On the Friday of the first week of Great Lent, the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts and a moleben to the Great Martyr Theodore the Recruit were celebrated in our church.
This Liturgy differs from the usual Liturgy in that the Bloodless Sacrifice is not offered to God during it. The Sacrifice has been offered beforehand, the Gifts have been consecrated, and one may receive Communion from Them. The whole service is a preparation for Communion with the Gifts prepared in advance. Its principal themes are repentance and worship of Christ, present in the already consecrated Holy Gifts on the altar table.
The service was celebrated by the rector of the church, Priest Igor Babakov.
After the prayer before the ambo, Fr. Igor served a moleben to the Great Martyr Theodore the Recruit and the canon to the saint.
After the canon, the rector read the prayer for the blessing of kollyva and, after the dismissal, addressed the parishioners:
"Dear brothers and sisters, I congratulate you with all my heart on completing the Lenten course of the first week of Great Lent, which for all of us should be marked by opening our hearts to the Lord, to Whom we have turned in prayer over the past days. We must open our hearts to God and confess our sins."
The services of the Friday of the first week of Great Lent are distinguished by the tradition of blessing kollyva. Its origin goes back to the 4th century. The holy Great Martyr Theodore the Recruit suffered and died around 306 AD during the persecutions of Emperor Diocletian. Fifty years after the martyr's death, Emperor Julian the Apostate, wishing to defile and mock the Christians, ordered the governor of Constantinople to sprinkle all the food in the markets with the blood of idol sacrifices during the first week of Great Lent. But the Lord destroyed the impious plan of the enemy of God. St. Theodore appeared in a dream to Archbishop Eudoxius of Antioch and commanded him to tell all Christians that no one should buy food in the markets, but that instead everyone should eat boiled wheat with honey, called kollyva. It is this miracle that the Church commemorates in the first week of the Fast. The memory of the holy Great Martyr Theodore is celebrated on the Saturday of the first week of Great Lent.
