He tramples death

...The Easter season coincides with the decline of this bitter season, and the promise of Spring...

...We reply, shouting: ' 'He is truly risen!'' These shouts affirming the Resurrection are our repeated refrain...

...It is "play-acting...

...From inside the voices of the children are heard: "Who is this King of Glory...

...John Chrysostom begins...

...We enter the kingdom singing: "Glory to you, O Giver of Light...

...It summarizes what worship is for me: the reality of newness of life, of hope of resurrection, brought about through obeying Christ's command to "Do this in memory of me...

...The dialogue is repeated three times and after the final: "The Lord of Hosts, he is the King of ' Glory...

...The morning office con* eludes with the hymn: All you who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ, Alleluia...

...The epitaphion is carried by two men, followed by the priest and assistants, around the church three times — while we sing continuously: "Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us...

...For me and for all these Christians with whom I celebrate the- mysteries of our faith, it is an affirmation of the most basic tenet of our belief:' 'He has risen, as he said...

...After the Gloria, and the great hymns of praise and thanksgiving, we come forward to kiss the book of the Gospels, singing the chant that will be with us for the fifty days until Pentecost: Christ is risen from die dead And by his death he has trampled upon death And has given life to those who are in the tomb...

...I find myself humming it as I go about my daily work for weeks after the experience of Easter...

...Perhaps that is why we experience the rebirth of light and life in sucb a powerful way...

...and when you did raise up the dead...

...The priest shouts: "Christ is risen...

...The Sunday ceremony begins outside the closed door of the church...

...The Gospel (Matthew 27:62-66) concludes the readings with the account of the sealing of the tomb...

...It is then placed before the "holy doors" and the readings of the day are proclaimed...

...After the chanted psalms, the priest announces the theme of the service: When you did descend to death, O immortal Life, then you pat Hades to death by the splendor of your divinity...

...all the heavenly powers cried: O life-giving Christ our God, glory be to you...

...He stands behind the epitaphion which has been lifted up again to form a kind of archway...

...The priest knocks loudly on die door, shouting: "Lift up your gates . . . and be lifted up, O eternal gates, and the King of Glory shall enter in...

...Then the sound of the wooden hammer strikes the altar...

...May Christ, our true God, Who endured spittings and scourgings and bufferings, and the cross and death for our salvation...

...The chant echoes through our liturgy, and it echoes in my mind...

...The office is chanted plainly, as a meditation...

...With his wife and children, the priest himself is closely related to the community over whom he presides...

...It is symbol...

...the priest flings open the door...

...On Friday evening we return for the celebration of the funeral of the Lord...

...Even in the celebration of the Great Week the evocation of the crucifixion is never separated from the reminder that the crucified one "overcame death by his death...

...As we return to our places we are handed a rose by the youngest girls, who stand on either side of the priest...

...The priest replies: "The Lord who is strong and mighty...

...We leave Christ nailed to the cross...

...F. fcLLKN weaver if assistant chairwoman of the department of theology at the University of Notre Dame and, concurrently, assistant professor of historical theology...

...Throughout the season of Lent, although we bewail our sinfulness in the psalms we chant and the prayers we pray in our liturgies, we rejoice in the presence of the risen Christ in our midst...

...They read the Epistle and occasionally share in the preaching...

...The congregation, passing under the archway, venerate the Word of God by kissing the icon of Christ on the book...

...The Divine Liturgy of St...

...This presence of Christ as resurrected, as the "lover of all people,'* is characteristic of the Eastern liturgies...

...For the past few years my husband and I have worshipped in a Mellcite Rite church, one of the Eastern Rite churches in union with Rome, In the Eastern Rite churches the laity have major responsibilities in the liturgy...

...have mercy upon us and save us through his goodness and compassion as our merciful God...

...Then one of the most striking ceremonies in the whole of Holy Week takes place...

...AH mis is summarized in a striking way in the Friday and Sunday services...

...The priest holds the book of the Gospels with the icon of Christ facing us...

...a little flower-trimmed, canopied platform on which rests the gold-covered book of the Gospels, with its icon of Christ on the cover: the Word of God...

...the liturgy of Holy Thursday ends with the priest's proclamation...

...Symbolically we enter the tomb of Christ and rise again with him...

...The climax of the celebration is the procession of the "epitaphion...

...It is our customary Sunday liturgy, except mat all antiphons are replaced by the chant: "Christ is risen from the dead...