On the third Sunday after Pascha, the Holy Church celebrates the memory of the Holy Myrrh-bearing Women. The happy companions of Christ, always obedient, quiet, joyful, faithful and devoted to the Lord with all their hearts, they served the Savior with their possessions and labors, accompanying Him at all times during His journeys, on the way of the cross to Golgotha, and they were there with Him at the foot of the Cross.

The holy women were aflame with love for their Divine Master equally when He was performing miracles and the people praised Him as the Great Wonderworker, or when, humiliated and wounded, the Lord was dying on the Cross under the accompaniment of spiteful yelling of the soldiers and the crowds, as well as when His breathless body was laid in the tomb. This is a worthy example for us what true love for God should be like, steady, strong, and ever-present  – be it in joy, sorrow, or tribulations.

For every believing soul, inestimable is the moment when “very early in the morning the first day of the week” (Mark 16:2) it would rush to the Source of Life, as the holy myrrh-bearing women have done. Their self-sacrifice and gentle love for Christ inspire today the hearts of all believers to preach about the Savior and to follow Him wholeheartedly to the last breath.

The feast of the Holy Myrrh-bearing Women is also a feast of every Orthodox Christian woman. On this day, the Holy Church praises a great many holy virtues of the mothers, wives and sisters: their sacrifice, faithfulness, love, and their living fervent faith.