Vatican Radio reported that in the message Alexy II addresses “with his entire soul greetings of joy, health, divine benediction for a Holy Easter” to the Pope.
The contemporary world, the message continues, “places us before many difficulties and challenges. In many countries and regions bloody conflicts continue, hostility between peoples becomes more grave, attempts to drive Christian values from life and society continue.”
“But if the reality that surrounds us is complex, Christians are called to defeat skepticism and all the disgraces and difficulties, taking inspiration from the joy of Easter and the words of Christ.”
The Itar-Tass agency reports Alexy II also addressed messages to the principal exponents of the Protestant confessions. Orthodox Easter in Russia is celebrated, according to the Julian calendar, on April 27.
We had Vespers as usual but a half hour early to give me enough time to leave here and go celebrate the Easter Vigil with a friend of mine. I know it is not Orthodox Easter yet, but it was nice to worship and not have to worry about the heat or my sermon or anything but worship it was a great experience but I got home way to late. So in bed after midnight and then up at 6am for Liturgy today. After liturgy and coffee hour I am off to the rents house to have dinner with the family and to spend a few days in rest. I did this last week and I was able to get a lot of reading done so it was well worth the journey. But I will have to cut it short as I have a funeral for a fellow fire chaplain on Tuesday.
As I write this from my office here in the Village the sun is streaming through the window but it is only 25 degrees out there. I know March is almost over and April is right around the corner but I cannot wait for the warm weather to get here. It is nice to be able to go out and feel the rays of the sun and it also means the lake house will be open soon. That brings to mind all the work that will take to open. Oh man I am tired already.
To my Western Christian readers Christ is Risen! To my Orthodox readers, hang in there it will be our turn soon. Just think, tomorrow we can get the Easter candy on Sale!
Kontakion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone
Give rest, O Christ, among the Saints to the souls of Your servants, where there is no pain, no sorrow, no grieving, but life everlasting.
Reading:
Through the Apostolic Constitutions (Book VIII, ch. 42), the Church of Christ has received the custom to make commemorations for the departed on the third, ninth, and fortieth days after their repose. Since many throughout the ages, because of an untimely death in a faraway place, or other adverse circumstances, have died without being deemed worthy of the appointed memorial services, the divine Fathers, being so moved in their love for man, have decreed that a common memorial be made this day for all pious Orthodox Christians who have reposed from all ages past, so that those who did not have particular memorial services may be included in this common one for all. Also, the Church of Christ teaches us that alms should be given to the poor by the departed one’s kinsmen as a memorial for him.
Besides this, since we make commemoration tomorrow of the Second Coming of Christ, and since the reposed have neither been judged, nor have received their complete recompense (Acts 17:31; II Peter 2:9; Heb. 11:39-40), the Church rightly commemorates the souls today, and trusting in the boundless mercy of God, she prays Him to have mercy on sinners. Furthermore, since the commemoration is for all the reposed together, it reminds each of us of his own death, and arouses us to repentance.
Thanks to Thee ever, O gentle Christ,
That Thou hast raised me freely from the black
And from the darkness of last night
To the kindly light of this day.
Praise unto Thee, O God of all creatures,
According to each life Thou hast poured on me,
My desire my word, my sense, me repute,
My thought, my deed, my way, my fame.
Carmina Gadelica, Hymns and Incantations, Collected in the Highlands and Island of Scotlad. By Alexander Carmichael
For those of you who do not follow all things Episcopal/Anglican, the House of Bishops met this past week in Texas and it was revealed at this time that Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire is not invited to the Lambeth Conference this year. Lambeth is the once every 10 year gathering of all the Episcopal/Anglican bishops in the world. It seems that some bishops object to +Gene and his lifestyle. If you do not remember he is the bishops that is living in a open relationship with another man. Now I will say this, I don’t necessarily agree with his lifestyle but he was canonically elected, consecrated and rules a diocese. I am sorry but just because you disagree with someone stand on issues does not mean they should not be invited. It seems that small minded people in the Anglican world are running the table here.
At the meeting in Texas when it was announced they told this bishop of the church that he could not pray and meet with them but that he was invited to set up a boot in the exhibition area of the meeting, like he is on display of some kind. I find this repugnant that the church would treat one of her bishops this way. Regardless of how you feel about +Gene personally you have to feel his pain in this situation. I for one feel very bad for him and for the Church in New Hampshire. I hope that wisdom prevails here and he is in fact invited to the meeting.
In charity please pray for +Gene and the Episcopal Church in New Hampshire.
UPDATE: I was giving some thought to this posting and I have come to a slightly different conclusion. Although I do not agree with the lifestyle choice of the bishop, it is his lifestyle and not mine. I am not in any position to judge him or anyone for that matter that is not my job that is for the Lord alone to do. Sometimes I think this world would be a much better place if everyone just worries about how they are living their lives and not how others do!
Nasty comments are not welcome and will be deleted!
Resurrectional Apolytikion in the First ToneResurrectional Kontakion in the First Tone
You arose from the sepulcher in glory as God, and with yourself resurrected the world. And mortal nature extolled You as God, and death was obliterated, and Adam is dancing, O Master; and Eve, now redeemed from the bonds, rejoices crying out: O Christ, You are He who grants resurrection to all.
Seasonal Kontakion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone
To you, Theotokos, invincible Defender, having been delivered from peril, I, your city, dedicate the victory festival as a thank offering. In your irresistible might, keep me safe from all trials, that I may call out to you: “Hail, unwedded bride!”
Reading:
For more than one hundred years the Church of Christ was troubled by the persecution of the Iconoclasts of evil belief, beginning in the reign of Leo the Isaurian (717-741) and ending in the reign of Theophilus (829-842). After Theophilus’s death, his widow the Empress Theodora (celebrated Feb. 11), together with the Patriarch Methodius (June 14), established Orthodoxy anew. This ever-memorable Queen venerated the icon of the Mother of God in the presence of the Patriarch Methodius and the other confessors and righteous men, and openly cried out these holy words: “If anyone does not offer relative worship to the holy icons, not adoring them as though they were gods, but venerating them out of love as images of the archetype, let him be anathema.” Then with common prayer and fasting during the whole first week of the Forty-day Fast, she asked God’s forgiveness for her husband. After this, on the first Sunday of the Fast, she and her son, Michael the Emperor, made a procession with all the clergy and people and restored the holy icons, and again adorned the Church of Christ with them. This is the holy deed that all we the Orthodox commemorate today, and we call this radiant and venerable day the Sunday of Orthodoxy, that is, the triumph of true doctrine over heresy.
From www.goarch.org