Passover (Pesaha)

OT background: Unleavened bread and the lamb; Fulfillment of prophecy; Different approaches of synoptic and Johannine traditions, Establishment of Holy Qurbana, Washing of the feet to symbolize humility of Jesus; Betrayal by Judas; Jesus - the passover lamb; The old passover ends here; Establishment of the New Covenant;Deeper understanding through Scripture, Icons, and Liturgical prayers/hymns of the importance of the Feast

Teacher Training and Resources

Reference Materials

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The following materials are offered as sources for information and ideas but please remember to properly give credit if material is used in your writing! If you forget to use references, or your references are incomplete, your work can seem like an empty postulation or create suspicions of plagiarism.

Articles

  1. Pesaha: The Broken Bread, the Hidden Mystery, and the Love That Gives Itself Away, Fr. Dr. Jacob Mathew

Videos

Podcasts

Scripture

In order to help our children grow in the Orthodox Faith in North America, a decision was made to standardize all materials to the Orthodox Study Bible (DSWA Kalpana DSWA/C/016/2010, October 28, 2010). Please continue to pray and support the development of a fully approved translation based on the Peshitta, and our textbooks will educate on the various translations and historic development of Scripture.

Liturgical Resources

The Ministry of Liturgical Resource Development (LRD) was created in July of 2015 (DSWA Kalpana DSWA/C/10/2015, July 24,2015) to promote the translation, versification, and publication of vital English liturgical resources. Today most of our Sacramental offices are available and the "Service Book of the Holy Qurbono" and "Shehimo: Book of Common Prayer" are available in print. Wherever possible references will be made using LRD resources given the easy access to these materials to the faithful in North America.

Holy Qurbono


Other Hymns


Other Prayers


Promion and Sedro

  • Promion for Evening Prayer
Glory to that Lord of the feasts and the One who perfects the festivals, who went up for the feast to complete and to fulfill the mysteries of the Law, who told His disciples that ‘I earnestly desired to eat the Passover with You before I die, and I shall complete the old and fulfill the images, and transmit to You the new covenant in my blood so that I may be with You forever and I give You my holy body and precious blood as the pledge of the future life which will not grow old, and they shall be for You for the remission of debts and for the forgiveness of sins’.
  • Sedro for Evening Prayer
God of all, the Christ, the King of glory and the of all, the Lamb of God who came to take away the iniquity of the world, by His Own person (baqnumeh), and by His Grace, to be slain for the life of the world, by His compassion, to give Himself as a substitute on the cross for sinners, who by His love for humanity willed to lift up us out of the sacrifices of calves, oxen, lambs and baby animals, libations and the holocausts of the Law. You told Your disciples: Go and prepare every thing for us for the feast, for I have earnestly desired to eat Passover today with you. With the man who carries a jar of water, go where he enters, and say to the house owner that our teacher and Lord says: Today evening He is going to keep the Passover with you. Simeon and John went and as You had told them, they saw the Upper-room prepared, belonging to Your friend whom You raised from tomb. They prepared everything according to Your commandment. According to the Law, (You) finished the supper with Your disciples. Then You wanted to teach them by deed and word the best way of exaltation which is perfect humility. You girded Your loins with a towel and while sitting You told them: ‘Thus do mutually with love and learn humility of mind from me’. As soon as the Supper was finished, You took bread in Your holy hands and blessed it with thanksgiving and You gave (it) to them and said: This is the mystery which is being sacrificed for the entire world and this is my body; Take eat from it, for the remission of debts of every one who believes in me. Likewise, You blessed the cup and gave to them and said: This is my blood of the New Covenant. Take drink of it all of You for the forgiveness of sins of everyone who believes in me. Thus make the memory of my death, until I come again. After having entrusted them to the Father and You revealed to them about the betrayal of the rebellious, and about the renouncing by the head of the disciples, and about (their) flight, as it is written. You demonstrated that You have put an end to the old things and have begun the New Testament which grants eternal and immortal and imperishable life. O new and lordly feast, O amazing and ineffable mystery, O ineffable greatness, O unlimited love for humanity, O heavenly Lamb who ate the lamb of law, eaten in secret, O Great day of the Unleavened bread in which the mystery of our redemption was perfected, O mystical Upper-room in which one year old lamb was eaten, in which the Living Lamb of God was eaten, who by His sacrifice, takes away the sin of the world.
Today the bread of life from heaven was mystically entrusted to us in bread and wine, type of Melchizedek the just high priest. Today let all of us celebrate the feast of purification and the feast of atonement, not with old leaven of evil and bitterness, but with the leaven of purity and holiness. Today let us celebrate the holy and lordly Passover, the departure from oldness to newness, and from mortality to immortality, from tyranny of slavery to the lordly freedom, from the lamb among the sheep to the Lamb of divinity.
Today we have a spiritual passage from faithlessness to faith, from error to truth. Today we have found the true life which does not grow old. Today from the house of Levi the knife was brought down (nheth) — which slain the dumb animals - by the rational and bloodless sacrifice which was offered in the Upper room. Today the sprinkling of blood and the dropping of ashes were withheld from the temple of Zion by the rational and bloodless sacrifice of the Lamb, who by His mystery, was pouring forth all blood.
Therefore we beseech You, Christ our God, who like the dead, divided Your body and blood among us, and as the Living ate and drank form it. We know that You alone was Living and dead; killed and the giver of life. Hold us worthy now for he life-giving reception of Your holy body and blood. By it, may we be delivered from the destroyer; lest he may enter and destroy the first-borns of our souls: pure and sinless thoughts regarding Your passion and life-giving death. Hold us worthy to eat it, having been girded our loins with chastity, and wearing the sandals of peace on our feet, and supported by the rod of Your victorious cross. May we receive it, without having any doubt in our mind, but with true and pure faith, having been baked (mtawi) in the fire of love, seasoned with the salt of truth. Hold us worthy, O Lord, to eat You with newness everyday, devoid of all oldness and drink Your newly in Your kingdom. There may we offer You heavenly and spotless rams and innocent and undefiled lambs and pure and immaculate drink offerings, pure and spotless doves and turtle doves. Here, and there in the unending world, may we celebrate a joyful Passover and rejoice and exult in You. We and our departed ones, as well as all the faithful departed who have taken rest in You, will offer up glory with joy and thanksgiving with cheerfulness and exultation with gladness to You and to Your Father whom You have reconciled by the blood which You have shed for us, and to Your Holy Spirit who is consubstantial to You.
  • Pesaha - Sutoro Promion
Glory to Him, who alone is true and perfect love, who because of His love for humanity came down from heaven and lived on earth by way of dispensation, who, in His person (baqnumeh) demonstrated humility and the excellent way of perfection, standing up and girding towel around His waist and washed the feet of His disciples.
  • Pesaha - Sutoro Sedro
Christ our God, You made the invisible and visible things by Your word. By Your eternal powers, You brought everything into existence. You are the fountain of holiness, light, life, justice, and purity and for us You became incarnate without change. You endured insult, mocking, and humiliation for us. While being ministered by the heavenly hosts, for the sake of our salvation, You were seen as a servant. By the love for humanity, You fulfilled this, transmitting the teaching of virtue to (Your) uninstructed and ignorant apostles whom You had chosen from many. First You demonstrated them the example of humility by reconciling with them in the mystical Upper room, and You ate the holy Passover, and You revealed and showed the hidden mysteries. Afterwards, You handed over the true type to them. Standing up from the Supper like a servant, You girded Your waist with a towel and poured water in a basin, and You washed their feet, and beginning from the little one, You reached Peter in the end, and showed and taught us the example (tupso) of humility. You commanded that we also owe it mutually, and by it You sowed unity of love and mutual communion by patience. They received it without grudge and handed (it) over to us also.
We who live by the example of these things beseech Your benevolence, do not bring to Your memory the inequities that we have committed. But grant us the absolution for all of them as to the harlot, and inlcude us among Your chosen ones. Grant us that this washing of today be for us purification from every defilement of the soul and body. Drive away from us every bitterness, wrath, blasphemy, slander, murmuring, jealousy, division, and evil deed and renew the inner man, and sanctify him with Your Living and Holy Spirit. Grant us, Your servants, leaders, and those who are under them, the great and the little, may we cling together, spiritually and with love, like our members, caring and glorifying mutually, and dividing different works of praises among us and all of us will together offer up glory and thanksgiving to You and to Your Father ...
  • Great Friday Evening Prayer - Promion
The One who receives sacrifices and the Lord of the high priests, who was pleased to become the sacrifice and the priest, and the One who perfects the types and seals the mysteries, in this evening fulfilled the writing (surtho) of Moses and offered Himself to His Father as an acceptable offering. The inscrutable wonder divided with His hands —while He is alive - and mixed His blood for the apostles."
  • Great Friday Evening Prayer - Sedro
Christ our God, the Great Sun of justice and the True and Eternal Light from the Father, who illuminates every man who comes to this world, who fills everything with the light of His divine knowledge, who in the end of age (lit: evening of the age) came down in the flesh, in order to illuminate the creation darkened by error. In this evening of the Law - in the evening of the Passover - You have fulfilled all those things of the Law in Your person. You did manifest the light of 'the Gospel of Light'. The icon and image, represented figuratively with the evening of Moses in Egypt, were given correct interpretation in Your evening full of light. For in this evening, You who are the Passover, who makes all to rejoice with the delightful splendor of Your Divinity, did eat with earnest desire the Passover of the Law with Your disciple. In this evening, You perfected the Lamb of the mysteries - You who are the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the entire world, ate this with bitterness, with Your companions, and approached the bitter cup of death. In this evening which is the boundary of both the testaments, the Old was brought to pass and the New was begun. In this evening, You had shown the excellent way of exaltation by great humility, washing the feet of your holy disciples with love, and wiping them with the towel girded around Your waist, with love for humanity. You have handed over to them this beautiful example, and taught them with the gentle graciousness.
In this evening, with Your holy hands You divided Your life-giving body and gave Your companions to eat, and You mixed Your lordly (moronoyo) blood and gave them to drink and in it the New Covenant was confirmed for You bride, the Holy Church. In this evening, with the bread which was dipped, the deceit of Judas was made public and his impudence was revealed to the innocent disciples. In this evening, You saved the dumb animals from the knife of the sacrifices, and removed (it) by Your own Living Sacrifice. In this evening You put the shadows and figures to silence, and clearly revealed and placed (them) before us. In this evening, Levi abandoned his ministry and Aaron took leave from his peace-offerings. In this evening, the priesthood was handed over to the noble company of Simon, and they began to take charge over the divine treasury and to divide Your living body among the peoples of the earth and to give to drink Your pure blood to families and races. Behold today,in this evening, it has been given in all borders and regions for the forgiveness of debts and sins, according to the Lord’s commandment.
Therefore, we beseech You, Christ our Lord, in this evening full of wonder in which the figurative law was brought to an end, and was removed to have place for the spread of the New and the Holy Gospel of Truth, hold us worthy to participate in the awesome divine table with purity and holiness, having been delivered from bitterness and anger and jealousy, and our thoughts being cleared from tumults of malice and deceit of (Judas) Iscariot, and our conscience cleansed by the purifying washing of the admirable repentance of the debts and sins, and our souls being divinely bound by mutual affection and love, and our minds being illuminated by the splendor and rays of Your Divine teaching. May Your life-giving mysteries be not for our condemnation, but for the remission of the debts, pardon of sins, and the cleansing of (our) souls and bodies from every filthy and shameful thing and from every defect, defilement as well as for the elevation of minds towards sublime wisdom, and their (* bodies and souls) enlightenment by the divine rays and splendor. May we become constant dwellers in You and You in us. May we completely become perfect people of Your Unique Father, and we will offer up glory and praise to You and to Your Holy Father and to Your Life-giving Spirit.

Quotes

Patristic Quotes

Other Quotes

Syriac and Greek Words

Icons

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