An homily from St. John’s Russian Orthodox Mission Church in Winfield, PA, by Priest Paul Siewers, for the 3rd Sunday of Pascha, 7534/2026.

In the Pascha Stichera sung last night at Vigil, the Church includes an account of the Myrrh-bearing Women, the Noble Joseph, and the Righteous Nicodemus, all of whom we commemorate today.

“Come from the vision, * O ye women, bearers of good tidings, * and say ye unto Sion: * Receive from us the good tidings * of the Resurrection of Christ; * adorn thyself, exult, * and rejoice, O Jerusalem, * for thou hast seen Christ the King come forth from the tomb, * like a bridegroom in procession….

“The myrrh-bearing women * in the deep dawn * stood before the tomb of the Giver of life; * they found an angel * sitting upon the stone, * and he, speaking to them, * said thus: * Why seek ye the Living among the dead? * Why mourn ye the Incorruptible amid corruption? * Go, proclaim unto His disciples. 

“Pascha the beautiful, * Pascha, the Lord’s Pascha, * the Pascha all-venerable hath dawned upon us. * Pascha, * with joy let us embrace one another. * O Pascha! ransom from sorrow, * for from the tomb today, * as from a bridal chamber, * hath Christ shone forth, * and hath filled the women with joy, saying: * Proclaim unto the apostles….

“With Nicodemus, Joseph took Thee down from the Tree, * Who dost clothe Thyself with light as with a robe; * and seeing Thee dead, naked, unburied, * he took up heartfelt weeping and said, lamenting: * ‘Woe is me, O Jesus most sweet! * When the sun beheld Thee hanging upon the Cross but a little while past, * it shrouded itself in darkness; * and the earth quaked in fear, * and the veil of the temple was rent in twain. * But, lo! now I see Thee, Who of Thine own will didst undertake to die for my sake. * How can I bury Thee, O my God, * or how shall I wind Thee in a shroud? * With what hands shall I touch Thy body? * Or what hymns shall I chant for Thy departure, O Compassionate One? * I magnify Thy sufferings; * I hymn Thy burial and resurrection, crying out: * O Lord, glory to Thee! ….”

And then the Church in her verses adds for us:

“It is the Day of Resurrection, * let us be radiant for the feast, * and let us embrace one another. * Let us say, Brethren, * even to them that hate us, * let us forgive all things on the Resurrection, * and thus let us cry out: * Christ is risen from the dead, * trampling down death by death, * and on those in the tombs * bestowing life. “

The Myrrh-bearing women came in the deep of dawn, the edge of sorrow and joy. Our Lord Jesus Christ already was in Hades with His soul as God, freeing the Righteous of the Old Testament who would hear Him, those who had heard the Forerunner there announce His coming.

“In the deep dawn” (or deep of dawn as sometimes translated), that phrase about the Myrrh-bearing Women also may remind us of the opening to the Supplicatory Canon to our Lord Jesus Christ found in the Jordanville prayer book. 

That begins, “In the deep of old the infinite Power overwhelmed Pharaoh’s whole army, but the incarnate Word annihilated pernicious sin. Exceedingly glorious is the Lord, for gloriously is He glorified.” 

What is that “deep of old”? It is the place like the “deep of the dawn,” the experience of God’s love as grace so powerful that it turns time back and transforms it. The sun turns her face away and later the tomb is broken. We may have a little feeling of this when we leave the Pascha banquet in the early dawn. The deep of beyond-time to which the Resurrection takes us this Pascha season is a place of healing of old sins and trauma, a place where death is broken for all time, and love is remembered as stronger than death. In the beginning, in the Logos, God made the heaven and the earth. We find ourselves by emptying ourselves in Him. This Pascha season let us leave our mourning at the empty tomb, and comforted by the Comforter gifted to us by Him, let us go forth and bring others to the Risen Body of Christ, His Church.

Dear friends, this Third Sunday of Pascha has special meaning for me. It was on the Sunday afternoon of the Myrrh-bearing Women that Matushka and I were married, although on another date. It was a special Day of Resurrection for me, only a few years after I had become Orthodox, and not many months after we had met at the same Church where we were married. It was the Church that was the home of the Tikhvin Icon in exile, and it had been the Church of St. John of Chicago, the first priest-martyr of the Communist yoke, both reminders of the suffering of Russian Orthodox Christianity this past century. But that suffering also was a reflection of the Resurrection, of the redeeming compassion of our Lord overcoming death.

Let us say their names, the Myrrh-bearing Women. Often the Virgin Mary, the Theotokos, is included. Mary Magdalene. Mary the Wife of Cleopas. Salome, the mother of the Apostles James and John. Joanna, the wife of Chuza, steward of Herod Antipas. Susanna, a financial patron and follower of Jesus, and Mary and Martha of Bethany, sisters of Lazarus. These are generally identified as the eight Myrrh-bearing women remembered in Church today. (Some include, instead of the Theotokos, Mary the wife of Alphaeus, mother of the Apostle James, not the brother of the Lord.)

Also commemorated today are the secret disciples of what liturgical verse calls “the hidden God” on the Cross, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. Their names are made known to the world through the Gospels, and while not publicly His disciples before the Crucifixion, they risked all from a worldly standpoint to help bury His body. The Righteous Nicodemus is known for his earlier dialogue with Jesus about being born again and for his words in defense of Jesus to the hateful religious leaders. The Noble Joseph was released from jail in Judaea after helping with he burial, according to tradition, and ended his life as a missionary to Britain.

I had a deep encounter of my own unworthily with his tradition even before my marriage on this Sunday. Eight years before becoming Orthodox and about 10 years before my marriage on this day, I was in Britain visiting the place associated with St. Joseph’s mission, Glasotnbury. Actually, I spent two years writing a graduate research thesis focused on that tradition. As I did that research, and as I visited also sites associated with other early Celtic and British saints. I a great sinner was blessed to learn first only in an academic way about how western Britain, the source of the traditions about Joseph of Arimathea, had been a very unusual area in Western Europe. That region around the Irish Sea was said to be the one area in the West that had maintained a long and broad continuity of its earlier culture during the era of barbarian migrations that changed the face of the Roman Empire, paralleling the cultural continuity found on a larger scale in the Eastern Roman Empire known today often as Orthodox Byzantium.

Indeed Christianity was part of that continuity of “Romano-Celtic culture,” and contact with Eastern monasticism during the time of Emperor Saint Justinian also helped confirm that whole region around the Irish Sea as a center of Orthodox monasticism and Christian culture in the West in the early Middle Ages. In fact, our parish patron St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco in the last century helped renew the veneration of those early Western monastic saints from that era on our Orthodox Church calendar.

My research concluded that the traditions of an apostolic establishment of Christianity in the Southwest region of Britain associated with traditions of the Noble Joseph made sense in light of archaeology in Roman Britain and in an early historical account by Saint Gildas in the early 500s. Beyond that account, few or no texts had survived the eventual fall of the old Romano-Celtic realms. However much the Noble Joseph’s record in Britain may remain shrouded in legend (and often disparaged from an academic standpoint), associated often with Arthurian legends of the Holy Grail, what I experienced in the saintly sites of the old Celtic West of Britain, including Glastonbury, went deeper by God’s grace into a reality of Orthodox faith experience ultimately.

Unknown to me I can see now how with the prayers of those saints the Lord led me from a unitarian Protestant cult when I arrived to study in Britain, into a doubtful sea of being without any worship affiliation for a time, and then to be an unworthy and sinful convert to the Orthodox Church. My encounter with the early saints ended up going beyond the academic, unworthily into their faith, by God’s grace.

Such is the influence of the saints and above all the powerful compassion of our Risen Lord. Indeed, the mission of the Noble Joseph that led him according to tradition from the tomb to the then-end of the world in Britain, and what became origins of the English-speaking world, continues today here in our little mission in Appalachian America.

Just so he and the Myrrh-bearing Women and the Holy Nicodemus are with us today in this Divine Liturgy in which we also remember them, all of us worshipping our Risen Lord together as a Church family. May we also be born again in the joy of the Resurrection this Pascha season, joining also with the newly illumined John and John (our newly baptized brothers in Christ), and from last week Zachary, in continuing the missionary work of those earliest Christian saints in the deep of dawn.

Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen!

***

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to Mark,

§69 [15:43-16:8]

At that time, Joseph of Arimathea, an honourable council member who also was waiting for the Kingdom of God, came and went in boldly unto Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. And Pilate wondered if He were already dead; and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether He had been any while dead. And when he learned it from the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. And Joseph bought fine linen, and took Him down and wrapped Him in the linen. And he laid Him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre. And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses beheld where He was laid. And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint Him. And very early in the morning on the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. And they said among themselves, ‘Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?’ And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away, for it was very large. And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were frightened. And he said unto them, ‘Be not afraid. Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. Behold the place where they laid Him. But go your way. Tell His disciples and Peter that He goeth before you into Galilee. There shall ye see Him, as He said unto you.’ And they went out quickly and fled from the sepulchre, for they trembled and were amazed; neither said they any thing to any man, for they were afraid. 

An Homily for Thomas Sunday, the Second Sunday of Pascha, 7534/2026, from St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco Russian Orthodox Mission Church in Winfield, PA, by Priest Paul Siewers.

Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen!

In Orthodoxy, we call the Apostle Thomas Believing Thomas and not Doubting Thomas as in Catholicism, because his experience strengthened his faith, and was a Gospel example to strengthen us.

Let us hear our founding First Hierarch, Metropolitan Khrapovitsky, comment on this day.

He noted (https://orthochristian.com/53064.html):

“One can say that everyone rejoices when they hear the troparion of the Resurrection. But they sometimes grow bored when it is sung often. This hymn, however, should be endlessly joyful to people: its continual repetition about the victory over death and the devil should be an infinite source of consolation. Therefore, if this joy soon passes, it passes because one’s faith is not so living and strong. People find it difficult to believe because their souls do not especially love this victory.

“They say: Thomas, who had been previously ready to die for Christ, also did not believe. No, Thomas asked for assurances not because he did not believe, but because he desired an untroubled faith, for he longed for the resurrection and understood its significance. Before their entry into Jerusalem, having learned that there would not be any external success but, to the contrary, that the Savior awaited suffering, the disciples thought that the same death awaited them as a reward for following Him. They were overcome by horror and fear, and then Thomas said: Let us go that we might die with Him [Jn 11:16]. Thomas had a loyal heart. How many of them were troubled when they learned that there was not, and would not be, any external success!

“When [the Lord] was to them a great miracle worker, healing them and giving them bread, they believed; but when they learned that He was ready to accept and bear the great deed [podvig] of patience and suffering for the sake of their spiritual benefit – then they all ran away, their faith weakened and, if their conscience rebuked them, they easily found an excuse in themselves: we trusted that it had been He [Lk 24:21].     

“People say: if we had seen Him we would not have denied Him. This is not true: the majority of those who denied Him had seen Him, and they denied Him because they did not love spiritual values, and the victory over the devil spoke but little to their hearts; they desired external success.

“Cases of full denial are not many. Normally a remnant of faith remains, and this half-acknowledgment and half-faith is perhaps even worse, and such half-believers are in the majority. If they were to be excluded from so-called believing society we would see that there are but few true worshippers. Church and cross, unity in Christ, unity in the name of the feat [podvig] of love – there is the outline of our relationship towards the Lord. But half-believers do not strive to understand either one or the other–unity or Christ’s love–in the way that Christians understand it.

“Half-faith has many degrees, but one thing inevitably follows from all half-belief. Those who deny know both what they have denied and to what to return. But the half-believer does not have any such clarity and grows accustomed to a life guided by sophistries, half-truth, and hints at some sort of supposed truth.” 

So Metropolitan Antony of blessed memory tells us for Thomas Sunday.

Friends, in the warm embrace of our Lord and His Body the Church in this Pascha season, let us not live in the shadowlands of half-belief. For that is where so many of our countrymen live. They of course have more excuse than I do as an unworthy Orthodox priest. They come from heterodox backgrounds. But the decline of the so-called seven sisters of Protestantism, for example, the mainline denominations of America, marks the slipping away further into heterodox half-belief, non-denominational and no-denominational, watering down or leaving even further Scriptural tradition and practice. This is true also of too many Orthodox Christians. For we live in a land dominated by what William James called the goddess success, and like the great Whore of Babylon of Revelation, from that idol the mark of the beast lies heavy on those who worship career, success, and comfort, and who place idolatries of self before love of unity in Christ and Christ’s love for us as the real source of our being. 

Such a shadow life of worldly careerism of various types is what Dostoevsky’s novels warn against, a luke-warmedness of belief, by which, as the Book of Revelation warns, God will spit the luke-warmed out of his mouth. For to live a lie is to succumb to the devil. The great Orthodox writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn said we must learn to live without lies about ourselves and about others. For if we lie about ourselves and others, as Dostoevsky’s Elder Zosima, based on St. Ambrose of Optina, says, we cannot truly love. For the devil is the liar and the father of lies. In modern speech, the lies our Lord warns about as satanic are the virtual realities with which we become entangled today under demonic influence.

Do we believe more in our electronic devices than in the Lord Jesus Christ? Let us set aside all idols and lies in this Pascha time, and redouble our devotion to the Risen Lord, following the example of the faithful Thomas, who touched him, to dispel all heresies of Gnosticism and the spirit of Anti-Christ, which would make Christianity into only a phantom, a bodiless half belief, rather than the embodied experience of life our Lord gives us at Pascha and every Day of Resurrection year-round.

Today is also called the Antipascha. It means in place of Pascha. It is a good reprise of Pascha. St John Chrysostom tells us in his famous Pascha Matins homily that those who arrive at the 11^th hour are as welcome as those who arrived at the first. Even those of us who missed Pascha or may not have fully opened to Pascha during Bright Week now have this second Sunday of Pascha, the Antipascha. It has none of the negatives of the similarly formed word Antichrist, for in being in place of Pascha, it reinforces Pascha, it offers no deception. And the Gospel reading today presents this.

For Thomas, born a fisherman, touched the Lord and proclaimed “My Lord and my God” unto the ages and to many lands. As St. John Chrysostom put it, “Thomas, being once weaker in faith than the other apostles, toiled through the grace of God more bravely, more zealously and tirelessly than them all, so that he went preaching over nearly all the earth, not fearing to proclaim the Word of God to save nations.” According to tradition, after founding Orthodox churches in Palestine, Mesopotomia, Parthia, Ethiopia, and baptizing the Magi or Wise Men of the Nativity, he ended his evangelism career a martyr in India. 

In Greek, the inscription on his icons reads, “The Touching of Thomas,” and in Slavonic, “The Belief of Thomas.” For in Orthodoxy, the uncreated grace of God reached him from his touch and transformed him, unlike the Western heterodox view that underestimates God’s grace and falsely made him into doubting Thomas. Earlier, before the raising of Lazarus, Holy Apostle Thomas expressed a desire to die with the Lord, when other disciples feared the Pharisees would try to kill Jesus if they re-entered Judea. But his touching of Jesus, which we remember today, for all time showed the lie of Gnosticism and the falsity of denying that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh and been resurrected bodily. For this is the lie that Scripture identifies with the spirit of anti-Christ and it is the lie of all half-believers of our age, including those Orthodox half-asleep and drifting into ecumenism of the anti-Christ. All of us are in danger of doing so in our culture today.

Agape Vespers last Sunday also put forth the account of Believing Thomas, on the joyful afternoon of the first Pascha Sunday. It is no coincidence that that is a time of acknowledging the resurrection of Jesus Christ bodily, a believing touch that is so Orthodox, while we also engage in the Agape of unity of love with him and one another, emptying ourselves in Him and in Him losing our sinful self-assertion in loving each other more than ourself, following His New Commandment. This is part of proclaiming the Risen Christ. While our Lord told Mary Magdalene not to touch Him because He would be Ascending, He allowed Thomas to do so for a special teaching purpose for us.

Adapting the words of an old hymn, we Orthodox Christians in American can pray that unworthily the Lord may help us to follow the Believing Thomas: “Amazing uncreated grace, how sweet the energy, that touches a wretch like me.” For Jesus Christ, the light of the world, sets alight the Paschal candles we all carry into the world. For as he commanded us, “ye are the light of the world, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

Like believing Thomas let us today touch the Risen Lord in His Body the Church and in His Eucharist, His Body and Blood, and fall back full of that uncreated light, saying “My Lord and my God,” going forth in the joy of the Resurrection in body and soul this Pascha season, to help our families and neighbors and America find salvation in our Lord’s Orthodox Church!

Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen!

***

The Reading from the 

Holy Gospel according to John, 

§ 65 [20:19-31]

The same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in their midst and said unto them, ‘Peace be unto you.’ And when He had so said, He showed unto them His hands and His side. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again, ‘Peace be unto you. As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.’ And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said unto them, ‘Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained.’ But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said unto them, ‘Unless I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe.’ And after eight days the disciples were again within, and Thomas was with them. Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in their midst and said, ‘Peace be unto you.’ Then said He to Thomas, ‘Reach hither thy finger and behold My hands, and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into My side: and be not faithless, but believing.’ And Thomas answered and said unto Him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said unto him, ‘Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.’ And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, ye might have life through His name. 

The controversy over the teaching by Metropolitan Antony (Khrapovitsky) of blessed memory about our Lord’s suffering love in the Garden of Gethsemane as salvific involves controversial discussions from the 1920s-1930s and 1970s and again in the 1990s.

However, at this point in time, outside the time zones of those earlier periods of controversy, perhaps there is an opportunity for further reflection. I’ve gathered here a few bilbiographic items important to this history in one place below, mainly for my own reference, but also offering them here for others.

Is there a middle ground in the controversy over his teaching? Some in both the earlier eras of controversy of it seemed to believe so. Were the tears, and sweat as blood, that our Lord Jesus Christ spilled upon the earth in his agony at Gethsemane part of the process of our redemption in effect, and, if so, how best is that understood in Orthodox Tradition?

You can find an overview of the 1970s controversy that is critical of Metropolitan Antony’s teaching (although respectful of him) by Abbot Damascene in Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works, Chapter 62, “On the Means of Our Redemption.”

Earlier, in the 1920s, St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco, Hieromonk Seraphim’s spiritual mentor, took a more irenic approach when controversy first had erupted over voicing Metropolitan Antony’s teaching in a new Catechism (which ended up not being published at the time).

By the 1970s, a new phase of controversy over the teaching had arisen, woven into issues of what eventually became schism (mainly for other reasons) by what was labeled by critics a “zealot” faction in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.

Now those eras and specific concerns are largely in the past, and the participants gone.

Below are some primary and important secondary readings on the issue. I think it’s fair to say that those accounts that are neutral or supportive of the Metropolitan’s view indicate that his emphasis can co-exist with that of traditional teachings on the Redemption of humanity by our Lord, and that in fact they are the same, even given some issues of language and audience. Metropolitan Antony’s emphasis, as unfolded in his writing on the topic, in fact may remind readers of similar ideas expressed by Dostoevsky in an impressionistic mode in The Brothers Karamazov (a point of objection raised in some criticism, by the way).

Those opposing the inclusion of Metropolitan Antony’s teaching in a Catechism, or publication and circulation of his original essay in the English language, often argue strongly that such promotion of it both runs against longstanding Orthodox Tradition on Redemption, and also does a disfavor to Metropolitan Antony’s memory as a caring arch pastor who was (in the view of the critics) nonetheless unclear in his theological writing about this point. However, they too may concede value at least partly in his teaching, so long as it did not obscure in their view more traditionally voiced Orthodox views of redemption.

Metropolitan Antony’s main article on the topic is here:

Metropolitan Antony’s Catechism including the teaching is here:

St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco wrote this relevant article, which was characterized by Hieromonk Seraphim Rose as neither for nor against Metropolitan Antony’s writing on the topic, while offering a correction (without naming him or the issue directly) as to the suffering of our Lord’s human nature in the Garden.
https://www.trueorthodoxy.org/teachings/pat_what_christ_pray_about_stjohnmaximovitch.html

Hieromonk Seraphim of blessed memory had this later critical report on the issue: https://www.scribd.com/document/896384547/Seraphim-Rose-Report-on-the-New-Dogma-of-Redemption It includes mention of those in ROCOR who were “for” and “against” Metropolitan Antony’s teaching.

There is this article, reprinted by Historical Studies of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, was published in 1996 in a European ROCOR publication by an author using only the initials N.A. It defends Metropolitan Antony’s position. https://ecosemiotics.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/soteriology-of-met-antony-khrapovitsky.pdf

The above article points out how St. Justin Popovich of Serbia incorporated Metropolitan Antony’s teaching positively into his book on Dogmatic Theology.

During the initial controversy over Metropolitan Antony’s teaching, Archbishop Theophan of Poltava wrote a critical report (Report on the Teaching of Metropolitan Anthony on the Dogma of Redemption), available in English on Lulu but not that I could find posted online, so here are a few selections:

“But if the Holy Fathers and teachers of the Church look at the Old Testament sacrifices in this way, then they should attach all the more importance to the atoning death of Christ the Savior for the human race on Golgotha. This is indeed what we see. They all recognize the Golgotha ​​death of Christ the Savior precisely as the sacrifice He made for the human race, and, moreover, not in any figurative sense of the word, but in the most literal sense.” (Theophan of Poltava, Report on the teaching of Metropolitan Anthony on the dogma of the Redemption 6)

“The council chaired by the Patriarch of Constantinople Konstantin Khliarin (1154-1157) confirmed the teaching, expressed from ancient times by the fathers and teachers of the Church, whose works were read at the council, that ‘even in the beginning, during the Lord’s suffering, the life-giving Flesh and Blood of Christ was brought not only to the Father, but also to the whole Holy Trinity, and now in the daily sacred rites of the Eucharist, a bloodless sacrifice is offered to the Trinitarian God’…. the council considered the position indisputable that the Golgotha ​​death of Christ the Savior is a propitiatory sacrifice.” (Theophan of Poltava, Report on the teaching of Metropolitan Anthony on the dogma of the Redemption 6)

Other works critical of Metropolitan Antony’s teaching:

From St. Seraphim Sobolev of Bulgaria https://roca.org/oa/volume-xiv/issue-132/sermon-on-great-saturday-concerning-the-joint-operation-of-divine-justice-and-divine-love-in-the-work-of-our-redemption/

A book-length criticism by the Orthodox schismatic historian Vladimir Moss https://www.academia.edu/10194194/THE_MYSTERY_OF_REDEMPTION

(Above: Pascha Pilgrims, at St. John’s this past weekend.)

Dearly Beloved in Christ,

During this Bright Week (also the start of our Church calendar month of April), we give thanks for the Resurrection of our Lord, and the beautiful services of Holy Week and Pascha that our Church Tradition gives us. As St. Justin Popovich put it: “What is the Orthodox Church? It is the Risen Christ Who lives forever. So we who live in it continually overcome sin, death and the devil through the Risen Lord.” We are also all grateful for everyone who gave of their prayers, time, talent, and energy for the services, as always and also throughout the year (for every Sunday is a Day of Resurrection). Yet during this time, it is traditional for Orthodox Christians to greet others with the joyous message (even when talking on the phone): “Christ is Risen!”

The Paschal season is a time of rebirth and renewal, a springtime for our souls. Hieromonk Seraphim Rose of blessed memory liked to say: “It is later than you think. Hasten, therefore, to do the will of God.” As the Pascha season continues for 40 days unto the Feast of the Ascension, we are reminded of the time that our Resurrected Lord spent with His followers before His Ascension. Let us redeem the time for our own resurrected spiritual life, renewing our daily prayer life, and participation in Church. During Bright Week, we use the Paschal Hours for our morning and evening prayers, http://www.saintjonah.org/services/paschalhours.htm. But also appended at the end below for your convenience is a guide to daily prayer throughout the year, for which this can be a good time to “begin again” (II Corinthians 5:17; Isaiah 43:18-19; Lamentations 3:22-23).

At St. John’s, we are blessed this month with five baptisms (four of adult converts) scheduled, to God’s glory: Zach on the Second Sunday of Pascha, Camron and Cohen on the Third Sunday, Scott on the Fourth Sunday, and Ryan on the Fifth Sunday, glory to God! Please keep them in your prayers together with our other Catechumens including Corey, James, and Wyatt. The Pascha season is a great time to invite family members, friends, co-workers, and inquirers to our Church services and activities. The Apostle James the Just in his Epistle reminds us that “he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins,” and that “faith without works is dead.” We are a missionary Church and part of our growth spiritually in our Church family, and in the “little Church” of our homes, and personally, lies in participating in bringing more souls to Orthodoxy. There is no greater gift, thanks be to God!

Weekly Schedule: Saturday Vigil at 4:30 p.m. and Sunday Divine Liturgy at 10 a.m./Hours 9:40; Akathist on Wednesday at 7 p.m. (except Pascha Prayers on Bright Wednesday). Online Orthodox Class Saturdays 10 am to 11 (link below). Bible Study on Sundays at 2:30 p.m. in the Bucknell Bookstore café.

APRIL CALENDAR (Note that this newsletter comes out on on the 14^th of the civil month to match the Church calendar’s April 1):

Bright Wednesday April 2/15—Pascha Prayers, 7 p.m.
Second Sunday of Pascha, Thomas Sunday, April 6/19
Third Sunday of Pascha, Myrrh-bearing Women, April 13/26
Fourth Sunday of Pascha, Sunday of the Paralytic, April 20/May 3
Mid-Pentecost Wednesday April 23/May 6: Divine Liturgy with Lesser Blessing of the Waters, 10 a.m./Hours 9:40 (no Akathist that night). Vigil the night before at 6:30 p.m.
Fifth Sunday of Pascha, of the Samaritan Woman, April 27/May 10

MINISTRY/MISSION WORK UPDATES

Future Paschal Season Processions: We had a Pascha procession through downtown Lewisburg on Pascha Sunday, and we hope to have Pascha processions through downtown Lewisburg after coffee hour on the Sixth Sunday of Pascha (in May of the Church calendar) and in downtown Sunbury on the Seventh Sunday. This is an opportunity for downtown mission work, as we hand out brochures about our Church and services.

Brotherhood of St. Alfred the Great update: Upcoming planned activities include a truck repair project, as well as planning an Orthodox community film series. Current nominated films for community showings include “Moses the Black,” “Cloaked in Faith and Humility,” “Ostrov,” “Andrei Rublev,” and “The Holy Archipelago.” If you’d like to get involved, please contact Warden Nick. 

Sisterhood of St. Olga of Alaska update: Mary (Sally) has kindly invited the sisterhood to meet for a spring tea at her home in Williamsport. Hopefully that will be scheduled soon. Watch for other projects.

Beautification of Temple: The latest word during Lent from our dome installer Francis is that he plans to be in the area during the Pascha season and to install the dome finally. Please pray that this beautification of the exterior of our temple may be completed as a vehicle of outreach to our community; it will make our presence in the neighborhood more visible and beautiful, glory to God! Also, once the installation is made, we hope to proceed with plans for the permanent iconostasis, for which we already have the design.

Online Orthodoxy Class: The Online Orthodox class has been discussing Church history, and this coming weekend will move into discussing “How one should pray in Church” and “Preparation for Communion” based on publications from Jordanville. This is a helpful weekly discussion not only for catechumens, inquirers, and new Orthodox Christians, but for those who are “experienced” as well as a refresher. We meet Saturdays from 10 to 11 a.m., usually at Bucknell.zoom.us/my/Kentigern/.

Orthodox Bible Study: We continue our weekly Bible Study, currently exploring the Book of Revelation in light of the Church Fathers. Next, having earlier completed the Prophetic books of the Old Testament, we will probably explore the Wisdom books together.

Prison Ministry: Priest Paul continues his regular visits to pray and meet with interested inmates at the Muncy SCI. God willing, this month he will be chrismating one inmate (who was previously baptized as Orthodox as a baby but due to circumstances in the prison had apostasized), and hopefully holding a Liturgy there. Reader Nicholas plans to assist. Please pray for the planned chrismation of Rachel and also for the Orthodox Christian Tania there. 

Nursing Home Ministry: We were happy to see Innocent and John with us at Liturgy twice during Holy Week, and Father Paul continues to visit them at their nursing home in Danville. Hopefully they will be moving to an apartment sometime this year. Please continue to pray for them and for their health. Contact Father Paul if you are able to visit them. Thanks to Justin for giving them rides to the services.

University Ministry: Eleni and other Bucknell students attended our Holy Week and Pascha services. If you are interested in helping to assist with a campus Orthodox gathering this month before the end of the semester for students, please contact Father Paul.

Pastoral School Updates: With the sponsorship of our mission, we currently have three members pursuing course work in the ROCOR Pastoral School, glory to God! This helps provide background for future expanded opportunities for service to the Church, God willing. Our current students are Reader Luke Soboleski, Warden Nik Teisher, and most recently Reader Nicholas Maher. Please pray for them and their studies. Another member has expressed interest in this training, too, and those interested should contact Priest Paul. It is a sign of our parish’s commitment ot mission work that we have this level of interest in our small community, glory to God!

Confessions and contacting the Rector: As always, please always be free to be in touch with Fr. Paul to schedule confession or to talk or with any prayer need or about any mission work or liturgical needs. Remember that if you are unable to attend Vigil before Communion, it is proper to ask a blessing from him before Liturgy to receive, and you should plan on at least reading Vespers at home the night before if unable to attend on Saturday evening. If planning to receive elsewhere, you should also contact Father Paul for a blessing and so you can inform the priest at the Church you are visiting that you have a blessing, which indicates that you are prepared and in good standing. 570-863-9039/priestpauls@pm.me

With thanks to Reader Nicholas for our newsletter logo graphic!

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For renewing our daily prayers during the Paschal Season:

A GUIDE FOR DAILY PRAYERS FOR THOSE IN THE WORLD

(abbreviated for non-monastics from the famous “Optina 500” prayers of the nineteenth-century Russian Orthodox monastery known for her saintly elders; prostrations are for those who medically are able)

1. Morning prayer: (note: during Bright Week we use the Paschal Hour)

(these prayers can be found in complete form in prayer books or online, as the introductory prayers used in many services, and are given in full below under Small Compline/Evening Prayer)

“Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God have mercy on us.”

O Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth…

Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal… x3 with bows

Glory to the Father… Both now…

Most Holy Trinity have mercy on us, Lord be gracious to our sins, Master pardon our transgressions, Holy One visit and heal our infirmities for Thy name’s sake.

Lord have mercy x3
Glory…. Both now…

Lord’s Prayer, ending with:

“Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers…”

2. Prayer Rope Prayers (3 groups in the morning and 2 in the evening, or other combinations, to equal 5 x100 per day)

First group of 100. One hundred prayers with prayer rope, on each knot: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.” Make the sign of the Cross with your right hand as you say the prayer standing if possible. A full prostration every ten prayers, or in whatever combination works well, 10 prostrations per 100 prayer-rope prayers. At each prostration, cross yourself as you say the Jesus Prayer.

At the end, the following Prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos:

My Most Holy Lady Theotokos, by thy holy and all-powerful entreaties dispel from me, thy humble, wretched servant, despondency, forgetfulness, folly, carelessness, and all impure, evil, and blasphemous thoughts out of my wretched heart and my darkened mind. And quench the flame of my passions, for I am poor and wretched, and deliver me from my many cruel memories and deeds, and free me from all evil actions: for blessed art thou by all generations, and glorified is thy most honourable name unto the ages of ages. Amen.

At the end of this prayer a full prostration.

Second group. Then again as above with the first group.

Third group. Then again as above with the first group.

Fourth group. One hundred prayers on the rope consisting of “Most Holy Theotokos save me.”

One prostration for each ten, saying the same. Then the prayer: “My Most Holy Lady Theotokos” from above, followed by a prostration.

Fifth group: Repeating the first group.

3. Scripture reading daily: One chapter of the Gospel each day

4. Evening prayer (during Bright Week we use the Paschal Hour)

Small Compline (simple version without extra Akathist/Canon, see text below)

Small Compline as a Reader Service

Note: The translation used is primarily that of Fr. Lawrence of Jordanville.   The order of service is based primarily on the Reader Service Typikon by Bishop Daniel (the Old Rite Bishop of the ROCA) and translated by Fr. George Lardas.  All the psalms are from The Psalter According to the Seventy, © Copyright Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Brookline, MA.  

Senior Reader:  Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us. 

Reader: Amen.  Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee. 

O Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth, Who art everywhere present and fillest all things, Treasury of good things and Giver of life: Come and dwell in us, and cleanse us of all impurity, and save our souls, O Good One. 

Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us. (Thrice)

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto the unto the ages of ages. Amen. 

O Most Holy Trinity, have mercy on us. O Lord, blot out our sins. O Master, pardon our iniquities. O Holy One, visit and heal our infirmities for Thy name’s sake. 

Lord have mercy. Thrice.

Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. 

Our Father, Who art in the Heavens, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. 

Senior Reader:  O Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us. 

Reader: Amen. 

Lord have mercy. Twelve times.

Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. 

O come, let us worship God our King. 

O come, let us worship and fall down before Christ our King and God. 

O come, let us worship and fall down before Christ Himself, our King and God. 

Psalm 50

Have mercy on me, O God, according to Thy great mercy; and according to the multitude of Thy compassions blot out my transgression. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know mine iniquity, and my sin is ever before me. Against Thee only have I sinned and done this evil before Thee, that Thou mightest be justified in Thy words, and prevail when Thou art judged. For behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins did my mother bear me. For behold, Thou hast loved truth; the hidden and secret things of Thy wisdom hast Thou made manifest unto me. Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be made clean; Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow. Thou shalt make me to hear joy and gladness; the bones that be humbled, they shall rejoice. Turn Thy face away from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation, and with Thy governing Spirit establish me. I shall teach transgressors Thy ways, and the ungodly shall turn back unto Thee. Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, Thou God of my salvation; my tongue shall rejoice in Thy righteousness. O Lord, Thou shalt open my lips, and my mouth shall declare Thy praise. For if Thou hadst desired sacrifice, I had given it; with whole-burnt offerings Thou shalt not be pleased. A sacrifice unto God is a broken spirit; a heart that is broken and humbled God will not despise. Do good, O Lord, in Thy good pleasure unto Zion, and let the walls of Jerusalem be builded. Then shalt Thou be pleased with a sacrifice of righteousness, with oblation and whole-burnt offerings. Then shall they offer bullocks upon Thine altar. 

Psalm 69

O God, be attentive unto helping me; O Lord, make haste to help me. Let them be shamed and confounded that seek after my soul. Let them be turned back and brought to shame that desire evils against me. Let them be turned back straightway in shame that say unto me: Well done! Well done! Let them be glad and rejoice in Thee all that seek after Thee, O God, and let them that love Thy salvation say continually: The Lord be magnified. But as for me, I am poor and needy; O God come unto mine aid. My helper and my deliverer art Thou, O Lord; make no long tarrying. 

Psalm 142

O Lord, hear my prayer; give ear unto my supplication in Thy truth; hearken unto me in Thy righteousness. And enter not into judgment with Thy servant, for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified. For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath humbled my life down to the earth. He hath sat me in darkness as those that have been long dead, and my spirit within me is become despondent; within me my heart is troubled. I remembered days of old, I meditated on all Thy works, I pondered on the creations of Thy hands. I stretched forth my hands unto Thee; my soul thirsteth after Thee like a waterless land. Quickly hear me, O Lord; my spirit hath fainted away. Turn not Thy face away from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit. Cause me to hear Thy mercy in the morning; for in Thee have I put my hope. Cause me to know, O Lord, the way wherein I should walk; for unto Thee have I lifted up my soul. Rescue me from mine enemies, O Lord; unto Thee have I fled for refuge. Teach me to do Thy will, for Thou art my God. Thy good Spirit shall lead me in the land of uprightness; for Thy name’s sake, O Lord, shalt Thou quicken me. In Thy righteousness shalt Thou bring my soul out of affliction, and in Thy mercy shalt Thou utterly destroy mine enemies. And Thou shalt cut off all them that afflict my soul, for I am Thy servant. 

The Doxology

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace and good will among men. We praise Thee, we bless Thee, we worship Thee, we glorify Thee, we give thanks to Thee for Thy great glory. O Lord, heavenly King, God the Father Almighty; O Lord, the only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ; and O Holy Spirit. O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, that takest away the sin of the world; have mercy on us; Thou that takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer; Thou that sittest at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us. For Thou only art holy; Thou only art the Lord, O Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father. Amen. Every night will I bless Thee, and I will praise Thy Name forever, yea, forever and ever. Lord, thou hast been our refuge in generation and generation. I said: O Lord, have mercy on me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against Thee. O Lord, unto Thee have I fled for refuge, teach me to do Thy will, for Thou art my God. For in Thee is the fountain of life, in Thy light shall we see light. O continue Thy mercy unto them that know Thee. Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this night without sin. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, the God of our Fathers, and praised and glorified is Thy name unto the ages. Amen. Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, according as we have hoped in Thee. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, teach me Thy statutes.. Blessed art Thou, O Master, give me understanding of Thy statutes. Blessed art Thou, O Holy One, enlighten me by Thy statutes. O Lord, Thy mercy endureth forever; disdain not the works of Thy hands. To Thee is due praise, to Thee is due a song, to Thee glory is due, to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. 

The Symbol of Faith

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Only-begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages; Light of Light, true God of true God; begotten, not made; of one essence with the Father, by Whom all things were made; Who for us men and for our salvation came down from the heavens, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man; And was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried; And arose again on the third day according to the Scriptures; And ascended into the heavens, and sitteth at the right hand of the Father; And shall come again, with glory, to judge both the living and the dead; Whose kingdom shall have no end. And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of life; Who proceedeth from the Father; Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; Who spake by the prophets. In One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the remission of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead, And the life of the age to come. Amen. 

Then: 

It is truly meet to bless thee, the Theotokos, ever blessed and most blameless, and Mother of our God. More honorable than the Cherubim, and beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim, who without corruption gavest birth to God the Word, the very Theotokos, thee do we magnify. 

Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us. Thrice.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto the unto the ages of ages. Amen. 

O Most Holy Trinity, have mercy on us. O Lord, blot out our sins. O Master, pardon our iniquities. O Holy One, visit and heal our infirmities for Thy name’s sake. 

Lord have mercy. Thrice.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. 

Our Father, Who art in the Heavens, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. 

Senior Reader:  O Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us.   

Reader: Amen. 

If the temple be dedicated to the Lord or to the Theotokos, the troparion of the temple is said first, then the troparion of the day (see below), then “O God of our Fathers…”, etc. 

If the temple be dedicated to a saint, the troparion of the day is said first, then the troparion of the temple, then “O God of our fathers…”, etc.  See the question about Patrons, if you are unsure about which troparion to use here.  If need be, you could simply omit the troparion for the temple, and use only the troparia given here.

Lo, thy care for thy flock in its sojourn/ prefig­ured the supplications which thou dost ever offer up for the whole world./ Thus do we believe, having come to know thy love,/ O holy hierarch and wonderworker John./ Wholly sanctified by God/ through the ministry of the all-pure Myster­ies/ and thyself ever strengthened thereby,/ thou didst hasten to the suffering,/ O most gladsome Healer.// Hasten now also to the aid of us who honour thee with all our heart.

On Sunday night:

Supreme Commanders of the Heavenly Hosts, we unworthy ones implore you that by your supplications ye will encircle us with the shelter of the wings of your immaterial glory, and guard us who fall down before you and fervently cry: Deliver us from dangers since ye are the Marshals of the Hosts on high. 

On Monday night:

The memory of the righteous is celebrated with hymns of praise, but the Lord’s testimony is sufficient for thee, O Forerunner; for thou hast proved to be even more venerable than the prophets since thou wast granted to baptize in the running waters Him Whom they proclaimed. Wherefore, having contested for the truth, thou didst rejoice to announce the good tidings even to those in Hades; that God hath appeared in the flesh, taking away the sin of the world and granting us great mercy. 

On Tuesday night:

Save, O Lord, Thy people, and bless Thine inheritance; grant Thou unto Orthodox Christians victory over enemies; and by the power of Thy Cross do Thou preserve Thy commonwealth.· 

On Wednesday night:

O holy Apostles, intercede with the merciful God, that He grant unto our souls forgiveness of offenses. 

And to St. Nicholas, Fourth Tone:

The truth of things hath revealed thee to thy flock as a rule of faith, an icon of meekness and a teacher of temperance; therefore thou hast achieved the heights by humility, riches by poverty. O Father and Hierarch Nicholas, intercede with Christ God that our souls be saved. 

On Thursday night:

Save, O Lord, Thy people, and bless Thine inheritance; grant Thou unto Orthodox Christians victory over enemies; and by the power of Thy Cross do Thou preserve Thy commonwealth. 

Troparion of the patron of the Temple is sung here, unless it is a feast of the Lord or of the Theotokos.

Troparion for our Patron

Lo, thy care for thy flock in its sojourn/ prefig­ured the supplications which thou dost ever offer up for the whole world./ Thus do we believe, having come to know thy love,/ O holy hierarch and wonderworker John./ Wholly sanctified by God/ through the ministry of the all-pure Myster­ies/ and thyself ever strengthened thereby,/ thou didst hasten to the suffering,/ O most gladsome Healer.// Hasten now also to the aid of us who honour thee with all our heart.

Then, Sunday night through Thursday night (if simple service):

O God of our fathers, Who ever dealest with us according to Thy kindness, do not withdraw Thy mercy from us, but through their intercessions guide our life in peace. 

Adorned in the blood of Thy martyrs throughout all the world, as in purple and fine linen, Thy Church, through them, doth cry unto Thee, O Christ God: Send down Thy compassions upon Thy people; grant to Thy community, and to our souls great mercy. 

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. 

With the saints give rest, O Christ, to the souls of Thy servants, where there is neither sickness, nor sorrow, nor sighing, but life everlasting. 

Both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. 

Through the intercessions, O Lord, of all the saints and the Theotokos, grant us Thy peace, and have mercy on us, as Thou alone art compassionate. 

On Friday night:

O Apostles, Martyrs, and Prophets, Venerable and Righteous Ones; ye that have accomplished a good labor and kept the Faith, that have boldness before the Savior; O Good Ones, intercede for us, we pray, that our souls be saved. 

Glory to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. 

With the saints give rest, O Christ, to the souls of Thy servants, where there is neither sickness, nor sorrow, nor sighing, but life everlasting. 

Both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. 

To Thee, O Lord, the Planter of creation, the world doth offer the God-bearing martyrs as the first-fruits of nature. By their intercessions preserve Thy Church, Thy commonwealth, in profound peace, through the Theotokos, O Greatly-merciful One.

On Saturday at Compline, the troparion and Kontakion of the Resurrection in the occurring tone are read, if available. If not, available, then use the weekday version above.

IT SHOULD BE KNOWN: that from the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee, and during all of the Holy Great Lent, on all Saturdays at Compline the Kontakion of the Resurrection is not read, but rather the one from the Triodion (except the fifth week of Lent), as also during the Holy Pentecost season on all days, the Kontakion from the Pentecostarion is read, until the Sunday of All Saints. If there occur on Sunday a feast of the Lord, only the Kontakion of the feast is read. But if there be a feast of the Theotokos, or one of the saints that have a Polyeleos, or a great doxology, the Kontakion of the Resurrection is read, but that of the occurring feast or saint is omitted.

Reader: Lord, have mercy. Forty times.

Thou Who at all times and at every hour, in heaven and on earth, art worshipped and glorified, O Christ God, Who art long-suffering, plenteous in mercy, most compassionate, Who lovest the righteous and hast mercy on sinners, Who callest all to salvation through the promise of good things to come: Receive, O Lord, our prayers at this hour, and guide our life toward Thy commandments. Sanctify our souls, make chaste our bodies, correct our thoughts, purify our intentions, and deliver us from every sorrow, evil and pain. Compass us about with Thy holy angels, that, guarded and guided by their array, we may attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of Thine unapproachable glory; for blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages. Amen. 

Lord have mercy. Thrice.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. 

More honorable than the Cherubim, and beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim; who without corruption gavest birth to God the Word, the very Theotokos, thee do we magnify. 

Senior Reader: Through the prayers of our holy fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us.

Reader: Amen. 

On Sunday nights during Great Lent, the prayer of St. Ephrem is said here.

Then in any case:

The Supplicatory Prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos

O undefiled, untainted, uncorrupted, most pure, chaste Virgin, Thou Bride of God and Sovereign Lady, who didst unite the Word of God to mankind through thy most glorious birth giving, and hast linked the apostate nature of our race with the heavenly; who art the only hope of the hopeless, and the helper of the struggling, the ever-ready protection of them that hasten unto thee, and the refuge of all Christians: Do not shrink with loathing from me a sinner, defiled, who with polluted thoughts, words, and deeds have made myself utterly unprofitable, and through slothfulness of mind have become a slave to the pleasures of life. But as the Mother of God Who loveth mankind, show thy love for mankind and mercifully have compassion upon me a sinner and prodigal, and accept my supplication, which is offered to thee out of my defiled mouth; and making use of thy motherly boldness, entreat thy Son and our Master and Lord that He may be pleased to open for me the bowels of His lovingkindness and graciousness to mankind, and, disregarding my numberless offenses, will turn me back to repentance, and show me to be a tried worker of His precepts. And be thou ever present unto me as merciful, compassionate and well disposed; in the present life be thou a fervent intercessor and helper, repelling the assaults of adversaries and guiding me to salvation, and at the time of my departure taking care of my miserable soul, and driving far away from it the dark countenances of the evil demons; lastly, at the dreadful day of judgment delivering me from torment eternal and showing me to be an heir of the ineffable glory of thy Son and our God; all of which may I attain, O my Sovereign Lady, most holy Theotokos, in virtue of thine intercession and protection, through the grace and love to mankind of thine only begotten Son, our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ, to Whom is due all glory, honor and worship, together with His unoriginate Father, and His Most Holy and good and life creating Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen. 

A Prayer to our Lord Jesus Christ, by Antiochus the monk

And grant unto us, O Master, in the coming sleep, rest for body and soul, and preserve us from the gloomy slumber of sin, and from every dark and nocturnal sensuality. Subdue the impulses of passions, extinguish the fiery darts of the evil one that are cunningly hurled against us, assuage the rebellions of our flesh, and every earthly and fleshly subtlety of ours lull to sleep. And grant unto us, O God, a watchful mind, chaste thought, a sober heart, a sleep gentle and free from every satanic illusion. Raise us up at the time of prayer firmly grounded in Thy precepts and keeping steadfastly within us the memory of Thy judgments. All the night long grant us a doxology, that we may hymn and bless and glorify Thy most honorable and majestic name: of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. 

Most glorious, Ever-Virgin, Mother of Christ God, present our prayer to thy Son and our God, that through thee, He may save our souls.

My hope is the Father, my refuge is the Son, my protection is the Holy Spirit: O Holy Trinity, glory to Thee.

Choir:  Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.  Amen.

Lord, have mercy.  Thrice.

O Lord, bless.

Senior Reader (Facing the East, rather than facing the people):  O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, for the sake of the prayers of Thy most pure Mother, our holy and God-bearing fathers, and all the saints, have mercy on us and save us, for Thou art good and the Lover of mankind.  

Choir:  Amen.

Senior Reader:  Remit, pardon, forgive, O God, our offenses, both voluntary and involuntary, in deed and word, in knowledge and ignorance, by day and by night, in mind and thought; forgive us all things, for Thou art good and the Lover of mankind.

Choir:  Amen.

Senior Reader:  O Lord, Lover of mankind, forgive them that hate and wrong us.  Do good to them that do good.  Grant our brethren and kindred their saving petitions and life eternal; visit the infirm and grant them healing.  Guide those at sea.  Journey with them that travel.  Help Orthodox Christians to struggle.  To them that serve and are kind to us grant remissions of sins.  On them that have charged us, the unworthy, to pray for them, have mercy according to Thy great mercy.  Remember, O Lord, our fathers and brethren departed before us, and grant them rest where the light of Thy countenance shall visit them.  Remember, O Lord, our brethren in captivity, and deliver them from every misfortune.  Remember, O Lord, those that bear fruit and do good works in Thy holy churches, and grant them their saving petitions and life eternal.  Remember also, O Lord, us Thy lowly and sinful and unworthy servants, and enlighten our minds with the light of Thy knowledge, and guide us in the way of Thy commandments; through the intercessions of our most pure Lady, the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, and of all Thy saints, for blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages.  

Choir:  Amen.

Choir:  Lord, have mercy.  Thrice.

Senior Reader:  Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us.  Amen.

An Homily for Pascha Liturgy 7534/2026 at St. John’s Russian Orthodox Mission Church in Winfield, PA, by Priest Paul Siewers

Truly He is Risen! Dear brothers and sisters it is a joy to experience Pascha with you, the summation and beginning of our Church calendar, and of our souls’ redemption. For in Rising, our Lord Jesus Christ pulls us up too, if our hearts are open and willing, just as in the icon of Holy Saturday as he reaches out, the Good Shepherd, for Adam and Eve in Hades. We too live here in the land of the shadows, and Pascha is the burst of light that confirms what our Lord said: I am the Light of the World. To which always remember also that He added, You are the light of the world, let your light shine, so that others might know the love of God. In Him, the light of our hearts from God’s love shines as in this Resurrection feast.

I found a Pascha Epistle from the founding First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia in 1930, Metropolitan Antony of blessed memory. I wanted to share it with you today for its historical and spiritual value instead of a homily–we’ll also hear the current epistle from our present-day Metropolitan soon, with its valuable spiritual lessons.

Metropolitan Antony in his turbulent time of exile from Communism emulated our Lord in being a man of sorrows yet also joyful in his faith, enduring persecution and exile while caring for his flock of Orthodox Christians through all kinds of troubles. Known as a kind pastor and a reformer, he has even been speculated to be the model for the memorable character of Alexei the young Christian in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karmazov. He as a youth had encountered Dostoevsky, his birth name was Alexei, and his personality as a youthful believer seemed related, given the author’s composites of fiction and life.

Later, Providence intervened, so that, despite receiving the most votes to be elected the first new Patriarch of Moscow in Russia in centuries in 1917, the drawing of lots that followed the vote made the Saint Confessor Tikhon the Patriarch instead. God had something else in store for our Metropolitan Anthony, namely to preserve Russian Orthodox Christian tradition in exile. The Revolution made the faithful Patriarch St. Tikhon a virtual prisoner of the Bolsheviks. Yet he did issue in effect a blessing for ROCOR to be started abroad by the exiles led by his former colleague Metropolitan Antony. In 1930, Metropolitan Anthony wrote this brief Pascha Epistle from his exile in Serbia, which is still relevant as we celebrate Pascha in our own day and age, with our Synod having since moved its headquarters from Serbia to Manhattan. The epistle follows on the two pages below.

When Metropolitan Antony writes so directly in his 1930 Pascha Epistle about the persecutions faced by Orthodox Christians in modern times alone, it may seem shocking to us today on this joyful bright feast.

But, pastorally, amid modern global upheaval, he balances that reminder of the Cross we bear as Christians by reminding us of how Pascha, despite all our personal or historical sufferings, is the bright and joyful gateway boosting us into a more real life of rejoicing in God. The Church and our faith leads us to this Pascha experience as a sustaining glimpse of that which is to come.

Personally, each one of us faces challenges, sometimes and eventually as deep as death. Historically, many holy elders in Orthodoxy regard the Russian Revolution, to which our founding Hierarch refers in his Epistle, as a sign of the times — the overthrow of the major Orthodox empire, with ties back to Byzantium, marking intensified tribulations for the faithful. These latter days of atheistic rule by global technological influences to the Orthodox indicate a rising spirit of Anti-Christ, in denial of the Incarnation of Christ and His institution of the Church, through materialistic globalization personified by the figure of Babylon in Revelation.

But the faithful know how the story ends, we experience it on Pascha night in the glow of candles and joyful hymns, the ringing of bells accompanying processions in the early hours.

The tomb is empty. Help is on the way.

Pascha (literally “Passover,” in full Christian realization) reminds us how, despite intense challenges experienced by so many, in which we may feel like night-time pilgrims beset by the world, both personally and historically, life and resurrection ultimately find resolution in our hearts illumined by God’s grace, looking to the Second Coming of Christ and the General Resurrection under His care.

“Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me,” we can pray simply in the Jesus Prayer at any time and in any situation.

With it, like Scrooge keeping Christmas in his heart every day after his epiphany, so may we remember Pascha every day with the chant of victory: “Christ is Risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs [including ourselves] bestowing life!”

Christ is Risen!

An Homily for Holy Saturday, 7534/2026, from St. John’s Russian Orthodox Church in Winfield, PA, by Priest Paul Siewers.

Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ,

Deep in an earthly tomb and all the way to Hades and back, something wonderfully strange, a strange beauty, has stirred all the earth, even beyond any space expedition or world conflicts in the news.  Related to this, the Holy Fire reportedly appeared at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem this morning despite wartime restrictions, and is being sent to Greece and elsewhere in the world. This is a hidden deep stirring in our hearts and across the Creation, reminding us that in the truth of Christianity, the supernatural is the natural, in the quiet of today, Holy Saturday. Let us hear a short ancient Orthodox sermon attributed to St. Epiphanius of Cyprus, who lived around 400 A.D.

The ancient sermon is given the title “The Lord Descends into Hades.” Let us attend. It begins:

“Something strange is happening – there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and He has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and Hell trembles with fear.

“He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, He has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, He who is both God and the Son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the Cross, the weapon that had won Him the victory. At the sight of Him Adam, the first man He had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone, “My Lord be with you all.” Christ answered him, “And with your spirit.” He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying, “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.

““I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by My own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in Hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the Life of the dead. Rise up, work of My hands, you who were created in My image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in Me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated.

““For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden.

““See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in My image. On My back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See My hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree.

““I slept on the Cross and a sword pierced My side for you who slept in Paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in Hell. The sword that pierced Me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.

““Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly Paradise. I will not restore you to that Paradise, but I will enthrone you in Heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am Life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The Bridal Chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open. The Kingdom of Heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity. “”

Brothers and sisters, get ready. Pascha is coming, a story and a reality and a mystery larger than we can know, broader than the physical universe, and as deep as the spark of God’s love in our own hearts. The Bridal Chamber is adorned, the banquet is prepared. Let us be ready in these final hours, with our lamps filled with oil, prayer rope in hand, on our merry way as Pascha pilgrims. Let us go forth into the adventure of Pascha in God’s time beyond mind, into a deeper dimension of God’s nature, the Resurrection of love.

Glory to God for all things!

(From the Synaxarion of the Lenten Triondion and Pentecostarion, Fr. David and Mother Gabriela, eds., HDM Press, Rives Junction, MI, 1999 pp. 160-161.)

An homily for Holy Thursday (7534/2026) from St. John’s Russian Orthodox Mission Church by Priest Paul Siewers

Brothers and Sisters, Holy Thursday is a key crossroads of Holy Week, with four elements from the Gospels that are alive still in the Orthodox church: The Holy Washing of the Disciples’ feet by our Lord to give an example for all time of the need for our humility and His love. This act is repeated by our Bishops and Abbots in cathedrals and monasteries. This highlights its contrast with another element: The self-assertion of Judas. His love of money combined with the religious leaders’ envy and the Roman love of power to betray the God-Man to death, and that negative lesson is underscored in the Holy Week services of the Orthodox Church.

Two other events of Holy Thursday are entwined: The Lord’s agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, in which he sweated as blood onto the earth beneath Him, and prayed to God the Father “not my will by Thine be done.” He suffered for our sins there as in His Crucifixion. He showed His saving compassion for us. He also did so by founding the first Mystical Supper today, giving of Himself by His Body and Blood as also as at the Garden, embracing His voluntary Passion in loving us more than Himself as the Theanthropos or God-Man.

St. Ignatius Brianchaninov wrote of our Lord’s giving of Himself in the Mystical Supper, that when the Psalmist wrote 

“’Bread strengtheneth man’s heart’ (Ps. 103:17), the prophet foretold of a certain miraculous bread, which, unlike ordinary, material bread that strengthens the body, is to strengthen man’s heart. Our heart is in need of strengthening! It was frightfully shaken when we fell, and cannot by itself stop wavering. It is continually shaken by various passions. Fallen man in his blindness preaches to no purpose and in vain about the firmness of human will. There is no firmness: it is drawn along by the force of the sins that overcome it. Needed, much needed is this prophesied, miraculous bread in order to strengthen the wavering, weakened heart of man. 

“That bread which came down from heaven (Jn. 6:58, 48) makes the heart of man strong. This bread is our Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, dwelleth in Me, and I in him (Jn. 6:51–56).

“‘This is an hard saying,’ they [the hearers] said, ‘who can hear it?’ (Jn. 51:60). From that time many of His disciples, who in vain bore the name, disciple, went back, and walked no more with Him (Jn. 6:66). Even now, doubt arises about this great Mystery amongst those who only bear the name Christian, who observe external Christian practices, but by their lives and the desires of their hearts, they are alien to Christianity. The saying would be hard if a man had pronounced it; obedience to the saying would be impossible if a man had said it. The saying was pronounced by God, Who out of His infinite goodness had taken on humanity for the salvation of people—therefore the saying must be filled with goodness. The saying was pronounced by God, Who had taken on humanity for the salvation of people, and therefore attention to the saying and judgment of it should not be superficial. Obedience to the saying must be accepted with faith, from the whole soul, as God Who became man must be accepted.

“God’s assumption of humanity is unfathomable for people; just as unfathomable are the institutions and actions of the God-Man; they make man, conceived in iniquities and born in sins—man, condemned to eternal death and eternal torment in the prisons and abysses of hell—like unto God, make him god by grace, raise him to heaven for eternal habitation, and for eternal blessedness in heaven. Whoever judges the saying and institutions of the God-Man and deny them, have judged and denied the Word—the spirit and life (Jn. 51:63), judged and denied the institution that is given to the disciple of Christ’s spirit and life. ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you,’ said the Lord, ‘except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you’ (Jn. 51:53).

“’It is meet to learn,’ says St. John Chrysostom, ‘the miraculous quality and effect of the Holy Mysteries: what are they? For what reason are they given? What benefit comes from them? We are of one body with the body of our Lord Jesus Christ; we are flesh of His flesh, and bone of His bone (cf. Gen. 2:23). A mysterious teaching! Heed what is said: We are united to the all-holy flesh of the Lord not only through love, but also through the sacrament itself. The all-holy flesh of the Lord becomes our food! He gave us this food, wishing to show the love that He has for us. He has mixed Himself with us, and has mingled His Body in us, so that we might be united with Him as the body is united with the head: thus is the quality of this unspeakable love. Prefiguring the Lord with himself, Job said of his servants by whom he was especially beloved, that they expressed their great love for him by saying, ‘Oh that we might be satisfied with his flesh!’ (Job 31:31). Christ has given this to us, leading us to exceedingly great love, and showing His love for us, allowing those who wish it not only to see Him, but also to touch Him, to partake of Him and unite with Him, and all our desires shall be fulfilled.’

“The Lord has replaced with Himself our forefather Adam, from whom we are born in death, from whom we are born to die. He is made our forefather, exchanging the flesh and blood we inherited from Adam for His own flesh and blood. Such an act of the Lord, at the pious contemplation of the redemption of people by God’s becoming man while yet remaining unfathomable and supernatural, also becomes clear and natural. The vile flesh and blood of our fallen and outcast nature must be replaced by the nature that the God-Man has renewed; by the all-holy flesh and blood of the God-Man. …

“Bread is an image of the heavenly bread, and wine is an image of the true spiritual drink. The effect of material bread and wine serves as an image of the action of the Body and Blood of Christ…. God fed His chosen people, the Israelites, with manna that fell from heaven, when they were journeying through the desert from Egypt to the Promised Land: And bread of Heaven did He give them. Man ate the bread of angels (Ps. 77:27–28; John 6:32). Christ has been transformed into this bread, feeding with His word (cf. Mt. 4:4), His Body and Blood, Christians who wander in the land of exile, traveling and ascending into the homeland on high, through many and various obstacles, sufferings, and hardships. Egypt symbolizes the state of man’s fall, the state of slavery to sin and to fallen spirits. The journey from Egypt depicts the rejection of a sinful life, the acceptance of faith in Christ, the entry into a life according to Christ’s commandments. The promised land is heaven; the journey through the desert is earthly life; the heavenly bread is Christ. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world (Jn. 6:33). Your fathers, says Christ to the new Israel of the old Israel, did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die (Jn. 6:49-50) the eternal death—not during earthly life, and not at the separation of the soul with the body at the body’s the death. Amen.” So wrote St. Ignatius.

Brothers and sisters, a writer once referred to the American South as “Christ-haunted.” It used to be and perhaps still is that many American homes had in them a print of the famous painting of The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci. There was something about what it represented that caught people’s fancy, even if, like my grandparents, who had one in their home, they were not particularly religious and did not receive even a heterodox type of communion. The sharing, the sustaining, the loving by God represented in a meal, also perhaps reminded people of the old-style family meal. Likewise pictures of Jesus kneeling in prayer at Gethsemane were common. These pictures were as if shadows. The Orthodox Church offers the reality, where the embodied and the symbolic unite. We don’t try to separate the real and the symbolic as Catholicism did in the Middle Ages, or as the Protestants did in the opposite direction in the Reformation—one group says the Eucharist is real, another that it is symbolic, but Orthodoxy proclaims both/and in a mystery. We accept the whole mystery of the Last Supper, and remember that it began on the same night that our Lord sweat as blood out of redemptive compassion for us in Garden of Gethsemane. So He also gave us His Body and Blood to sustain us.

It is time to fulfill the types and shadows of American heterodox Christianity with the fulness of Orthodoxy and our Lord’s Church. Let us redouble our mission work in the coming Pascha season to save more lives in Christ. In fact, let us invite others to our Pascha services and Paschal Sundays to come. Tell our neighbors, help is on the way! Pascha is almost here! Glory to God for all things!

Today is sometimes called “Spy Wednesday” after the snare set for our Lord Jesus Christ by His close Apostle Judas Iscariot. To this day the Orthodox Church remembers this betrayal with Wednesday being a fasting day usually throughout the year. There was an old English hymn, “Dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone, dare to have a purpose firm, and dare to make it known.” For us Orthodox Christians on Holy Wednesday, memory can stir different wording, along the lines of “Dare not to be a Judas”–not to be a spy in the sense of being a deceiver ultimately serving demonic interests against Christ Whom one claims to serve–for the sake of a love of money or worldly riches and benefits. Indeed, Judas was in effect the Treasurer of the Twelve.

Hieromonk Seraphim Rose of Blessed Memory has written of the account in the Gospels about how a woman brought very precious ointment and poured it on Jesus’ head as he sat at meat. We are told Jesus’ disciples were strangely indigant, arguing that it was wasteful, and the ointment could have been sold and the money given to the poor. But Jesus said the woman’s action was one of loving reverence that would always be remembered with the Gospels and that “the poor you always have with you.” Judas after this incident we are told went to the chief priests and offered to sell Jesus to them by delivering him, and was given 30 pieces of silver. Hieromonk Seraphim wrote: 

“In this passage of Scripture, we read how, as our Lord prepared for His Passion, a woman came and anointed Him with very precious ointment; and it is very touching how our Lord accepted such love from simple people. But at the same time Judas—one of the twelve who were with Him—looked at this act, and something in his heart changed. This was apparently the “last straw,” because Judas was the one in charge of the money and he thought that this was a waste of money. We can even see the logical processes going on in his mind. We can hear him think about Christ: ‘I thought this man was somebody important. He wastes money, he doesn’t do things right, he thinks he’s so important…’ and all kinds of similar little ideas which the devil puts in his mind. And with his passion (his main passion was love of money), he was caught by the devil and made to betray Christ. He did not want to betray Him; he simply wanted money. He did not watch over himself and crucify his passions.

“Anyone of us can be exactly in that position. We have to look at our hearts and see which passion of ours will the devil hook us on in order to cause us to betray Christ. If we think that we are something superior to Judas—that he was some kind of a ‘kook’ and we are not—we are quite mistaken. Like Judas, everyone of us has passions in his heart. Let us therefore look at them. We can be caught with love for neatness, with love for correctness, with love for a sense of beauty: any of our little faults which we cling to can be a thing that the devil can catch us with. Being caught, we can begin to justify this condition ‘logically’—on the basis of our passion. And from that ‘logical’ process of thinking we can betray Christ, unless we watch over ourselves and begin to realize that we are filled with passions, that each one of us is potentially a Judas. Therefore, when the opportunity comes—when the passion begins to operate in us and logically begins to develop from a passion into betrayal—we should stop right there and say, ‘Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner!‘

“We must not look at life through the glasses of our passions, nor see how we can ‘fit’ life into being what we would like it to be—whether this is a life where there is peace and quiet or where there is a lot of noise and excitement. If we try to make life ‘fit’ like this, a total disaster will result. In looking at life, we should accept all the things which come to us as God’s providence, knowing that they are intended to wake us up from our passions. We should pray to God to show us some God-pleasing thing that we can do. When we accept what comes to us, we begin to be like the simple woman in the Gospel who heard the call from God and was thus able to be His minister. She was proclaimed to the ends of the world, as our Lord says, because of the simple thing she did—pouring out the ointment upon Him. Let us be like her: sensitive to watching God’s signs around us. These signs come from everywhere: from nature, from our fellow men, from a seeming chance of events… There is always, everyday, something that indicates to us God’s will. We must be open to this.

“Once we become more aware of the passions within ourselves and begin to fight against them, we will not let them begin the process which was seen in Judas. Judas started from a very small thing: being concerned for the right use of money. And from such small things we betray God the Saviour. We must be sober, seeing not the fulfillment of our passions around us, but rather the indication of God’s will: how we might this very moment wake up and begin to follow Christ to His Passion and save our souls.”

So wrote Hieromonk Seraphim. Brothers and Sisters, the Good Book tells us that the love of money is the root of all evil, for it relates to all greed and lust for power and sins of idleness including gluttony and lust. It also relates to modernistic revolutionism whether of the political Left or Right, which places a drive for power and money ahead of faith. For money when loved and made into an idol is seen as the source of worldly power. But remember the Book of Revelation’s graphic portrayal of the fall of Babylon, the great world harlot. Let us as Father Seraphim Rose urges us be watchful and simple like the Virgins at midnight, keeping our oil for our lamps well-supplied by the alms-giving we do for others. For as our Lord said, even as we navigate the struggle of Holy Week, we are the light of the world because He is the Light of the World, even in the utmost darkness of Spy Wednessay. Glory to God for all things!

***

Source for Hieromonk Seraphim’s words: https://pravoslavie.ru/78550.html

A sermon for the Feast of the Annunciation, 7534/2026, from St. John’s Russian Orthodox Mission Church in Winfield, PA, by Priest Paul Siewers.

Dearly beloved in Christ,

Today we have the special blessing of celebrating a second of the Church year’s 12 major feasts just two days after another. Today the Feast of the Annunciation follows almost immediately after Palm Sunday or Holy Sunday. 

There is a connection between the two. Our Lord Jesus Christ’s entry into Jerusalem on Sunday fulfilled Old Testament prophecy as he rode on the colt of an ass, symbolizing the Gentile peoples unused to carrying God so to speak, who would be engrafted in the Church into Israel. Our Lord brought the proclamation of the kingdom of God, not a human kingdom.

With the Annunciation came a fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies of the Virgin Birth and the coming of the Savior of humanity, overcoming the sin of Eve and also of Adam. The Virgin Mary who grew up in the Temple at Jerusalem would become the God-bearer, the mother of the God-man, and she would help nurture the early Church as the Body of Christ after Jesus’ Ascension.

In Isaiah, we see the prophecy that a virgin will give birth. It is worth knowing that this prophecy is clearest in the Greek Septuagint. In the Hebrew Masoretic text the passage is best translated a young woman will give birth. The Greek text pre-dates the Masoretic text and is the Old Testament primarily used in the Orthodox Church, as it was the version used by the Apostles and in the Gospels. The translators of the King James Version followed the Hebrew Masoretic not understanding the historical nuances. But they did keep the translation from the Greek for “virgin” in that prophecy. However, the friction indicates what historically has been a great source of the devil’s attack on Christianity, and that is on the virgin birth.

You even see this in the King James Bible’s choice of English words in the Gospel of Luke. It quotes the Archangel Gabriel as greeting the Virgin Mary as “thou that art highly favored.” But the Greek is best translated “thou full of grace.” There’s a difference there. Full of grace encompasses more the synergy between the most pure life of the Theotokos and the grace that made her the Mother of God. She is not just highly favored. She is the most holy and most pure, as we describe her in Orthodoxy. That is an important lesson of the Annunciation. She was full of grace because her heart was open to the uncreated grace of God that came to her from the Holy Spirit as announced by the Holy Archangel.

Seeing the Virgin Mary as a privileged good person in some way goes along with the trend toward trying to treat Jesus Christ as a good person and teacher but not the God-man. Sadly, both the key American founding fathers Thomas Jefferson and John Adams rejected the Virgin birth. They both considered Jesus a great moral teacher but evidenced in this what the Evangelist John called the spirit of Anti-Christ, rejecting that Jesus Christ had come in the flesh as God-man. That faulty foundation is part of the problem with American history. But help is on the way! The Orthodox Christian mission to America is here, and with God’s help, will make America Orthodox over time.

A central chapter in the Book of Revelation by Jesus Christ to the Evangelist John illuminates this. In Revelation 12, the Woman bearing a Child is opposed by the Serpent of Genesis, symbolizing Satan, who has grown into a great dragon. He pursues the Woman and her Offspring. Church Fathers have described this Woman as prefiguring the Church in the latter days of Tribulation before the Second Coming of Christ. However, she is also identified by them with aspects of the Theotokos. The Woman in Revelation is protected by God and in giving birth has been compared to the Church bringing forth the faithful in baptism. Thus we too have a part in the Annunciation of course, for our salvation is based in the redemption given us by our Lord Jesus Christ, and a great help lies in the intercessions of His Mother in the Church, as our prayers state. We are coming forth, God willing, as part of the Body of Christ, born again in the Orthodox Church, through the Holy Spirit in the mysteries of Baptism and Chrismation. So as our prayers always say, Let us be attentive as we celebrate the great mystery of the Annunciation, and not denigrate it by mortal reason which only dimly sees the truth and is open to demonic confusion and distraction. The Annunciation is central to our faith, and the world’s denial of it only marks the limited dimension of fallen human thought—like trying to understand another dimension in quantum physics through Newtonian physics.

 St. Nikolai Velimirovic of Serbia and Pennsylvania offer us thoughts for today’s feast. He writes,(https://orthochristian.com/130050.html), “The Sun is reflected in pure waters, and heaven is reflected in a pure heart.God the Holy Spirit has many habitations in this vast universe, but a pure human heart is the habitation of His greatest joy. It is His true habitation, and all others are only His workshops.

“The human heart can never be empty; it is always filled—either with hell, or with the world, or with God. The contents of the heart depends on the purity of the heart. Once the human heart was filled only with God; it was the mirror only of divine majesty, a harp made only to praise God. Once it truly was in God’s hands, and was out of danger. But when man in his madness took it into his own hands, many beasts attacked the human heart, and from this began the state, which, if you look from within, is called the slavery of the human heart… the history of the whole world….

“Like a pillar of fire in the deepest darkness was God’s descent to man. And the story of this descent by God to man begins with the angel and the Virgin, with a conversation between heavenly purity and earthly purity…. The Most Pure Virgin Mary was the first to hear these glad tidings, and the first of all human beings to tremble from fear and joy. Heaven was reflected in her heart like the sun in pure waters; the Lord was able to bow His head beneath her heart and clothe Himself in flesh—the Creator of the new world and Renewer of the old world….

“….when all the great prophecies had caught up with each other in their fulfillment; when the time foretold by Daniel had passed; when there were no more princes from the generation of Judah; when the frail human race had heaved a sigh along with frail nature around him, no longer expecting salvation, neither from man, nor from nature, but from God alone….

“….since there is a living and omnipotent God, it means that everything is possible; especially since God is not bound by the laws of nature, which He Himself laid down.  Man expects a miracle from God, and when the miracle comes he doesn’t believe in it. Nature has become a tree of temptation for man. Having hid himself out of nakedness in the shadow of nature, man would like to have God visit him, but also fears God’s visitation. When God does not visit him he complains, and when He does visit him, he doesn’t recognize it. Just as Adam in Paradise was placed between two trees—of life and of knowledge—so the descendants of Adam are again placed between two trees: God as the Tree of Life, and nature as the tree of knowledge. ….

“….Gabriel calls the Virgin Mary full of grace, for her soul, like a temple, was filled with the life-creating gifts of the Holy Spirit, heavenly fragrance, and heavenly purity…. Eve first fell into sin, and in bright Paradise at that, where everything was in place to prevent her from sinning; Mary first conquered all temptation, and in the dark world at that, where everything is in place to push one into sin. Therefore the weak-willed Eve gave birth to her firstborn on earth, the fratricidal Cain; while the ascetical laborer Mary gave birth to the Ascetical Laborer of all ascetical laborers, Who brought out of the dungeon of sin and death the fratricidal human race—the race of the disobedient and impure Eve…. the Most Holy Virgin applied gigantic labors in order to exalt her soul to God, and the grace of God met her on this path.

“….Never has any spring water been such a pure mirror of the sun as the Most Pure Virgin Mary was a mirror of purity. … The morning light that gives birth to the sun would also be ashamed before the purity of the Virgin Mary, Who gave birth to the Immortal Sun, Christ our Savior. What knee does not bow before Her, what lips do not cry out: “Rejoice, Thou Who art full of grace! Rejoice, Dawn of mankind’s salvation! Rejoice, More Honorable than the Cherubim and more glorious than the Seraphim! Glory to Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, with the Father and the Holy Spirit—the Trinity One in Essence and Undivided, now and ever, and throughout all times, unto the ages of ages. Amen.”

Thus end St. Nikolai’s words. Brothers and sisters, as the Good Book tells us, “as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Let us rejoice in our new birth. Instead of excusing sins with the equivalent of “I was born this way,” let us be born again in Christ, in the spirit of the Annunciation, at this time of the Bridegroom Matins of Holy Week, keeping watch at midnight, getting our mind into our heart, seeing the empty tomb and meeting our Risen Lord.

An homily from St. John’s Russian Orthodox Mission Church in Winfield, PA, for Holy Great Sunday, 7534/2026, by Priest Paul Siewers.

This is our Holy and Great Sunday (aka Palm Sunday or Pussy Willow Sunday), keeping the ancient calendar of the Church alive continuously, while much of the Western non-Orthodox Christian world celebrates Easter. Our Church calendar also is essentially that of old American Appalachia as well. Today we join in greeting our Lord Jesus Christ to Jerusalem with pussy willows found in Appalachia as they are in Russia. We process with Him around our little country Church. For our humble mission is a little fractal and portal of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, connecting through unfathomable dimensions of our God beyond time to biblical days and places directly through these royal doors, from which comes to us the Body and Blood of Christ.

Hosanna we cry as He is brought through the byways of our land. He is welcomed as a triumphing king but let us not make the same mistake twice.

Israel as the Church is not any specific nation. A country is only as spiritually great and truly strong as her heartfelt, humble, and struggling true embrace of our God, not in merely emotional self-asserting ecstasy, but by the beautiful struggle, the joyful sorrow, of Orthodox life. Our sorrow entering Holy Passion Week is joyful because, God willing, we follow His pathway to resurrection, sorrowful because of all our own sins, and the sins and sorrows of humanity, in such dire need of Him. Bearing the Cross with Him this Holy Passion week, we must resolve to carry it on beyond Pascha into the whole Church year by our mission work. As our Lord tells us, His yoke is easy and His burden is life. Let us who are weary and heavy laden come unto Him.

(Above: Faithful at St. John’s Russian Orthodox Mission Church in Winfield, PA, commemorating Holy Sunday today.)

The Church fathers tell us that the colt of the donkey ridden by Jesus Christ on Holy Sunday symbolize the previously unyoked children of the Gentiles grafted into Israel in the New Testament Church. His kingdom is not of this world. Waving pussy willows we feature a local plant symbolizing the spring, which thrives in waters symbolizing the baptism of the Living Water of the Holy Spirit. Today begins the final great movement of the Gospels through Pascha to Pentecost and beyond, blowing us forward in the wind of His breath imparted unto His apostles, to forgive sin in His Church, and then through Pentecost, to bring the Gospel to all the world, and to save countless lives for Him.

Passion Week reminds us that our mission work is a life and death matter, for us and others. What would we not do as Orthodox Christians and good community members to save the life of a child or family member in need, whether in a burning building or some other calamity? Yet so are we called to save the souls of one another as children of God. Our Lord leads the way in parade today. Tomorrow it will be superseded by the sufferings of the trials of Passion Week. Yet the Bridegroom Matins that begin tonight remind us that this week we are to be married as a community, as the Church, to our Lord. Today’s procession is also a wedding parade.

Today is a warning not only of the fickleness of mobs, but also is a procession to a wedding. At Russian Orthodox weddings during the reception you hear calls of “gorky,” or bitter, as the bride and groom and guests drink of the wine, as did those at the Wedding of Cana did at the start of Jesus’ public ministry. So it was at our wedding.

Yet now, at the end of His public ministry before His death, our Lord leads us in our own wedding march. It reminds us of the bittersweetness of marriage, the Cross of commitment with the joys of mutual grace and love, and also of how the Cross to come will be for us a stairway to heaven, together holding the hand of our dear Lord our Bridegroom, through all His sorrows unto death this week, just as the Bride and Groom in the Orthodox wedding service together hold onto the Priest in the Dance of Isaiah, with the Priest symbolizing Christ in the service.

As the old American Gospel song says, Take my hand, pre­cious Lord, Lead me home. Yet in Orthodoxy we also know that we must engage in beautiful struggle and seek His outstretched hand, to hold onto it, like the bride and groom at the wedding service. Come unto me, He tells us, and I will give your rest. Brothers and sisters, let us take our Lord’s hand in this Palm Sunday marriage procession in and around the Church. Knowing the sufferings and the hate that the vista of joyful sorrow in Passion Week involves in the world, let us still press onward to the prize of the Resurrection in Jesus Christ of Pascha. Amen. 

Saint Gregory Palamas said on this day:

“The commemoration of Christ’s saving passion is at hand, and the new, great spiritual Passover, which is the reward for dispassion and the prelude of the world to come. Lazarus proclaims it in advance by coming back from the depths of Hades and rising from the dead on the fourth day just by the voice and command of God, who has power over life and death (Jn. 11:1-45). By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, children and simple people sing praises in advance to the Redeemer from death, who brings souls up from Hades and gives souls and bodies eternal life.

“…. Since, however, the virtues seem more difficult to us because of our love of comfort, let us force ourselves. The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, it says, and the violent take it by force (Mt. 11:12).

“Everyone needs diligence, force and attention, but not to the same extent. Those exalted in honor, wealth and power, and those who concern themselves with words and the acquisition of wisdom by means of them, even if they wish to be saved, are in need of greater force and diligence, since they are less obedient by nature. Exactly this can be clearly seen in the reading from Christ’s Gospel yesterday and today. The miracle performed on Lazarus openly proved the one who did it to be God. But whereas the people were convinced and believed, the rulers at that time, that is to say, the scribes and Pharisees, were so far from being persuaded that they raged against Him even more, and resolved in their madness to hand Him over to death, although everything He had said and done plainly declared Him to be the Lord of life and death. No one can say that the fact that the Lord lifted up His eyes at that time and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me, was an obstacle to their regarding Him as equal to the Father, since He went on to say, I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they might believe that thou hast sent me (Jn. 11:41-42). So that they might know He was God and came from the Father, and also that He did not work miracles in opposition to God, but in accordance with God’s purpose, He lifted up His eyes to God in front of everybody and spoke to Him in words which make it clear that He who was speaking on earth was equal to the heavenly Father on high. In the beginning when man was to be formed, there was a Counsel beforehand. So now also, in the case of Lazarus, when a man was to be formed anew, there was a Counsel first. When man was to be created the Father said to the Son, Let us make man (Gen. 1:26), the Son listened to the Father, and man was brought into being. Now, by contrast, the Father listened to the Son speaking, and Lazarus was brought to life….

“In Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female, nor Greek, nor Jew, but all, according to the holy apostle, are one (Gal. 3:28). In the same way, in Him there is neither ruler nor subject, but by His grace we are all one in faith in Him, and belong to one body, His Church, whose head He is. By the grace of the all-holy Spirit we have all drunk of the one Spirit, and have all received on e baptism. We all have one hope and one God, who is above all, and through all, and in us all (Eph. 4:6). So let us love one another. Let us bear with one another, seeing that we are members one of another. As the Lord Himself said, the sign that we are His disciples is love. When He departed from this world, the fatherly inheritance He left us was love, and the last prayer He gave us when He ascended to His Father was about love for one another (Jn. 13:33-35).” End quote.

Brothers and sisters, the procession today, like a wedding celebration, is a transition, a bridge, a connection from Great Lent to the Passion and Resurrection of our Lord. It runs from the Resurrection of Lazarus the Holy Righteous Friend of God to the Bridegroom Matins and to all the pain and the love beyond. Today the hand the Savior extends to us in this wedding dance is love, the bridge, the meaning, His way forward for us. 

St. Gregory Palamas concludes by telling us that just as those in the Palm Sunday celebration “spread their garments in His way[, in] the same manner, let us all, rulers as well as subjects, lay down our natural garments before Him, by making our flesh and its impulses subject to the spirit, that we may be made worthy not only to see and worship Christ’s saving passion and holy resurrection, but to enjoy communion with Him. For if, says the apostle, we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection (Rom. 6.5).” End quote. “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”

Love is strong as death, the Old Testament tells us.

Love never fails, says our Lord’s New Testament, and goes beyond death to God Himself.

For Christ gives us the Way, Himself, to love our neighbor more than ourselves, and for us like Him to take our Palm Sunday parade as a triumph. even knowing all the betrayal and mortal limits that will mark our path to Pascha on this earth.

As the Akathist sung in prison campus during World War II tells us: “Glory to God for all things.”

[The Holy Sunday Homily of St. Gregory Palamas is translated at: https://orthochristian.com/92790.html ]