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PASCHAL MESSAGE
of His Holiness, Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia to the Archpastors, Pastors, Monastics and All Faithful Children of the Russian Orthodox Church
Come, O people, let us hymn the Saviour’s resurrection on the third day, through which we have been released from the indestructible bonds of hades and all received incorruption and life, crying aloud: O thou who wast crucified, buried and rose again, save us through thy resurrection, O thou alone who lovest mankind!
Stanza for Lord, I have cried… for Vespers of Tuesday of Bright Week
Beloved in the risen Christ Your Graces the archpastors, God-loving presbyters, deacons, honourable monks and nuns, pious Orthodox laymen and women – faithful children of the Church!
From the depths of my heart I congratulate all of you, my dear ones, on
Christ’s bright resurrection – the most joyful feast for Orthodox Christians. Again our churches are replete with Paschal rejoicing. Again and again we relive the great mystery of the Redemption that has liberated those who follow Christ from the dominion of sin and death. As St Peter the Apostle says, our Lord and Saviour who himself ‘bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness’ (1 Pet 2:24).
How great is God’s love for us! He has not abandoned those who have abandoned him. By his suffering and death he has purified those who have deviated from him in choosing life according to their own desires. He has opened up the way of repentance and spiritual rebirth to those worn down by sin - the way to Life eternal. Let us give thanks to the Lord for his mercy and love for humanity. Let us give thanks as loving children who can take refuge from calamity and danger in the Father’s House.
Since ancient times Christians have understood Pascha to be a transition, a Passover. ‘The Passover, the Passover of the Lord! From death unto life, and from earth unto heaven hath Christ our God brought us over, singing a song of victory!’ the Holy Church sings today. According to our faith and our boldness, according to our love towards Christ and each other we are granted a transition from death to eternal being, from slavery to sin to the freedom of fulfillment of God’s will.
Whole nations spiritually sustained by our Holy Church accomplish this saving transition too. From the darkness of unbelief they are approaching the light of Christ in being spiritually reborn and renewed. There are in our homeland and beyond its borders in the great Russian diaspora more and more people who have in Christ ‘life… in abundance’ (Jn 10:10), which means genuinely happy people enjoying the truth of the fullness of life.
Yes, we still have to labour much in Christ’s vineyard. Yet your spreading of the Word and good deeds, my beloved ones, have brought forth fruit a hundredfold and many of you have worthily heard the Lord’s words, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant: you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master’ (Mt 25:21)
The focal point of our faith, of our witness to the world, of our whole life is the good news of Christ’s resurrection. Paschal joy was the sole spiritual condition of our saints. St. Seraphim of Sarov greeted all those who approached him with the words: ‘My joy, Christ is risen!’ St. John of Kronstadt, the hundred and eightieth anniversary of whose birth and hundredth anniversary of whose blessed repose we celebrate this current year, was known by the people as the ‘Paschal Father.’ ‘I love to gaze upon,’ he wrote in his diary, ‘the image of the risen Giver of Life holding the cross banner, this symbol of victory over death and the one who has the power of death – the devil. O death, where is thy sting? O hades, where is thy victory? How glorious is the Victor!’
Let us then tread yet more firmly the way of Christ, fulfilling the apostles’ commandment, ‘Therefore, brethren, be the more zealous to confirm your call and election, for if you do this you will never fall; so there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ’ (2 Pet 1:10-11). And no matter how difficult we find it along this path, let us not fall into despondency, ‘knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise up us also with Jesus and bring with you into his presence’ (2 Cor 4:14). This radiant hope will illumine the lives of our families, communities and peoples with a spiritual light, and both peace and happiness will reign in our homes, cities and towns.
Today, as my heart is full with this great joy, I congratulate all of you, my dear ones, on the feast of Holy Pascha, addressing you with the eternal words of the greeting from apostolic times, passed on from generation to generation:
CHRIST IS RISEN!
HE IS RISEN INDEED!
I hasten to share the Paschal rejoicing with all Orthodox peoples of the world, with each person who calls upon the name of Christ in prayer. May our joy touch those who are but seeking saving faith and striving to live with Orthodox Christians in peace and goodneighbourliness.
May the risen Christ our Saviour grant to all of us peace, spiritual joy, health, salvation and furtherance in all good things.
/+ALEXY/
Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia
Pascha
2008
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Christ’s bright resurrection 2008
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The parish trip to the Serbian Monastry in Elain on April 19.
The Parish trip to the Geelong Greek Monastery on March 23.
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Meatfare Sunday confronts us with yet another parable. Again a familiar one, therefore one we are given to interpreting in a rather too obvious way. It is the simple description, sometimes )oignant, sometimes terrifying, of the Last Judgment. It is :he parable of divine retribution, of God's absolute justice, )f everlasting damnation for those who have failed to do
it.
Or is it? Is it not perhaps the ultimate parable of Is it not then a paradox? And is not God' s love the me paradox? The Great William Temple in his "Nature, God and Man", suggests precisely that:
"There is...a stupendous paradox...characteristic of ~ religion. We must spiritually renounce all other for love of God, or at least so hold them in ination to this that we are ready to forego them for ~; yet when we find God, or rather, when we know res as found of Him, we find in Him and with Him loves which for His sake we had foregone."
It will be the premise of this chapter that, far from the terrible prophecy of divine wrath and
Ition, this parable, this paradox, is the ultimate ;ure of the divine love.
As always, Jesus employs simple elements: sheep ~oats, part of everyday life for his hearers. The sheep lestine are usually white, the goats black; a shepherd l easily IIseparatell them even at dusk. Then, the hand is the side of approval, of blessing and honor; ~ft, of condemnation. To this audience, bred on the e of a God who is swift to punish, to whom the idea e prepared kingdom was standard Jewish doctrine, nessage was clear and unequivocal. We no longer this kind of notion fashionable. We are reluctant to :1ings black and white. We would go along with the ~ that claims:
There's so much good in the worst of us, md so much bad in the best of us, that it hardly becomes any of us to talk about the rest of us.
– By Fr. Leonidas Contos.
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At the request of Fr. Dionisy Pozdnyaev, priest-in-charge of Hong Kong's parish of SS Peter and Paul, Leaders of the Apostles, and the church's parishioners, Fr. Igor Filianovsky conducted Christmas divine services in Hong Kong, and the cities of Shenzhen and Guangzhou. Jan. 7-8, 2008, Hong Kong.
Strong spiritual ties bind the parishes of the Holy Trinity in Melbourne and the Apostles Peter and Paul in Hong Kong. In 1972, when the Hong Kong church was closed, its property was taken to Australia and in 1989 was given to the newly established Holy Trinity parish in Melbourne.
Several years ago, another Orthodox community was formed in Hong Kong under the Moscow Patriarchate and continues the previous history of the church of SS Peter and Paul.
And so, on Christmas 2008, our parishioners, through Fr. Igor, returned the Icon of the Feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul to the community in Hong Kong.
The Orthodox of Hong Kong sincerely thanked their brothers in Melbourne and asked for their prayerful support in establishing Orthodoxy in the Chinese land. |
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RESTORATION OF CANONICAL UNITY WITHIN THE RUSSIAN
ORTHODOX CHURCH. CELEBRATION IN DIOCESES OUTSIDE OF RUSSIA
At the blessing of His Holiness, Patriarch Alexei II of Moscow and all Russia, an official delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church, headed by His Eminence Isidore, Metropolitan of Ekaterinodar and Kuban, will be participating in a celebration of the restoration of unity in the Russian Orthodox Church.
The delegation, which includes the Sretensky Monastery Choir, will be participating in Divine Services in churches and monasteries of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. These guests from Russia will be carrying a holy miracle-working icon treasured by all Orthodox Christians—the “Reigning” icon of the Mother of God.
The delegation will also be participating in the celebration of the forty-year anniversary of the hierarchical consecration of His Eminence Metropolitan Laurus of New York and Eastern America and First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad.
The Sretensky Monastery Choir’s program includes Divine Services in Jordanville, Boston, Toronto, Chicago, Washington D. C., San Francisco, Melbourne, Sydney, Geneva, Berlin, London, and Paris. They will also be appearing in foremost concert halls of these cities with their choral program entitled “Masterpieces of Russian Choral Music.”
The miracle-working “Reigning” icon of the Mother of God
 The miracle-working “Reigning” icon of the Mother of God was found the same day on which Tsar-Martyr Nicholas II abdicated the Russian throne— March 2/15, 1917. The Russian Orthodox people accepted this occurrence as a witness that the ultimate authority over and care for Russia had passed to the Heavenly Queen Herself.
On Febuary 13, 1917, the Most Holy Mother of God appeared in a dream to the peasant girl, Eudocia Adrianova, and spoke to her these words: “There is a large, dark icon in the village of Kolomenskoe. It must be taken from there; the people must pray.” On February 26, in a second dream, the girl saw a white church and a majestic Lady within it. The peasant girl decided to search for the church she had seen in her dream. On March 2 in the village of Kolomenskoe, near Moscow, she recognized the Church of the Lord’s Ascension as that very church. A diligent search by the girl and the church’s rector revealed a large, dark icon of the Mother of God—the very image that had revealed itself to Eudocia in her dream.
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The icon quickly came to be venerated as miraculous; many copies were painted of it, and it was taken to all the surrounding villages, monasteries, churches—even factories— throughout Moscow, and molebens were served. A service and akathist were written at the blessing and with the participation of Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow and all Russia. (Another service composed by V. V. Bogoroditsky was published later in Jordanville Monastery.)
The icons’ name corresponds to its iconography. The Theotokos is represented as the Queen of Heaven and Earth. Dressed in a green gown and red garments reminiscent of an imperial mantle, She is seated upon a throne, her right hand bearing a sceptor, her left hand resting upon the monarchical orb. Upon Her head is a crown encircled by a golden halo. The Infant Christ sits upon her knees, His right hand raised in blessing, His left hand pointing towards the monarchical orb.
It is thought that the “Reigning” icon, painted in the 18th century, was earlier located in the Ascension Convent of the Moscow Kremlin, from which it was taken to Kolomenskoe during the Napoleonic invasion of 1812.
After the bolshevik revolution in 1917, the Ascension Church was closed; the icon and other holy objects from that church were taken to various storage rooms of the State Historical Museum, where they remained for seven decades.
The miracle-working icon’s return corresponded significantly with Russia’s liberation from the yoke of the godless regime. At the end of the 1980’s, through the efforts of Metropolitan Pitirim (Nechayev) of Volokolamsk and Yuriev, and of Archimandrite Innokenty (Prosvirnin), the icon was taken quietly upon orders from the director of the museum, K. G. Levykin, to the publishing department of the Moscow Patriarchate, and kept for several years in the altar of the house church dedicated to St. Joseph of Volokolamsk.
On July 27, 1990, at the blessing of His Holiness Alexei, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Orthodox clergy and faithful of Moscow triumphantly carried the icon to Kolomenskoe to be placed in the Kazan Church, which was not closed. The icon was installed at the right cliros. Since that time, every Sunday, the akathist hymn composed under Patriarch Tikhon’s patronage has been read before the miracle-working icon of the “Reigning” Mother of God.
Moscow Sretensky Monastery Choir
In 1994 the monastery was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church, at which time the Sretensky Choir was organized. The Choir sings the Divine Services several days per week in the Monastery church, using ancient Byzantine and Russian chants. It frequently participates in the Services celebrated by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexei II in the Dormition Cathedral, located in the Moscow Kremlin.
 Outside of its participation in the Divine Services, the Choir has an active concert life both in Russia and abroad, in which it performs favorite Russian folk songs and romances that reflect old cultural traditions and a «great Russian soul». It has performed in Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral, the UNESCO Hall, the Vatican Hall Auditorium, and the Russian House in Belgrade. It also participated in the First International Choir Festival in St. Petersburg, June, 2007.
Its members are an integral part of the monastery community, a fact which influences the repertory and the style of its interpretations. The choir's artistic director and conductor is Nikon Zhila, a graduate of the Russian Gnessin Academy of Music.
SRETENSKY MONASTERY CHOIR: THE POWER OF RUSSIAN MUSIC
Friday, September 14, 2007; Page C10
Working from both sacred and secular texts, Moscow Sretensky Monastery Choir filled the Library of Congress's Coolidge Auditorium on Wednesday night with a vocal luster that extended as far as the expression of reverence and human passion can reach. And the auditorium was filled to the rafters with listeners, the audience including many religious dignitaries in colorful ritual dress.
Cheers and applause erupted throughout the evening, one stop in the group's first American tour, which marks this year's reunification of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia with the Moscow Patriarchate.
The choir regularly sings for services at its home, a medieval monastery within the Kremlin's walls. The monastery was taken over by Soviet authorities in 1917 but was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1994, when the choir was established.
The concert opened with four sacred Russian and Byzantine chants, the voices reverberating with powerful but unforced ardor. This sonorous quality dominated even in delicately hushed pianissimos.
Much credit is due to artistic director Nikon Zhila's bold, definitive conducting, which won the choir's instant response and tonal splendor with the slightest flick of his fingers.
Before the program began, the 41-member ensemble offered a solemn succession of Russian Orthodox chants in a tribute to the victims of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The evening continued with Russian, Cossack and Ukrainian songs, followed by romances often in light opera style. Both texts and music centered on themes of nostalgia and yearning, whether for a distant homeland, absent lover or fallen comrade. Among the many fine soloists joining with the choir was the luminous bass Dmitry Beloselsky, whose dark, savory voice often reflected mournful longing for the Russian steppes.
Cecelia Porter
Washington Post
17/09/07
The Dormition of the Most-Holy Mother of God.
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Divine service with
archbishop Hilarion
Australian and New Zealand
and clergy of Russian Church Abroad.
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Procession with «Kursk-Root»
icon of the Mother of God |
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