Great environment

In Luke and John, the story of the anointing of Jesus by the world does not belong to the Great environment; the story of Mark coincides with Matthew.

After this, Satan entered Judah ( Luke 22: 3 ) and he went to the high priests “to betray Him to them. They, having heard, were delighted, and promised to give him pieces of silver. And he sought, as it were, at a convenient time, to betray Him ” ( Mark 14: 10-11 ).

Orthodox Church

Matins

Matins are performed according to the order of Lenten, that is, after the sixth psalm, Hallelujah is sung with verses. Then the special troparion of the first three days of Holy Week “ Behold the Bride is Coming at Midnight ” is performed three times:

Behold the Bridegroom is coming at midnight, and the slave is blessed, the watchful one will show him: he is not worthy of the pack, but the one who is discouraged will see him. watch for my soul, you shall not be burdened with sleep, and you shall not be put to death, and the kingdom will be shut up outside, but perceive those calling: Holy, Holy, Holy God, have mercy on the Virgin Mary ^[3] .

Transfer

Now, the Bridegroom ( that is, Christ ) comes at midnight. Blessed is the slave whom He finds awake, and unworthy the one He finds sleeping. Be careful, my soul, so as not to be weighed down by sleep, to be put to death, and to remain outside the closed doors of the Kingdom. But rise, calling out: Holy, holy, holy, God bless us, by the prayers of the Virgin have mercy on us.

This troparion, being a reminiscence of the parable of the ten virgins , reminds believers of the Last Judgment and calls them to spiritual wakefulness. During the singing of the troparion, the censorship of the temple and worshipers is performed according to the custom (absent from the Typicon ).

After reading the rank-and-file kathisma from the Psalter, the gospel is offered to those who pray, predicting Christ's atoning death on the cross and the foundation of the Church among the Gentiles ( John 12: 17-50 ). The canon of Matins of the Great Wednesday is a trippite (that is, it contains only three songs out of nine possible: the third, eighth and ninth) of Cosmas Mayumsky . After the ninth song of the canon, the expostillarium (luminaries) of the first four days of Holy Week is sung three times: “ Your hall, I see my Savior ” (reminiscence of the parable of the marriage feast ).

Thy Hall Your Savior is mine, adorned, and there is no imam, but hell stinks: enlighten the garment of my soul to the Sovereign, and save me.

Transfer

I see Your decorated ( marriage ) chamber, the Savior, but I do not have ( worthy ) clothing to enter it. Enlighten the clothes of my soul, Giving light, and save me.

The palace mentioned in the exapostillarium is, according to the interpreters, the chamber of the Last Supper , and the prayers are invited, therefore, to think about how worthy they are to be witnesses and participants in the events of Holy Week. The charter stipulates that this important exostalion should be performed by the canonarch in the middle of the church with a candle in his hands, and worshipers will bow down.

Clock

On Great Wednesday (like Great Mondays and Tuesdays ), watches are modeled after the Lenten - with earthly bows on troparia every hour and at the prayer of Ephraim the Syrian . The features of these three days are:

• Reading the gospel every hour. The typicon proposes to read the four Gospels in full during these three days (with the exception of the account of the Passion of Christ ). In modern parish practice, reading the Gospel on a watch begins much earlier - on the second week of Lent, so that the Gospel of John is already read on Great Wednesday.
• At the sixth hour, it is not the Book of Isaiah (as on the weekdays of the six previous weeks) that is read, but the first chapters of the prophet Ezekiel . A passage from Ez is read on Great Wednesday . 2: 3-10 and Ezek. 3: 1-3 - Ezekiel is sent by the Lord with a sermon to the people "with a rude face and a cruel heart " and eats a scroll with the words " crying, groaning and grief ."

At the 9th hour, the Great Holiness is celebrated as a great supper , while the Typicon specifically indicates that the worshipers listen to the hollow, bowing low to the ground. After the leave, the rite of forgiveness is performed, similar to that laid on the Vespers of Forgiveness Sunday , in which the primate and the prayers mutually ask each other for forgiveness for the past time of the Pentecost . Russian officials of the 17th century prescribe to perform the rite of forgiveness at the hierarchal service, with the gospel ; in modern practice, the rite of forgiveness is performed, but it is not emphasized in a special way ^[4] .

Liturgy

On Great Wednesday, for the last time during Great Lent, the liturgy of the blessed gifts is celebrated . 10 stichera on “ Lord Cries ” is devoted to two topics: the repentance of a sinner who washed the tears of the Savior’s feet , and the betrayal plotted by Judas . The selflessness of the harlot and the love of money of the closest student, the salvation of one and the death of the other are opposed to each other, for example, the third stichera says:

If a sinful priroshasha, miro, then the student agrees to be unlawful. Ovaya ubo rejoices, exhausting the world of great value; the same vain to sell the priceless. This is the Lord to know, and this is separated from the Lord. This is free, and Judah is a slave to the enemy. Fiercely is laziness, the commandment of repentance, hedgehog to me, Savior, who suffered for us, and save us.

Transfer

When the sinner brought peace, then the disciple conspired with the lawless. She rejoiced, wasting a precious world; he was trying to sell Priceless. She was approaching the Lord, he was running away from Him. She was freed (from the power of sin), and he became a slave to the enemy. Horrible laziness, but great repentance, give him to me the Savior, who suffered for us, and save us

The most famous of the stichera of this cycle is the latter. Unlike previous stichera, the names of the authors of which were not preserved, she has an author - the Monk Cassius ( 9th century ). In this sticher, the repentant harlot is compared with Eve :

Lord, even in many sins, the falling wife, Yours, who felt the Divine, took the rank of myrrh-bearing women, weeping the world, before the burial brings you: alas! I feel like a night’s incitement to fornication is unrestrained, but a gloomy and moonless repentance of sin. Accept my sources of tears, like clouds produce sea water. Having bowed to my sigh of heart, bowed the heavens with your unspeakable exhaustion: let me kiss your purest nose, and wipe away the packs of my head of hair, even in paradise Eve, by noon, having uttered my ears with noise, I hid my fear. Who are many of my sins, and of the fate of Your abyss? My spiritual salvation, Save me, do not despise your slave, and have mercy beyond measure

Transfer

A woman who has indulged in many sins, Yours, Lord, who has felt the Divine nature, as a myrrh-bearing woman, weeping, brings You peace before burial, saying: Oh, woe to me! The fire of unrestrained fornication, the gloomy and moonless night of sin. Lean against my heart's sighs, He bowed the heavens with your unspeakable exhaustion, but I kiss your pure feet and wipe them with my hair - the very feet whose steps Eve heard in paradise disappeared in fear. Many of my sins and the abyss of thy fate who will see? The Savior of my soul, having immense mercy, do not despise Your slave.

The following Old Testament texts are offered as paremias :

• the story of Moses killing an offender-Egyptian, his flight from Egypt and living in the house of the Midianite Jethro ( Exodus 2: 11-22 ),
• Job's second temptation is defeat by leprosy , his faithfulness to God ( Job 2: 1-10 )

The first paremia symbolically represents Christ , delivering His people from slavery to sin (the offender, the Egyptian), rejected by His people (“ Who made you the leader and judge over us? ” ( Exodus 2:14 )) and the acquisition of a new people - the Church. The second paremia prepares believers to think about the sufferings of Christ , telling about the test of Job, who proved faithfulness to God even in an incurable disease. It should be noted that a passage from the book of Job is read at the service, containing the remarkably vivid words of Job's wife, which are present only in the Slavic Bible (they are not in the Septuagint , nor in the Vulgate , nor in the modern Synodal translation ):

But the time has passed much, his wife spoke to him with the following words: as long as you bear it, I will wait a little while, with more hope of my salvation. Your memory is required from the earth, thy son and daughters, my belly of illness and work, and laboring with diseases just the same: you yourself are in the pus of worms, sedish, worn out without cover, and are wandering and serving, the place from place is passing away, and house from house, waiting for the sun when it sets, yes even now from my labors, and from illnesses, even now they will contain me. But rts a certain verb to the Lord, and die

Transfer

After a long time, his wife said to him: how long will you endure? I'll wait a little while, waiting for the hope of my salvation. Thy memory of yours, your sons and your daughters, the diseases of my womb and the labors with which I worked in vain in sickness, was destroyed. You sit in pus with worms, having no shelter even at night. I wander and serve, moving from place to place, from house to house, and I expect the setting sun when I fall asleep from the labors and diseases that torment me. But damn God and die.

At the liturgy, the gospel story is read about the anointing of Jesus by the world in the house of Simon the leper and the betrayal of Judah ( Matthew 26: 6-16 )). The apostle is not read at the liturgy.

Before the dismissal at the Liturgy, the prayer of Ephraim the Syrian “ Lord and Lord of my belly ” is read for the last time (after the Great Wednesday, it is allowed to privately read by monks before Good Friday ). At the end of the service, a special leave is read: “The Coming Lord for our free passion for the sake of salvation, Christ, our true God, through the prayers of our Most Holy Most Holy Mater, the holy glorious and universal apostle, the holy righteous God-Father Joachim and Anna and all the saints ... ”.

Catholic Church

The first reading of the Liturgy of the word is from the book of Isaiah ( Isa. 50: 4-9 ), the gospel reading of this day ( Matthew 26: 14-25 ) tells of the betrayal of Judah and the prediction by Christ of his betrayal at the Last Supper. On Great Wednesday (or Great Thursday ), a special service is performed - “Tenebrae” (dark midnight office), which is served in a dark temple and consists of biblical readings and readings of the Church Fathers.

The Great Environment collection in the Roman rite :

God, You desired that Your Son ascend to the cross for our sake and thereby defeat the forces hostile to us. Give us thy servants the grace of resurrection. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever.

In the Ambrosian rite at Mass before the liturgical reform of Paul VI, a passage of Matthew was read . 26: 1-5 , which describes the plans of the high priests and scribes to “take Jesus by cunning and kill”, after the reform, Matthew is added to this passage . 26: 14-16 , in which Judas agrees to take 30 pieces of silver for betrayal ^[5] .

Ancient Eastern Churches

In the Western Syrian, Eastern Syrian , Coptic , Armenian rites, the worship of the Great Wednesday, as well as the previous Great Monday and Tuesday, is characterized by an abundance of biblical readings. So in the East Syrian rite on the Great Wednesday read Genesis. 40: 1-23 ( dreams of the pharaoh’s baker and cupbearer and the interpretation of dreams by Joseph ), Nav. 23: 1-16 (last testament of Joshua to the Israelites). The Armenian Church , emphasizing the special mourning character of the Great Environment, as well as the two previous days, does not perform the liturgy. In the Western and East Syrian rites on these three days, the liturgy of the blessed gifts is served ^[6] .

• The service of the Orthodox Church (reprint edition of 1912). - M .: Dar , 2005 .-- S. 367-368.
• Great Wednesday of the Holy Week of Great Lent
• The text of the Great Environment service on Orthodoxy.Ru
• Great Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday // Orthodox Encyclopedia