Great Wednesday: The Mystery of Echelon and the Washburning Sequence

By Marina Zoziou

On the Great Wednesday In the morning the Vespers ends, with some of the trumpets we chanted yesterday afternoon at Orthros, and the last Divine Liturgy of the year. At noon or early in the afternoon, the Church appointed us to end the sacred mystery of Echelon.

With the help of Archimandrite Fr. Filoumenos Roubi, Secretary General of the Holy Archdiocese of Athens, we will give the “stigma” of the day, while Ms. Evlena Kardamila, PhD candidate It will “travel” us to customs and traditions in every corner of Greece, which are deeply rooted over time.

The gospel; According to Archimandrite P. Filoumenou Roubi; It is one of the mysteries of our Church. Within the Gospel we see that the Holy Apostles in many occasions with blessed olive oil and were cured (Mark, 13). Thus, the Orthodox Church, which continues the apostolic tradition, is this sacred mystery for the treatment of the mental and physical illnesses of the faithful. For the sacred mystery of Echelon, Saint James the Brotherhood, who urges the faithful: “If one is patient, invite the church seniors, and after praying for him, to spread him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the suffering, and the Lord will lift him out of bed of pain, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven. “ Finally, he urges everyone to confess their offenses to each other, and to pray to be healed (Jac. E, 14-15).

At the end of the mystery, all the faithful kneel and the priest reads the forgiveness with which the sins of the faithful who have already confessed. Ie, that is, it does not replace confessionbut it complements and redefines the demand for the remission of sins.

To understand it better: Because Great Thursday is the memory of the secret dinnerduring which the mystery of the Divine Thanksgiving was handed over by Christ, there is the custom of most of the faithful this day. The Church, therefore, puts the Eucharist the day before with the following reason: from our last confession to the time of the Divine Communion, there have certainly been various apologies (slight) sins, so that they do not prevent us from coming to Divine Thanksgiving. At the end of Euclear, the priest smells the faithful to the various members of the body.

In Jerusalem, Patmos but also in other placesit is used, before the Orthodox of the Great Thursday, to become the sink ceremony. There are thirteen clergymen, of whom the twelve sit and the first of the priests or priests, in the type of Christ, wash their feet, when the corresponding evangelical cut is read.

Great Wednesday afternoon – Holy Thursday

The Passion Week begins with the Orthodox of Good Thursday, during which we celebrate, according to the Triodic memorandum, the following four: “The sink, the secret (that is, the tradition of the Mysteries of the Mysteries), the excessive prayer and the betrayal of it.” At the beginning of the sequence, the image of the Bridegroom of Christ retires from the pilgrimage and the image of the Last Supper is lit in its place. It is called a secret dinner, since Christ during His duration introduced the disciples into the mystery of Divine Thanksgiving.

Let’s watch the facts of the day: It had already begun the eight -day celebration of the Easter of the Jews, which was falling on Saturday. Christ gives instructions to Peter and John to prepare the dinner of the day. “Go to the country and you will meet a man who will base a pitcher with water. Tell him how the teacher asks where to do with Easter students. And he will show you a large room on the upper floor, paved, ready; there you will prepare the Easter dinner ». From the outset, Christ could tell them who specifically to meet, because this man was known to them, from the broader cycle of disciples. However, as the fathers say, Christ did not want to learn earlier in which home they would dine in order not to be informed in advance Judas. The students go to Jerusalem, they find the man who lifts them to the upper floor, where the big room was paved and ready.

Tradition says that this host was Joseph from Arimathaeawhile other scholars believe that it was the Apostle and Evangelist Mark. Another tradition – perhaps the dominant one – wants Zevedaios, the father of John the Theologian and Jacob as the owner of the house. He had a large house, which divorced it in the middle, and half of it was given as a house of the High Priest of Israel. There was, in fact, a small door, from which the two houses were transported. So the Zebedee family met the Hierarchs of Israel daily. The Hierarchs of that period were Anna and Kaiafas, so the evangelist John in the 18th chapter his Gospel describes to himself that, during the night Christ was arrested, he was able to enter the courtyard of the High Priest and to watch that ‘If you know the priest’.

So when it was evening, Jesus and the disciples go to the upper one and all sit together to dine. The table of the time is a Sofras, a low round table. The point where Christ sat down, was the beginning and the end of the perimeter of the table. On his left, Judas sits, considering himself as official than others, since he was the treasurer of Christ’s escort. On the right is John the Theologian. Next to Judas is Petros.

“I desperately,” the teacher officially said, “To eat this Easter with you, before my passions”. According to custom, they began with prayer. Then, the one who was respectful, takes the wine, glorifies God and passes the glass to others. And then there is some turmoil, since the students quarrel, who will first get to drink from the blessed wine.

The teacher is raised from the table, pulls out his outer jackets, lives with a towel and washing the legs of the students, wasting them carefully. He started first from his left, that is, Judas.

Students, the students let him wash their dusty legs. Only Peter expresses objection: “Lord, will you wash my feet? This is not the case! You will never wash my feet, teacher! “. “If I don’t wash you, you will not have a place near me” Christ replies.

Then he is disturbed by Peter and consents. And the Lord explains the word of his particular act and how they should serve each other. And while everyone understood what they were saying, only Judas had in mind what would be the best time to go to deliver the teacher.

Christ then prophesies that one of the attendees will betray Him. So they began to wonder who he is, saying: “Is it me, teacher? “. Judas hears it too. “Is it, are it, is me?”, Asks, so as not to stand out from others. The teacher looks at him in the eyes and whispers slowly: ‘You said it’. The rest, of course, did not hear it from their turmoil.

Peter makes sense to John to ask Christ for who said this prophecy and John, falling to the teacher’s chest, asks him plea: ‘Lord, tell me who the traitor is’. The Lord replies quietly: “He is the one who, after diving on the plate the common bite of bread, I will give it to him.” So she gets a bite of bread, dipping her on the common dish that was there in the middle – it was custom – and gives it to Judas and whispers to him: “Whatever you do, even quickly.”

During the secret dinner, the Lord advises his disciples to feel love for each other And not to care about who will be first. While they eat, Jesus says thank you prayer, takes the bread and slices it. Then he gives it to his students by saying: “Receive, eat, this in my body.. Then he gets the glass with the wine and, after praying, gives them it by saying: “Drink everyone, so in my blood, the New Testament, the same and a lot of people, in the sake of sin.”.

After this fact, Judas leaves, in order to go to the priests. The students did not care, as they thought that he, as a cashier, went to settle the financial outstanding of the dinner.

Christ continues his teaching, giving the latest legacies and preparing them for his impending passion, prophesying the scattering and abandonment of the Apostles. Strong Peter assures Christ that he will defend Him to the end and Christ prophesies his triple refusal “Before you are calling” you are calling “. At this point, the Lord also prophesies the advent of the Holy Spirit.

The dinner is completed with prayer, as was customary (usually the 117th Psalm). This habit is maintained to this day. The central face of the family (in this case Christ) sits in the middle, like a chorus, and around the rest, the rest, clapping or dancing, holding their hands. (The blessed Fr. Ananias Koustenis used to say that the children’s play “around everyone, in the middle of Manolis” came from there, since Christ is Emmanuel).

They then leave the Anchomon and walk towards Gethsemane. On the way, Christ begins to pray with the so -called Hierarchical Prayer, begging for those who will believe in His name. A little later, Christ will be arrested and his immense passions will begin.

The customs of our place

The Great Wednesday is a special place in the days of the Great Week due to the sacred Echelon mystery as he points out as he points out Mrs. Evlena Kardamila. Many women go to the church flour, with which they then knead the bread of Lambris and buns.

In the past, the new dough was prepared on Good Wednesday. As they believed that the bread dough at some point could lose its strength and purity, on Good Wednesday they took care to refresh it. So the women went from house to house and pick up flour, which they kneaded without yeast. Then they went to church. The priest was resting on the dough the cross with the honest wood and the dough was inflated. This was the yeast of the year, which women again distributed to all homes.

In some places, such as Pontus, the Eucharist was held at the home of each family. Indeed, the objects blessed during the Eucharist were attributed to a separate property and power. For example, the woods used by the priests to smell, those who attended the sequence, kept them in their iconostasis, and when someone built a new house, they laid them on the foundations of the house.