This isn’t just because I’m Orthodox, but truly there is nothing else like the way we celebrate Pascha. Nothing compares.
The service begins at midnight with the Church in darkness before being lit up. Everyone standing, singing boldly and holding candles. Literally everyone is full of joy, brimming with happiness even until 3am when the Liturgy finishes. Then we start the feast, and by feast I mean literally feast. We gather as a community and basically stay up until 5am-6am.
It’s just amazing and I haven’t even mentioned God sending us the Holy Fire on Holy Saturday within the Tomb of the Holy Sepulchre.
Pascha is my favourite feast. It’s the victory against death and it’s awesome.
On the Fifth Sunday of Lent the Orthodox Church commemorates our Righteous Mother Mary of Egypt. The feast day of Saint Mary of Egypt is April 1, however, she is also commemorated on this Sunday due to her recognition by the Church as a model of repentance.
The feast day of Saint Mary of Egypt is April 1, the day of her repose, however the Orthodox Church also commemorates the Saint on the Fifth Sunday of Lent. As a Sunday of Great Lent, the commemoration is celebrated with the Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great, which is preceded by a Matins (Orthros) service. A Great Vespers is conducted on Saturday evening.
Scripture readings for the Fifth Sunday of Lent are the following: At the Orthros (Matins): The prescribed weekly Gospel reading. At the Divine Liturgy: Hebrews 9:11-14; Mark 10:32-45.
Saint Mary of Egypt is also commemorated on the Thursday before the Fifth Sunday of Lent, when her life is read during the Great Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete. A canon in her honor is read at the end of each Ode. In parish churches the service and the canon is most often conducted on Wednesday evening.
Blessed Feast of Saint Mary of Egypt! May she intercedes for all of us, as we are coming closer to the Holy Week!
Having been a sinful woman,
You became through repentance a Bride of Christ.
Having attained angelic life,
You defeated the demons with the weapon of the Cross;
Therefore, O most glorious Mary you are a Bride of the Kingdom.
If we want, Christian, to have our heart filled with divine love we must first empty them of the love of this world, its frivilous and sinful customs and then turn our hearts to the one God, our only good and happiness and eternal beatitude.
- Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk
There is no Orthodoxy in human teachings and philosophies; false reason reigns in themthe fruit of the fall. Orthodoxy is the teaching of the Holy Spirit given by God to man for his salvation. Where there is no Orthodoxy, there is no salvation.
- St. Ignatius Brianchaninov
Holy Relics are the earthly remains of those who have been taught by none other than Christ Himself to love their enemies even unto death, the death of the Cross, which is His glory, and which by grace becomes their glory too. Love for enemies is not a moral injunction, it is the fundamental criterion for the Christian way of life. This is Salvation.
- St. Silouan the Athonite
The men who wrong us, do not so by themselves, but by the extent of the allowance of God, because they are an instrument of God.
- St. Macarius of Optina
Hello my dear friend,
This is definatelly something you have to discuss with your spiritual father, he’s the one that can tell you how to handle this. So, ask his guidance before taking any decisions about this issue, as, under no circumstances the Orthodox faith of the children cannot be compromised, even if it is for the sake of the love for your future husband.
I hope this helps! I haven’t been in a situation like this, but if I was you, the first thing I’d do it would be to ask my spiritual father.
God bless you, blessed remain of the Lent!
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slavicpride said: Its difficult problem, but you must know that Orthodox faith is one and only!That is all i can say to you.
Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you! Grant me and us, unworthy, the dew of Thy grace and reveal thy tender mercies.
- Akathist excerpt to Our Lady of the Sporitelnitsa Bread in Optina Monastery
Sometimes during a lengthy prayer only a few minutes are really pleasing to God, and constitute true prayer, true service to Him. The chief thing in prayer is the nearness of the heart to God.
- St. John of Kronstadt
In what I ask you, the most important is: remember the Lord and tremble before Him. All my will is contained in these words. In your life, everything else is of lesser importance.
-Fr. Pavel Florensky
All Christians… when rising from sleep must first think of and remember Christ. Let every pious man continually repeat this Name as a prayer in his mind and with his tongue. Let him always constrain himself to do this while standing, travelling, sitting, resting, speaking, and doing all things. Then he shall find great peace and joy…
- Archbishop Simeon of Thessalonica
After all, why does the world suffer?…emptiness and the absence of God lie behind this, because every passion is the fruit of emptiness, the fruit of the lack of desire to move towards faith and God.
- Igumen Tikhon Borisov, 21st Century Russian monk
jamesfromta