An Easter service was held today in the Annunciation Cathedral, as one of the altars is dedicated to today’s feast of the consecration of the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem erected by Constantine the Great and his mother Queen Helen the Equals to the Apostles. This event took place in 355 AD in a presence of great gathering of bishops and believers from all over in Christendom.

According to tradition, the churches consecrated in honor of this feast hold Paschal service when, in the middle of the fall season, we hear the Paschal greeting, “Christ Is risen! Truly He Is risen!” that carry us for a fleeting moment in the midst of the feast of the Holy Resurrection of Christ.

On the night of September 26, Rev. Fr. Vladimir Kargin, the senior priest of the monastery, served Paschal Vespers and Matins, paraklesis with water blessing prayer service and Divine Liturgy in the chapel of the Renewal of the Church of Resurrection in Jerusalem of the Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery. Concelebrating him was Rev. Fr. Nikita Poliakov, who is in the monastery during his forty-day post-ordination training.

The Feast of the Renewal of the Church of Christ’s Resurrection in Jerusalem reminds us about the spiritual birth we are all called by the Lord Jesus Christ. Every believer should live so that he has Jerusalem, Golgotha and the Resurrection of Christ forever reigning in his heart. This way, we become worthy to become the temple of God, just like a great number of saints who pleased the Lord and became the receptacles of the living God.