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PASCHA

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Reflections and Daily Inspiration
The Reality of the Resurrection

In the liturgical texts of the Paschal Resurrection service, we say that the Lord is risen and, in rising, He raises up the whole world with Him, “the human world,” in the words of the Synaxarion of Pascha . In the Orthodox Church, the icon of the Resurrection does not depict Christ smiling above the tomb, as if He had accomplished some individualistic feat, but rather presents Him with a face so joyful that it appears at the same time sorrowful. He is shown pulling up those “bound in shackles” and drawing out all of the condemned from death into life, and from darkness into light. And we sing at Pascha: “Now all things are filled with light—heaven, earth, and the infernal underworld.” When one lives within the Orthodox Church, one experiences this as reality, as ontological fact. And when we sing that “all the trees of the forest are rejoicing today; their nature has been sanctified because the Body of Christ was stretched out upon a tree,” this too is experienced as reality.
- Elder Vasileios  
TODAY'S RECOMMENDATION
The Pearl of this Spring is a Fruit of the Entire Humanity's Pain
Bishop Maxim's Easter Message 2020

Тhe pearl of this year’s spring – and of the Great Lent for us Christians, culminating in Holy Week – is the offspring of the pain that the entire humanity and the Church body altogether lives through amidst the sea of tribulations caused by the Coronavirus. Everything that is done out of pure love is preserved and saved, for the eternity. Those who were crucified with Christ, will abound with glory; those who died with Him, will be filled with life. As somebody said, we’ve seen no evidence of Covid-19 discriminating on the basis of nationality. The virus doesn’t care about borders or religion. For this reason, we need a global response to Covid-19. As this spring invigorates us, so also Pascha rejuvenates all Christians. And as this year’s spring for most of the people will be unapproachable, so also the Easter, as liturgical event, will be inaccessible for many. But, can we say that the world doesn’t experience the spring?... No! Can we say that Christians do not experience Pascha? Not at all! Our faith is that the Holy Spirit constitutes the Church also in the times of Coronavirus.
FROM THE NEWS
Христос васкрсе!  Christ is Risen!

PASCHAL ENCYCLICAL
HIS HOLINESS PATRIARCH IRINEJ
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HIS GRACE BISHOP MAXIM’S

Message to the Faithful of the Orthodox Churches
by MICHAEL R. POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE
SAINT OF THE DAY
The Venerable John of the Ancient Caves in Palestine (8th c.)

John lived a life of asceticism in the so-called Ancient Caves or Lavra of Chariton the Great, in Palestine. Having loved Christ the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his mind, John, at an early age, began to travel to the holy places, listening to the instructions and counsels of the holy men. Finally, he settled in the Caves of Chariton. There he gave himself to rigorous asceticism, spending days and years in fasting, prayer and vigils, continuously meditating on death, and teaching himself humility. As a well-ripened fruit, he was plucked by death and took up his habitation in Paradise. He lived and died in the eighth century.