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The First (Bright) Wednesday of Pascha. Saint George the Great Martyr & Triumphant

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! This great and wonderful athlete of Christ’s was the son of a wealthy and high-ranking Cappadocian family. George having lost his father at the age of ten, his mother Polychronia, who had become a Christian without her husband’s knowledge, returned to Palestine, her homeland, and brought up her son in the evangelical virtues. Handsome, intelligent and refined in manner, George embarked on a military career at the age of eighteen.

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! Bright Wednesday: The Senselessness of Suffering and Death

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, November 11, 2017  I recently posted a note on social media in which I said that Christ’s death and resurrection changed the “senseless” character of death. Therefore, Christians need no longer fear it. I got a bit of push-back. What is senseless about suffering and death? There are two aspects of suffering and death that are particularly felt to be senseless. The first is suffering that seems to have no purpose:

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! Bright Wednesday: Christ is the Resurrection and Eternal Life

Published by Pemtousia Partnership, May 15, 2016 The author continues his thoughts on the Resurrection and notes that the Resurrection is of great significance for humankind as it is a command to follow Christ’s path, copying his works, following His commandments, and loving our fellow man.   (Continued from The Resurrection of Christ is the Quintessence of the Divine Revelation) Christ’s new commandment isn’t simply a command to love in the general sense. That, in

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! Bright Monday! And into the Brightness

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 9, 2007 Bright Week – such a marvelous phrase – descriptive theologically and in many other ways of the time after Pascha. If we only knew, we all live in Bright Week – despite the fasting that we take up from season to season – despite the disasters that plague our earthly sojourn – still, we are all living in Bright Week. In Bright Week, the Bridegroom has come, and

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! CHRIST IS RISEN! Bright Wednesday

On Bright Wednesday we commemorate the holy monastic Fathers who have shone forth on the God-trodden Mt Sinai. This commemoration was established by the Church of Russia on April 17, 1997. Saints Theocharis and Apostolos are local saints of Arta. The first fell asleep in 1845 and the second a little later. Saint Theocharis was a teacher at Komboti, Arta. The icons of these saints are in the church of Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) in

Renewal (Bright) Wednesday. Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen!

In our civilization, so rich in knowledge and in power, we can no longer offer any reply to the enigma of death. We want only to forget death. Yet it meets us again and again in the form of hatred, oppression, separation, illness, and the disappearance of persons we love. This is why the message of Easter, of Holy Pascha, resounds today with such renewed strength. God takes on human flesh, suffers, dies, and descends

Bright Wednesday. The Resurrection-From the Gospel of Matthew

Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the sepulcher. And behold, there was a great earthquake; far an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone, and sat upon it. His appearance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead

Renewal (Bright Wednesday). Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen!

And Into the Brightness, by Fr. Stephen Freeman Bright Week – such a marvelous phrase – descriptive theologically and in many other ways of the time after Pascha. If we only knew, we all live in Bright Week – despite the fasting that we take up from season to season – despite the disasters that plague our earthly sojourn – still, we are all living in Bright Week. In Bright Week, the Bridegroom has come,

Renewal (Bright) Wednesday. Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen!

During His earthly life the Savior repeatedly pronounced words that are precious to the faithful soul: Because I live, ye shall live also (John 14:19); My peace I give unto you (John 14:27); These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full (John 15:11). The Apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, writes: For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be