On Great and Holy Friday evening (April 17) our community gathered for the Matins and Lamentations service. This services is marked by funeral hymns (or Lamentations) sung at the Tomb of our Lord, as well as a procession around the church building, which signifies our participation in our Lords passage through Hell, as He destroys death by His Life-giving Death, and Hell groans because it cannot hold Jesus. Passing underneath the Plaschenitsa (or Holy Shroud) we become liturgical participants in this event, and we hear the first "news" of the Lord's impending Resurrection.