We are at very dramatic moment in our liturgical commemoration of the Lord’s life with His Passion and death on the cross. The Triodion makes the comment that “On the Great and Holy Friday we commemorate the holy, saving and awesome sufferings of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ…”

Let us pray for one another and ask the Holy Spirit the ways we can enter more deeply into the Lord’s Saving Passion. The focus of tonight’s service are the 6 narratives of the Passion; in some places you will hear 12 Gospels. What will happen tonight is not a Divine Liturgy (a Mass) but a service of prayer consisting in the psalms, liturgical poetic texts, proclamation of the Gospel narratives pertaining to the Lord’s Passion and the procession and veneration of the Life-giving Cross.