Grade 12 - Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States

Sunday School Curriculum Grade 12
Week 6 - The Trip of the Holy Week
Meditation:
May these days of the holy Pascha be filled with prayers, fasting and unity with the Lord in His
suffering for our sake.
Objective:
To prepare the students to understand and follow closely the events of the holy week.
To learn the order of every hour of prayer during the Pascha days.
Memory Verse:
―You were bought at a price‖ (1 Corinthians 7:23).
References:
The trip from Jerusalem to Golgotha - Fr. Bishoy Kamel
The rite of the Holy Week - Pascha book
Introduction:
This is the most Holy Week of the whole year. In the early days Christians used to completely free
themselves from anything except prayer, fasting and reading the Bible during this week. They
followed the way of suffering that our Lord had to go through for our sake.
Lesson Outline:
I. Pascha
The word Pascha means Passover. As the Israelites were saved from the slavery in Egypt by the
blood of the Passover lamb on their doors, the blood of Jesus Christ has saved us from Satan‘s
slavery. During this week, we pass through the suffering of our Lord to the Paradise on the
Apocalypse night.
II. Pascha Prayers
Not all of the Agpeya prayers are related to the suffering of our Lord; for example, the third hour
is related to the descent of the Holy Spirit as tongues of fire on the apostles. Therefore, during the
Holy week, we do not pray the Agpeya prayers, for the church would like to concentrate only on the
sufferings of our Lord during this week. Instead, we pray the Pascha hours of prayers, which are
specially arranged according to the events of the holy week day by day. At the evening of each day
during the Holy week we read the next day prayers, since each day starts from the evening of the day
before, i.e. on Sunday night we pray the hours of Monday eve. Every Pascha has first, third, sixth,
ninth and eleventh hours of prayer. Only the great Friday has an additional twelfth hour. Each hour of
prayer consists of:
140 THE GREAT FAST