Or . This order changes on the days when it is performed (Compline and Midnight Office are omitted), some days of Great Lent, as well as on the eve of the feasts of the Nativity of Christ and Epiphany.

The service day begins in the evening. (Following the example of the prophet and God-seer Moses, who, describing God's creation of the world, begins the “day” with evening, so in the Orthodox Church the day begins with evening — vespers.)

Vespers- service performed at the end of the day, in the evening. With this service we thank God for the passing day.

Compline- a service consisting of reading a series of prayers in which we ask the Lord God for the forgiveness of sins and that He would give us, coming to sleep (coming), peace of body and soul and save us from the wiles of the devil during sleep.

Midnight Office- the service is intended to be performed at midnight, in remembrance of the night prayer of the Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane. This service calls on believers to be always ready for the Day of the Last Judgment, which will come suddenly, like “the bridegroom in the midnight,” according to the parable of the ten virgins.

Matins- the service performed in the morning, before sunrise. With this service we thank God for the last night and ask Him for His favors for the coming day.

First hour, corresponding to our seventh hour in the morning, sanctifies with prayer the day that has already come.

On the third hour, corresponding to our ninth hour in the morning, the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles is mentioned.

On the sixth hour, corresponding to our twelfth hour of the day, the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ is remembered.

On the the ninth hour, corresponding to our third in the afternoon, remember the death of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Divine Liturgy is the most important divine service. It remembers the entire earthly life of the Savior and is accomplished, established by the Savior Himself at the Last Supper. Liturgy is served in the morning, before dinner.

All these services in ancient times in monasteries and among hermits were performed separately, at the time allotted for each of them. But then, for the convenience of believers, they were combined into three services: evening, morning and daytime.

Evening The service consists of the ninth hour, Vespers and Compline.

Morning- from midnight office, matins and the first hour.

Daytime- from the third and sixth hours and the Liturgy.

On the eve of major holidays and Sundays, an evening service is performed, in which Vespers, Matins and the first hour are combined. This worship is called all-night vigil(all-night vigil), because among the ancient Christians it lasted all night. The word "vigilance" means "vigilance."

At present, the order of the daily liturgical circle in parish practice is usually not observed - the ninth hour, Compline and Midnight Office are omitted. The services of the daily service circle are contained in.

Diagram of the daily circle of worship

Evening
1. The ninth hour - (3 pm)
2. Vespers
3. Compline

Morning
1. Midnight Office - (12 am)
2. Matins
3. First hour - (7 am)

Day
1. The third hour - (9 am)
2. Sixth hour - (12 noon)
3. Liturgy

2. Seven Liturgical Circle- thematic sequence of services within one week. Cm.:

V Sunday Church remembers and glorifies Resurrection of Christ.

V Monday(the first day after Sunday) ethereal forces are glorified - Angels created before man, the closest servants of God.

In Tuesday glorified Saint John the Baptist as the greatest of all the prophets and the righteous.

V Wednesday the betrayal of the Lord by Judas is remembered and, in connection with this, a service is performed in memory The cross of the lord(fast day).

V Thursday glorified saints Apostles and saint Nicholas the Wonderworker.

V Friday the sufferings of the Cross and the death of the Savior are remembered and a service is performed in honor of The cross of the lord(fast day).

V saturday - rest day- glorified Mother of God That pleases herself daily, forefathers, prophets, apostles, martyrs, reverends, righteous and all saints, who have attained rest in the Lord. All are also remembered departed in true faith and the hope of the resurrection and eternal life.

Services are a collection of mutable component parts Divine services of the weekly service circle - contained in. The divine service of the weekly service circle is subordinated to one of eight, and so on. eight-week vowel cycles are formed, repeating several times throughout the year. The counting of voices begins from the day of Easter with the first voice.

The first day of the weekly liturgical circle is considered.

3. Annual worship circle- thematic sequence of services throughout the year. A distinction is made between moving and stationary annual worship circles. - associated with the solar calendar - includes the worship of fixed and other holidays and the daily celebrations of the saints. - connected with lunar calendar(see) - includes worship (and the three preceding weeks) and.

Every day of the year is dedicated to the memory of certain saints, as well as to special sacred events - holidays and fasts.

Of all the holidays, the biggest is holiday of the Light Christ's Resurrection. This is the Holidays, the Feast and the Celebration of the celebrations. Easter is not earlier than March 22 (April 4 NS) and not later than April 25 (May 8 NS), on the first Sunday after the spring full moon.

Then there are twelve great feasts in the year established in honor of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Mother of God, which are called twelve.

There are holidays and honor great saints and in honor of the ethereal Forces of heaven - Angels.

Therefore, all holidays in the year are divided according to their content into Lord's, Mother of God and saints.

By the time of celebration, the holidays are divided into motionless, which happen every year on the same day of the month, and movable, which even happen on the same days of the week, but fall on different days of the month in accordance with the time of the celebration of Easter. According to the solemnity of the church service, the holidays are divided into great, average and small.

Great holidays always have all-night vigil; average holidays are not always.

The liturgical church year begins on September 1 of the old style, and the entire annual circle of services is built in relation to the Easter holiday.

The services of the fixed annual liturgical circle are contained in the movable one - in Lenten (Great Lent) and the Color Triodion (Pentecost). The unification of the mobile and immovable annual liturgical circles is carried out with the help of the Mark chapters cited in the charter (named after their compiler, the monk Mark).

The worship of each day is a combination of an almost unchanging basis of the prayers of the daily liturgical circle with variable prayers related to the theme of worship. of this day from the Menaion and Oktoichus or Triodi (Lenten or Colored), and during Great Lent and Pentecost, prayers from the octoichus are almost never used.

Eleven-week circle of Gospel readings and stichera at Sunday Matins

Do not forget about the eleven-week circle of Gospel readings and stichera at Sunday Matins, which are usually overlooked when listing the liturgical circles. For reading on Sunday Matins, from all four Gospels, eleven fragments were selected that tell about the appearances of the Savior after His Resurrection (the number "11" symbolizes the eleven apostles remaining at that time - after the fall of Judas Iscariot and before the election of Matthias). These passages are called "Sunday Gospels" and are read in turn, week after week, at Sunday morning.

in Orthodox Churches are one of the components of the circle of holidays of the Church year. Holidays and memories of G. p. B. Because (unlike the holidays and memories of the annual motionless liturgical circle) are not timed to dates according to the solar calendar, but depend on the Easter holiday, which does not have a fixed date according to the solar calendar (it is calculated according to the solar-lunar Easter cycle). V different years orthodoxy Easter can be between 22 March and 25 Apr. (Art. Art.).

Easter is preceded by periods of preparation and repentance (that is, the preparatory period for Great Lent and the period of Great Lent) and memories of the sorrowful events of Christ's betrayal to death and His Crucifixion (the period of Holy Week) and the joyful period of Pentecost will follow. dedicated to the celebration The Resurrection of Christ and the events directly related to him - the Ascension of the Lord and the Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles. This joyous period ends on the Sunday after the feast of Pentecost, when the memory of All Saints is celebrated.

As in the weekly and annual motionless circles, the memories of the days of G. p. B. to. are concentrated in hymnographic chants and biblical and patristic readings, which make up the variable parts of the services of the daily cycle. Gymnographic follow-up of G. p. j. and the Old Testament readings of this period are contained in the Triodion, traditionally divided into Lenten and Color. The Lenten Triode covers the period of Great Lent and Passion Week, until Vespers on Great Saturday, the Colored Triode - the period of Pentecost, from Easter to All Saints' Week. The Colored Triode got its name from the Feast of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem (the Week of Vai, also called the Colored Week - see, for example, in the Lenten Triode: - L. 386 rev.), Since in the early tradition (in the Russian Church preserved until the middle of the 17th century) 2nd hour of the Triodion began not with Easter, but with the Lazarus Sabbath service, closely associated with the Feast of the Lord's Entry into Jerusalem. Traditions. the name of the Colored Triodi in Serb. church use "Triod Lazarevats" also indicates the beginning of Lazarev's Saturday. The Colored Triodion, when it begins with Easter, can be called "Pentikostarion" (Pentecost; in the Greek Churches this name is adopted, while the Lenten Triode is simply called the Triodion).

Due to the constant use of the Triodi during the divine service, that part of the year, the edges of the memory and holidays of G. p. B. K., they are also called the "period of singing of the Triodi" in contrast to the "period of singing Octoikh" - the rest of the year (Rozanov. Ustav. p. 10). Statute of Divine Services G. p. B. because it is described in 2 chapters of the Typicon - 49th (for the Lenten Triodion) and 50th (for the Colored Triodion). The 51st chapter contains the charter of the apostolic (Petrov) fast, which begins immediately after the Week of All Saints.

Lord's holidays as part of G. p. B. To.

The main structure of G. p. to. form several. the most important Lords of the year. Chief among them - Easter, "feast of the holidays"; followed by the importance of 3 twelve Lord's feasts of G. p. b. k .: The Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem (celebrated a week before Easter), the Ascension of the Lord (40 days after Easter), Pentecost (also called the Trinity, commemoration of the Descent of the Holy Spirit). The week of Antipascha adjoins the Lord's twelve holidays, although it does not formally refer to the twelve holidays, it is close to them in its charter. Also for the Lord's holidays G. p. B. the Pre-Polovedenie of Pentecost belongs (the statutory features of its divine service allow us to attribute the Pre-Polovedenie to medium or even small holidays, nevertheless, the Pre-Polovedenie has a 7-day afterfeast with giving), and in a broad sense - all Sundays of the Holy Week. To.

Sundays G. p. B. To.

are the most important element of its structure. The theme set in the service of one Sunday or another often becomes the theme of the entire next week. Among the weekly memories of G. p. Because there are 3 main categories.

The 1st includes weeks, the themes of the services of which are connected with the Gospel readings of the Sunday liturgy. In G. p. B. j. 6 such weeks, 3 before Easter: Publican and Pharisee week (liturgical Gospel: Luke 18.10-14), Prodigal son week (liturgical Gospel: Luke 15.11-32), Meatless week, or the Week of the Last Judgment ( liturgical Gospel: Mt 25.31-46) - and 3 after: Relaxed week (liturgical Gospel: John 5.1-15), Samaritan week (liturgical Gospel: John 4. 5-42), Blind week (liturgical Gospel: John 9. 1-38).

While the structure of the church year as a whole, as well as the lectionary system in Orthodox Christianity. worship in the 2nd millennium A.D. is based on the post-iconoclastic K-Polish liturgical tradition, the hymnographic successions of the Lenten Triodi retained traces of the influence of ancient Jerusalem worship. This tradition was different from modern. lectionary system. In particular, on Sundays of Great Lent, they read: in the 2nd week - the parable of the prodigal son (Lk 15.11-32), in the 3rd week - the parables of the judge and the widow and the publican and the Pharisee (Lk 18.1- 14), in the 4th - the parable of the merciful Samaritan (Luke 10.25-37), in the 5th - the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16.19-31). Thus, the reading of, for example, the parable of the prodigal son in the Jerusalem tradition was located within Great Lent. And although after the IX century. orthodoxy the world everywhere switched to the post-iconoclastic K-Polish lectionary system, the development of the themes of the Gospel readings according to the ancient Jerusalem lectionary system to the present. time can be found in the hymns of the Lenten Triodion (in the canons of Sunday Matins (in the 2nd-5th weeks of fasting) and in some hymns of the 3rd-6th weeks of fasting (primarily in the self-conscience of the day)). Thus, as a result of the interaction of various liturgical traditions, the composition of the Lenten Triodion has become such that, for example, the themes of the parables about the publican and the Pharisee and about the prodigal son appear twice in the Triodion.

The 2nd category can be attributed to those Sundays G. p. B. to., the memory of which is not directly related to the Gospel readings: Cheese week (remembrance of the expulsion of Adam from Paradise), Orthodoxy week (memory of the approval of veneration of icons in 843; chants and liturgical readings of this day have been preserved and the ancient memory of All Holy Prophets), week of svt. Gregory Palamas (in memory of the affirmation of the teaching of St. Gregory about Divine energies), the Week of the Cross (celebration in honor of the Cross of the Lord; in the K-field, from that day, intensified preparation of the catechumens for the sacrament of Baptism began; the so-called medium the next week, when (as on Friday of this week) the worship of the Cross is performed), the myrrh-bearing women week, commemoration of the VII Ecumenical Council of 787 in the 7th week after Easter, All Saints Week.

In the practice of the Russian and some other Local Churches, the next Sunday after the Week of All Saints is marked by the conciliar memory of all national saints (see article of All Saints Who Shone forth in the Land of Russia, week). These successions are not part of the Triodi (for example, the succession of Russian saints is placed in the service Menaion for May or June) and, thus, formally do not belong to the memorials of G. n. B. To.

3rd category of Sundays G. p. B. because they form weeks, the memories of which are connected with the memories of the annual immovable liturgical circle close to them: both in various editions of the Studian ustav, and in the now adopted Jerusalem charter, these are the memory of the Monks John of the Ladder and Mary of Egypt, the great teachers of fasting and prayer, - on the 4th and 5th Sundays of Great Lent (the Polish Typicon of the Great Church of the 9th-10th centuries indicated for these Sundays the memory of St. Dometius and Martyr Zinovy ​​similarly to the memory of St. Polycarp of Smyrna on the 2nd Sunday of Great Lent) ... The establishment of these memories is probably connected with the ancient tradition of transferring festive services from weekdays to Saturdays and Sundays of fasting (cf. 51st right. Laodik.); an indication of this is present in some editions of the Studian charter. The transfer of the memorials was prompted by the desire to preserve the unique character of the services of the weekdays of Great Lent, since the celebration of the festive services in honor of the venerated saints may not correspond to the general penitential mood of the Lent worship.

Saturdays of the Lenten Triodi, having a festive dedication

Certain memories associated with the annual immovable liturgical circle are assigned to certain Sabbath days of Great Lent. These are the memory of All the reverend fathers who shone forth in exploit on cheese Saturday; vmch. Theodore Tyrone on Saturday of the 1st week of Lent and Praise of the Most Holy. Theotokos on Saturday Akathist. As in the case of Sundays, the commemorations may have been transferred to these Saturdays from the corresponding days of the holidays of the fixed liturgical circle (for example, the connection between the Sabbath of the Akathist and the holiday is obvious - common chants are heard in both services). However, another explanation for the establishment of these memories is possible. In some ancient liturgical traditions (for example, Eastern Syrian), most of the memorials of saints were originally mobile, therefore, perhaps, some of the memorials of Saturdays and weeks of G. p. B. because (for example, women-myrrh-bearers) survived as a trace ancient practice to associate the most important holidays not with the date according to the Julian calendar, but with the G. p. b. K. (for more details, see article The Year of the Church). Another 2 Saturdays of the Lenten Triodi, which have a very special liturgical order, belong to the cycle of Holy Week (see below).

Memorial service G. p. B. To.

2 days of ecumenical (maximum complete) commemoration of the departed - the meat Saturday before the Meat week and the Saturday before Pentecost, also called Trinity, - belong to the G. p. B. j. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th Saturdays of Great Lent also have a funeral theme, but on Meat and Trinity Saturdays main theme worship is the commemoration of the departed, while on Saturdays of Great Lent - the glorification of all the saints, and the commemoration of the departed becomes a secondary topic. If it coincides with the memory of the great saint or with a holiday, the funeral service of the Meat and Trinity Saturdays is not canceled, but either the festive service or the funeral service of the Sabbath itself is postponed to another day (see article Ecumenical Saturdays). In other words. funeral Saturdays (Saturdays of fasting) the usual funeral service is performed, similar to the service according to the 13th chapter. The typicon (except that the hymns of the Triodi are added), which is canceled if it coincides with the memory of the great saint or with a holiday (see article Funeral service). Due to the fact that during the period from Lazarus Saturday to Antipascha, the charter cancels the public commemoration of the dead (requiem, litia, funeral litanies), in addition to the unspoken liturgy and (if necessary) funeral services, a tradition arose in the Russian Church (not noted in liturgical books) to perform commemoration of the dead on Tuesday, 2nd week after Easter, this day is called Radonitsa.

Great Penitential Canon

Another important structural element of G. p. B. k. - Thursday of the 5th week of Great Lent, when the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete (the Jerusalem charter determines the singing of the Great Canon in parts also at the Compline of the first 4 days of the 1st week of Great Lent).

Holy Week

On Monday after the feast of the Lord's Entry into Jerusalem, a special period begins in the service of Orthodoxy. Church, to-ry continues until Easter and is called Holy Week. This period is directly adjacent to the Lazarev Sabbath and the Feast of the Lord's Entry into Jerusalem, which preceded it both in content and chronological terms. The days of Holy Week include in the name the word “great” - Great Monday, Great Tuesday, etc. This is the time of remembrance of the events immediately preceding the Resurrection of Christ - His last teachings in Jerusalem, the betrayal of Judas, arrest, judgment of the Lord and His Crucifixion. The divine service on these days, as well as on the following Easter, is never repeated again in the year and is its peak (see the articles Great Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday; Great Thursday; Good Friday; Great Saturday).

Easter service

General structure of memories G. p. B. To.

Thus, it includes: 1) the preparatory period for Great Lent (where the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee, the Week of the Prodigal Son, the Meatless Ecumenical Memorial Saturday, the Meat Week and Cheese Week (which is already a period of preliminary fasting), ending on Saturday, have their services All the reverend fathers, who shone forth in exploit, and Cheese-Pasting Week); 2) the period of Great Lent (consisting of 6 weeks, each consists of its own week: Orthodoxy, St. Gregory Palamas, Christ of the Cross, St. John of the Ladder, St. Mary of Egypt, the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem; except for weeks, special days are Saturdays of fasting (in the first turn 1, 5 and 6 - Great Martyr Theodore Tiron, Akathist and Lazarev), Wednesday and Friday 4th and Thursday of the 5th week, and partly weekdays of the 1st week); 3) the period of Holy Week (which is adjacent to Lazarev Saturday and the week of the Lord's Entry into Jerusalem); 4) the period of Pentecost (which opens with the Bright week and continues then 6 more weeks, each of which begins with its own week: Anti-Easter, myrrh-bearing women, about the paralytic, about the Samaritans, about the blind, the fathers of the VII Ecumenical Council; special days of the period of Pentecost include also the feasts of Prepolovanie Pentecost and Ascension of the Lord, the days of giving up Easter, Prepolovanie and Ascension, the funeral Trinity universal Saturday); 5) the very feast of Pentecost, its afterfeast (including the Monday of the Holy Spirit the day after the feast), the giving and the Week of All Saints.

All Sundays as well as Saturdays and special days G. p. B. because (including the days of Cheese, Passion and Bright weeks) have a unique liturgical charter; the charter of the first 2 weeks of the preparatory period for Great Lent is usual (but the charter deliberately facilitates the charter of the entire preparatory period for Great Lent as a whole - the number of kathismas at Matins is reduced, etc.); on the weekdays of Great Lent, the service is conducted according to the Lenten rite, characterized by an abundance of prostrations to the ground, a peculiar order of services, etc. (see Art. Great Lent); the service of the majority of the days of Pentecost is similar to the service of the afterfeast of the twelveth feast day in the month (these afterfeasts refer to the previous memorials of the Colored Triodion), although they have their own characteristics.

Interaction of memories of G. p. B. j. with a fixed annual liturgical circle

Charter of the connection of non-festive sequences of a fixed circle with the successions of G. p. B. because it is described in the 49th and 50th chapters of the Typicon. One of the characteristic features of the Lent Rule is the tendency towards a decrease in the number of festive services. Therefore, in that part of the motionless annual circle, edges often fall on Great Lent, there are only a few. great and middle holidays (that is, indicated by signs, and), and the overwhelming number of days contains the memory of saints without a troparion. Even in the case when the following of a saint (without a holiday sign) has certain festive elements (for example, troparion or stichera na), on weekdays during Great Lent they are canceled. Lent features of worship (the main of which is the singing of "Alleluia" at matins) are canceled only if they coincide with the great or middle feast of the month (from polyeleos and above - see Signs of the Months of the Months).

In pl. days of G. p. b. j. The Menaion is canceled altogether (this never applies to the feast of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos and, in some cases, to other important memorials). These include all Sundays G. p. B. K., all days of Holy and Bright Weeks, as well as Meat and Trinity ecumenical memorial Saturdays; sabbaths of All the reverend fathers, who shone forth in exploit, great martyr. Theodore Tiron, Akathist and Lazareva; Wednesday and Friday of the 4th and Thursday of the 5th week of fasting; the Wednesday of the Prepolation of Pentecost, its giving and Passover; Thursday of the Ascension of the Lord and Friday of his giving; Monday of the Holy Spirit and Saturday of the giving of Pentecost. The observances of the Menaion, which were not sung on these days, are prescribed by the charter to be performed at Compline on the weekdays of Great Lent.

Complex connections of G.'s sequences. to. with fixed holidays are described in the Markov chapters, placed in the month of the Typicon (Ch. 48). There are several. large cycles of Markov chapters devoted to the combination of the sequences of the few holidays of this period with different days of the G. p. b. - 23 Feb (Finding the head of John the Baptist), March 9 (40 martyrs), March 25 (Annunciation, the so-called Annunciation chapters), April 23. (Great Martyr George the Victorious), May 8 (St. John the Theologian) and May 25 (2nd and 3rd Finding the head of John the Baptist).

Influence of G. p. K. for the rest of the year

Dates of memory and holidays G. p. B. because, despite the fact that they cover only part of the year ("the period of the singing of the Triodi"), they not only determine the annual circle of the Gospel and apostolic readings in this year(see Art. Lectionary), but also set the sequence of the voices of the Octoichus throughout the year until next Easter.

Lit .: Nikolsky. Charter; Rozanov. Charter; Debolsky G. S., prot. Days of worship Orthodoxy Churches. T. 2. SPb., 190110. M., 1996r; Afanasy (Sakharov), clergyman. On the commemoration of the dead according to the Statute of Orthodoxy. Churches. SPb., 1995.

A. A. Lukashevich

3. Circle of annual worship.

Every day of the year, every date, each of the 12 months of the year, is dedicated to a remembrance or some sacred event, dear to my heart Christian, or the memory of various saints. Special prayers, chants, readings and ceremonies established in honor of these events and persons form a circle of annual worship. Some of the services of the annual cycle are performed in a more solemn way, they are called holidays, and the services performed in them are divided into Lord, Mother of God and saints. Some of the holidays are always celebrated on certain days of the year and are therefore called fixed. The greatest of all Christian holidays - Easter, on the day of which we glorify the Resurrection of Christ, is not timed to a specific day of the year, but happens on different days in the time interval between March 22 and April 25, since, according to church regulations, it is celebrated on the first Sunday after the spring full moon that happened after the day vernal equinox... Therefore, Easter is a mobile holiday. Depending on the day of Easter, some other holidays are celebrated, which are therefore also mobile. Depending on the degree of solemnity, the holidays are divided into great, medium and small. The most important holidays are considered twelve, which is why they are called twelve. This does not include Easter, which is a "Feast of Holidays and Celebration of Celebrations."