PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr.Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Officer
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: info@armenianorthodoxchurch.org
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

Armenian version: nian.htm

ANTELIAS MARKS GOOD FRIDAY

"OUR NATION’S RESURRECTION IS GUARANTEED
BY THIS EMPTY TOMB"

SAYS HIS HOLINESS ARAM I

Good Friday, marked solemnly by the entire Christian world, has become an
annual opportunity for the renewal of our nation’s faith at the St. Gregory
Cathedral in Antelias, where His Holiness Catholicos Aram I officiates the
mass.

While "Trisagon" was being recited during the service, His Holiness and
members of the Cilician Brotherhood knelt before the flower-laden platform,
which signified Jesus Christ’s tomb and carried out the Savior’s burial
order. Covered with valuable cloths, the tomb was also decorated by a relic
of the Holy Cross.

Addressing the faithful, the Pontif conveyed the strength of Jesus Christ’s
empty tomb and the breath of resurrection and immortality bursting from it.
"This is not a usual burial service; God’s Son went to the grave for
humanity, as an expression of love, as a full-fledged commitment to save
humanity. Today it is not only the memory of this even that we remember.
Jesus Christ’s burial is an invitation to all of us to participate in the
salvation that Jesus Christ brought to humanity," the Pontiff said.

At the end of the service, His Holiness blessed the faithful with the relic
of the Holy Cross placed on Christ’s tomb. According to an old tradition,
people passed from under the empty tomb. The faithful were given the flowers
laid on the Holy tomb taking home with them the hope of resurrection and
immortality.

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View the photos here:
c/Photos/Photos221.htm
http://www.armenianorthodox church.org/v04/doc/Photos/Photos222.htm
http://www .armenianorthodoxchurch.org/v04/doc/Photos/Photos2 23.htm
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The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the history and
the mission of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician
Catholicosate, the administrative center of the church is located in
Antelias, Lebanon.