Joyous Pascha!

Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen!

The kids and I are enjoying a bright, Bright Monday morning. It is a warm day and Hannah & James are busying themselves with their Pascha gifts while I put the house back together from a busy week and weekend. Laundry is being tackled, amongst other housekeeping chores while listening to Ancient Faith Radio which is making my heart happy. It hasn't disappointed me at all as it continuously plays all of my most favorite Paschal hymns. My most favorite is this, which is a hymn to the Mother of God:

The Angel cried to the Lady, full of grace:
"Rejoice, O pure Virgin! Again, I say: ‘Rejoice,
your Son is risen from His three days in the tomb!
With Himself He has raised all the dead.’"
Rejoice, O ye people!
Shine, shine, O new Jerusalem!
The glory of the Lord has shone on you.
Exult now, and be glad, O Zion!
Be radiant, O pure Theotokos,
in the Resurrection of your Son!

How beautiful is that? I looked forward to hearing it all year.

And it has been a full year of being a chrismated, communing, confessing Orthodox Christian. A year of falling, and getting back up, of admitting my sins, and finding refuge at the Holy Alter, being nourished by Christ Himself. In hope, I work out my salvation with fear and trembling. Lord have mercy. As I watched 15 people on Holy Saturday come into the Church at the Baptismal Liturgy, I let tears fall down my cheeks, and got a runny nose, seeing them do what I did last year. It's a new birth into a life that is full of struggle, but overflowing with joy if you let it be. I'm full of joy when I don't complain, when I put on a smile even though I don't feel like it, when I do unto others and be a Christian, when I remember that I have put on Christ. "As many of you as have been baptised into Christ have put on Christ."

Yesterday at Agape Vespers, Fr. Josiah reminded us that if Christ had not truly risen from the tomb, we would be in the greatest of despair and a sorry lot. So in faith I say again to you:

Christ is Risen!

Truly He is Risen!

I'm holding on to that, reaching out to touch His robe. God bless you and give you a wonderful Bright Week!