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The community of Kimisis tis Theotokou Greek Orthodox Church in Island Park, New York welcomed His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America on the evening of Sunday, April 5, for the Orthros of Great and Holy Monday, the First Bridegroom Service. Celebrating alongside His Eminence was Proistamenos Fr. George Kazoulis.
In his homily, the Archbishop discussed the contrast between the joy of Palm Sunday’s morning liturgy and the solemn beauty of the evening’s Bridegroom Service. The crowds who had welcomed Christ into Jerusalem with shouts of “Hosanna”—a cry meaning “Save us! Please!”—were looking for an earthly king to deliver them from Rome. But the faithful today, His Eminence said, behold something far greater.
“Earthly rule and earthly rulers will always fall–whether by conquest or by corruption,” Archbishop Elpidophoros said. “But tonight, we are invited into something more enduring–in fact, something that abides unto eternity.”
“The Bridal Chamber laid before us is that of God’s heart – the open and receptive heart of our Lord Jesus Christ for every human being: the righteous and unrighteous, the generous and the greedy, the just and unjust, the merciful and the unmerciful, the trustworthy and the faithless, the good and the evil, the loving and the hateful,” His Eminence continued.
“No one is denied entry to the Bridal Chamber by the Bridegroom Himself. It is our choice whether we choose to enter in, and to be with Him,” Archbishop Elpidophoros said. “The passageway is through our own hearts, as we find our way in the world to do good where we can, to be loving as much as possible, and to walk humbly in the path of righteousness.”
> Read His Eminence’s full homily here
Beginning on the evening of Palm Sunday and continuing through the evening of Holy Tuesday, the Orthodox Church observes a special service known as the Service of the Bridegroom. Each evening service is the Matins or Orthros service of the following day—(e.g. the service held on Sunday evening is the Orthros service for Holy Monday). The name of the service is drawn from the figure of the Bridegroom in the Parable of the Ten Virgins, found in Matthew 25:1-13.
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