Category: Pascha and Pentecost

Orthodox Easter: A People’s Holiday of Freedom –the oppressor is overthrown

The following reflection is written by Deacon Nicholas Denysenko, PhD. Deacon Nicholas is a professor of theology and holder of the Jochum Chair at Valparaiso University (IN). He is a greater thinker and preacher. Here is a key for our reflection at Easter (Pascha).

Of all the religious observances that belong to the people, Orthodox Easter is among the greatest. People spend hours on their feet, kneading, baking, preparing foods, both savory and sweet. They perfect their grooming, wearing their finest clothes for the occasion.

For many, Orthodox Easter is pure joy. Laughing, sharing stories, playing games, and hanging out with your loved ones. Breathing the fresh air together, lighting candles, and singing. It is joy for one simple reason: God has made all things well. God has opened the doors to us and said, come home. God has set a table with the finest foods, has appointed musicians to play the loveliest music.

There is no end time to the party. It’s like being separated from your beloved family for a long time. You don’t want to let go when you hug them.

God embraces us tightly because we are home. God has given us the most precious gift – amnesty, freedom from our alienation from him. Jesus destroyed Hades and the cherubim withdrew the sword separating us from paradise. There is NO better news. We will be with God forever.

How do you prepare for the most joyful event?

You dress your best. You sing, You laugh. You make your favorite foods. That’s Pascha.

This gift of amnesty to alienated humanity is God’s alone to give. God reaches out and says, “you are my people.” Everyone who accepts that invitation is free. They’re subordinate to no one, no government, no ruler. They’re free.

Vladimir Putin’s narcissism and hatred for Ukrainians is well known. He is trying to subordinate them through fear, to make them HIS own. Sadly, some bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church are supporting him in this blasphemous act. Thankfully, there are always some in the world who stand up to bullies instead of paying their tax.

For all of Putin’s crimes, the worst is that he is trying to steal God’s gift of freedom to the people and possess it himself. The Ukrainians will fight Putin and his cronies to the end and beyond. We mourn the dead. In death, they have defeated Putin – because they remain free, and they refused to sell God’s gift to the impostor. They will always be God’s people, never Putin’s – because Christ has shown us that death has become nothing more than a passage to new, eternal life with God.

The living have purpose. Their lives of the present are meaningful. In spite of threats and bombs – not only in Ukraine, but throughout the world, too – Christians will continue to gather on this feast of feasts and holy days of holy days to perform the most important liturgical act of all – to receive God’s gift of freedom and amnesty, of restoration and return to Paradise, with joy and thanksgiving. Yes, receiving God’s gift is the true Paschal liturgy.

On this day of Orthodox Easter – no matter what happens – the tyrant trying to steal from God is overthrown. God’s people are free. And God’s gift to us tells us everything we need to know about this God – God sets us free and receives us completely because God is love. Love does not intimidate or compel. Love does not possess and bear false witness. Love does not bomb innocents and rape their women. The one who loves accepts and embraces you AS YOU ARE.

Thank you, God, for your love. Give us strength and meekness to love the least of your brothers and sisters as you have loved us.

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Ascension of the Lord 2020

The mystery of the incarnation is not simply a historical commemoration. It is entering into the reality of God sharing our bodiliness. For in Jesus, God becomes a human being that we might share in his divinity. This is the deeper meaning of Christ’s birth — a process that is continued through his life, ministry, passion, death, resurrection and ascension. Ultimately Jesus brings the whole of creation with him when he ascends to the Father. He ‘ascends’ so that he can be universally present — indeed omnipresent — through the very matter that seemingly hides his presence.

New Skete Monastery

Moving toward Pentecost

Today, May 6, in the Byzantine Church following the Gregorian calendar, it is the feast of half-Pentecost (half of the Pascal Time). Now is the time to think about what gift of the Holy Spirit you are going to ask for (there are 7).

Let’s attend to the Gospel text of today (John 7: 14-30):

verse: 14: We were already in the middle of the week of the feast when Jesus went up to the Temple; and there he was teaching.

verse 15: The Jews were astonished and said, “How is he educated without studying?”

verse 16: Jesus answered them, ” My teaching is not from me, but from Him who sent me.

verse 17: Does anyone want to do the will of God, he will know if this teaching comes from God, or if I speak on my own initiative.”

Troparion
In the midst of the feast, bless my soul thirsty from the waters of piety, / for, O Savior, You have claimed to all: / He who is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. // Source of our life, O Christ God, glory to you.

Kondakion
In the midst of the feast required by law, / Creator and master of all things, / You said to those who stood by you: / Come and tap the water of immortality. / Therefore we stand before you and say with faith: / Grant us your compassion, O Christ God, // For You are the source of our life.

Thomas Sunday

“The tomb being sealed (Ἐσφραγισμένου τοῦ μνήματος / Запечатану гробу), as Life, You shone forth, O Christ God; / And the doors being shut (καὶ τῶν θυρῶν κεκλεισμένων / и дверем заключенным), You came before the disciples, O Resurrection of all, / Renewing in us, through them, an upright spirit, // By the greatness of Your mercy!” (Troparion-hymn of Thomas Sunday)

One week after His resurrection, when Thomas was with the rest of the disciples, “Jesus came, the doors being shut (τῶν θυρῶν κεκλεισμένων), and stood in their midst, and said, ‘Peace to you!’” (Jn 20: 26) – Just as He did one week earlier (Jn 20: 19), despite their preceding lack of faith and fears, which had “shut the doors” not only of their house, but of their hearts and minds.

That’s how our Lord works: He “comes” to those of us who have love for Him, but lack faith in Him, “renewing” in us “an upright spirit.” So let us gather together today, even if our faith is weakened by our various fears, and let Him “renew” in us His Holy Spirit, as only He can. Lord, glory be to You!

Meditation by Sr. Vassa, 2019

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Sunday of the man born blind

For if you change from inhumanity to alms giving, you have stretched forth the hand that was withered. If you withdraw from theaters and go to the church, you have cured the lame foot. If you draw back your eyes from a harlot, and a beauty not your own, you have opened them when they were blind. If instead of satanical songs, you have learned spiritual psalms, being dumb, you have spoken. These are the greatest miracles, these the wonderful signs…

– St. John Chrysostom – 4th Century

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Pascha Liturgy, 2020, Julian Calendar

“Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.” (Paschal Troparion-hymn)

The Light Has Come!
Christ is Risen!
Christos Anesti!
Christus resurrexit!
Al-Masseh Qam!
Christos Voskrese!

Pascha

“Christ is risen! Indeed, he is risen”

It has become a habit of the “wise of this world,” – those who claim to discern reality as it truly is – to say that modern man can no longer believe in miracles. Science has invalidated “miracles,” and while the Resurrection is a very nice thing, it is only a spiritual subjective experience. But today I say: ‘Says who?”

Today St. Paul says, “Where is the wise one? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made the wisdom of the world foolish? (1 Corinthians 1:20)” Even when we say that the resurrection is a spiritual subjective experience, we do this because we say that “God is the ground of all being,” as St. Paul preached to the Athenians, “‘In him we live and move and have our being. (Acts 17:28)” If so, can he not give life that defies our earthly wisdom? Indeed, Jesus said to the Sadducees who denied resurrection, “As for the dead being raised, have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God told him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?

He is not God of the dead but of the living. You are greatly misled” (Mark 12:26-27). Did not St. Paul warn us, “if Christ has not been raised, then empty too is our preaching; empty, too, your faith” (1 Corinthians 15:14).

What the resurrection of Jesus has taught us is that we enter the fullness of life through the gates of death, just as he did in the cross and resurrection, for “unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit,” (John 12:24) and again, “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it” (Mark 8:35). The only difference is that Christ is risen, because “But God raised [Jesus] up, releasing him from the throes of death, because it was impossible for him to be held by it … nor will you suffer your holy one to see corruption” (Acts 2:24.27). Because of our sins, we must go through the corruption of death to attain life. The “wise of this world” say this is a childish belief, how can this happen, but again St. Paul writes, “What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). Nor, my brothers and sisters, is this other-worldly escapism: the resurrection can and should transform the way we live in the world today.

Again, St. Paul teaches, “We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life ….. We know that our old self was crucified with him, so that our sinful body might be done away with, that we might no longer be in slavery to sin” (Romans 6:4.6, Epistle of the Paschal Vigil Liturgy).

Humanistic political solutions will not save us, for God is truly the “ground of all being,” and only a humble acceptance of this truth can open us to the grace of his life. Nor should those who try to justify themselves on the self-righteousness of a “fundamental faith” be complacent, for we greeted the resurrection gospel of the Paschal Vigil, “God stands in the divine assembly. In the midst of the gods (the rich and powerful of this world) he gives judgment. ‘How long will you judge unjustly and favor the cause of the wicked? Do justice for the weak and the orphan, defend the afflicted and the needy. Rescue the weak and the poor; set them free from the hand of the wicked …. Arise, O God, and judge the earth, for you rule all the nations” (Psalm 81:1-4.8).

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Easter Sunday Liturgy 2020

On Easter Sunday, the Divine Liturgy will be live streamed at 10:00 a.m. in English and in Ukrainian.

It will be on the parish Facebook page (stmichaelnewhaven) AND it will later be posted here on this website https://stmichaelukrainian.org