دليل أسبوع الآلام · اليوم 6 من 8
الجمعة العظيمة
الصلب
في هذه الصفحة
- التاريخ
- المدة
- من 6 إلى 8 ساعات (الصباح والمساء معًا)
هذا المحتوى باللغة الإنجليزية
ماذا يحدث اليوم
Great Friday is the longest, most solemn, and most attended day of the entire Coptic liturgical year. The faithful gather to walk with Christ through His trial, scourging, crucifixion, and burial. The services are divided into hours - from the first hour (the trial before Pilate) through the sixth hour (the crucifixion itself) to the twelfth hour (the burial). Each hour includes prophecies from the Old Testament, Psalms, and Gospel readings from all four evangelists. The church is draped in black, icons are veiled, and the congregation stands in mourning. No Liturgy is celebrated on this day - there is no Eucharist because the Sacrifice Himself is on the Cross. At the sixth hour, the church falls into complete darkness and silence to mark the three hours of darkness over the earth (Matthew 27:45). The evening service concludes with the burial procession, as the faithful carry the icon of Christ’s body around the church. It is a day of fasting, weeping, and profound gratitude for the love that endured the Cross.
From the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.
في كنيسة القديس استفانوس
18937 Kz Rd., Cypress, TX 77433
تُنشر مواعيد خدمات هذا اليوم في الجدول مع اقتراب أسبوع الآلام.
الخدمات وقراءاتها
افتح خدمة لتقرأ ما تتذكره الكنيسة فيها.
Great FridayExodus 12:1–14 · Matthew 27:45 · Numbers 21:4–9 · John 3:14
The twelve hours
Great Friday is organized by hours, each covering a distinct moment of the Passion. The 1st hour recounts the trial before Pilate - with Genesis 37 (Joseph sold by his brothers) as the Old Testament parallel: Christ sold by His own. The 3rd hour is the scourging and mockery. All four Gospels are read at EVERY hour - not one account but four witnesses speaking simultaneously. The 6th hour is the Crucifixion. The 9th hour is His death. The 11th hour is the removal from the Cross, with Exodus 12:1-14 (the Passover Lamb) read alongside it. The 12th hour is the burial. The Church does not summarize or compress these events. It walks through them in real time, refusing to let any moment pass without attention.
The Sixth Hour: darkness over the earth
Matthew 27:45: “From the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.” Isaiah 53 - the Suffering Servant - is read in full. Numbers 21:4-9 provides the type: as Moses lifted up the brazen serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man is lifted up on the Cross (John 3:14). The O Monogenis hymn by St. Severus of Antioch is chanted. In many Coptic parishes, the lights are extinguished. For three hours the church sits in darkness, as the whole earth sat in darkness while the Creator hung on the wood His own hands had made. The silence during these hours is not liturgical minimalism. It is the silence of creation holding its breath.
The Ninth Hour: it is finished
The seven last words from the Cross are distributed across the readings of the 6th through 9th hours. “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” “Today you will be with Me in Paradise.” “Woman, behold your son.” “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” “I thirst.” “It is finished.” “Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit.” Jeremiah 11:18 - “I was like a docile lamb brought to the slaughter” - is read alongside these. The temple veil tears from top to bottom. The earth quakes. The centurion confesses: “Truly this was the Son of God.” Each of these events carries centuries of prophetic anticipation into a single afternoon.
The Twelfth Hour: the burial
The Lamentations of Jeremiah are read. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus come to take the body. The Golgotha hymn is chanted as the icon of Christ’s body is wrapped in linen, anointed with oils, and carried in procession around the church. Kurie Eleyson is chanted four hundred times with prostrations. The entire Psalter - all one hundred and fifty Psalms - is concluded at this hour, having been read across the week. The church has spoken every word of praise the Psalms contain, and now falls silent. The tomb is sealed. The stone is rolled. The burial procession is not theater; it is the Church enacting the grief of those who loved Him and laid Him in the ground.
Apocalypse VigilRevelation 1:18 · Matthew 26:40
The book of the Lamb
Beginning on the night of Great Friday, the entire Book of Revelation is read aloud through the night. This is the only time in the entire Coptic liturgical year that the Apocalypse is read. The timing is deliberate: while Christ lies in the sealed tomb, the Church reads the book that reveals Him as the Lamb who was slain and yet lives, the one who holds the keys of death and Hades (Revelation 1:18). The sealed scroll that no one in heaven or earth could open is opened by the Lamb (Revelation 5). What looks like defeat - a body in a tomb - is revealed as the decisive victory over the powers of darkness.
The vigil of the tomb
The all-night vigil is an act of faithfulness. In Gethsemane, the disciples could not stay awake for one hour (Matthew 26:40). Now the Church keeps watch beside the sealed tomb, doing what the disciples could not do. The reading of Revelation provides the theological frame for this vigil: the one who died is not dead but reigning. The visions of the Lamb on the throne, the four living creatures, the sealed scroll, and the final victory all gain their meaning from the event commemorated at this very moment. The vigil is not an endurance test but an act of seeing: looking at the sealed tomb through the eyes of Revelation and perceiving what is invisible to the world.