St. Amphilochios of Iconium: On the Burial of Our Savior

by St. Amphilochios of Iconium

Delivered on Great and Holy Saturday

Let us commemorate today the solemnity of the burial of our Saviour. He has undone the bonds of death of those who were in hades, filled hades with His splendour, and roused from sleep those lying there; and we on earth rejoice exultant, recalling to mind His Resurrection, and now we fear death no more, for it shall not prevail against immortality. "Because Thou wilt not," says the Scripture, "give Thy Holy One to see corruption" (Ps. 15:10).

It may be that the Jews and the Greeks will laugh at our wisdom; the former looking for another Christ, the latter bringing their own hopes to an end in the grave; of whom the prophet has rightly said: "And their sepulchres shall be their houses forever" (Ps. 48:12).

They now laugh, but they shall weep: for they shall weep when "they look upon Him Whom they have pierced" (Zach, 12:10; Ps. 21:16), and tormented with injuries.

We now weep, but our grief will be tempered with joy.

Death has seized Our Lord Jesus Christ; but shall not keep its hold on Life. It swallowed Him; it swallowed Him, not knowing Him. But, with Him, it will give up many. Of His own will He is now held; tomorrow, He shall rise again, and hades shall be emptied.

Yesterday, on the Cross, He darkened the sun’s light, and behold in full day it was as night; today death has lost its dominion; suffering itself a kind of death. Yesterday the earth mourned, contemplating the evil hate of the Jews, and in sadness clothed itself in a garment of darkness. Today, "the people that walked in darkness have seen a great light" (Is. 9:2).

Yesterday the earth trembled, as though it would dissolve, threatening to swallow those who dwelt in it; and the mountains were cleft asunder, the rocks were split, the Temple appeared as though naked, and as though it were a living being threw off its veil, seeking as it were to show by what had happened to itself that its holy places were no longer sacred to the Lord. They that suffered these things were lifeless, without mind. The elements mourned, as though it wanted little for them to dissolve in chaos, and bring disaster on the world, were it not that they could see the purpose of their Maker: namely, that of His own will He suffered.

O new and unheard of happening! He is stretched out upon a Cross Who by His word "stretched out the heavens" (Is. 51:13). He is held fast in bonds, "Who has set the sand a bound for the sea" (Jer. 5:22). He is given gall to drink Who has given us wells of honey. He is crowned with thorns Who has crowned the earth with flowers. With a reed they struck His Head Who of old struck Egypt with ten plagues, and submerged the head of Pharaoh in the waves. That countenance was spat upon at which the Cherubim dare not gaze. Yet, while suffering these things He prayed for His tormentors, saying: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Lk. 23:34).

He overcame evil by goodness. Christ undertook the defence of those who put Him to death: eager to gather them into His net, annulling the charge, and pleading their ignorance. Made the sport of their drunken frenzy, He submitted without bitterness. He suffered their drunkenness, and in His love for mankind called them to repentance. What more could He do?

Profiting nothing from that goodness, they enclose Him in a tomb Whom creation cannot contain. They seal the tomb, safe-guarding our deliverance; and fearing He would rise again, they station soldiers to watch the sepulchre. Who has ever seen the dead placed under watch?

Or rather, who has ever seen a dead body treated as an enemy? Who has ever seen one struck by death causing fear to those who have slain him? Who fears his enemy, once he has killed him? And who will not forget his enmity when sated by the death of his adversary?

Why do you still fear Him, ye Jews, Him Whom you have done away with?

Why do you dread Him Whom you have slain?

Why do you still dread Him Who has gone forth from among the living?

Why do you fear the Dead?

Why do you still fight with One Whom you have crucified?

His slaughter has made you safe: rest secure. If it is a mere man who has died, he will not rise again. If it is a mere man has died, then there is no truth in those words of His: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."

If He was a mere man, then death will keep him. If He was a mere man, what need to seal His tomb: is it not useless? Wait till the third day, and see the disproof of His madness? Cease to labour in vain, and you will see what comes to pass. Cease to rage against the truth. Do not try to wage war against God, inflicting wounds only on yourself. Cease offering insults to the Sun of Righteousness, thinking you can put out its light. Cease I say, and do not try to seal up the fountain of life.

Do not begin to make difficulties for yourself.

Do not speak of guards.

Have no traffic with corruption; and the bribing of those who keep watch.

Do not attempt what is foolish; nor spend what you have in impiety; nor imagine that you will defeat God.

Do not give money to the soldiers, to say this and not that. Do not set a crowd to watch the tomb. Put not your trust in armour. The Resurrection will not be stopped by force of arms, nor impeded by seals, nor put down by soldiers, nor concealed by bribes. Rather it shall be believed in.

Have you not seen Lazarus a little while ago throw off death as though it were a sleep? Have you not seen him come forth, clothed in his cerements (burial rags), at the words: "Come forth?" Have you not seen the dead obedient to His voice when He bade him come: and the winding sheet did not prevent Him? Have you not seen how His voice restored a man already dissolving in death? He Who did that can also do this.

He Who raised His Own servant, much more shall He Himself be raised up. He Who gave life again to a body already corrupting shall not leave Himself in death.

The great blindness of the Jews, who, beholding these wonders, yet could not see: For, they have eyes and see not!

For, the god of this world hath blinded the minds of unbelievers, that the light of the Gospel may not shine unto them (Ps. 113:5; 2 Cor. 4:4). But let us for a time leave these unhappy ones in their unbelief, and let us, while contemplating in spirit the tomb of our Saviour, say with the faithful Mary: "They have taken away our Lord, and we know not where they have laid Him."

To Him and to the Father Undefiled, together with the Holy Spirit, be there glory for ever and ever. Amen.

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Sermon for Great and Holy Friday

CATECHESIS 73: On the Saving Passion of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ

by St. Theodore the Studite

Given on Great and Holy Friday.

Brethren and Fathers, while the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ when they are recalled are always able to pierce the soul, they do so especially in these present days, on which each of them reached its end. What then are they? The murderous council against Him, the Jewish arrest, His being led away to death, His arraignment before Pilate's tribunal, the interrogation, the scourging, the blows, the spittings, the insults, the mockeries, the ascent of the Cross, the nailing of his hands and feet, the tasting of gall, the piercing of His side and all the other things which blazed forth with them, which the world cannot contain, nor can anyone worthily proclaim, not human tongue, nor even all the tongues of angels together.

For let us consider, brethren, this great and ineffable mystery. The Lord "who reveals the counsels of hearts" [1 Cor. 4:5] and knows every human desire, is the One who is taken before a council of death; the Lord "who bears all things by the word of his power" [Hebrews 1:3]is the One who is handed over to sinners; the Lord "who binds the water in the clouds" [Job 26:8] and sows in the earth in due season and uniformly is the One who is led away prisoner; the Lord "who measures the heavens with the span of His hand and the earth in a handful and weighed all the mountains in the balance" [Isaias 40:12] is the one who is struck by the hand of a servant; the Lord who adorned the boundaries of the earth with flowers is the One who is dishonourably crowned with thorns; the Lord who planted the tree of life in Paradise is the One who is hanged upon an accursed tree.

O great and more then natural sights! The sun saw them and faded, the moon saw them and was darkened, the earth perceived them was shaken, the rocks perceived them and were rent, all creation was turned back at the outrages done to the Master. The lifeless elements which have no senses, as if endowed with life and sensation from fear of the Lord and from the spectacle of what is seen, were amazed and altered; and do we, who have been honoured with reason, for whose sake Christ died, remain untouched and unweeping in these days? How could we be less rational than things which have no reason, more unfeeling than the stones? In no way, my brothers, in no way.

Let us rather be amazed in a manner worthy of God, by being changed with a fair change; let us draw down tears, sacrifice the passions, changing insults for insults and exchanging wounds for wounds, the one through obedience, the other through unflinching confession. Do we not see the burning incitements of divine love? Who ever dwelt in prison for a friend? Who accepted slaughter for their beloved? But our good God not only did the one and both of them, but accepted ten thousand sufferings for the sake of us, the condemned. Fittingly then the blessed Apostle, when he thought on these things and became powerfully aware of the love of God, said: "For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, neither angels nor rules nor powers, neither present nor future, neither height nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" [Rom. 8:38-39].

For such was the love God had for us that "He gave His only Son, that all who believe in him might not perish," as it is written, "but have eternal life" [John 3:16]. As an exchange for this love, the saints, when they had nothing to offer, offered their own bodies and blood by asceticism and struggle, singing with blessed David the song: "What return may we make to the Lord for all that He has given to us?" [Psalm 115:3] Let us also, brethren, cry out these words each day, as we serve Him with an unceasing attitude of love, striving again and again for what is better, so that we may become heirs with the saints of the eternal blessings in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and might with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever, and to the ages of ages.

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The Pain of the Mother of God

by Saint Silouan the Athonite

When the soul abides in the love of God - how good and gracious and festive all things are! But even with God's love sorrows continue, and the greater the love the greater the sorrow. Never by a single thought did the Mother of God sin, nor did she ever lose grace, yet vast were her sorrows; when she stood at the foot of the Cross her grief was as boundless as the ocean and her soul knew torment incomparably worse than Adam's when he was driven from Paradise, in that the measure of her love was beyond compare greater than the love which Adam felt when he was in Paradise. That she remained alive was only because the Lord's might sustained her, for it was His desire that she should behold His Resurrection, and live on after His Ascension to be the comfort and joy of the Apostles and the new Christian peoples.

We cannot attain to the full the love of the Mother of God, so we cannot thoroughly comprehend the grief. Her love was complete. She had an illimitable love for God and her Son, but she loved the people too with great love. What, then, must she have felt when those same people whom she loved so dearly, and whose salvation she desired with all her being, crucified her beloved Son?

We cannot fathom such things, since there is little love in us for God and man.

Just as the love of the Mother of God is boundless and passes our understanding, so is her grief boundless and beyond our understanding.


O holy Virgin Mary, tell us, thy children, of thy love on earth for thy Son and God. Tell us how thy spirit rejoiced in God thy Savior. Tell us of how thou didst look upon His fair countenance, and reflect that this was He whom all the heavenly hosts wait upon in awe and love. Tell us what thy soul felt when thou didst bear the wondrous Babe in thine arms. Tell us of how thou didst rear Him, how, sick at heart, thou and Joseph sought Him three long days in Jerusalem. Tell us of thine agony when the Lord was delivered up to be crucified, and lay dying on the Cross. Tell us what joy was thine over the Resurrection. Tell us how thy soul languished after the Lord's Ascension. We long to know of thy life on earth with the Lord, but wast not minded to commit all these things to writing, and didst veil thy secret heart in silence.

Archimandrite Sophroni, Saint Silouan the Athonite, p. 390-91.

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Why The Good Thief Was Pardoned

Why The Good Thief Was Pardoned

by St. John Maximovitch

And one of the malefactors which were hanging railed on Him, saying, "If thou be Christ, save thyself and us." But the other rebuked him, saying, "Dost thou not fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss." And he said unto Jesus, "Lord, remember me when Thou contest into Thy kingdom." And Jesus said unto him, "Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise." (Luke 23:39-13)

This is how the holy Evangelist Luke relates the edifying and moving incident concerning the conversion and the Lord’s pardoning of the thief who hung on the cross next to Him on Golgotha.

How did the thief deserve such mercy? What prompted such a quick and definitive response from the Lord? All the righteous figures of the Old Testament, including Saint John the Baptist, were still shut up in hades. The Lord Himself was preparing to descend into hades, not, of course, to suffer there, but to bring out the prisoners.

The Lord had not yet promised anyone to lead them into the Kingdom of Heaven; even the Apostles were promised to be taken into His mansions only after He had prepared them.

How is it that a thief was granted such mercy before anyone else? Why were the gates of Heaven opened so quickly for him? Let us examine the soul of the thief and the attendant circumstances.

His whole life had been one of theft and crime. But evidently his conscience had not died, and in the depths of his heart something good remained. Tradition even holds that he was that very thief who, during Christ’s flight into Egypt, took pity on the beautiful Baby and forbade his accomplices to kill Him, when they attacked the holy family. Did he perhaps recall the face of that Child when he looked upon the face of the One hanging next to him on the Cross?

Whether or not this actually occurred, when the thief looked upon Christ his conscience was awakened. There he was hanging next to the Righteous One, next to Him Who was "comely in beauty more than the sons of men" (Ps. 44:2), "Whose form at that time was ignoble, and inferior to that of the children of men.., having neither form nor comeliness" (Is. 53:2-3).

Gazing upon Him, the thief awoke as it were from a deep sleep. He saw clearly the difference between Him and himself. That One was without doubt a Righteous One, Who forgave even His tormentors and prayed for them to God, Whom He called His Father; while he was the killer of many victims, one who had shed the blood of people who had done him no harm.

Gazing upon the One hanging on the Cross, he saw as in a mirror his moral downfall. All the good concealed within him was awakened and surfaced. He came to a realization of his sins, he understood that it was his own fault that had brought him to this bitter end; he had no one to blame. Like the thief crucified on Christ’s left, he too had been gripped by hatred for the executioners, but this gave way to a feeling of humility and compunction. He felt fear at God’s coming judgment.

Sin became loathsome, dreadful. In his soul he was no longer a thief. There awakened in him feelings of love for mankind, merciful kindness. With his fear over the fate of his soul there was united a revulsion to the outrage being heaped upon the innocent Sufferer.

He had undoubtedly heard about the great Teacher and Wonderworker from Nazareth. What had occurred in Judea and in Galilee was the subject of many conversations and debates throughout the country. Previously, he had paid scant attention to any of this. Now, finding himself together with Him and in the same situation, he began to understand His moral greatness.

Christ’s lack of malice, His all-embracing forgiveness. His prayer, astonished the thief. He understood in his heart that beside him was no ordinary man. To turn to God as to One’s own father, in the hour of death, was possible only for Someone who truly knew Himself to be the Son of God. Not to waver in One’s teaching about love and unconditional forgiveness, to bear the humiliation of men’s slander and malice on the part of those to whom one has done good, was possible only for One who had the most intimate relationship with the source of Love, or Who was that Love.

The thief recalled all the remarkable things he had heard about the One now crucified with him, and a warm feeling of faith was kindled in his heart. Yes, He was without doubt the Son of God, incarnate on earth while existing in uninterrupted communion with His Father; the Son of God, Whom the earth did not receive and Who was returning to Heaven; the Son of God, Who was able and powerful to forgive men their sins! That gave hope that the thief would escape condemnation at the Dread Judgment. If Jesus prayed to His Father for His hangmen, He would not refuse to do the same for the one crucified with Him. The thief need only turn to Him, Who now shared with him the same bitter suffering, and He would receive him into His blessedness.

True, his turning to Christ with words of love and sympathy would be met with jeers on the part of the angry crowd. To acknowledge Him as a holy man and the Son of God would mean drawing upon himself the attention and anger of the Hebrew elders. Although they could not cause him greater physical agony than he already endured, it would be painful to be surrounded by malice; how much more grievous his sufferings would be when they began to revile him likewise.

But what did he care now about the anger of earthly authorities, about men’s taunts. As painful as it was to be abandoned by men at the threshold of death, it would be still more painful to be abandoned by God. He was nearing God’s judgment, and it was God alone he need fear! In the final moments of life, he had to do whatever was still in his power to gain God’s good will.

Perhaps he could say something to ease His suffering even just a little, perhaps even just one of the blasphemers would be ashamed and stop slandering Him. Christ had promised to give a reward for a cup of water offered in His name; surely He would not leave him without recompense. Let those reviling Christ revile him also! This would tighten his bond with Christ! He was going to share Christ’s lot here; Christ would surely remember him when He came into His glory!

There, amidst the clamor of slander, blasphemy and derision, he began exhorting his companion hanging to the left of Christ to stop slandering Him.

Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly: for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And then from his lips came a humble voice: "Remember me, O Lord, when Thou comest into Thy kingdom" (Luke 23:40-42).

This was the cry of a former thief — now Christ’s new disciple — who came to believe in Christ at a time when His other disciples had abandoned Him.

“A thief blessed Him, while I denied Him” (Sedalion, Tone 5),

Saint Peter lamented afterwards. At that time all the other Apostles likewise doubted the Lord. Even Saint John the Theologian, who had followed inseparably after his Teacher and was standing at the Cross on Golgotha, although he continued to be faithful to his beloved Jesus, even he did not then have complete faith in the Divinity of his Teacher. It was only after the Resurrection, after entering the empty tomb where lay the napkin and grave clothes which had wrapped Christ’s dead Body, only then did he “see and believe” that Christ had truly risen and was indeed the Son of God.

The Apostles wavered in their faith in Jesus as the Messiah, because they anticipated and desired to see in Him an earthly king, in whose kingdom they could sit at the right and the left hand of the Lord.

The thief understood that the Kingdom of Jesus of Nazareth, despised and given over to a shameful death, was not of this world. And it was precisely this Kingdom that the thief now sought: the gates of earthly life were closing after him; opening before him was eternity. He had settled his accounts with life on earth, and now he thought of life eternal. And here, at the threshold of eternity, he began to understand the vanity of earthly glory and earthly kingdoms. He recognized that greatness consists in righteousness, and in the righteous, blamelessly tortured Jesus he saw the King of Righteousness. The thief did not ask Him for glory in an earthly kingdom but for the salvation of his soul.

The faith of the thief, born of his esteem for Christ’s moral greatness, proved stronger than the faith of the Apostles, who, although captivated by the loftiness of Christ’s teaching, based their faith to a still greater extent on the signs and wonders He wrought.

Now there was no miraculous deliverance of Christ from His enemies — and the Apostles’ faith was shaken.

But the patience He exhibited, His absolute forgiveness, and the faith that His Heavenly Father heard Him so clearly, indicated Jesus’ righteousness, His moral superiority, that one seeking spiritual and moral rebirth could not be shaken.

And this is precisely what the thief, aware of the depth of his fall, craved. He did not ask to sit at the right or the left hand of Christ in His Kingdom, but, conscious of his unworthiness, he asked in humility simply that he be remembered in His Kingdom, that he be given even the lowest place.

Before everyone he openly confessed the Crucified Christ as Lord, and asked of Him the mercy of forgiveness.

His humble faith in Christ made him a confessor. By his own volition he was even a martyr, for he did not fear to recognize as his Lord the rejected “King of the Jews” — on Whom was concentrated the hatred of the multitude who had gathered in Jerusalem from all corners of the world for the Passover, and who, together with their elders and priests, were blaspheming Christ. The thief would not have feared even to suffer for Him.

Thus, the earnest repentance of the thief gave birth to humility, and together with this turned out to be a solid foundation for a strength of faith which at that time not even Christ’s closest disciples possessed. The converted thief performed a spiritual feat which not one of them was then capable of doing.

"Whoever shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven" (Matt. 10:32).

The thief confessed Christ; he confessed Him before a whole multitude who were railing at Him; he confessed Him then when no one else dared, and when even those few disciples and women who remained faithful to Him manifested their love for Him only with their bitter tears.

The thief did what once the three youths in Babylon did, refusing to bow down before the golden idol which Nebuchadnezzar had set up on the plain of Dura and before which “all nations, tribes and tongues” bowed down (Dan. 3:7).

The thief came to belief in the suffering Lord; confessing Him as “the hidden God,” he came to know Him before anyone else, and the power of His resurrection, and participation in His sufferings, "being made conformable unto His death" (Phil. 3:10); he understood before anyone else what constitutes the Kingdom not of this world; he came to know "what is truth" (John 18:36-38).

He was the first to comprehend the nature of Christ’s Kingdom, and therefore he was the first to enter it.

He was the first to see "Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (I Cor. 2:2), the first to preach "Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, to the Greeks foolishness, But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God" (I Cor. 1:23-24).

For this reason he was also first to personally experience the power and wisdom of God, the power of Christ’s co-suffering and regenerating love; he was first to hear “the sound of the power of the Cross, for through it Paradise was opened.” (Fourth Ode, Ascension Canon)

His thorough repentance of his sins and transgressions, his profound humility, his firm faith in the Crucified Lord Jesus Christ Who gave Himself over to suffering, and his confession, made at a time when the whole world was against Christ — these are the strands which wove the crown that adorned the head of the former thief, this is the substance of which the key was forged that opened to him the gates of Paradise!

Many people sin, trusting to repent just before death; they point to the example of the wise thief. But is anyone capable of what he did?

“The Lord pardoned the thief at the final hour so that no one would despair. But it was a single instance, that no one should have immoderate hope in His mercy” (Blessed Augustine).

“Such was his end! What ours will be we do not know — neither do we know by what death we will die: whether it will come suddenly or with some sort of forewarning” (Saint Theodore Studite, "Lesson On the Occasion of a Monk’s Sudden Death”).

Will we then be capable of a moral transformation and rise up spiritually like Christ’s fellow traveler "who let out a small voice and gained great faith? Will a sudden death not carry us away, deceiving our hope of repentance at the last minute?” (Saint Cyril of Alexandria, “On the Dread Judgment,” printed in The Great Horologion).

For this reason, “sinner, do not postpone repentance, that your sins not accompany you into the other life and weigh you down with an intolerable burden” (Blessed Augustine, in The Sunflower of Saint John of Tobolsk, Book 4, chap. 5).

May the example of the wise thief prompt us not to postpone repentance but to crucify ourselves with Christ (Gal. 2:19) and more earnestly repent, "that we too might experience upon ourselves the mercy of co-suffering". (Prayer of Saint Symeon the New Theologian)

"They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts" (Gal. 5:24).

Let us be zealous for our speedy and complete inner amendment, wholly giving ourselves over to the will of God and asking of Christ mercy and grace.

“Do Thou, Who alone lovest mankind, grant us the repentance of the thief as we serve Thee with faith, O Christ our God, and cry to Thee: Remember us also in Thy kingdom” (verse on the Beatitudes, Tone 4).

“O Lord, this very day hast Thou vouchsafed the Good Thief Paradise. By the Wood of the Cross do Thou enlighten me also and save me” (Exapostilarion, Matins of Holy Friday).

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What Christ Accomplished on the Cross

by Hieromonk Damascene

The topic of today's talk—what Christ accomplished on the Cross—is of course a prime subject of contemplation during the Lenten season, as we prepare to prayerfully commemorate Christ's passion, death, and the inevitable consequence of His death: His holy Resurrection. As we call to mind and repent of our sins during the Holy Fast, we also call to mind that which has saved us from the eternal consequences of sin. We call to mind Christ's life-creating death on the Cross, which He underwent for the salvation of each one of us.

The Orthodox dogma of our redemption—which includes the doctrines concerning Christ's incarnation, death and Resurrection—is the chief dogma of our Faith, together with the dogma of the Holy Trinity. I have been especially contemplating and reading Patristic writings on this subject for a few years now. It is a vast subject. In this lecture I will try to outline its main points in a linear and chronological fashion. I will speak about the state of man before the Fall and after the Fall, and then speak about how Christ saved us from the consequences of the Fall through His incarnation, death and Resurrection. Finally, I will summarize all the present and future accomplishments of Christ's redemptive work.

Read the rest here.

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Protestants To Join Orthodoxy on Holy Saturday

Group of Protestants Will Adopt Orthodoxy on Holy Saturday

Kaliningrad, 2 April 2010, Interfax - A group of former Protestants will be baptized on the eve of Easter in St. Andrew Church of Kaliningrad, Russia.

Young men and women started visiting an Orthodox church several months ago. In the past, they had one problem - drug addiction - and they tried to get rid of it in the Transfiguration of Russia Protestant charitable organization, the Kaliningrad edition of the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily has reported on Thursday.

However, now the former Protestants want to adopt the Christian faith.

"In the past, people seeked for cures in sects as there were few Orthodox communities capable to effectively solving the problems of such people. However, time proved that even richest sects have got neither the experience nor authority to help them."

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90 Percent of Russians Will Celebrate Easter

Nearly 90 Percent of Russians Will Celebrate Easter, Each Third Atheist Will Bake the Easter Cake – poll

Moscow, 1 April 2010, Interfax – An overwhelming majority of Russians (87 percent) are going to celebrate Easter on April 4, the VTsIOM sociologists say.

According to a poll conducted all over Russia, the number of participants in traditional festival activities has increased for the recent five years.

For example, 71 percent of the respondents plan to cook Easter dishes (against 46 percent in 2005), while 34 percent are going to have them blessed in the church (against 14 percent). Another 42 percent of Russians are to go and see their friends or to accept guests at home.

The poll proves that majority of Orthodox Russians (95 percent) celebrates Easter and this feast is popular among followers of other Christian confessions (70 percent) and even among atheists (48 percent).

Three fourths of Orthodox faithful (77 percent), over a half of other Christian believers (55 percent) and each third atheist will bake kulich (Russian Easter cake).

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Easter on the Greek Island of Paros

Easter in Greece

Nobody does Easter better than the Greek island of Paros, where visitors are treated like family. Author Carol Mason finds herself hypnotized.

The Globe
April 1, 2010

You can believe, or not believe. But you can't fail to be immersed in the spirit of Easter in Greece.

It's the most important holiday in the Greek Orthodox calendar: a bigger to-do than Christmas. The Greeks, as we know, invented theatre – and Easter is a giant, living, breathing, immortal piece of it. From Athens, the spectacle spans to the tiniest of the 160 permanently inhabited islands, and everyone is into it. So don't go looking for a party-mate at 11 p.m. on Easter Saturday. Virtually the entire country will be in church.

The island of Paros does Easter better than anywhere else. It's the third largest in the Cyclades group, where you'll also find Mykonos and Santorini. Picture whitewashed churches with blue domes, orange blossom and bougainvillea tumbling down nearly every wall, mysteriously interlocking streets with no names that are no wider than the expanse of your outstretched arms, sugar-cube houses piled up on hillsides, or dotted sparsely on the windswept edge of a cliff. Paros's charm feels effortless.

Ordinarily, it has a population of 17,000, but this doubles around Holy Week. Tourists, most of them Greek, arrive for the festivities – especially for the re-enactment of the Passion of Christ. On Good Friday, the hillside village of Marpissa puts on a series of tableaux performed by locals, dramatizing the last days of Christ's life. Acting? Or have we biblically time-travelled? You could almost be fooled into thinking it.

There's a huge build-up to Easter, but it really gets going with the decoration of eggs on Holy Thursday. Families dye the kokkina avga the traditional red (to signify Christ's blood, with the egg representing new life) by boiling the skins of yellow onions in water and vinegar.

Locals say there are 200 or so churches on the island – many are the size of your master bedroom – and congregants keep an all-night vigil around the epitaphios, the bier that bears a replica of Christ's body. Women adorn it with fresh flowers; great pride is taken.

On Good Friday, a solemnity falls on usually convivial Greeks. Funeral bells ring out all over the island, this mourning melody carries across the swell of the blue Aegean, where brightly painted fishing boats bob alongside the real working boats that feed the island and send the fresh daily catch to the businesses in Athens. Flags fly at half-mast. Even the horn of the Blue Star ferry wails in respectful lament.

From midday on, each church has its bier lying in state. A steady stream of people comes to pay their respects. Many don't stay for the full service, yet in Paroikia, the island's capital, the Church of Our Lady of a Hundred Gates is almost impossible to leave. The strange humming of voices is hypnotic. I watch the course of impenetrable rituals from the open doors, then I sit outside on the step, eyes closed to the sunshine beating on my face, lulled by the sombre rhythm of a language and devotion that I don't understand. I may be the only person not dressed in black.

At nightfall, everyone heads to Marpissa. From afar, this amphitheatre of a white village is a-twinkle with hundreds of candles carried by the crowd that follows the epitaphios through the main streets. The pitch of their grief can't fail to move you. A choir sings; women sprinkle flowers and oregano, and burn incense. Others lean off balconies. The procession stops along the way, and at each pause, men, women and children dressed in costume perform various chapters of the Easter story in an orb of light: Christ's entry into Jerusalem, the repentance of Mary Magdalene, the Last Supper, Jesus praying on Mount Olive, the hanging of Judas and the Crucifixion. The whole thing is eerily realistic.

On Easter Saturday night, the church congregation sits in darkness holding long, unlit candles. When the clock strikes midnight, the priest lights the holy flame to symbolize the resurrection. The light from one candle is passed on until every candle is lit, then firecrackers burst into the sky. Christos Anesti. Christ is Risen! they shout. Alithos anesti. Truly, he is risen!

And from there on, it's a party. People mill about, carrying their glowing candles, winding the labyrinth streets to their homes, where the candles will be placed above the front door to burn in the shape of a cross. After the egg-cracking – a metaphor for Christ freeing himself from his tomb – everyone tucks into supper. It's traditional to start with mageiritsa, soup made with lamb organs, but it gets better after that: hiroméri, smoked salted pork; touloumisio, local cheese aged in goat skin; tsoureki, the sweet, braided, egg-washed bread; grilled vegetable dips to make you crave your five servings a day, and plenty of wine, ouzo and souma (a particularly head-blowing brew of pure alcohol made from distilled grape skins). The feast goes on all night.

Sunday brings more eating: The Marpissa football grounds is home to a Festival of Love, all laid on courtesy of the municipality. It's a merry occasion, with traditional music and dancing while a whole lamb revolves over a charcoal fire. Relish this with salads, seafood specialties, wine, ouzo and more ouzo. Everyone is invited. If you're on Paros at Easter, someone somewhere is going to make you forget that you are a tourist.


Then, on Monday, everything returns to normal. You're done with Easter, and eating, but you may never be done with Paros.

The gleam of morning sunshine is almost painful on the eyes, and seems to endlessly reflect off the white houses and mellow sea. And while, in April, the sea might not be at its warmest, if you stroke through the ribbons of sapphire and emerald, you’ll experience that ebullient illusion of being the only person swimming in the Aegean. As the Greek composer Giannis Markopoulos said, “In the Cyclades you are never a stranger. Immediately the earth, human, sea, its sky and houses make a dialogue with you.”

And this is true. From the minute the tiny Olympic Airways flight circled the island to land, Paros spoke to me, and kept on saying all the right things. On my first venture into town, an elderly man gave me a rose. Someone else tried to offload a kitten (cats run amok on Paros because the Greeks don’t spay and neuter; some people own about 20). The clothing boutique owner couldn’t bear to see me in flip-flops – 26 C being winter for a Greek – so she gave me a free pair of brand-new imported Italian shoes. When I protested that I couldn’t possibly accept her offer, she charged me a token two euros. Then, ironically, I did catch a cold, and the local café owner fed me a bottomless cup of hot souma with honey, and someone else bought me socks. As a tourist, I was hardly a rarity. But Parians take an interest in you. Of the Northern Europeans I met in the month I was there, it was easy to see why they had been coming back for 20-plus years.

Thankfully absent are the rows of accommodations that pockmark the shoreline of so many of the bigger islands popular with budget-conscious travellers. On Paros, you don’t feel like you’ve been segregated to your designated zone by locals who don’t want to see you in your drunken glory or your Union Jack shorts. There is a sense of the undiscovered here, especially in low season. You can spend days exploring diminutive churches, rarely seeing anyone who isn’t Greek. Or hike the Byzantine Way down to the sea from Lefkes, the island’s highest village with one of the most breath-catching 360-degree views I’ve seen in all of Europe. Or check out the sound of silence in the Marathi marble quarries – the stuff used by ancient sculptors to make, among other things, the Venus de Milo. Then there is always the neighbouring island of Antiparos, which I had almost circumnavigated before I spotted a single other car on the road.

I’d like to own a house here. Or come back every year, for Easter, or for any other excuse. To sit one more time in the fishing village of Naoussa, in an open-air taverna at the water’s edge, and eat sun-dried mackerel, charred on the grill, while half a dozen kittens chase after the front-runner who has the whole sardine in its mouth. To dip coarse-textured golden bread into yellow fava beans that glisten in the sun with pools of green olive oil. To sip a glass of insanely affordable Moraitis reserve red from the local vineyard.

Happy Easter? How can it not be?

Bestselling writer Carol Mason is the author of The Love Market.

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The Miraculous Opening of Graves After the Crucifixion

by St. Nikolai Velimirovich

"Tombs were opened, and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised" (Matthew 27:52).

O, what a great sign! The dead bodies of holy men and women recognized Him, Who, on the cross, died in pain; but the dead souls of the elders of the Jews did not recognize Him. The whole of creation trembled, but only the criminal souls of Anna, Caiphas and Herod did not tremble. Dead saints showed themselves more sensitive than living sinners. How could the dead saints remain indifferent toward their Creator on the cross when not even the dead stones could not remain indifferent? How is it that during this event from which the earth quaked and the sun darkened, the bodies of those righteous could sleep in the graves, those who fulfilled His Dispensation of Old, those who hoped in Him for life, those who prophesied about Him and, with hope in Him, closed their eyes?

O, what a great sign! O, what a great comfort it is for us who hope in the resurrection! For according to our weakness and little faith, we could say, "Truly, Christ is Risen." But will we also be resurrected? Christ resurrected by His Own power but, how shall we resurrect? Who knows if God will resurrect us by His own Power. Here is consolation, here is proof: "Tombs were opened, and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised." This means that death was unable to annihilate even ordinary man. This means that those who are much lower than Christ are not dead as stones, rather are alive as angels. This means that one day even our bodies will arise from the tombs, that we will live also. All that our Lord said is substantiated and overflowing with countless testimonies. Knowing the weakness of our faith, He proved the prophecy of His resurrection not only by His particular resurrection, but also by His raising many bodies from the tombs at the time of His own death.

O brethren, not one of us will have the least excuse for not believing in life after death.

O Lord, All-Merciful, strengthen the faithful in the Faith and return the unfaithful to the Faith. Amen.

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The King Who Does Not Defend Himself

by St. Nikolai Velimirovich

“Do you think that I cannot call upon My Father and He will not provide Me at this moment with more than twelve legions of angels” (Matthew 26:53).

Thus spoke the Lord to the disciple who drew the sword to defend his Teacher in the Garden of Gethsemane. It is obvious from these words that the Lord could have defended Himself, if He wanted to, not only from Judas and his company of guards, but also from Pilate and the leaders of the Jews. For the might of one angel is greater than the greatest army of men, much less the might of twelve legions of angels.

The Lord did not want to seek this help from the Father. In His prayer in Gethsemane, He said to His Father, “Let Your will be done” (Matthew 26:42). With that, He immediately knew the Will of the Father and that it was necessary that He be given over to suffering. He was in agreement with the Will of His Father and set out on the path of suffering. It was necessary to allow the background to be portrayed gloomier in order that the resurrection would be brighter. It was necessary to allow evil to compete as much as it could so that, afterwards, it would explode and disintegrate into nothing. It was necessary to allow evil to cry aloud so that, soon after, it would become speechless before the miraculous resurrection. It was necessary that all the wicked deeds of men against God be manifested so that they would be able to see and appraise the love and mercy of God toward mankind. The angels of God were not sent to defend Christ from the Jews; rather, the angels of God were sent, after three days, to announce the holy resurrection of Christ.

O Lord, All-Powerful and All-Merciful, have mercy on us and save us.

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Epithets for the Passion of Christ

Holy Week allows us to contemplate the Passion of Christ. In the Orthros for Holy Monday, we hear the following First Kathisma:

"On the day at hand, like a lifesaving beacon, the honorable Passion breaks on the world. For Christ in His goodness presses on to His sufferings. Though He holds all creation in the hallow of His hand, yet He deigns to be suspended on the Cross to save mankind."

And the Third Kathisma reads:

"Today shines as the first-fruits of the Passion of the Lord. Come, then, all who love the feast and join together in hymns. For the Creator comes to accept the Cross, the afflictions, the beatings, and the judgment by Pilate. A servant strikes Him on the head, but He endures all things that He may save mankind. Therefore, let us cry out to Him: 'Grant remission of sins to those who venerate Your pure Passion.'"

The Sacred Hymnographers of the Church give various epithets* to describe the Passion of Christ throughout the many hymns of Holy Week.

They call it "Honorable Passion" (σεπτά πάθη - septa pathi) because the Passion of the Lord invites honor and veneration. Only hardened impious hearts are unmoved by the Passion of Christ.

They call it "Pure Passion" (άχραντα πάθη - ahranta pathi) because the body of Christ, which endured much suffering and torment, is pure and without the corruption and disease of sin. The pure and innocent body of Jesus undergoes the Passion.

They call it "Fearful Passion" (φρικτά πάθη - frikta pathi) because the Passion of Christ consisted of the most painful torture imaginable, both bodily and mentally. Knowing what He was about to endure beforehand at the hands of His own creation, voluntarily, no one can even imagine what suffering the Lord went through during the first Holy Week.

They call it "Holy Passion" (άγια πάθη - hagia pathi) because Jesus was truly the only holy person to ever suffer, as His holiness comes from Himself. "One is holy, One is Lord, Jesus Christ..." we sing at every Divine Liturgy.

They call it "Saving Passion" (σωτήρια πάθη - sotiria pathi). This particular epithet mainly applies to us and what the Passion of Christ brought us. In this sense, it also shows the ultimate purpose for why Jesus endured His Passion, which is to save mankind. Both the Passion and the Cross of Christ are the source by which the waters of salvation flow to all people through the blood of Christ, which is the medicine of our immortality through Holy Communion.

They call it "Life-Creating Passion" (ζωοποιά πάθη - zoopia pathi). This epithet foresees the goal of the Passion and Crucifixion of Christ and looks forward to the Resurrection. The Resurrection cannot take place unless the Lord endures the Crucifixion first. He died that we may live. By His death was death trampled. And for us, paradise which was once lost to us has now become paradise restored through His Passion.

The Passion of Christ is our freedom.

It was because of our sinful passions that Christ had to endure His Passion for our healing and salvation. Our passions and sins crucified the Lord of Glory. We were slaves to our passions because of the fear of death and because of him who held the power of death, the devil. Christ has trampled down death by His Passion and given us a new life where we are no longer slaves to our passions and desires, but free men and women by the grace of the Holy Spirit. He has become our Redeemer.

Why then are we still so often enslaved by our passions? Because we are sick, and the sick always suffer. This is why Christ has given the means through the Church to cure us of our passions and sins, though it is ultimately up to us if we want to take the medicine prescribed for the cure. Often we are too stubborn to take our medicine given to us by the doctor (a.k.a. spiritual father), let alone from the Physician of our souls and bodies (Jesus Christ). This is a hard saying, but it is true. And though the medicine is always within our reach, we fail to take the medicine which provides the inevitable cure.

The medicine of immortality is to organically live within the life of the Church so as to receive that which heals us in a worthy manner (though we are always unworthy) - the Body and Blood of Christ.

The Passion of the Lord is upon us and the Lord calls us all to submit to Him our passions in exchange for His forgiveness and the remission of our sins. In doing so, our purification will lead to our glorification.

* For those who do not know Greek, it should be noted that these epithets often are not translated correctly in English service books for Holy Week. Usually the translation is made to say merely "Holy Passion", ignoring the rich terminology above. This is unfortunate.

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The Two Evil Deeds of Israel Against Jesus

The following hymn from Holy Thursday evening has Jesus speaking to the people of Israel about their two evil deeds:

Israel, My first-born son, committed two evil deeds: He forsook Me, the source of the living water, and hewed out for himself a broken well; and he crucified Me on the Wood after asking for the release of Barabbas. The heavens were aghast at this, and the sun hid its rays. But you, O Israel, were not ashamed and delivered Me to death. Forgive them, O Holy Father, for they know not what they have done.

Δύο καὶ πονηρὰ ἐποίησεν, ὁ πρωτότοκος υἱός μου Ἰσραήλ, ἐμὲ ἐγκατέλιπε, πηγὴν ὕδατος ζωῆς, καὶ ὤρυξεν ἑαυτῶ φρέαρ συντετριμμένον, ἐμὲ ἐπὶ ξύλου ἐσταύρωσε, τὸν δὲ Βαραββᾶν ἠτήσατο, καὶ ἀπέλυσεν, ἐξέστη ὁ οὐρανὸς ἐπὶ τούτω, καὶ ὁ ἥλιος τὰς ἀκτῖνας ἀπέκρυψε, σὺ δὲ Ἰσραὴλ οὐκ ἐνετράπης, ἀλλὰ θανάτω μὲ παρέδωκας. Ἄφες αὐτοῖς Πάτερ ἅγιε, οὐ γὰρ οἴδασι τὶ ἐποίησαν.

- Holy Thursday (Praises)


Chanted by Nektaria Karantzi

Chanted by Demetris Magouris

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"Like A Lamb Lead To The Slaughter"

by St. Nikolai Velimirovich

"Like a lamb lead to the slaughter" (Isaiah 53:7).

Throughout the many centuries of time the discerning Prophet Isaiah foresaw the awesome sacrifice on Golgotha. From afar he saw the Lord Jesus Christ led to the slaughter as a lamb is lead to the slaughter. A lamb permits itself to be led to the laughter as it is led to the pasture: defenseless, without fear and without malice. Thus, Our Lord Christ was led to the slaughter without defense, without fear and without malice. Neither does He say: "Men, do not do this!" Neither does He question: "Why are you doing this to Me?" Neither does He condemn anyone. Neither does He protest. Neither does He become angry. Neither does He think evilly of His judges. When blood poured out over Him from the thorny wreath, He was silent. When His face was soiled from being spat upon, He was silent. When His Cross became heavy along the way, He endured. When His pain became unbearable on the Cross, He did not complain to men but to the Father. When He breathed His last, He directed His gaze and sigh toward heaven and not toward earth. For the source of His strength is heaven and not earth. The source of His consolation is in God and not in men. His true homeland is the Heavenly Kingdom and not the earthly kingdom.

"Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). This was the first cry of St. John the Baptist when he saw the Lord. And, behold, now on Golgotha that prophecy was fulfilled. Behold, under the weight of the sins of the entire world, the Lamb of God lay slaughtered and lifeless.

O brethren, this is a costly sacrifice even for our sins. The blood of this sinless and meek Lamb was destined for all times and all generations, from the first to the last person on earth. Christ also felt the pains on the Cross for our sins even those of the present day. He also wept in the Garden of Gethsemane for our wickedness, our weakness and our sinfulness. He also destined His blood for us. Brethren let us not then despise this indescribable costly price by which we have been redeemed. Because of these sacrifices of Christ we, indeed, have some worth as people. Without these sacrifices, or if we disavow these sacrifices, our worth, by itself alone, is equal to nothing. It is equal to smoke without a flame or a cloud without light.

O Lord, unequaled in mercy, have mercy on us also!

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The Lord Responds To His Mockers

Below is one of the most powerful, beautiful and moving hymns chanted in the evening of Holy Thursday in both Greek (chanted by Protopsaltis Photios Ketsetzis) and English (chanted by Vassilis Hadjinicolaou). It is sung in Plagal of the Second Mode, which is known as the Mode of Joyful Sorrow.


Εξέδυσάν με τα ιματιά μου
και ενέδυσάν με χλαμύδαν κοκκίνην·
έθηκαν επί την κεφαλήν μου στέφανον εξ΄ ακανθών
και επί την δεξιάν μου χείραν έδωκαν κάλαμον,
ίνα συντρίψω αυτούς ως σκεύη κεραμέως.


They have stripped Me of My garments
and clothed Me in a scarlet robe.
They have set upon My head
a crown of thorns
And have given Me
a reed in My right hand,
That I might dash them in pieces
like a potter’s vessel.

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On Holy Week: Elder Ephraim of Arizona

Let us now strive more, my children, and the benefits will be great. No one finds Grace without toil. If the farmer does not farm his field, he will not see the results. When our fasting coexists, is strengthened and is encompassed with prayer, with contemplation, with watchfulness, with church attendance, with Confession, with Holy Communion, with good works and charity giving, then is fulfilled the beauty of the souls preparation for the reception of Holy Week. Then we will feel the Holy and Honorable Passion of Christ more profoundly, because our hearts will soften, and they will alter and recognize how boundless the love of God is for man. Then the Holy Resurrection will be alive within us with great strength, we will feast in a divinely-fitting manner and celebrate together with the angels the Holy Pascha. Amen.

Listen to Holy Week and Pascha sermons in Greek by Elder Ephraim here.


Source. Translated by John Sanidopoulos

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The Holy Communion of Judas and our Communion

By John Sanidopoulos

Of what benefit to Judas was his receiving Holy Communion from the hands of the Lord Himself? He was a sinner before and he remained a sinner. He was unclean and a slave to his passions before and he remained unclean and a slave to his passions. He was greedy and a lover of gain before and he remained greedy and a lover of gain. He was wretched before and he remained wretched.

Of what benefit to Judas was his receiving Holy Communion from the hands of the Lord Himself? Did not Satan possess his soul after he received the Holy Gifts? Did he not then go on to betray the Lord for thirty pieces of silver? Did he not then fall into a despair that tore his soul and caused him to commit a gruesome suicide?

What we learn is that there is absolutely no benefit in receiving Holy Communion from the hands of the Lord Himself. If we wish to receive benefits from Holy Communion, then we must prepare for our reception with a humble and contrite spirit. You can't be a nominal Christian and possess a truly humble and contrite spirit, praying with a groaning heart: "My God have mercy upon me the sinner, I have sinned before heaven and before You. I ask with the thief on the cross, remember me when You enter into Your Kingdom." Prayers like these are life-changing, or at least should be if prayed from the heart, and they show a willingness to be crucified with Christ to the world and sin so that we may receive newness of life through His Spirit. Only this spirit of repentance can benefit us when we receive Holy Communion, and help prevent us from receiving the same fate as Judas.

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St. Mary of Egypt and Holy Thursday

[St. Mary of Egypt died on Holy Thursday. Since we have this rare commemoration today of both Holy Thursday and St. Mary of Egypt, it is of special significance that we remember St. Mary of Egypt's last Holy Thursday, recorded below by St. Sophronios. - J.S.]

When Abba Zosimas heard that the holy ascetic [Mary] quoted the Holy Scripture from memory, from the Books of Moses and Job and from the Psalms of David, he then asked the woman, "Mother, have you read the Psalms and other books?"

She smiled at hearing this question, and answered, "Believe me, I have seen no human face but yours from the time that I crossed over the Jordan. I never learned from books. I have never heard anyone read or sing from them. Perhaps the Word of God, which is alive and acting, teaches man knowledge by itself (Col 3:16, 1 Thess 2:13). This is the end of my story. As I asked when I began, I beg you for the sake of the Incarnate Word of God, holy Abba, pray for me, a sinner.

"Furthermore, I beg you, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, tell no one what you have heard from me, until God takes me from this earth. Next year, during Great Lent, do not cross the Jordan, as is the custom of your monastery."

Again Abba Zosimas was amazed, that the practice of his monastery was known to the holy woman ascetic, although he had not said anything to her about this.

"Remain at the monastery," the woman continued. "Even if you try to leave the monastery, you will not be able to do so. On Great and Holy Thursday, the day of the Lord's Last Supper, place the Life-Creating Body and Blood of Christ our God in a holy vessel, and bring it to me. Await me on this side of the Jordan, at the edge of the desert, so that I may receive the Holy Mysteries. And say to Abba John, the igumen of your community, 'Look to yourself and your brothers' (1 Tim 4:16), for there is much that needs correction. Do not say this to him now, but when the Lord shall indicate."

Asking for his prayers, the woman turned and vanished into the depths of the desert.

For a whole year Elder Zosimas remained silent, not daring to reveal to anyone what he had seen, and he prayed that the Lord would grant him to see the holy ascetic once more.

When the first week of Great Lent came again, St Zosimas was obliged to remain at the monastery because of sickness. Then he remembered the woman's prophetic words that he would not be able to leave the monastery. After several days went by, St Zosimas was healed of his infirmity, but he remained at the monastery until Holy Week.

On Holy Thursday, Abba Zosimas did what he had been ordered to do. He placed some of the Body and Blood of Christ into a chalice, and some food in a small basket. Then he left the monastery and went to the Jordan and waited for the ascetic. The saint seemed tardy, and Abba Zosimas prayed that God would permit him to see the holy woman.

Finally, he saw her standing on the far side of the river. Rejoicing, St Zosimas got up and glorified God. Then he wondered how she could cross the Jordan without a boat. She made the Sign of the Cross over the water, then she walked on the water and crossed the Jordan. Abba Zosimas saw her in the moonlight, walking toward him. When the Elder wanted to make prostration before her, she forbade him, crying out, "What are you doing, Abba? You are a priest and you carry the Holy Mysteries of God."

Reaching the shore, she said to Abba Zosimas, "Bless me, Father." He answered her with trembling, astonished at what he had seen. "Truly God did not lie when he promised that those who purify themselves will be like Him. Glory to You, O Christ our God, for showing me through your holy servant, how far I am from perfection."

The woman asked him to recite both the Creed and the "Our Father." When the prayers were finished, she partook of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Then she raised her hands to the heavens and said, "Lord, now let Your servant depart in peace, for my eyes have seen Your salvation."

The saint turned to the Elder and said, "Please, Abba, fulfill another request. Go now to your monastery, and in a year's time come to the place where we first time spoke."

He said, "If only it were possible for me to follow you and always see your holy face!"

She replied, "For the Lord's sake, pray for me and remember my wrechedness."

Again she made the Sign of the Cross over the Jordan, and walked over the water as before, and disappeared into the desert. Zosimas returned to the monastery with joy and terror, reproaching himself because he had not asked the saint's name. He hoped to do so the following year.

A year passed, and Abba Zosimas went into the desert. He reached the place where he first saw the holy woman ascetic. She lay dead, with arms folded on her bosom, and her face was turned to the east. Abba Zosimas washed her feet with his tears and kissed them, not daring to touch anything else. For a long while he wept over her and sang the customary Psalms, and said the funeral prayers. He began to wonder whether the saint would want him to bury her or not. Hardly had he thought this, when he saw something written on the ground near her head: "Abba Zosimas, bury on this spot the body of humble Mary. Return to dust what is dust. Pray to the Lord for me. I reposed on the first day of April, on the very night of the saving Passion of Christ, after partaking of the Mystical Supper."

Reading this note, Abba Zosimas was glad to learn her name. He then realized that St Mary, after receiving the Holy Mysteries from his hand, was transported instantaneously to the place where she died, though it had taken him twenty days to travel that distance.

Glorifying God, Abba Zosimas said to himself, "It is time to do what she asks. But how can I dig a grave, with nothing in my hands?" Then he saw a small piece of wood left by some traveler. He picked it up and began to dig. The ground was hard and dry, and he could not dig it. Looking up, Abba Zosimas saw an enormous lion standing by the saint's body and licking her feet. Fear gripped the Elder, but he guarded himself with the Sign of the Cross, believing that he would remain unharmed through the prayers of the holy woman ascetic. Then the lion came close to the Elder, showing its friendliness with every movement. Abba Zosimas commanded the lion to dig the grave, in order to bury St Mary's body. At his words, the lion dug a hole deep enough to bury the body. Then each went his own way. The lion went into the desert, and Abba Zosimas returned to the monastery, blessing and praising Christ our God.

Arriving at the monastery, Abba Zosimas related to the monks and the igumen, what he had seen and heard from St Mary. All were astonished, hearing about the miracles of God. They always remembered St Mary with faith and love on the day of her repose.

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St. Mary of Egypt: A Soldier of Christ

St. Mary of Egypt (Feast Day - April 1)

Why is it that much is said and written about the sufferings of holy men and holy women? Because the saints, alone, are considered victors. Can anyone be a victor without conflict, pain and suffering?

In ordinary earthly combat, no one can be considered victorious nor heroic who has not been in combat, tortured much or suffered greatly. The more so in spiritual combat where the truth is known and where self-boasting not only does not help at all but, indeed, hinders it. He who does not engage in combat for the sake of Christ, either with the world, with the devil or with one's self, how can he be counted among the soldiers of Christ? How, then, can it be with Christ's co-victors?

St. Mary of Egypt spoke about her savage spiritual combat to the Elder Zosimus: "For the first seventeen years in this wilderness I struggled with my deranged sexual desires as though with fierce beasts. I desired to eat meat and fish which I had in abundance in Egypt. I also desired to drink wine and here, I did not have even water to drink. I desired to hear lustful songs. I cried and beat my breasts. I prayed to the All-Pure Mother of God to banish such thoughts from me. When I had sufficiently cried and beat my breasts, it was then that I saw a light encompassing me on all sides and a certain miraculous peace filled me."

- St. Nikolai Velimirovich, Prologue


Apolytikion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone
In thee the image was preserved with exactness, O Mother; for taking up thy cross, thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to overlook the flesh, for it passeth away, but to attend to the soul since it is immortal. Wherefore, O righteous Mary, thy spirit rejoiceth with the Angels.

Kontakion in the Second Tone
By the toils of thy struggles, O God-inspired one, thou didst hallow the harshness of the desert. Wherefore, we glorify thy memory, as we honour thee with hymns, O Mary, glory of the righteous.

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3 New Confessors of the Romanian Orthodox Church

Father Hilarion the Confessor

He was born on March 21, 1903, in a village in Hunedoara county in Romania. His father was a priest. In 1926 he graduated from the Faculty of Theology of Sibiu. On July 29, 1927 he was ordained priest. On October 30, 1939 he submitted his doctoral thesis, titled Repentance: Theological and Psychological Approach. He had also written the book Towards Tabor, which is, according to Elder Justin Pirvou the best work to date about Romanian Orthodoxy and a perfect interpretation of the Philokalia. Speaking about the exalted spirituality of Father Hilarion, the greatest Romanian Orthodox theologian of the twentieth century, Father Dumitru Staniloae said: "Father Hilarion has surpassed me." He was professor of the Theological School of Arad from 1938 until 1948. On September 25, 1958 he was imprisoned and sentenced, along with six other priests from Arad, for a 20 year sentence. He was detained in Gerla and then Aiount, where he died on September 18, 1961. He was buried without a cross, in a grave that is unknown, along with other witnesses of the Romanian nation in Aiount.

Abbot Daniel Tudor

He was born on December 22, 1896 in Bucharest. After the First World War he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts. In the year 1929 he traveled to Mount Athos, where he lived for eight months. God saved him often from a violent death. Once, flying his own plane, he was saved from death, saying the noetic prayer. While the airplane was destroyed, he did not suffer anything.

After the Second World War, returning to his house, he learned that his wife had left him. He then decided to become a monk. He sold all his belongings, renewed the Antim Monastery in Bucharest, and became a monk there. From the year 1945, the monastery gathered around it a group of scholars, which was trying to regain, based on the Bible and the Holy Fathers of Orthodox Christianity, true spirituality, having as a center of their efforts the noetic prayer. They were called The Burning Bush. Later he went to the Sychastria Monastery where Elder Cleopas made him a hermit and later abbot of the Skete Raraou. One day in June 1958, he greeted the brothers and went to Bucharest, having been informed by God that he will re-enter prison, where he will die, confessing Christ. The principal of guilt, as confessed by a court magistrate, was that he wanted to burn Communism with The Burning Bush.

One day in winter, they put him together with a friend in a storehouse - the White or the Refrigerator - where it was minus 30 degrees. The storehouse had no windows, but a very dirty floor. People who were put in there would die of cold after no more than three days. Father Daniel lay down immediately with his face in the dirt and with open arms, and told the friend: "Sit on me back to back with open arms and say only this, 'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!'" Immediately as they started to say this, the storehouse was filled by a very brilliant light, and thereafter they did not know what happened next. After eight days (without the two prisoners receiving any water or food, sleep or clothes), the guards came to take their carcasses, but they were alive and fine. When they touched Father Daniel he was hot, and what was around him had melted.

In prison he was one of the few who wore leg chains during his time of incarceration. He died after four years of suffering in Aiount on November 17, 1962. We do not know exactly where his holy body is to be found.

Valeriu Gafencu

Valeriu was born on January 24, 1921 in Vasaravia. In the autumn of 1941 he was imprisoned and sentenced to 25 years of prison. He was then a second year student of the Law and Philosophy School of Iasi. Becoming ill with TB, he was sent in December 1949 to Tirgou-Okna. There, with no medical care, he survived another two years. With many physical wounds, they would continuously discharge pus. Valeriu awaited his death with a serenity which softened the hearts of his guards and tormentors. He was a man of noetic prayer. He was made worthy by God to know the day of his death. He asked to be buried with one cross in his mouth, and another in the right hand so as to be recognized if perchance his bodied was found. He departed to heaven, this "saint of prisons" (as other inmates have called him) on 18 February 1952 and thrown in a common, as of yet unknown, tomb. Read more about him here, here and here.

Last photo of Gafenku

Apolytikion in Plagal of the First
Flowers of Romania, planted by God, children of the Church true and faithful, let us exalt, O faithful, as martyrs of Christ; for they competed brilliantly, confessing Christ before the atheists, and were worthily crowned, in His glorious kingdom.

A Prayer to the Lord to Find the Relics of the Holy New Confessors and Martyrs

Lord, our God, who guarded the three children and Daniel in the furnace of fire, who strengthened the Confessors of the last persecution to give a good witness before their persecutors, hear our little prayer. Plant, O Christ our God, their sacrifice as a seed in the land of our hearts. May this seed bring forth good fruits, to become for us a good start to our salvation and give us the courage of confession of the truth before those who blaspheme it.

Yes, Lord, may their example never be forgotten, but with it may the sons of the Orthodox Church be raised. May their virtues and sacrifice awake us out of indolence and carelessness. May we accept this admonition for our correction.

Once St. Mary Magdalene asked for your body saying to the Gardener: "Lord, tell me where you've put it and I'll get it." And so we kneel before You, praying in the hope that You will forgive us our boldness, and to listen to this prayer: "Lord, show us the location of the holy relics of Your Confessors, so that in finding them we will honor them with reverence."

And if, because of our sins, we are not worthy to venerate them, Lord, please, with a humble heart, do not leave the holy relics of Your servants to remain in limbo, but bring them to light, to confer upon them the proper honor and glory.

So that embracing them with reverence, we can enjoy to honor them in Your Church, as they deserve, along with all Your martyrs. And along with them to give You glory, honor and worship, God glorified in Trinity, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and always and for ever and ever. Amen.

John Ianolide, Dramatic Incidents of the Romanian Prisoners, Confessors and Martyrs of the 20th Century, Orthodox Kypseli Publications, Thessaloniki 2009 (Greek).

Source. Translated by John Sanidopoulos

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Sermon for Holy Wednesday

CATECHESIS 72: On the Saving Passion; and Teaching on Humility and Patient Endurance.

by St. Theodore the Studite

Given on the Wednesday of Holy Week.

Brethren and Fathers, the present day is holy and to be venerated, for from this day the Lord begins to take on himself the sufferings of the Cross for our sake, in accordance with David’s words: "Why did the nations rage and the peoples imagine vain things? The kings of the earth rose up and the rulers assembled together against the Lord and against his Christ" [Psalm 2:1-2]. They assembled together to plot an evil plan against the Master.

The deceitful Judas denied him utterly and betrays the teacher with a deceitful kiss. The Lord of all things is led away prisoner, stands before the judgement seat, is interrogated and answers; and when He answers — O fearful report! — He is struck by a slave and bears it with longsuffering, saying: "If I have spoken evil, give testimony to the evil; but if well, why do you strike Me?" [John 18:23]. Then He is scoffed at, mocked, jeered at, ridiculed, spat at, buffeted, scourged. He ascends the Cross, and when He has ascended He prays for His murderers: "Father, forgive them their sin, for they do not know what they do" [Luke 23:33]. Then He is given gall with vinegar to drink, He is pierced by a lance, the Immortal is put to death.

These in brief are the Master's sufferings, and one who hears them with understanding is not angry, or embittered, or enraged, or puffed up, or arrogant towards his brother; is not envious, or filled with vainglory. Rather he is humbled, crushed, considers himself to be earth and ashes, desires communion in Christ's sufferings, is eager to be conformed to His death, so that he may have a part in the glory of His resurrection.

But you too take courage, because you have shared and are sharing in the Master's sufferings. For you see where you are. Is it not for the sake of His word and His testimony that you are in exile and persecution?[1] Have you not previously experienced prison? Have you not shed your blood under tortures? Have not some of our brothers died a martyr's death? Such then is our boast in the Lord, such our gift. But since until the end beatitude is not assured because of the ease of reversal and the impossibility of knowing what the morrow will bring to birth, stand your ground unflinching and unmoving in the Lord "striving side by side with one spirit and one soul for the faith of the Gospel, in no way intimidated by your opponents" [Phil. 1:27-6], "not giving offence in anything, but in everything recommending ourselves as God's ministers" [2 Cor. 6:3-4], by obedience, humility, meekness, longsuffering, great endurance. "For you need endurance in order to do God's will and obtain the promise. For in a little while He who is coming will come and not delay" [Heb 10:36-37]. But if He will come and not delay, why do we hate being in afflictions and do not rather choose to die each day for the Master? For it is written: "If we have died with Him, we shall also live with Him; if we endure, we shall also reign with Him; if we disown Him, He will also disown us; if we are unfaithful, He remains faithful; He cannot disown Himself" [1 Tim. 2:11-13].

How great joy the saints will have when they see the Lord "coming from heaven with the angels of His power" [2 Thess. 1:7], inviting them with inexpressible joy, crowning them and becoming their companion for ever and ever? What anguish will they have who have disobeyed the Gospel and transgressed His commandments? "They will suffer the penalty, as it is written, of eternal destruction, cut off from His presence and from the glory of His strength, when He comes to be glorified in His saints and marvelled at among all who have believed" [2 Thess. 1:9-10].

And so, brethren, as we contemplate and think on these things, again and again "let us purify ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" [2 Cor, 7:1], zealous for what is better, striving for what is more perfect, "hating what is evil, holding fast to what is good, loving one another with brotherly affection, outdoing one another in showing honour, not lagging in zeal, being ardent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in affliction, persevering in prayer" [Rom. 12:9-12], that by such sincerity we may worthily celebrate the imminent Pascha, and be counted worthy to enjoy the eternal blessings in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and might with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

1. These Catecheses were given when St Theodore and his monks were in exile from Constantinople in the reign of Michael II (820-829).

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The Central Message of Holy 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 denari, which was 300 days’ wages! This latter fact enrages the disciple who sits in a place of honor next to Jesus and manages the money - the notorious Judas. The hymns of Holy Week tell us even more about the contrast between these two, being quite explicit as to where the woman came from just then, and the background of Judas. Make no mistake: Judas was an Apostle and had the gift of healing. Yet still he was more interested in worldly things, could not look up from temporary concerns, and had no horizon of vision. He would later even partake of Holy Communion in an unworthy manner and become demon possessed.

The sinful woman understood what Judas did not: Christianity is about healing. Not just temporary healing, but from man’s biggest problems: egotism, sin and death. The great paradigm of Orthodoxy is not that of righteous/sinful, but of healthy/sick. All of us need healing. This is our primary Christian aim, and is evidenced by the fact that even Jesus implies it is of greater importance than giving our riches to the poor and needy. The social gospel had taken such a hold of the disciples of Jesus that they forgot what is even more essential. The sinful woman shows her great love by her humble offering, and not only received healing by the Physician of our souls, but has become an example for all time for what the Lord truly seeks from His disciples.

It is for this reason that the Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, has as a tradition the celebration on Holy Wednesday of Holy Unction in the churches. This service is filled with references to this central message of the day - that Christ came to heal our fallen sinful condition through the sacrifice He made on the cross and the destruction of death through His death. It is within this total context that we should attend the Service of Holy Unction, which is a great mystery of the Church that allows us to be healed by the very hand of Christ when the priest anoints us with the holy oil.

Hymn of Praise for Holy Wednesday
As the sinful woman was offering myrrh, the disciple was making terms with the lawless. She found joy pouring out what was precious; he hastened to sell out the priceless One; she acknowledged the Master, he cut himself off from the Master; she was set free, he fell slave to the enemy. What unspeakable callousness! How great the repentance! Grant me this, O Savior who suffered for us, and save us.

For a more thorough treatment of the Holy Unction service and other prayers of healing in the Orthodox Church, read Sin, Sickness, and Salvation by Archpriest Chad Hatfield.

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The Lord Comes To His Voluntary Passion

As the Lord was coming to His voluntary passion, He said to His Apostles on the road, ‘Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man will be betrayed, as it is written of Him’. Come then, let us too, with minds made pure, journey with Him, and let us be crucified with Him, and for His sake become dead to the pleasures of life, that we may live with Him and hear Him as He cries, ‘I am no longer going up the earthly Jerusalem to suffer, but to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God. And I shall raise you up with Me to the Jerusalem above, in the kingdom of heaven’.

Lord, as You were coming to Your passion, You strengthened Your disciples, taking them aside and saying, 'How have you not remembered My words, which I spoke to you of old, Is it not written no prophet may be killed but in Jerusalem? Now the moment has come of which I spoke to you. For see, I am being handed over to be mocked by the hands of sinners, who, when they have nailed Me to a cross and handed Me over for burial, will reckon Me a loathsome corpse. Nevertheless, take courage, for on the third day I arise, for the joy of believers and eternal life.'

O Lord, instructing Your own disciples to think thoughts of perfection, You said, ‘Do not be like the nations, so as to rule over the least strong. It shall not be so with you, my disciples, because my wish is to be poor. The first among you, then, let him be the servant of all; the ruler as the ruled, the leader as the last. For I have come to serve Adam who became poor, and to give My life as a ransom for many, to those who cry to Me: Glory to you!’

- Hymns from Holy Monday


Sermon On Joy After Sorrow

by St. Nikolai Velimirovich

"So you also are now in anguish. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice" (John 16:22).

The father steps up to the gallows and his sons are crying around him. Instead of the sons comforting him, he comforts his sons. Something similar to this happened to the Lord and His disciples. Walking toward His bitter death, the Lord is more saddened because of the grief of His disciples, rather than by that which He has to endure. He caresses them with consolation and encourages them with the prophecy of the new and impending vision: "But I will see you again." This is a prophecy about the resurrection.

Many times our Lord prophesied His death, but when He prophesied His death, He also prophesied His resurrection. Nothing unforeseen ever did happen to Him. He did not prophesy about Himself only, but also about them [the disciples]. They will be in great sorrow as a woman when she gives birth and endures pain. As a woman forgets her pain and rejoices when she gives birth "for a child has been born into the world" (John 16:22), so will it be with them. In their consciousness Christ the Lord was not completely in the form of the God-Man. As long as they had known Him as a sufferer and mortal man, they only knew Him partially; until then, the pain of birth lasts in their souls. But when they see Him again, resurrected and alive, miraculous and almighty, Lord over all things in heaven and on earth, the pain and sorrow will cease and joy will appear in their hearts. For Christ will be completely formed in their consciousness as the God-Man and then they will know Him in His fullness and in His totality. Only then will He be totally born for them.

So with us brethren, as long as we know Him only from His birth to His death on Golgotha, we know the Lord Jesus partially. We will know Him completely only when we know Him as the Resurrected One, the Victor over death.

O Lord All-victorious, have mercy on us and by Your resurrection cause us to rejoice as You comforted and made joyful Your disciples. Amen.

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