Gleanings from Orthodox Christian Authors and the Holy Fathers

pascha

9 Entries

Let us therefore celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord. He rose, and He brought up with Him the world. He rose, breaking the bonds of death, resurrecting us by breaking the chains of our sins. Adam sinned and died. Christ died but did not sin. This is new and strange. The first sinned and died, the second died having not sinned. For whom did this happen and why? So that he who had sinned and died be liberated from the bonds of death through Him Who died having not sinned. This also happens with those who owe money. Someone is in debt but is unable to repay his debt and therefore is put in prison. Someone else who does not owe the money but is able to pay repays the debt and the debtor is released. This same things happened with Adam and Christ. St. John Chrysostom, A Homily on the Holy Pascha

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On this Great Day, Christ is called from among the dead which he had emulated. On this day he repelled death’s sting, laid low the gloomy confines of hell, and granted freedom to the souls. On this day, risen from the tomb, He appeared to people for whom he had been born, had died, and been awakened from the dead, so that we, having been reborn and escaped death, might be resurrected with Him, the Resurrected One. On this bright glorious and great day, the angelic hosts, filled with joy, sing a song of victory. Holy Hierarch Gregory the Theologian

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Suddenly sorrow has been changed to joy, And all has become joyous and a cause for rejoicing; I do not hesitate to say, 'I have been glorified as Moses,' For I have seen, I have seen -- not on the mountain but in the tomb, Not concealed by a cloud, but by flesh, The Lord of the Immortals and of the clouds, Lord of old, now and forever; And He said, 'Mary, hasten and tell Those who love Me that I have arisen; Take Me on your tongue, like a branch of the olive To the descendants of Noah; announce the good news, Pointing out to them that death is destroyed and that He has arisen, He Who offers resurrection to the fallen..' The Kontakia of Romanos, On the Resurrection VI

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This is the Day of Resurrection.
Let us offer to God a sacrifice-which is ourselves.
Let us, as His most precious acquisition, give to the Image [God]
That which was created in His' image.
Let us acknowledge our worth.
Let us revere the Archetype.
Let us come to understand the power of the
mystery and who it is for whom Christ died. St. Gregory Nanzianzen

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Thou, O Savior, didst come forth unbegotten From the Virgin's womb, leaving her virginity unsullied; Just so now Thou hast abolished Death in death. Thou hast left in the tomb the fine linen of Joseph, But Thou hast raised from the tomb the ancestor of Joseph; For Adam came following Thee; Eve came after Thee, Eve serves Mary, But all the earth is prostrate before Thee as it sings the song of victory "The Lord is risen." St Romanos the Melodist - On the Resurrection I

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Today the Angels leap with joy and all of the Heavenly Powers rejoice, elated because of the salvation of mankind. If because of the repentance of a single person there is joy in Heaven and earth, moreso is this true because of the salivation of the world. Today did Christ liberate the nature of man from the tyranny of the devil and restored it to its previous nobility. St. John Chrysostom, A Homily on the Holy Pascha (The True Vine, Vol. 4, #4.)

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Whatever we know, this we reveal to you; for if we were to keep silent now, The stones would cry out and refute our hardness and our blindness. For we do not know that very hour of the resurrections; But we know what we have endured since that hour; just hold on and listen, As we were watching over the tomb and taking care lest something happen, suddenly we perceive Fiery hands which take away the stone from the tomb, and a voice cries out this 'The Lord is risen." St Romanos the Melodist - On the Resurrection II

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“Pascha, the Pascha of the Lord!” By His Resurrection, the Lord has brought us from death to life, and that Resurrection the “Angels in Heaven cry,” [for they have] seen the light of deified human nature in fore-ordained glory in the person of our Lord and Redeemer, in Whose Image and through the power of Whose Resurrection, all true believers in Him, all who have united with Him with all their souls, are transformed. Glory, O Lord, to Thy Most-glorious Resurrection! The Angels sing, rejoicing together with us and foreseeing the swelling of their ranks. O Lord, make us worthy, to hymn Thee, the Resurrected One, with pure hearts, seeing in Thy Resurrection the cessation of our corruption, the seeds of a new resplendent life and the dawn of coming eternal glory whose forerunner Thou becamest, being resurrected for our sake. The tongues of neither men nor angels are capable of expressing Thy ineffable mercy toward us, O most-gloriously Resurrected Lord! Bishop Theophanes the Recluse

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"The Passover (Pascha) provides the day of most solemnity for baptism, for then was accomplished our Lord’s passion, and into it we are baptized." Tertullian

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