Thursday 5 April 2012, Antelias was filled with both old and young, who came to commemorate Jesus’ last days on earth.

In the morning after the Matins, His Holiness Aram I presided over the Liturgy of penitence and the New Covenant. In the afternoon, during the service commemorating Jesus’ washing of the feet of the disciples, His Holiness Aram I washed the feet of 12 priests and seminary students. In his sermon, based on the Gospel reading, Catholicos Aram I said, “Through this humble act, the Son of God showed us God’s profound love towards us all.” He stressed that Jesus’ humility is the essence of Christian life. Only through humility and total giving, stated the Catholicos, can we express true love. True love leads to cooperation among people and respect for one another; this cooperation and respect pave the way to peaceful living. At the end of the ceremony, the faithful took home some of the blessed oil with which the Catholicos had anointed the feet of the seminarians.

The service of Lamentations continued in the evening with commemoration of the passion of Jesus. Friar Hovhannes Saghdjian, the celebrant, preached on the Jesus’ self sacrifice. Amidst prayers and hymns, priests read the seven stories of the passion from the Gospels, and after each reading, each of the faithful made a knot on a thread. According to tradition, people wear this thread with seven knots on their arms until the feast of the Ascension.

At the end of the Lamentations service, His Holiness Aram I blessed the people with a special prayer on the meaning of the wooden cross.