August 15, 7533
For the Fourth Sunday after Pascha: A Teaching of the Blessed Kirill of Turov on the Paralytic at the Sheep Pool, and how our Lord Jesus Christ healed him by His word. Unmeasurable is the height of the heavens, unsearchable the depths of the abyss, and incomprehensible is the mystery of God’s providence. For great…
On the third Sunday after Pascha, the Church commemorates the healing by the Lord of the paralytic—a man who had long lain helpless on a stretcher near the Sheep Pool in Jerusalem. This miracle, described in the Gospel according to John, is now remembered because, as commentators on Scripture conclude, it took place shortly after…
(On Joseph of Arimathea and the Myrrh-Bearing Women, according to the Gospel reading for the third Sunday after Pascha) After the past feast, another most fitting one has come, bringing the grace of God to the holy Church. For just as chains of gold, adorned with pearls and precious stones, delight the eyes of those…
The Holy Church dedicates this present Sunday to the righteous women, the myrrh-bearers, who were the first to be deemed worthy to learn of Christ’s Resurrection and the first to see Him risen. Today, we reverently celebrate their memory, as well as that of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, who were witnesses to the crucifixion…
For the Third Sunday after Pascha: A Teaching of Saint John Chrysostom on the Commemoration of Saint Joseph, and Nicodemus, and the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women. Beloved, when the sun shines forth in splendor through the clouds, it is pleasing to those who behold it. In like manner, after the crucifixion and death of Christ, the…
On this day—the third Sunday after Pascha—the Church commemorates the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women, the disciples of Christ who were the first to be deemed worthy to receive the news of the Resurrection of their Divine Teacher. Under cover of night, unafraid of the armed guard, they went to anoint with spices His much-suffering body, which…
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…
Among Orthodox Christians, it is well known that all of Bright Week is honored with the same reverence as the day of the Bright Resurrection of Christ itself—as though this day were magnified sevenfold in accordance with the greatness of the work of our redemption accomplished therein. On the following Sunday, known as Thomas Sunday,…