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Christ is Risen!\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n With the coming of Great and Holy Pascha, the time of Great Lent is over comes to its end, too. We have been thinking for quite a long about what article we would like to devote to the culmination, to the last point of the infographics. On each week of the Lent we tried to tell our readers something interesting and useful about every stage of this pre-paschal period. Today, after the feast has come, after the spirit of the Resurrection has touched the hearts of millions of Christians all over the world, we would like to share with you some thoughts and feelings we have about this wonderful holiday.<\/em><\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n Sister Maria: <\/strong>Easter is a priceless gift from God, which I don\u2019t deserve. I can\u2019t pay for it. I can simply accept it with gratitude or refuse it. God doesn\u2019t deprive me of free will even in this case.<\/p>\n I have not heard a story as profound and simple than that described in the Gospel in my entire life. How could the unfathomable, the invisible, and the omnipotent Being who created the Universe and has dominion over winds and all natural phenomena be crucified on a cross like a villain or a criminal? We bake Easter cakes and dye eggs and tend to forget that He had to pay a horrendous price for the Sacrament of Communion.<\/p>\n It seems to me that the true meaning of a human life can be found in Easter. The meaning of life isn\u2019t to please oneself or to multiply and be fruitful, as most people outside the Church think. Life is meant for letting Christ raise you from the dead. It is for being crucified with Christ and fighting your passions and flaws as hard as you can so as to rise up with Christ.<\/p>\n Sister Darya: <\/strong>For me, Easter starts at Holy Friday night after the Burial of the Shroud, which is a long but incredibly bright and beautiful service. It is immediately followed by the Liturgy but prior to that, at 5 or 6 o\u2019clock in the morning, a reader reads Old Testament paremias and the choir sings wonderful verses that fill my heart with joy and happiness. Also, it\u2019s an experimental investigation of the greatness and beauty of Christ. There is another point during the Liturgy that I\u2019d like to mention: when they sing You Who Have Been Baptized <\/em>instead of the Trisagion. It fills me with overflowing gratitude to God for his condescension and death so that we could live.<\/p>\n After the communion, I am filled with living silence and quiet Easter joy, as is the world around me. It isn\u2019t a noisy feast; in fact, it simply boils down to inner peace and serene silence. I catch myself feeling that and it\u2019s like my soul also becomes better. A disabled child I often visit in the boarding home says that we need nice shirts to go to God. Here, God gives us those nice shirts for nothing. As a rule, there is a unique light on Holy Saturday, and I take some pictures which are called the same each year: The Light and the Silence of Holy Saturday.<\/p>\n Just an hour later, the news will travel the earth that He is Risen. Everything will tremble and burst as the world celebrates the victory over death. We will enter the Joy of our Lord happily.<\/p>\n Brother Vladimir: <\/strong>Easter is the brightest and happiest holiday for every Christian. It might appear that we can spend this whole day praising God and not thinking about anything else. Unfortunately, not everyone in our world can lay all cares aside. For instance, I think that there are people whose jobs require their presence on this day: Bus drivers, shop assistants, the police, etc. Moreover, even those who have a day off on Easter can face unforeseen circumstances that may take their spirits down. Those circumstances may include Losing one\u2019s wallet or having a row, and so forth.<\/p>\n We should remind ourselves what price God had to pay for this holiday if we face circumstances like those and if our mood isn\u2019t as light as it should be on this day. Two days prior to his Resurrection, our Lord Jesus Christ endured enormous suffering and a shameful death on the cross. The most dreadful part of it was that there was a moment when the Savior felt himself completely alone, without even his Divine Father. There would not be Resurrection without Crucifixion. That is why Easter \u2013 the Feast of feasts \u2013 must be just a little \u2018a holiday with tears in our eyes.\u2019<\/p>\n Brother Alexander: <\/strong>He that endureth to the end shall be saved (Matthew\u00a010:22). <\/em><\/p>\n Unability to feel Easter. That\u2019s what I can say about myself. Easter has always been a holiday that I had to endure. It might be caused by my spiritual weakness, numbness, or immaturity. I have always found it hard to attend services. It has been hard for me to pray, to stand upright, and even to be in the church. It has been much harder for me on Easter because there are so many people in church on that day that it\u2019s impossible even to cross my heart. This burden is probably my main impression of the holiday.<\/p>\n However, when I don\u2019t have energy or mood or desire to live in the light of the most important day of the year, it seems that I have to remind myself, \u201cWho are you?\u201d You\u2019re a mere mortal human being. Your weakness and unability to be happy are the traits of a miserable human that don\u2019t mean anything. Because there is the One who is infinitely higher. There is Christ, the true God crucified for our sake and resurrected for our sake: the God who grants us salvation by his Resurrection. That is why forcing myself and making myself attend the Easter service and take part in this joy (there are many people who are really happy to feel the Easter joy and to experience it fully) is the least that I can do. I have to get the better of my weakness, put some effort, and work for God\u2019s sake. I have to endure. Undoubtedly, I\u2019ll be rewarded with consolation even if I don\u2019t feel happy right now. In the end, what can your personal feelings mean in comparison with such a profound revelation to the world?<\/p>\n Sister Irina: <\/strong>The Lord\u2019s Pascha has made me free from the fear of death and non-existence, from all fatal threats. It has turned my world upside down and changed it. It has filled everything with colors and meaning.<\/p>\n I have to face misfortunes of various scope in my life. I am sick. I am beleaguered by negative emotions. But it doesn\u2019t determine my life any longer.<\/p>\n Christ is risen, and I shall rise up with him, too. I won\u2019t become a bodiless spirit, I won\u2019t evaporate, I won\u2019t dissolve in some nondescript substance. I shall remain myself. And I shall be with Christ! I can\u2019t imagine a greater blessing! It is in anticipation of this blessing that I enjoy my life here and now, that I dare be open and practically don\u2019t care if I happen to be misunderstood or funny. Isn\u2019t it good enough? I have the Witness in every situation.<\/p>\n Life has become amazingly interesting. What\u2019s precious is that you can\u2019t be bored of talking with Christ and with people in Christ. It is always dynamic and never static because God is boundless and inexhaustible. The apex of our communication with the Living God is when we get united with Christ through the Eucharist. It can never be boring. It is an ever-new and ever-bright event.<\/p>\n Now, I view death as an important stage of my life, which will one day become my here and now<\/em>, and I hope I\u2019ll face it with gratitude.<\/p>\n Christ is Risen!<\/p>\n Sister Yekaterina: <\/strong>Easter is a special time for me as a Christian. It is the moment at which I make some conclusions about the past year. That\u2019s the appearance of Light that consecrates everything. That\u2019s the time when you get your answer to the most difficult question. It is the time to stop and think If I managed to accomplish everything I planned, if I lived the year to the best of my ability, if I have improved or deteriorated. Am I ready for this glorious holiday, this bright feast?<\/p>\n Needless to say, Easter is a family holiday. Our loved ones are second only to God. We must do our best to congratulate all our family members (especially the older generation). In a sense, it is like prayer: if you forget about it, the connection is broken\u2026<\/p>\n Brother Sergius: <\/strong>You can view the world in several ways. There are at least two ways of looking at the world: When you are in the center and when God is in the center. That\u2019s what can make everything around you appear and be different.<\/p>\n I heard a priest say that we have to summon our power to feel happy during these days. Coerce ourselves. It was time to check whether that piece of advice was correct during the Holiday. \u201cDon\u2019t trust yourself until you die,\u201d a contemporary ascetic said.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t I want to rejoice in Christ? Don\u2019t I want to relish in his victory and promises? I do, apparently. How fragile my desire is! There comes a moment when irritation and exhaustion lead you to doubt. I have decided for myself that I should do my best not to trust myself and to trust God instead. He is risen and He wants to share his victory over death, sin, and corruption with us. He wants us to have that victory, too.<\/p>\n Why does the darkness inside me want to swallow that joy? Why does it want to diminish it and reduce it to a \u201croutine event\u201d in the whirlpool of life?<\/p>\n It seems that the Lord has not become my goal, meaning, and air that I breathe yet. He hasn\u2019t become all in all for me yet.<\/p>\n However, I think I can change it.<\/p>\n Protodeacon Oleg: <\/strong>Personally, I see Easter as the culmination and the prototype.<\/p>\n The worship procession starts with St.\u00a0Lazarus Saturday, and you mingle with the crowd that follows Christ. If only remotely, you share with him those days and everything they are filled with: prayer, fast, and wakefulness. Lengthy and astonishingly beautiful services at the Convent make it even more feasible. Frankly speaking, you catch yourself being more occupied with the \u201ctechnical\u201d side of things rather than the \u201cprayerful\u201d one time and time again but what can you do if you\u2019re a clergyman.<\/p>\n All that aside, the Gospel events and the heat of worship accumulate into one huge wave against the black sky. All of a sudden, this wave bursts into myriads of bright sparkles and everything falls silent as it happens before dawn. The silence is coated with light haze and clear sky. Finally, there\u2019s the culmination: the Sun of Righteousness rises from the horizon in all His majesty. His rays penetrate all the world and flood it with grace. You feel excited like a child and realize that this glorious firework is worth waiting for during the rest of the year.<\/p>\n The church at the Easter night foreshadows the paradise, the age to come, and the heavenly meal. It gives us an opportunity to be exposed to many people whose hearts and mouths reverberate in tune with the Savior. It is overflowing joy that conquers even the most reserved individuals and merges everyone into one body. It restores our strength, determination, and confidence. We are confident that the trial that we walked through with him will transform into joy and into His Glory.<\/p>\n Brother Fyodor: <\/strong>I have always been inclined to perceive Easter eschatologically. Here is a poem by a contemporary Russian poet, which I have been thinking about throughout this Easter season:<\/p>\n Our cause is big and honorable<\/em> Our cause is the last cause, like a bullet<\/em> With showery rains, they will knock at our door \u2013<\/em> Our cause is the lost cause like a finger<\/em> With showery rains, they will knock at our door \u2013<\/em> Our cause is heroic like the everyday school<\/em> Christ is Risen!\u00a0 With the coming of Great and Holy Pascha, the time of Great Lent is over comes to its end, too. We…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[59],"tags":[43,76,18,7],"class_list":["post-22182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-life-of-the-convent","tag-great-lent","tag-pascha","tag-personal-stories","tag-personal-thoughts-on-orthodoxy"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/1414.jpg","views":{"total":331,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1767821112},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paPyw9-5LM","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22182"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38872,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22182\/revisions\/38872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nLike oil boiling in a bloody pulp<\/em>
\nLike a line that creeps away<\/em>
\nLike a warm bread loaf<\/em>
\nLike a milky rain<\/em>
\nIn the world that knows no sin.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nLike the ultimate act of bravery<\/em>
\nLike last time every time<\/em>
\nLike the leadoff breath<\/em>
\nLike the starting step<\/em>
\nIn the world that knows no sin.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nThose wrathful springs and cheerful men-at-arms<\/em>
\nOne day \u2013 <\/em>
\nYou have to believe \u2013<\/em>
\nWe shall see the pendulum swinging where it has to be<\/em>
\nAnd there shall be time no longer.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nTorn off by an enemy\u2019s bullet<\/em>
\nAt the holy people\u2019s war<\/em>
\nLike a trail of sledge<\/em>
\nLike the mortal God<\/em>
\nIn the world that knows no sin.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nThose wrathful springs and cheerful men-at-arms<\/em>
\nOne day \u2013 <\/em>
\nYou have to believe \u2013<\/em>
\nWe shall see the pendulum swinging where it has to be<\/em>
\nAnd there shall be time no longer.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nOf the slaps that we deserved<\/em>
\nLike the iron grip of earth<\/em>
\nLike a waking dream<\/em>
\nLike unburdened life<\/em>
\nIn the world that knows no sin.<\/em>
\nIn the world that knows no sin.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"