On The Penitent thief

At the Holy friday service last year I was listening to the Gospel reading which mentions the Penitent thief and suddenly felt overwhelmed. On the first instance when the Penitent thief is mentioned you surely think "This is a man that has spent his life stealing, murdering and being generally sinful and unpleasant" then suddenly he turns to those denying Christ and insulting him and out of the blue he says to him ?Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.?

Following this, the thief, having come to this revelation of Christ as the Lord turns to the suffering Christ and asks him ?Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.? to which he is told ?Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.? And so, after a life of sin, this criminal has found paradise. Until under a week ago I never really read this passage for the pearl it really is.

Now I have read this passage many times in my life, but hearing it at the service I suddenly thought... This man has just accepted Christ, and repented in a single act. He has spent his life in sin, and yet in this one moment he has become a man of God. he has professed Christ to be God "?Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation" and accepted that he is recieving the wages of sin "we receive the due reward of our deeds"

This really struck home with me, being someone that has acted unsavory at times in my past, but now I wonder "how can people be so blind." Even this thief sees right and wrong, he knows the guilty from the innocent, and openly accepts his judgement. He defended a man he never knew as he could not bear to see an innocent suffer the same judgement as a thief. He also opened his heart to salvation, asking to be remembered for what he has become through this revelation in Christ. This honesty and love of justice displayed in his final hours is indeed inspirational and makes me wonder, why can't others be the same?
Christ accepted the cross to trample Satan and death under his feet. Surely man can see Christ as the Thief did.

Daniel malyon

British Orthodox Church in Bournemouth on Good Friday.

We celebrated this through Holy Week prayer services for the 1st, 3rd, 6th, 9th, 11th and 12th hours as well as the Burial Service for our lord, followed reading of the Prophecies and the entire book of Psalms.

At each of the prayer hours the Gospel readings representing these certain hours are read, with readings from all 4 Gospels at Each hours. For anyone that says Orthodoxy is not a Biblical Church, this adds up to 24 Gospel readings in these 12 hours alone.

After the 1st hour the Icons are covered with a black veil until the Pascha service. This represents the mourning of the Saints.

The 6th hour is when our Lord was brought to the cross. It is also when we remember the Good Thief, Saint Dismas who asked the Lord "Remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom." He is traditionally depicted in Orthodox Icons as the first into heaven, he is also one of my favourite Saints along with St Moses the Black and St Samuel the Confessor. It is at this hour that the lights in the Church are turned off since the Gospels say that Between the 6th Hour and 9th Hour there was darkness.
At the 9th hour we Witness the death of our Lord. At this time we mourn for the death of our Lord on the cross.

12th Hour - When our Lord is taken from the cross and is brought to the Sepulchre. Before this service the rose petals are plucked from the Roses removed from around the Icon.


This is followed by the funeral procession when the Lord's Burial icon is taken and covered by the Petals and spices, as the Lord's body was by the women at the Tomb.
After this we read stories of Salvation and Prophecy from the OT as well as the entire book of Psalms, to remind us of the Lord's love and caring for us.
The say starts around half 6 in the morning and ends around 9:30pm.