The Egg

The Tradition of the Paschal Egg

There is a beautiful tradition within the life of the Church for believers to have as their last meal before beginning the Great Lenten Fast, to eat a hard boiled egg, white in color. This egg represents our sinful nature, and we eat this egg with the hope that the Lenten journey will bring us to repentance, and make us worthy to receive the Risen Lord Jesus Christ.

The great and holy myrrh-bearer Mary Magdalene, equal of the apostles, during a dinner with the emperor Tiberius Caesar, was speaking about Christ’s resurrection. Caesar scoffed at her, saying that a man could rise from the dead no more than the egg in her hand could turn red. Immediately, the egg turned red. This is believed to be an explanation for dyeing eggs red at Pascha.

At the end of Matins, during the Paschal service, the priest hands out a red egg, symbolizing the blood of Christ, to each worshiper. At the beginning of the Paschal feast, following the Midnight Liturgy, believers break the Lenten Fast by again eating an egg.

As we hit our red eggs together, while saying, “Christ is Risen”, we are symbolically proclaiming the truth that Christ, by his death and holy resurrection, broke the bonds and power of death. The breaking of the eggs represents the opening of the tomb, and the crashing of the doors of hell, with Christ destroying the power of darkness and death, forever.

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

Sunday March 29, 2015 / March 16, 2015

Fifth Sunday of the Great Lent. Tone one.
Great Lent. Food with Oil

Venerable Mary of Egypt (movable holiday on the 5th Sunday of the Great Lent).
Martyr Sabinas of Hermopolis, Egypt (303).
Martyr Papas of Lycaonia (305).
St. Serapion, archbishop of Novgorod (1516).
Apostle Aristobulus of the Seventy, bishop of Britain (1st c.).
Hieromartyr Alexander, pope of Rome (119).
Martyr Julian of Anazarbus (305).
Martyrs Trophimus and Thalus of Laodicea (300).
Venerable Christodulus, wonderworker of Patmos (1093).
Martyr Romanus at Parium on the Hellespont.
10 Martyrs in Phoenicia (Greek).
St. Pimen, Fool-for-Christ and Enlightener of Dagestan, and his companion Anton Meskhi, the Censurer of Kings (13th c.) (Georgia).
St. Ambrosi (Khelaia) the Confessor, Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia (1927) (Georgia).
New Martyr Malachi of Rhodes, who suffered at Jerusalem (1500).
St. Abban of Kilabban (650) (Celtic & British).

Scripture Readings

The Heavenly Sanctuary

11 But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. 12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

Mark 10:32-45

Jesus a Third Time Predicts His Death and Resurrection

32 Now they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was going before them; and they were amazed. And as they followed they were afraid. Then He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them the things that would happen to Him: 33 “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles; 34 and they will mock Him, and scourge Him, and spit on Him, and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again.”

Greatness Is Serving

35 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Him, saying, “Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask.”

36 And He said to them, “What do you want Me to do for you?”

37 They said to Him, “Grant us that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory.”

38 But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”

39 They said to Him, “We are able.”

So Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink the cup that I drink, and with the baptism I am baptized with you will be baptized; 40 but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared.”

41 And when the ten heard it, they began to be greatly displeased with James and John. 42 But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43 Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. 44 And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”