper the severest temptations awaited Christ’s disciples: before their very eyes the Divine Master whom they had recognized to be the Christ, the Messiah, the future king of Israel and of the world, the Son of God, was seized, subjected to a humiliating trial, tortured and publicly executed as a criminal in the company of thieves, thus demonstrating His helplessness in the face of human wickedness. And only after having passed through this temptation did the disciples become worthy of the dazzling light of Holy Easter.

We too meet temptation when we leave the church, warmed by our prayers and by the prayers of those who have prayed there before us, and emerge into the darkness and cold of the outside world. The temptations of that outside world and the greatest temptations of all – those within our own soul – are waiting for us.

May Christ, to whom we are bound by the closest ties, help us to overcome and to remain victorious over these temptations, and to preserve our joy until next Easter, and even until that Easter when we shall taste the new wine in the day of the kingdom of heaven that shall have no evening….”

Excerpted from The Diary of a Russian Priest, p132-133

Preschool/Elementary:

Print out (double sided along long edge), read and color this Holy Week and Pascha Booklet.

Find all of our resources for Holy Week here for coloring pages, information and activities: Holy Week and Pascha Resources

How the Holy Light Descends Upon the Holy Sepulchre

Middle/High School:

“At Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, when the enthusiastic crowds came out to meet him, there was a tragic hidden misunderstanding. Christ was going to voluntary suffering, while the crowds welcomed the beginning of His reign upon earth. The people were impressed by miracles, they had been fed by loaves, they wanted power and authority extended over them.

Christ could now do everything within the limits of ‘this world’, but the people who brought him adulation and honors did not bring him that which was essential – souls tempered by repentance, converted, transfigured.

In what spirit do we meet Christ? Do we not expect bread from Him, miracles on the material level, and do we not ourselves continue in our previous way of life, carnal and vain? But we have more than they, we have Golgotha, the Cross and the Resurrection of the Saviour, and this commits us to a different way of meeting Him.

Let us then bring to Him and place at His feet our contrition for the sin of our heart, our thirst for purification and for participation in ‘the life of the age to come.’ “

Excerpted from The Diary of a Russian Priest, p145

Watch this video which takes you on a tour of the Holy Sites of Jerusalem.

Read this Liturgical Explanation of Holy Week by Fr. Alexander Schmemann.