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THE HOLY AND GREAT PASCHA! CHRISTOS ANESTI! CHRIST IS RISEN!

CHRISTOS ANESTI!  CHRIST IS RISEN! Pascha, our Passing over into Life  Finally! The Hebrew Scriptures have been opened and the mystery declared: how the sheep was sacrificed, and how a people were redeemed, and Pharaoh wincing, lashed by unsuspected mystery. Therefore, all-beloved, apprehend the secrets of the Pascha. See that they contain both new and old, eternal and provisional, what passes and what will never pass away, mortal and immortal, both. For the law is

The Holy and Great Wednesday

In the Gospel and hymns of the Church for Holy Wednesday, we hear about the sinful woman who broke an alabaster box of costly ointment, wept at Jesus’ feet, and dried them with her hair. She broke the box – i.e. saved nothing for herself – and poured it out as her offering. It cost 300 denarii, which was 300 days’ wages! This latter fact enrages the disciple who sits in a place of honor

Lazarus Saturday

Saturday of the Holy and Righteous Friend of Christ, Lazarus Introduction On the Saturday before Holy Week, the Orthodox Church commemorates a major feast of the year, the miracle of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ when he raised Lazarus from the dead after he had lain in the grave four days. Here, at the end of Great Lent and the forty days of fasting and penitence, the Church combines this celebration with that of

The Eighteenth Day of Great Lent. A Lenten Meditation, by Saint Leo the Great

Dear friends, at every moment the earth is full of the mercy of God, and nature itself is a lesson for all the faithful in the worship of God. The heavens, the sea and all that is in them bear witness to the goodness and omnipotence of their Creator, and the marvelous beauty of the elements as they obey him demands from the intelligent creation a fitting expression of its gratitude. But with the return

The First Day (Pure Monday) of Great Lent: The Journey to Pascha

By Alexander Schmemann When a man leaves on a journey, he must know where he is going. Thus with Lent. Above all, Lent is a spiritual journey and its destination is Pascha, “the Feast of Feasts.” It is the preparation for the “fulfillment of Pascha, the true Revelation.” We must begin, therefore, by trying to understand this connection between Lent and Pascha, for it reveals something very essential, very crucial about our Christian faith and

Miracle of Saint Nektarios: The Healing of Fr. Nektarios Vitalis of Cancer

Fr. Nektarios Vitalis, well-known in Lavrio [a city in Attika, Greece] for his deeds and his sympathy to the poor and those written-off by the world in these difficult times, retells the following incident from when he was dying from cancer. What is said below has been told elsewhere, repeatedly, including in the book I talked to Saint Nektarios (Athens 1997, by the renowned writer Mr. Manolis Melinos). Fr. Nektarios Vitalis recalls: “I was suffering

Abraham at the End of the World

By Father Stephen Freeman, January 24, 2015  This is an exercise in the Orthodox reading of the Scriptures. My thoughts frequently return to this story and this line of thought. This article is greatly expanded from an earlier version. The habits of modern Christians run towards history: it is a lens through which we see the world. We see a world of cause and effect, and, because the past is older than the present, we look

The Feast of Holy Pentecost

The Feast of Holy Pentecost is celebrated each year on the fiftieth day after the Great and Holy Feast of Pascha (Easter) and ten days after the Feast of the Ascension of Christ. The Feast is always celebrated on a Sunday. The Feast commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost, a feast of the Jewish tradition. It also celebrates the establishment of the Church through the preaching

Of Course We Are Called to be Moral—A Response to My Critics

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, December 19, 2014 Well, the firestorm has moved even to my host, Ancient Faith Blogs. There, you can find a response and a critique of my last article, The Unmoral Christian. I find nothing in the response with which I disagree. The author argues that externals are often important, certainly for beginners, and suggests that I have overplayed my hand in overemphasized the inner nature of our lives. That is perhaps true. Every child

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Wednesday of the Sixth Week of Pascha. Ascended in Glory (Part I)

THE FEAST OF CHRIST’S Ascension is seldom given its due in the cycle of liturgical services, even within the Orthodox tradition. This is in part because it falls awkwardly on a Thursday, when most of our parishioners are at work. More significant is the fact that the theology, the deeply spiritual meaning of the feast, is not well understood. The Ascension is difficult for us to grasp because the image it evokes seems so improbable.