Night of the Apocalypse/Bright Saturday (Coptic)

"After the Raising of the Incense, the Third and Sixth Hours are prayed according to the rituals of that night. After the Third and Sixth Hours Prayers have been read, the church begins to read the Holy Book of Revelation. The Holy Book of Revelation is read on Night of the Apocalypse because the Holy Book of Revelation refers to the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ; the Church. 

"In the Holy Gospel of St. John, St. John calls Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ the "bridegroom" (John 3:29) and in the Holy Book of Revelation 21:9 St. John refers to the "bride" of the Lord Jesus Christ; the church...and tells St. John..."Come I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife." Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ shed His blood on the cross and descended into Hades to get his bride, the saints and then opened the gates of Paradise. Now there is a bridegroom and we await the bride by reading the description of the church in the Holy Book of Revelation.

 "The story of salvation is that God the Father chose a bride for His Son, who paid for His bride, not with gold or silver, but with His Precious Blood. We are engaged to the Lord Jesus Christ; purified by His water and blood (Ephesians 5:25), wedded at the moment of His death on Great Friday. 

"All the hymns of the holy book of revelations are related to the bride of Christ: the church. These hymns call the bride to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, enumerate the number the sealed bride, the song of the bride (Alleluia), and the foundation of the heavenly Jerusalem (the bride of Christ). 

"The book of revelation is read between the Sixth and the Ninth hour since at that time the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, shed His blood and descended into Hades to restore Adam and his children to the paradise of joy. 

"The anointing of oil by the priests to the congregation before the Divine Liturgy is referred to in the Holy Book of Revelation 7:2-8, in which the servants of God must have sealed upon their foreheads. We are anointed with oil to seal us; to say that we are the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. Following this, the Ninth Hour is prayed in preparation for the Divine Liturgy."

The Divine Liturgy 

"The Night of Apocalypse ends with the Divine Liturgy and the Holy Communion; called the "Supper of the Wedding of the Lamb" (Revelation 19:9). This Divine Liturgy is unique in that we do not pray the "Prayer of Reconciliation" because the Lord Jesus Christ must trample death by His death (1 Corinthians 15) and death was not yet abolished at this point. Although we do not pray the Commemoration of the Saints on Covenant Thursday, we do pray the Commemoration of the Saints on Bright Saturday because Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has opened the gates of Paradise. 

"During Holy Communion the church prays the Eleventh Hour, chants selected Holy Psalms, and reads the prophecies of the Glorious Feast of Resurrection. 

"May we all enter into a blessed Holy Week with daily church attendance and solemn prayers and scriptural readings befitting its spiritual remembrance." 

-H.G Bishop Youssef