April 11, 2004
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Christos anesti ek nekron, thanaton thanato patisas, ke ti se tis mni masin zoin kalisamenos!*
*Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and restoring to life all those that were in the tombs!
It’s always nice when Western Easter and Orthodox Easter are on the same day – that way I don’t have to explain the differences in the Orthodox church calendar to anyone.
OK, let’s see if I can type coherently ten minutes after getting home from vigil…
Lent has been rough. I’ve found it nigh impossible to keep a proper fast and to hold myself off from the cares of this worldly life. I spent the entire time, especially Holy Week, dreading the day when I would have to answer for it before the Judgment Seat of Christ. Then something clicked – don’t know if it was the priestly words of Good Friday or the Homily of St. John Chrysostom tonight. Or maybe it was the Gospel. Every year, I go to Easter vigil with some kind of gaspumpvibe sensation running through me as I anticipate what’s going to happen when we light our candles in the midst of a blacked-out church.
The Gospel of the Resurrection never fails to give me a charge: “‘You seek Jesus of Nazareth; He has risen! He is not here!’” That line always makes me feel like singing praise at the top of my lungs.
And ultimately, I think that’s really what matters when the wire lies exposed. Have you had a tough time keeping Lent as I have? Well, ask yourself this – has your heart been in the right place for all forty days? Have you wanted to stick tightly to Lent, but kept getting sidetracked by one thing or another? I think, hope, and pray that that’s what it will all boil down to in the end, that you meant to hold yourself to a higher standard of Christianity and then keep holding it long after you walked out of vigil. If you knew what happened way back then and you’re wont to rejoice in what happened way back then, I’d like to think that you’re on the right track.
However, it’s up to you not to throw any switches along the way.
How do I mean? I mean some of the behaviour from the senior parishioners this past weekend. On Good Friday during the Lamentations, Father Newman told us, this is a time for reflection and for prayer and lamentation, not for talking and chatting. As soon as we step outside the church for the procession of the Epitaphios, what does a third of the congregation engage in? Idle chit-chat.
One old biddie was even talking on her cell phone right in the middle of the prayers.
You’d think people who have been going to this church for fifty and sixty years would know when to show some reverence. I mean, tonight, I can barely hear Father Angelo intoning the Sacrament of Communion because of all the muttering and chattering going on around me. People, this is Holy Communion on Easter Sunday!! If you’re going to chit-chat with anybody, chit-chat with God!!!
Ranger Rant #5048 has tarried at last.
I have some of my own gum-beatings to carry on with the Man Upstairs before bed; and at the close of this Lenten season, I’ve a lot of people to pray for. You know who you are.
CHRIST IS RISEN!
Comments (6)
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
It’s a shame that some people don’t seem to understand when levity and introspection are required. But in this day and age, those particular qualities are not usually given much value. I just hope that they’ll see the Light eventually, so to speak.
A happy Easter to you and God bless!
Happy Easter!
silly old ladies… lol. Happy Easter! Christ lives!
I like when the 2 Easters are the same day as well except then my brothers/sister and their families don’t spend as much time here as they would on the Orthodox Easter
haha, the point of the SH/LotR was because it’s dumb. lol. I’ll agree w/ you about the English earthquakes caused by enraged authors coming back from the dead to avenge their literary assets. wow, did that sentence make sense?
He is Risen indeed!
God bless,
Jen