2nd Week of Pascha

Brothers and sisters, today we commemorate the holy Apostle Thomas. The Gospel read at the Divine Liturgy tells us of a significant and instructive event. On the evening of the day of Christ’s Resurrection, when the doors of the house where the disciples had gathered were shut for fear of the Jews, Jesus Christ suddenly…

The Church, desiring to adorn this feast, requires a great teacher and a wise preacher — but we are poor in word and clouded in mind, and we do not possess the fire of the Holy Spirit to compose words profitable to the soul. Yet, for the love of the brethren who are with me,…

Today’s Sunday bears several names in the Church’s tradition: Antipascha, New Sunday, and the Sunday of Thomas. The name “Antipascha” in Greek means “in place of Pascha,” just as the prosphora, distributed to the faithful after the Liturgy, are called “antidoron,” meaning “that which is given instead of the Holy Gifts.” Likewise, today is the…