I would slightly digress in this article on the Divine Liturgy as we enter into the Great and Holy Week for a special reason. This year we also celebrate the feast of the Annunciation on Great and Good Friday. The Annunciation, as I am sure everyone knows, celebrates God’s great act of becoming incarnate – of becoming a human being. It is the feast that truly marks the beginning of God’s revelation to us about the real meaning and purpose of life. Unlike the Western Church, our Eastern Church does not transfer the feast to another day but, rather, combines the feast with Great and Good Friday. I believe the symbolism of celebrating these two events in salvation history together is very powerful. God became human so that He might reveal to us something very important about human life, namely that it is immortal. He also endured death as a human in order to dispel the greatest fear that most humans have, namely the fear of death. Death has no dominion over humankind. The last time this happened was in 2005. It seems to happen every 75-100 years.

Our Greek-Catholic Church, as well as other Eastern Catholic Churches, see no conflict in celebrating these two very important events together. Some question how you can serve a “joyous” feast with a feast of the greatest “sorrow.” It is all about celebrating life. Life is a unique combination of joy and sorrow. Life is given to us in order to learn how to handle joy and sorrow. What I believe is manifested by our tradition of celebrating the two feasts together is twofold: (1) God’s great love for humankind, and (2) the power given to humans to face the challenges of life with nobility and courage. Both Jesus and Mary demonstrate that the most challenging things of life can be dealt with if only we have faith and trust in God. Therefore I think that the celebration of these two events in the life of Christ together is meaningful and wondrous.

Our celebration will include the Divine Liturgy of John Chrysostom and the Burial Service. Typically the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated on Great and Good Friday but, since the Feast of the Annunciation is celebrated, we combine the Vespers of Good Friday with the Liturgy of the Annunciation. Hopefully this unique celebration will provoke great reflection from all.