The Resurrection of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (Part II)

My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

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The Blessedness of the Saints in Heaven, and the Beginning of the Existence of the Great Kingdom of Christ, the Heavenly Triumphant Church.

Before His departure to the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ said to the Apostles: "In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" (John 14:2-3). The Savior prayed to the Father, "Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory which Thou hast given Me," (John 17:24). And the Apostles express the desire to depart and to be with Christ (Phil. 1:23), knowing that they have "a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Corinthians 5:1).

A depiction of the life of the Saints in heaven is given in the Apocalypse (Revelation). Saint John the Theologian saw around the Throne of God in the heavens "four and twenty seats" and on them, elders clothed in white garments and having crowns of gold on their heads (Revelation 4:4). He saw under the heavenly altar "the souls of them that were slain for the Logos/Word of God, and for the testimony which they beheld" (Revelation 6:9), and yet again saw a "great multitude...of all nations, and kindreds, and people," standing before the Throne and before the Lamb (Christ) and crying out: "Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the Throne, and unto the Lamb (Christ)" (Revelation 7:9-10).

The bright mansions of the Heavenly Home Holy Scripture calls "the city of the Living God," "Mount Zion," the "Heavenly Jerusalem," "the Church of the First-born written in heaven."

And thus the Great Kingdom of Christ has been opened in heaven. Into it have entered the souls of all the righteous and pious people of the Old Testament, those of whom the Apostles has said, "These all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise" (until the coming to earth of the Son of God and General Salvation), "that they without us should not be made perfect," that is, attained the joy and blessedness of the Heavenly Church of Christ (Hebrews 11:39-40). Into this Kingdom in the New Testament there entered the first ones who believed in Christ, the Holy Apostles, the first Martyrs, confessors, and thus until the end of the world the heavenly Home will be filled--the Jerusalem on high, the granary of God--until it shall come to its perfect fullness.

Saint Symeon the New Theologian teaches the following: "It was fitting that there should be born all who have been foreknown by God and that the world which is above this world, the Church of the First-born, the heavenly Jerusalem, should be filled; and then the fullness of the Body of Christ will be perfected, receiving in itself all those foreordained by God to be conformed to the image of His Son--these are the son of the Light and the Day. Such are all those foreordained and forewritten, and included in the number of the saved, and those who are to be joined and united to the Body of Christ, and there will no longer be lacking in Him a single member. Thus is it in truth, as the Apostle Paul reveals when he says: "Till we all come in the unity of the faith...unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13). When they shall be gathered together and shall comprise the full Body of Christ, then also the higher world, the heavenly Jerusalem, which is the Church of the First-born, will be filled up, and the body of the Queen of God, the Church, which is the Body of Christ God, will be revealed as entirely full and perfect" (Homily 45).

According to the teaching of Holy Scripture, the blessedness of the souls of the Righteous in heaven consists of:

a) the repose or rest from labors;

b) nonparticipation in sorrows and sufferings (Revelation 14:3, 7:16);

c) being together with and consequently being in the closest communion with the forefathers and other Saints;

d) mutual communion between themselves and with thousands of Angels;

e) standing before the Throne of the Lamb (Christ), glorifying Him and serving Him;

f) communion and reigning together with Christ;

g) the joyous beholding face to face of God Almighty.

(Source: Orthodox Dogmatic Theology by Father Michael Pomazansky)

(To be continued)

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Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" - Saint John Chrysostom

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With sincere agape in Our Risen Lord Jesus Christ,

The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+ Father George

CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

The Resurrection of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

My beloved spiritual children in Our Lord Jesus Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

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THE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST THE SAVING FRUITS OF THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST

The Resurrection of Christ is "the foundation and the crown of ourT Orthodox Christian Faith." The Resurrection of Christ is the first and most important, great truth, with the proclamation of which the most Holy Apostles began their preaching of the Gospel after the descent of the Holy Spirit. Just as by the death of Christ on the Cross our Redemption was accomplished, so by His Resurrection "eternal life was given to us." Therefore, the Resurrection of Christ is the object of the Church's constant triumph, its unceasing rejoicing, which reaches its summit in the Feast of the Holy Christian Pascha--"today all creation is glad and rejoices, for Christ has Risen" (Canon of Pascha, Canticle 9).

The saving fruits of the Resurrection of Christ are:

(a) the victory over hell and death;

(b) the blessedness of the Saints in heaven and the beginning of the existence of the Heavenly Church (Church Triumphant);

(c) the sending down of the Holy Spirit and the creation of the Church of Christ on earth.

A. The Victory Over Hell and Death

Human existence after the loss of Paradise has two forms: a) the eathly, bodily life; and b) the life after death.

Earthly life ends with the death of the body. The soul preserves its existence after bodily death also, but its condition after death, according to the word of God and the teaching of the Holy Fathers of the Church, is diverse. Until the coming to earth of the Son of God, and until His Resurrection from the dead, the souls of the dead were in a condition of rejection, being far away from God, in darkness, in hell, in the underworld (the Hebrew "Sheol," Genesis 37:35, Septuagint). To be in hell was like spiritual death, as is expressed in the words of the Old Testament Psalm, "In hades who will confess Thee?" (Psalm 6:6).  In hell, there were imprisoned also the souls of the Old Testament Righteous ones. These Righteous ones lived on earth with faith in the coming Savior, as the holy Apostle Paul explains in the 11th Chapter of his Epistle (Letter) to the Hebrews, and after death, they languished in expectation of their redemption and deliverance. Thus it continued until the Resurrection of Christ, until the coming of the New Testament: "And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise, God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect" (Hebrews 11:39-40). Our deliverance was also their deliverance.

Christ, after His death on the Cross, descended in His soul and in His Divinity into hell, at the same time that His body remained in the grave. He preached salvation to the captives of hell and brought up from there all the Old Testament Righteous ones into the bright mansions of the Kingdom of Heaven. Concerning this raising up of the Righteous Ones from hell, we read in the Epistle (Letter) of Saint Peter: "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit; by which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison" (1 Peter 3:18-19). And in the same place we read further: "For this cause was the Gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit" (1 Peter 4:6). Saint Paul speaks of the same thing: quoting the verse of the Psalm, "When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men," the Apostle continues:  "Now that He ascended what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things" (Ephesians 4:8-10).

To use the words of Saint John Chrysostom, "Hell was taken captive by the Lord Who descended into it. It was laid waste, it was mocked, it was put to death, it was overthrown, it was bound" (Homily on Pascha).

With the destruction of the bolts of hell (see holy icon of the Resurrection at church) that is, the inescapability of hell, the power of death also was annihilated. First of all, death for righteous men became only a transition from the world below to the world above, to a better life, to life in the light of the Kingdom of God; secondly, bodily death itself became only a temporary phenomenon, for by the Resurrection of Christ the way to to the general resurrection was opened to us. "Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept" (1 Corinthians 15:20). The Resurrection of Christ is the pledge of our resurrection: "For as Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive; but every man is his own order: Christ the first-fruits: afterward they that are Christ's at His coming" (1 Corinthians 15:22-23). After this, death will be utterly annihilated. “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death" (1 Corinthians 15:26).

The Troparion (hymn) of Holy Pascha proclaims to us with special joy the victory over hell and death: "Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and on those in the tombs bestowing life.” “Christ ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things” (Ephesians 4:10). (Orthodox Dogmatic Theology by Father Michael Pomazansky)

(To be continued)

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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" - Saint John Chrysostom

+                         + +

With sincere agape in Our Risen Lord and Savior,

The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+ Father George

CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

Bright Week - Week Immediately Following the All-Holy Pascha

My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,CHRIST IS IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

BRIGHT WEEK OR RENEWAL WEEK 

(Greek: Διακαινήμος Εβδομάς) is the name used by the Eastern Orthodox Church for the period of seven days beginning on Pascha and continuing up to (but not including) the following Sunday, which is known as Saint Thomas Sunday. The entire Bright Week is fast free.

The week following Pascha is to be set aside by Orthodox Christians for the celebration of the Glorious Resurrection of our God, Savior Jesus Christ. According to the 66th Canon of the Council of Trullo:

"from the Holy Day of the Resurrection (Anastasis) of Jesus Christ Our God until the New Sunday (i.e., Thomas Sunday) for a whole week, the faithful in the holy churches and homes, should continually be repeating psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, rejoicing and celebrating Christ, and attending to the readings of the Holy Scripture and rejoicing in the Holy Mysteries (Sacraments). For in this way shall we be exalted with Our Lord Christ; raised up together with Him.

The entire Bright Week is considered to be one continuous day. The week's divine services are unique, varying greatly form those during the remainder of the ecclesiastical year. The holy services are completely chanted, and the Paschal hymns are included with the stichera taken from the Sunday Resurrection.

During all of Bright Week, the Holy Doors on the Iconostasis are kept open--the only time of the year when this occurs. The open doors represent the stone rolled away from the Tomb of Christ, and the Epitaphios, representing the burial clothes, is visible through them on the Holy Altar Table. The doors are closed before the Ninth Hour on the Eve of Thomas Sunday. However, the Afterfeast of Pascha will continue until the Eve of the Ascension.

On April 23rd we celebrate the Feast-Day of Saint George the Great Martyr and there is a Divine Liturgy on the day. On Bright Friday, a service in honor of the Theotokos (Mother of God) and Ever-Virgin Mary as the "Life-Giving Spring" is included in the Paschal service. This divine service is not found in the Typikon, but was composed in the 14th century by Nikita Kallistos Xanthopoulos, in commemoration of the renewal, i.e., the consecration of the temple known as the Life-Giving Spring.

Bright Week begins the liturgical season known as the Pentecostarion, the period of 50 days which begins on Holy Pascha and continues to the Great Feast of Pentecost and its Afterfeast (Apodosis). The day of Pascha determines liturgical cycles as well as the Epistle and Gospel readings for the subsequent year.

Funeral services held during Bright Week have a special rite, consisting of joyous Paschal hymns with only the litanies remaining funereal. 

Orthodox Christians greet one another with Christ is Risen! and respond by saying, Truly He is Risen!

Thursday, April 23rd - Feast of Saint George the Great Martyr:

Orthros (Matins) at 9:00 a.m.

Divine Liturgy at 10:00 a.m.

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Friday, April 24th - Feast of the Life-Giving Spring:

Orthros (Matins) at 9:00 a.m.

Divine Liturgy at 10:00 a.m.

KALI ANASTASI TO ALL OF YOU! A BLESSED RESURRECTION TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILIES.

With sincere love in Our Risen Lord,

+ Father George

On the Crucifixion of Christ by Saint John Chrysotom (Part II)

My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

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ON THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST (Part II)By Saint John Chrysostom

"Behold your son... behold your mother."

3. And He, having committed His mother to John, said, "Behold your Son" (John 19:26). O the honor! With what honor did He honor the disciple! When He Himself was now departing, He committed her to the Disciple to take care of. For since it was likely that, being His mother, she would grieve, and require protection, He with reason entrusted her to the beloved. To him, He says, "Behold your mother" (John 19:27). This He said, knitting them together in charity; which the Disciple understanding, took her to his own home. But why made He no mention of any other woman, although another stood there? To teach us to pay more than ordinary respect to our mothers. For as when parents oppose us on spiritual matters, we must not even own them, so when they do not hinder us, we ought to pay them all becoming respect, and to prefer them before others, because they begat us, because they bred us up, because they bear us for ten thousand terrible things. And by these words, He silences the shamelessness of Marcion; for if He were not born according to the flesh, nor had a mother, wherefore takes He such forethought for her alone?

"After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished..."

That is, that nothing was wanting to the Dispensation. For He was everywhere desirous to show that this Death was a new kind if indeed the wholly lay in the power of the Person dying, and death came not on the Body before He willed it; He willed it after He had fulfilled all things. Therefore also He said, "I have power to lay down My life; I have power to take it again" (John 10:18). Knowing therefore that all things were fulfilled, He says,

"I thirst."

Here again fulfilling a prophecy. But consider, I pray, the accursed nature of the bystanders.  Though we have ten thousand enemies, and have suffered intolerable things at their hands, yet when we see them perishing, we relent; but they did not even so make peace with Him, nor were tamed by what they saw, but rather became more savage, and increased their irony; and having brought to Him vinegar on a sponge, as men bring it to the condemned, thus they gave Him to drink; since it is on this account that they hyssop is added.

"Having, therefore, received it, He says, It is finished."

Do you see how He does all things calmly, and with power? And what follows shows this. For when all had been completed,

"He bowed His head, (this had not been nailed,) and gave up the spirit."

That is, died. Yet to expire does not come after the bowing the head, but here, on the contrary, it does. For He did not, when He had expired, bow His head, as happens with us, but when He had bent His head, then He expired. By all which things the Evangelist has shown, that He was Lord of all.

"A bone of Him shall not be broken" (Exodus 12:46; Numbers 9:12).

For even if this was said with reference to the lamb of the Jews, still it was for the sake of the reality that the type preceded, and in Him, the prophecy was more fully accomplished. On this account, the Evangelist brought forward the Prophet. For since by continually producing himself as witness he would have seemed unworthy of credit, he brings Moses to help him, and says that neither did this come to pass without a purpose, but was written before of old. And this is the meaning of the words, "A bone of Him shall not be broken." Again he confirms the Prophet's words by his own witness. These things say he, I have told you, that you might learn that great is the connection of the type with the reality.

"After this came Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple."

Not one of the Twelve, but perhaps one of the Seventy. For now, deeming that the anger of the Jews was quenched by the Cross, they approached without fear and took charge of His funeral.  Joseph, therefore, came and asked the favor from Pilate, which he granted; why should he not? Nicodemus also assists him and furnishes a costly burial. For they were still disposed to think of Him as a mere man. And they brought those spices whose special nature is to preserve the body for a long time, and not to allow it quickly to yield to corruption, which was an act of men imagining nothing great respecting Him; but anyhow, they exhibited very loving affection. But how did no one of the Twelve come, neither John, nor Peter, nor any other of the more distinguished Disciples? Nor does the writer conceal this point. If anyone says that it was from fear of the Jews, these men also were occupied by the same fear; for Joseph too was, it says, "A secret (disciple) for fear of the Jews". And not one can say that Joseph acted thus because he greatly despised them, but though himself afraid, still he came. But John who was present, and had seen Him expire, did nothing of the kind. It seems to me that Joseph was a man of high rank, (as is clear from the funeral,) and known to Pilate, on which account also he obtained the favor; and then he buried Him, not as a criminal, but magnificently, after the Jewish fashion, as some great and admirable one.

4. And because they were straitened by the time, (since the Death took place at the Ninth Hour, and it is probable, that what with going to Pilate and what with taking down the body, evening would come upon them when it was not lawful to work,) they laid Him in the tomb that was near.  And it is providentially ordered, that He should be placed in a new tomb, wherein no one had been placed before, that His Resurrection might not be deemed to be that of some other who lay there with Him; and that the Disciples might be able easily to come and be spectators of what came to pass because the place was near; and that not they alone should be witnesses of His burial, but His enemies also, for the placing seals on the tomb, and the sitting by the soldiers to watch it, were the actions of men testifying to the burial. For Christ earnestly desired that this should be confessed, no less than the Resurrection. Wherefore also the Disciples are very earnest about this, the showing that He died. For the Resurrection, all succeeding time would confirm, but the Death, if at that time it had been partially concealed, or not made very manifest, was likely to harm the account of the Resurrection. Nor was it for these reasons only that He was laid near, but also that the story about the stealing might be proved false.

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BLESSED RESURRECTION TO ALL!

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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" - Saint John Chrysostom

+                  + +

With sincere agape in Our Savior Jesus Christ,

The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+ Father George

On the Crucifixion of Christ by Saint John Chrysotom

My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

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ON THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST

By Saint John Chrysostom

"Then delivered he Him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led Him away. And He, bearing His Cross, went forth into a place called the place of a skull, where they crucified Him."

1. Successes have terrible power to cast down or draw aside those who take no heed. Thus the Jews, who at first enjoyed the influence of God, sought the law of royalty from the Gentiles, and in the wilderness after the manna remembered the onions. In the same way here, refusing the Kingdom of Christ, they invited to themselves that of Caesar. Wherefore God set a king over them, according to their own decision. When then Pilate heard these things, he delivered Him to be crucified. Utterly without reason. For when he ought to have enquired whether Christ had aimed at sovereign power, he pronounced the sentence through fear alone. Yet that this might not befall him, Christ said beforehand, "My Kingdom is not of this world;" but he having given himself wholly up to present things, would practice no great amount of wisdom. And yet his wife's dream should have been sufficient to terrify him, but by none of these things was he made better, nor did he look to heaven, but delivered Him up. And now they laid the cross upon Him as a malefactor. For even the wood they abominated and endured not even to touch it. This was also the case in the type; for Isaac bare the wood. But then the matter stopped at the will of his father, for it was the type; while here it proceeded to action, for it was the reality.

"And He came to the place of a skull. Some say that Adam died there, and there lies; and that Jesus in this place where death had reigned, there also set up the trophy. For He went forth bearing the Cross as a trophy over the tyranny of death: and as conquerors do, so He bare upon His shoulders the Symbol of Victory.  What matter if the Jews did these things with a different intent. They crucified Him too with thieves, in this also unintentionally fulfilling prophecy; for what they did for insult contributed to the truth, that you may learn how great is its power since the Prophet had foretold of old, that He was numbered with the transgressors. Isaiah 53:12 The devil, therefore, wished to cast a veil over what was done, but was unable; for the three were crucified, but Jesus alone was glorious, that you may learn, that His power effected all. Yet the miracles took place when the three had been nailed to the cross, but no one attributed anything of what was done to either of those others, but to Jesus only; so entirely was the plot of the devil rendered vain, and all returned upon his own head. For even of these two, one was saved. He, therefore, did not insult the glory of the Cross but contributed to it not a little. For it was not a less matter than shaking the rocks, to change a thief upon the cross, and to bring him into.

And Pilate wrote a title.

At the same time requiting the Jews, and making a defense for Christ. For since they had given him up as worthless, and attempted to confirm this sentence by making Him share the punishment of the robbers, in order that for the future it might be in no man's power to prefer evil charges against him, or to accuse him as a worthless and wicked person, to close moreover their mouths and the mouths of all who might desire to accuse Him, and to show that they had risen up against their own King, Pilate thus placed, as on a trophy, those letters, which utter a clear voice, and show forth His Victory, and proclaim His Kingdom, though not in its completeness.  And this he made manifest not in a single tongue, but in three languages; for since it was likely that there would be a mixed multitude among the Jews on account of the Feast, in order that none might be ignorant of the defense, he publicly recorded the madness of the Jews, in all the languages. For they bore malice against Him even when crucified. Yet what did this harm you? Nothing. For if He was a mortal and weak, and was about to become extinct, why did you fear the letters asserting that He is the King of the Jews? And what do they ask? Say that "he said." For now, it is an assertion, and a general sentence, but if "he said" be added, the charge is shown to be one arising from his own matter. And it is no little thing that is dispensed even from this circumstance, but the whole matter. For since the wood of the Cross was buried, because no one was careful to take up, inasmuch as fear was pressing, and the believers were hurrying to other urgent matters; and since it was in after times to be sought for, and it was likely that the three crosses would lie together, in order that the Lord's might not be unknown, it was made manifest to all, first by its lying in the middle, and then by the title. For those of the thieves had no titles.

2. The soldiers parted the garments, but not the coat. See the prophecies in every instance fulfilled by their wickednesses; for this also had been predicted of old, yet there were three crucified, but the matters of the prophecies were fulfilled in Him. For why did they not this in the case of the others, but in His case only? Consider too, I pray you, the exactness of the prophecy.  For the Prophet says not only, that they parted, but that they did not part. The rest, therefore, they divided, the coat they divided not, but committed the matter to a decision by lot. And the, Woven from the top John 19:23 is not put without a purpose; but some say that a figurative assertion is declared by it, that the Crucified was not simply man, but had also the Divinity from above.   Others say that the Evangelist describes the very form of the coat. For since in Palestine they put together two strips of cloth and so weave their garments, John, to show that the coat was of this kind, says, Woven from the top; and to me he seems to say this, alluding to the poorness of the garments, and that as in all other things, so in dress also He followed a simple fashion.

(To be continued)

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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!"- Saint John Chrysostom

+                       +   +

With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry)
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+ Father George

Orthodox Great and Holy Week (Part III)

My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

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GREAT AND HOLY SATURDAY MORNING

"Arise, O God, and judge Thou the earth..."

(The divine service is Vespers [Esperinos] and Divine Liturgy of Saturday evening chanted by anticipation, on Saturday morning.)

Psalms are read and Resurrection hymns are chanted which tell of Christ's Descent into Hades.  "Today Hades cried out groaning" is the hymn' description of the resurrection of Adam and the conquering of death. Thus this day's celebration is called "First Resurrection." Most of the readings of this day are from the Old Testament on the prophecies and promise of the conquering of death. On this day, the Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great is officiated. The Holy Apostle Paul exhorts the faithful: "We were buried, therefore, with Him by baptism unto death, so we, too, might walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4).

After the reading of the Epistle, the priest follows the tradition of tossing of laurel, saying: "Arise, O God, and judge the earth: for Thou shall take all heathen to Thine inheritance." The Cherubic hymn of this day is: "Let all mortal flesh keep silence and stand with fear..."

THE HOLY SATURDAY OF PASCHA

(The divine service is Orthros (Matins) and Divine Liturgy of Sunday morning chanted Saturday midnight. With this service, the Pentecostarion starts (50 days services.)

On Pascha Sunday (Saturday midnight), the Life-Giving Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is celebrated. Before midnight, the Odes of Lamentation of the previous day are repeated. The Orthros (Matins) of the Resurrection begins in complete darkness. The priest chants: "Come ye and receive light from the unwaning Light, and glorify Christ, Who arose from the dead," and all the Orthodox Christians join him in chanting this hymn again and again. From this moment, every Orthodox Christian holds the Paschal Candle as a symbol of his vivid, deep faith in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ as Savior. In many churches, the priest leads the Orthodox faithful outside the church, where he reads the Gospel which refers to the Angel's statement: "He is Risen! He is not here" (St. Mark 16:1-8).

Then comes the breathless moments as the Orthodox Christian believers wait for the officiating priest to start the hymn of the Resurrection, which they join him in chanting, repeatedly: "Christ is Risen from the dead, by death trampling upon Death, and has bestowed life upon those in the tombs." From this moment, the entire service takes on a joyous Paschal atmosphere. The hymns of the Odes and Praises of Resurrection which follow are of superb meaning and expression. The Orthodox Christians confess, "It is the Day of Resurrection, let us be glorious, let us embrace one another and speak to those that hate us; let us forgive all things and so let us cry, Christ, is risen from the dead." By this hymn, they admit that love of one’s fellow man is the solid foundation of the faith in the Resurrection of Christ.

The Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom is then officiated. At the end of the Divine Liturgy, a part of the marvelous festival sermon of Saint John Chrysostom is read, which calls upon the Christians present to "Take part in the fair and radiant festival. Let no one be fearful of death, for the death of the savior has set us free...O Death, where is thy sting? O Hades, where is Thy victory? Christ is Risen and Thou art overthrown. To Him be glory and power from all ages to all ages."

"...Christ is risen and the demons have fallen. Christ is risen and the Angels rejoice, Christ is risen and there is none dead in the tomb For Christ is raised from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept. To Him be Glory and Power from all Ages to all ages. Amen."

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE "AGAPE SERVICE"

As the Feast of feasts, the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most significant and inspirational event which embodies the center of worship in the Christian Church. It is the epitome and crowning of the life, deeds and redemptive work of Christ. The Resurrection of Christ is the cornerstone of the faith and hope of all Christians. It is the source of love both in its content and power; it is the living background of inner peace of the heart and mind; it is the hopeful expectation and repentance and forgiveness. The Resurrection of Christ is destined to be heard all over the Universe and to be pronounced in all 1,300 languages and dialects of mankind.  Faith in the Resurrection should be lived daily with unselfish love. It is the reason that this Great Event is celebrated as the Day of “Love”" of one another, to forgive one another, to embrace one another, to embrace one another, to kiss one another, as a witness of brotherhood in the faith of the Resurrection of Christ. Only then may Christians joyfully declare: "Christ is Risen from the dead!" From this deep significance of the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ, the Orthodox Christians gathered together in the tradition especially of the villages, where at the end of the service the Orthodox Christian believers formed a line to greet and embrace one another; forgiving and being forgiven. Those who have had misunderstandings and not spoken to one another reconcile after the service. This practice is a vivid witness of the true meaning of agape. This is the reason that this service is called the "Agape Service" -- the Service of the Love-feast.

The Agape Divine Service is an extension of the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ. The Orthodox Christians with lighted candles participate in and chant the hymns of the Resurrection.  The Gospel according to Saint John (20:19-25) is read in various languages, proclaiming the Good News of Resurrection all over the world. The Service of the Sunday of Agape proclaims the real meaning of the Resurrection of Christ, which is love of fellow man, brotherhood among all men, especially in serving the needy. This Agape Service remains as a reminder to all Orthodox Christians to proclaim the Gospel of Love and Peace not only among their friends and relatives but especially among their enemies and those with whom they have had disagreements. This love is depicted in the following hymn: "It is the Day of Resurrection...let us embrace one another. Let us speak also, O brethren, to those that hate us, and in the Resurrection let us forgive all things and so let us cry ‘Christ is Risen.’”

Kali Anastasi! Blessed Resurrection!

In Christ's Service,

+Father George