Terminology - Pascha

AGAPE VESPERS – ( Vespers of Love) Agape Vespers is served on the evening of Pascha. It follows the order of Great Vespers. After the prokeimenon the Gospel account of the empty tomb (John 20:19-25) is read. It is customary to read this pericope in many different languages, demonstrating the universal nature of the Good… Read More

The Paschal Service

Enjoy ye all the feast of faith; receive ye all the riches of loving-kindness.
^{(Sermon of St. John Chrysostom, read at Paschal Matins)}

The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the center of the Christian faith. St. Paul says that if Christ is not raised from the dead, then our preaching and faith are in vain ^{(I Cor. 15:14)}. Indeed, without the resurrection there would be no Christian preaching or faith. The disciples of Christ would have remained the broken and hopeless band which the Gospel of John describes as being in hiding behind locked doors for fear of the Jews. They went nowhere and preached nothing until they met the risen Christ, the doors being shut ^{(John 20:19)}. Then they touched the wounds of the nails and the spear; they ate and drank with Him. The resurrection became the basis of everything they said and did ^{(Acts 2-4)}: “… for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have” ^{(Luke 24:39)}.

The resurrection reveals Jesus of Nazareth as not only the expected Messiah of Israel, but as the King and Lord of a new Jerusalem: a new heaven and a new earth.

Icon of the Resurrection of Christ

Above the Royal Doors, in the middle of our Iconostas, is an icon of joyous event of the Glorious Resurrection expressed in Orthodox Iconography with the Descent of the Lord into Hades. Christ is shown tenderly pulling our ancestral parents, Adam and Eve, from their tombs. Through His resurrection, Christ has shattered the gates of hell and scattered the chains and locks that bind mankind.

Paschal Sermon of St. John Chrysostom

The sermon of St. John Chrysostom is read universally throughout the Church, at the Matins service of Holy Pascha. It is mentioned in the service books that everyone should remain standing for this joyous reading. 

Epistle Reading: Acts 1:1-8 (Sunday of Holy Pascha) IN THE FIRST BOOK, O Theophilos, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. To them he presented himself… Read More

Rising Victorious

^{By Frederica Mathewes-Green}

Jesus is standing on the broken doors of hell. The massive portals lie crossed under his feet, a reminder of the Cross that won this triumph. He stands braced and striding, like a superhero, using his mighty outstretched arms to lift a great weight. That weight is Adam and Eve themselves, our father and mother in the fallen flesh. Jesus grasps Adam’s wrist with his right hand and Eve’s with his left, as he pulls them forcibly up, out of the carved marble boxes that are their graves. Eve is shocked and appears almost to recoil in shame, long gray hair streaming. Adam gazes at Christ with a look of stunned awe, face lined with weary age, his long tangled beard awry. Their limp hands lie in Jesus’ powerful grip as he hauls them up into the light.

Behind Christ, King David, King Solomon, the prophet Isaiah, and the prophet Jeremiah stand in gorgeous robes, clustered tightly like a standing-room-only crowd to see this marvelous event. There is an air of joy, even conviviality, among them. St. John the Baptist is in the throng, still clothed in camel skin, now in full repossession of his head. Behind them are ranks and ranks of the righteous dead who are dead no more, for Christ has set them free.

John 20:19-25 (Pascha) On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”  When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side…. Read More

Concerning the Date of Pascha and the First Ecumenical Council

^{By Archbishop Peter L’Huillier}

_{From the chapter, “The Council of Nicea,” in The Church of the Ancient Councils: The Disciplinary Work of the First Four Ecumenical Councils (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1996) pp. 19-26. This is made available by permission of St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press.}

_{[Though footnote numbers have been left in the text, those interested in the actual references should refer to the original text.]}

Background of the Paschal Issue

According to its agenda, the council was also supposed to revolve the thorny problem about the date of Pascha. [28] The first controversy about Pascha shook the Church in the Second century: the Asiatic communities celebrated the great feast on the fourteenth of whatever the day of the week it might fall. [29] 0ther churches which followed the Asiatic practice finally adopted the general usage. From then on there was only a minority who refused to conform. These Quartodecimens, as they were called, constituted tiny dissident groups whose followers at least later were received into the catholic Church by unction with chrism after renouncing their former position. [30] During the debates raised by the particular customs of the Asiatics, no accused them of being Judaizers because no one questioned the method of calculating the Jewish Passover; it was by this method that everyone calculated the annual date of the great Christian feast. However, using the Jewish method of calculation soon raised its own questions. After the crushing defeat of the revolt of Simon Bar Kochba in 135, Judaism, in fact, lost its contact with Palestine. Now if the Bible clearly indicates when to celebrate Passover, it makes no explicit reference to the equinox, but, looking forward to the expected offering of the first fruits of the harvest, a celebration before this time would have been impossible. [31] Such a criterion, though, lost its exactness with the disappearance of a geographical center, and a variety of calculations began to be used, producing contrasting results.

The Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ

After the Sabbath, during the night on the third day after His suffering and death, the Lord Jesus Christ resurrected by the power of His divinity. His body was transformed. He left the tomb unseen by the guards, without rolling away the stone or breaking the seal placed by the Sanhedrin. From that moment on the guards unknowingly guarded an empty sepulcher. Suddenly there occurred a great earthquake. An angel of the Lord descended from Heaven. He rolled back the stone from the entrance to the tomb of the Lord and sat upon it. His appearance was like lightning and his raiment white as snow. The soldiers standing guard at the tomb were terrified and became like dead men. Regaining consciousness after the fright, they dispersed.

Christ is Risen!

The great event, the Glorious Resurrection of Christ, is celebrated by the Holy Orthodox Church as the greatest of all feast-days. It is the Feast of Feasts and celebration of celebrations. This Feast is called Pascha (Greek for “Passover”), that is, the day on which is accomplished our passage (Passover) from death to life and from earth to Heaven. The celebration of the Resurrection of Christ continues for a whole week, and services held in the church are celebrated more festively than on all other days.

Pascha (Passover) and the Exodus from Egypt Moses returned to Egypt. At that time another pharaoh was ruling. After speaking with the elders of the Hebrew people, Moses and Aaron went to the Egyptian King and in God’s name demanded of him that he let the Hebrews leave Egypt. Pharaoh replied, “I do not know… Read More

Two Paschas Without a doubt, the most important event in the life of the Hebrew nation was the exodus from Egypt and the reception of the Promised Land. The Lord saved the Hebrew nation from backbreaking slavery, gave it His Godly commandments on Mt. Zion, concluded an alliance with it and lead it into the… Read More

Pascha (hymns) Troparion: Christ is risen from the dead,Trampling down death by death,And upon those in the tombsBestowing life. Paschal Verse: (Paslm 67[68]): Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered; let those who hate him flee from before his face!As smoke vanishes, so let them vanish; as wax melts before the fire,So the sinners… Read More

EASTER BASKET – Following The Resurrection Matins and Liturgy it is traditional among Slavic peoples to have their “Easter baskets” blessed. There are traditional foods among every Slavic group: Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Ruthenian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian, Montenegrin, etc. Following is a list of foods commonly included in the basket. It is not necessary to… Read More