On Great Wednesday the last Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts for the year was celebrated. For the final time, the prayers “Let my prayer be set forth” and “Now the powers of heaven” were sung. Prior to the Liturgy, the rite of forgiveness took place, in which forgiveness was asked from each other for everything in which they had sinned “during their whole life in the whole of the forty day fast.”
At the Gethsemane Convent of St. Mary Magdalene, the Head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission, Archimandrite Roman (Krassovsky), led the service co-served by Hieromonk Misail (Minin) and Hierodeacon Amphilokhy (Mazur). At the end of the service, Father Roman proclaimed for the last time the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian, “Lord and Master of my life.”
The abbess of the convent, Mother Elisabeth (Smelic) and her sisters prayed at the service.
Tags: Archim. Roman (Krassovsky), church of St. Mary Magdalene, convent of St. Mary Magdalene, Mother Elisabeth (Smelic)