Great Lent at St. Mary, Wilkes-Barre
On the First Sunday of Great Lent, March 12, 2006 all the world's Orthodox Churches celebrate the Sunday 
of Orthodoxy, the commemoration that began in 843 to mark the end to the period of Iconoclasm--the destruction of the Holy Icons--that had begun in 726, and the triumph of the Orthodox Faith over all heresy. As part of this celebration there is a procession carrying the Holy Icons. At St. Mary the children of the parish join in the procession along with the clergy who all carry Icons. At the end of the procession a section of the Synodikon of Orthodoxy is read in which we proclaim the Orthodox Faith as the Faith that "sustains the universe." In the pictures we can see part of the procession, as well as the clergy and children gathered around the central Icon of Christ during the reading of the Synodikon.
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The Sunday of the Holy Cross
On the Third Sunday of the Great Fast, March 26, 2006, the Orthodox Church looks to the mystery of the Cross of Christ as our guide throughout the rest of the Lenten season. The Holy Cros
s is carried in procession around the Church Temple as the choir sings: "Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal have mercy on us." When the procession reaches the Ambon of the Church the priest sings "Wisdon, Stand Upright" and then the cross is places on a Tetropod/Table and incensed as the priest first sing the Troparion of the Holy Cross: "O Lord save thy people and bless thine inheritance, grant victory to our rulers over the barbarians, and by thy cross preserve thine estate." This is then sung twice by the choir. They the priest sings: "Before thy Cross we bow down in worship sovereign Lord, and thy Holy Resurrection we glorify." After which he make a prostration before the Holy Cross. The choir then sings this twice more with a prostration by the priest each time. At the end of the Divine Liturgy all the clergy and people come forward to venerate the Holy Cross prostrating or bowing before it and kissing it. After this each person receives one of the flowers that were used to decorate the Tetrapod.
