Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!
1) Pascha Midnight at the Church of the Anastasis in Jerusalem
…as described by Serbian Bishop Anastasios of Ochrid
We waited, and at last our expectations were fulfilled’, ‘When the Patriarch sang “He is risen”, a heavy burden fell from our souls. We felt as if we also had been raised from the dead. All at once, from all around, the same cry resounded like the noise of many waters. “Christ is risen” sang the Greeks, the Russians, the Arabs, the Serbs, the Copts, the Armenians, the Ethiopians one after another, each in his own tongue, in his own melody. . . . Coming out from the service at dawn, we began to regard everything in the light of the glory of Christ’s Resurrection, and all appeared differenhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vofvMRYCg_ct from what it had yesterday; everything seemed better, more expressive, more glorious. Only in the light of the Resurrection does life receive meaning.’ 1
2) Music of Pascha
Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.
Courtesy of Saint Symeon Orthodox Church, Birmingham, Alabama
3) The Holy Fire
The video below is from Saturday May 4, 2024. The crowd was less Palestinian than it once was. The Holy Fire arrives not long after 1 hour 50 minutes. What follows after that is just wonderful – as is the excellent video work from Greek City Times.
The Church of the Holy Sepulcher had been closed this year because of the war against Iran, but has reopened during the present truce. This is from April 11, 2026.
This always gives me the holy chills. And to think I was once a repressed Protestant.
4) Pascha Midnight in Athens.
Different from Pascha here in Wisconsin.! I wish we could celebrate with fireworks.
However, it can be carried to an extreme. Why are they doing this? Don’t ask.
5) Paschal insanity on the Greek island of Chios
6) Agape Vespers
There is one more Paschal service. Most clergy would probably just as soon forget it. It comes when they think they just cannot handle another service…, but they do. Blessedly, it is short – at least compared to everything else in Holy Week.
Why “Agape Vespers”, the “Vespers of Love”? I don’t know.
In some churches this Vespers is served in the evening, where it belongs liturgically, but in most places it’s scheduled earlier, sometimes at the time of the usual Sunday morning Divine Liturgy, in order not to turn away any visitors who arrive unknowing. Some parishes schedule it in the afternoon with an Easter egg (whoops! Pascha egg) hunt – presumably brought by the Pascha Bunny.
The Gospel reading (John 20:19-25) tells of Christ’s Pascha night appearance: Jesus said to them… “Peace be to you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” And how the apostle Thomas was not with them: “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in His side, I will not believe.”
This sets the stage for Christ’s appearance a week later (our Gospel reading next Sunday), and how “doubting Thomas” became “believing Thomas”.
This Gospel is usually read in as many languages as possible by many people, a sign that from the beginning Jesus Christ has sent His Gospel of Salvation – that He has overcome death and hell – out to all the world.
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OK, I’m done – but, believe me, after all I’ve written this past week, it’s hard to stop my fingers from typing.
Let’s have someone else take it from here. I always conclude with this:
7) Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks
Rita is a fine American actress who has appeared in many movies including Sleepless in Seattle, Runaway Bride, and also produced the My Big Fat Greek Wedding series – which, if you haven’t seen, do!
She was raised Greek Orthodox and is married to Tom Hanks, about which nothing needs to be said. Except that the two have been married for over thirty years, and that he became Orthodox when he married her, and the two of them take our blessed Orthodox Faith seriously – as you will see in what follows.
