2 May 2021 года

“For Christ has risen, the everlasting eternal joy!”

We are forgiven, saved, and redeemed: Christ Is Risen! These words explain it all, they are the foundation of our Holy Church and our Christian life. Christ Is Risen: death was destroyed, with evil and all the adversities in the lives of men, and we are bestowed with life, blessedness, and freedom.

The Paschal service is the most jubilant service of the Church year and it is filled with great joy about the Risen Lord.

The service at the Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery’s Trinity Cathedral started at 11 pm. During the Midnight Office, the clergymen performed the censing around the Holy Shroud, picked it up and carried it to the altar. There, they placed it on the holy altar, where it will stay till the feast of the Ascension of the Lord.

Just before midnight, the solemn knell announced the arrival of the light-bearing Resurrection of Christ. The clergy with the cross, lanterns, and incense, accompanied by the sisters, left the altar and, much like the myrrh-bearing women who went to the tomb early in the morning, walked around the church singing “Thy resurrection, O Christ our Savior, the angels in heaven sing, enable us on Earth, to glorify Thee with purity of heart.” At that moment, an exultant paschal pealing streamed down from the height of the bell-tower as if from heaven high above.

The procession stopped at the shut doors of the church as if before the entrance to the tomb of Christ. This is where Rev. Fr. Vladimir Kargin, the Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery’s senior priest, as if the Angel announcing at the tomb to the myrrh-bearers about the Resurrection of the Lord, proclaimed: “Christ is risen from the dead, tramping down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life!” This hymn was thrice repeated by clergy and choir.

During the Paschal Matins service, the canon of St. John of Damascus was sung while the clergy carrying the cross censed the church filling it with incense, and joyfully greeting everyone saying: “Christ Is Risen!” while the faithful responded “Indeed He Is Risen!” These repeated entrances by clergymen from the altar signified the frequent appearances of Christ to His disciples after resurrection.

At the end of the Matins service, and with the singing of “Let us embrace each other. Let us call “brothers” even those who hate us and forgive all by the resurrection,” the clergy in the altar first, followed by all the faithful in the church, exchanged kisses with one another three times and greeted everyone with “Christ Is Risen!” – “Indeed He is Risen!”

The Divine Liturgy started following the reading of the sermon of St. John Chrysostom and the Hours. The Royal Doors stayed open throughout the service. They will not be closed all week in sign of Jesus Christ Who has once and for all opened to us the gates to the Kingdom of Heaven.