“IT IS THE DAY OF THE RESURRECTION, O PEOPLE, LET US BE GLORIOUS IN SPLENDOUR.”

My beloved brothers and sisters in Our Risen Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ,

CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN! ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! ΑΛΗΘΩΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ!

PASCHAL KATAVASIAI (Hymns]

"It is the Day of the Resurrection, O people, let us be
glorious in splendour. Pascha! Pascha of the Lord! For
Christ, our God, hath passed us, who sing the triumphal
hymn from death unto life and from earth unto Heaven."

"Come, let us drink a new draught, not one marvelously
brought forth from a barren rock, but the Source of
incorruption, which springs forth from the grave of
Christ, in Whom we are firmly established."

"May the inspired Prophet Habbakuk keep with us
the divine watch, and show forth the radiant Angel,
who with vibrant voice declared; TODAY SALVATION
COMES TO THE WORLD, FOR CHRIST HAS RISEN
AS ALMIGHTY."

"Let us in the deep dawn arise, and, instead of myrrh, a
offer a hymn to the Master, and we shall see Christ, the
Sun of Righteousness, Who causes life to dawn for all."

"Thou didst descend, O Christ, into the deepest parts
of the earth and didst shatter the everlasting bars, which
held fast those who were fettered; and on the third day,
like Jonas from the whale, didst arise from the tomb."

KONTAKION HYMN

Reader:
O Christ our God, though Thou didst descend into the
grave, yet didst Thou overthrow the power of Hades,
and rise as in Immortal Conqueror. Thou didst greet
the Myrrh-bearing women, and to Thine Apostles give
peace, and to the fallen grant Resurrection.

OIKOS

The myrrh-bearing maidens anticipated the dawn and sought,
as those who seek the day, their Sun, Who was before the sun,
and Who had once submitted to the Grave. And they cried to
each other: O friends, come, let us anoint with spices His
quickening and buried Body; the Flesh which raised up the fallen
Adam, and which now lies in the tomb. Let us go, like the Magi;
let us hasten and let us worship; and let us bring myrrh gift to Him,
Who is wrapped, not now in swaddling bands, but in a winding-
sheet. Let us weep and cry: O Master, raise Thyself up, and to the
fallen grant Resurrection. [Pascha Sunday]
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ABOUT THE DISPENSATION ACCORDING TO THE FLESH OF OUR
LORD JESUS CHRIST AND THE GIFTS OR GRACE GRANTED TO
THOSE WHO TRULY BELIEVE IN HIM.
By Saint Gregory Palamas’ sermon on Holy
Saturday.

THE PRE-ETERNAL, uncircumscribed and Almighty Logos [Word] and Omnipotent Son of God could clearly have saved man from mortality and servitude to the devil without Himself becoming man. He upholds all things by the word of His power and everything is subject to His Divine Authority (cf. Hebrews 1:3). According to Job, He can do everything and nothing is impossible for Him (cf. Job 42:2). The strength of a created being cannot withstand the power of the Creator, and nothing is more powerful than the Almighty. But the incarnation of the Logos (Word) of God was the method of deliverance most in keeping with our nature and weakness, and most appropriate for Him who carried without justice…

"…So Christ was declared the New Adam. According to Prophet Isaiah, He did NO SIN in deed or thought, and certainly not in word, neither was any deceit in His mouth (cf. 1 Peter 2:22, Isaiah 53:9). He does not say "from his mouth" but "in his mouth", to indicate that His thoughts too were blameless. As He says elsewhere, before He knew evil He chose the good (cf. Isaiah 7:16). In this way God was justified, as we have said, and was manifested as truly good and the Maker of good works, since He became A SINLESS MAN, and showed forth in Christ the purity which He had inaugurated in human nature…

Saint Gregory traces the history of man’s relationship with God in order to establish the significance of the Resurrection as the Great Event that perfected and restored MAN’S COMMUNION WITH GOD. Saint Gregory explains that man chose to obey the devil in Eden, and in his act of defiance and disobedience he was exiled from the garden: "man was justly abandoned by God in the beginning, as he had first abandoned God. Man brought death upon himself: both PHYSICAL AND ETERNAL. However, Christ’s death and Resurrection defeated ETERNAL DEATH BY ENSURING ETERNAL LIFE.

CHRIST RESURRECTION made immortal the human race in order to invite it to participate IN THE TRUE LIFE which He preached. This gift enables us to IMITATE HIM if we so choose. In addition to this gift, Christ set a pattern of life which provides the means to accept the gift of Eternal Life. This was of course HIS WAY OF LIFE, WHICH WE FIND RECOUNTED IN THE HOLY GOSPELS.

Saint Gregory Palamas tells us that if Christ "had not become incarnate, suffered in the flesh, risen and ascended for our sake, we should not have known God’s surpassing love for us." This same love softened the hearts of so many Saints and Martyrs who sought to imitate Christ: "Now that we have been exalted without contributing anything, we stay humble, and as we regard with understanding the greatness of God’s promise and benevolence we grow in humility, from which comes salvation."

May we also come to an understanding of God’s promise of life so that we may live the salvation which has been set for us. Amen. [Source The Homilies]

________
"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His All-Holy Resurrection,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+ Father George