Monday, May 12, 2025: St. Basil of Ostrog, St. Nektary of Optina, St. Amphilochius of Pochaev
Acts 10:1-16
John 6:56-69
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christ is risen!
In the Epistle today, we hear about the alms, the offerings, the prayers of the righteous pagan Cornelius were heard by God, and God honored his alms. And this work brought him to a place in which God honored him, meaning not only did God remember him, but God brought him unto Himself. God called and beckoned Cornelius to come. And so, in order for Cornelius to be received, the ones who were to do the receiving had to be prepared.
And so Peter – the Rock – Peter is given a vision, and Peter is needing this vision because Peter was still unaware of the great work that the Lord had. Remember that Peter, like we can assume many of the disciples, some of the Apostles, did not quite understand what the work of the Lord was. And so Peter did not still understand yet that the work of the Lord was beyond simply coming and liberating Israel from their oppressors of Rome.
Beyond that, Peter witnessed the resurrection of the dead. Peter witnessed the Father raising Christ, and yet Peter still is not understanding that salvation was to be brought for all of mankind. And we know this because Peter struggled with this idea, because Peter kept the law.
Peter was a good Jew. And so this vision was necessary of all these unclean animals, food that no good Jew would have ever eaten. This is brought to Peter. Now, what’s interesting here is that this vision happens, and Peter displays a good Orthodox sense of sobriety because Peter, in one hand and in one sense, he says, No, I’ve never done this before. I’ve never eaten anything unclean. It’s fascinating because do you notice? Peter says, Lord.
Peter says, Lord, I’ve never eaten anything unclean. And this is where we understand a little bit more clearly what’s going on inside Peter because in some sense, we could say he was being sober and denying a vision, but Peter knew it was the Lord, and he still said, No, no, no, Lord. I’ve never eaten anything unclean.
And this is key because it wasn’t so much of Peter not knowing what was going on. It was Peter not being able to let go of his logic. It was Peter not being able to let go of the way that he assumed things. And more importantly, it was Peter forgetting something. It was Peter forgetting something very valuable that he had learned when he was a disciple of the Lord, and what is that?
Now, let us go to the Gospels, and let us look and see because the Lord is giving the teaching, the core teaching of what it means to be a Christian, the core, that he is giving his life for us, not metaphorically, literally. He says, “Eat of Me.”
And unfortunately, we all know of this confusion. I shudder to even speak of it in the Lord’s temple, but we must. That many of us struggle with this very idea that Christ, God, would give himself literally to be eaten and to be drunk, and this is why many of us struggle with conversion, and this is why still so many to this day struggle.
Early accounts of cannibalism and other blasphemies uttered against our forefathers for obeying the Lord. Nevertheless, I digress, Peter says, right, Peter says, “Lord, where will we go? You alone have the words of eternal life.” Interestingly enough, before Peter says this, what happens? The disciples, many of the disciples are confused, and they don’t understand what Christ is saying, and it says that they walked with him – at John 666 – it says that many of the disciples walked with him no more.
Now, this is an important moment for countless reasons, but for today, we have to understand this. Peter is the one. This is maybe one of the many reasons why the Lord made him the Rock, quote unquote. Peter stands up and says, “Where are we to go?” The Lord didn’t sit there and explain what he meant. He didn’t say to those disciples who were leaving, well, this is metaphor. Well, this is a symbol.
He explained things like this before. He had no problem taking disciples aside and saying, look, this is what the parable of the seed by the road means. This is what it means when I say I’m the door. He didn’t do it this time. And so we see Peter gathering himself his inner powers and recognizing, “Where are we to go?” Just like Peter also said, “You are the Christ.”
And so this is why our warning today should be terrifying. Because Peter walked with Christ. Peter was the one several times, and I’m sure more times than have been recorded in the Gospels.
He was he was the one who got it. Okay. But in this moment, in the book of Acts, in this Epistle today, Peter’s forgotten. He’s forgotten that Christ, that Jesus, that the Lord is going to go outside the bounds of his understanding. Peter’s forgotten that the Lord’s vision and the Lord’s ways are beyond his. Peter has forgotten. Peter doesn’t know everything. And so he says, “Lord, I have never eaten anything unclean.” There is no speculation. Peter knows it’s the Lord, and yet he’s still stuck.
Three times the vision happened. It says it happened three times. Peter needed three times. And we are all familiar with this. Peter still struggled, didn’t he? Because we know from the Epistle in Galatians, Peter still struggled with this idea of what it meant to be a follower of Christ versus what it meant to stick to his logic, to his way of doing things, to his understanding.
For those of you who don’t know here, Peter refused to eat with the Gentiles. Even after this happened with the vision, even after the Christ had spoken to him, Peter still refused to eat with the Gentiles, so much so that Paul had to stand up and call him out in front of everyone. If Peter, the Rock, could have this stubbornness within him for so long with Christ, years after Christ’s resurrection, working miracles in Christ’s name, people being healed by just being in his shadow, and still, Peter, his vision being very small.
Should we not look at our own lives and say, what am I not understanding? Truly, I see in my own life as a priest, as a spiritual father, my own blindness, yes, of course. But I see where short-sightedness brings so much sin and destruction to people’s lives because they think that they understand something and they think that something needs to work according to a very narrow perspective and they will not let go. Warning upon warning upon warning upon warning.
This is a very real issue. And I bring it up because, again, this thing of our logic. Because if you want to be charitable, of course, Peter is going to feel this way. It was the traditions of his father.
We always have to remember, what is more important? The tradition or the One who gives the tradition? Our logic or the One who endowed us with the ability to have logic?
May we have St. Peter’s prayers. May we receive the thing that he knows so clearly now. And in doing so, when the Lord speaks to us, may we receive in obedience the word of the Lord.
Christ is risen!
Sunday, May 11, 2025: Sunday of the Paralytic
ACTS 9:32-42
JOHN 5:1-15
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Christ is risen!
In the Gospel today, we have this man who is laying at the pool of Bethesda. The pool by the sheep gate. This sheep gate is pretty self-explanatory. It was the gate by which the sheep were led into Jerusalem, being brought out for pasture, back into the city. So, traveling through the sheep gate, we now see, in many respects, a man we could call a sheep.
As Christians, we understand this terminology, being a sheep. Christ is the Good Shepherd, we are the sheep. So, it’s very simple at this point. We can say that this man is a sheep. Why? Well, he was obedient. There was a tradition in which God would send an angel, and the angel would stir the waters, and those who stepped in first, they were healed.
And this man knew of this tradition, and this man was obedient. And like a sheep, he was doing what he was supposed to do. He was there by the waters, and in some respects, it’s even safe to say, he wasn’t even complaining.
38 long years being afflicted in such a way, not complaining, but yet, being faithful, being steadfast, enduring. He’s a sheep. This is a quality that I would pray all of us would have, to a greater degree. That we would learn to endure our afflictions a little bit better. But this is not the point that I’m trying to draw today. In fact, it reinforces my point in the sense that, even though he’s a sheep, he was still not aware of his time of visitation.
He was not aware of his time of visitation. He was expecting God to do something in the way that everyone else expected it. He was using his logic. His logic was thus, well, this is what people do to get healed. I am broken, I need to be healed, and I will wait patiently, which is good. But the problem with it is, that became it. He was fixed in that. This was how it was going to be. And so, when God actually visits him, he’s not prepared.
When the Lord speaks to the man and says, “Do you want to be healed?” He then begins to unload all of his reasonings. “Well, of course, but I can’t, no one is taking me down to the pool, I don’t know what else to do.” His logic. And his logic was sound. But his logic was not divine. And his logic was not according to God. His logic was according to man. And so he, thanks be to God, did not miss his visitation necessarily. But he was close.
He was very close. Because we can even see, right after, the Pharisees missing their visitation again. And how many times did the Pharisees miss their visitation? Knowing the law so well, doing all the things they’re supposed to do, and when God himself shows up, they’re not ready, they’re not able to hear and to see.
And so they miss the visitation of God. And so, of course, the correlation is, if we are sheep, half of the battle is doing what you’re supposed to do. Learning to be patient, learning to wait on God. This is good.
But the other half is what I find we are often so lacking. And it’s because we very quickly want to say to God, “Look God, I’ve done X, Y, and Z. I’ve done everything by the book. I’ve done what’s expected of me, and I haven’t even really complained much.” But when He comes, at the time in which He chooses to come, we are not ready. And I would submit to you, the reason for this is, is because, unfortunately, we very quickly want to confuse the means of healing for the One who heals.
And so we think our prayers are the thing that heals us. We think that our faithfulness in attending services is what heals us. All these things, but really, it’s the encounter with God. And this is why so many young people actually, they stop believing. They stop believing because they think God is going to be one way, but in reality, God comes to them another way, and they’re not ready. So many times, what we think is the problem will often be the solution.
It’s often the thing that God is bringing for the healing. Do you notice that the Lord says to the man, “Go and sin no more. Go, lest something worse befalls you.” And it’s very easy to ignore this portion of the Gospel, because we can just assume, well, this man was probably born like this, he had a terrible accident, but it’s safe and correct to assume there was sin involved, because the Lord says to him, go and sin no more. And so where was the true healing? I submit to you that it was wonderful the man could walk, but really the thing that was paralyzed was his soul, was his will, was his ability to encounter God as he should.
And so when we look upon the Gospel today, we have to ask ourselves, we think that we may be doing right, we may think that we’re healed, but really the part of us that is paralyzed, we are blind to it. And so our will, because this is the thing, you having your will bending to God, this is where you miss the visitation. And this is why obedience is so important, but it’s not the whole thing. Humility has to be there, a willingness to say, “I don’t understand this, I’m going to crucify my mind and my logic.”
And in doing that, we receive the liberation, we’re able to walk, we’re able to now do what we need to do, because it’s in the will that freedom is made manifest. And if you understand this last final point, that is the core of all of our problems. That is the core of all of our sin – every single one of us – is that our will is sick.
Because our will is the place where freedom reigns, or it doesn’t. And Christ made us to be free. And when our wills are stuck and paralyzed, that we’re not able to walk into the freedom that Christ brings to us. And this is why He comes at a time when we least expect. By showing you his freedom, he hopes to inspire in you, yours.
Christ is risen!
Wednesday, May 7, 2025: St. Alexis of Wilkes-Barre
ACTS 8:18-25
JOHN 6:35-39
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christ is risen!
Today in the Gospel, the Lord Jesus is speaking to us, and He’s telling us about His Father, and our Father, what His desire is. That His will is that the creation of the world, people, would be saved, that they would be brought together, kept together, in love and in unity.
And Jesus says that He came not to destroy things, but to save them, to preserve them. And this is an important lesson, because when we look at Jesus, when we look at our Lord’s work on this earth, we have to recognize something, and that’s this: Even though our Lord Who died on the cross willingly, we should understand that Jesus is a fighter. Does that make sense? Jesus is a warrior. That doesn’t make sense, Nina? I’ll explain it to you.
You see, we all fight sometimes, don’t we? Sometimes we fight with our sisters, sometimes we fight with our brothers, sometimes, unfortunately, we fight with our moms and our dads, or our husbands or our wives, on and on. And this fighting is not good. And it’s not good because we aren’t fighting for a good reason.
We fight with each other because, as St. James says in his Epistle, where do wars come from? Wars come from our wanting something. We want something. And we want something that maybe we think someone else has. Whether they have it or not, it doesn’t matter. If we think they have something, we will fight them. And so we won’t have peace in our homes, we won’t have peace in our parish, we won’t have peace in the world.
Now, the problem isn’t necessarily fighting. The problem is fighting for what you want. Because Jesus was a fighter.
Jesus fought for love. Jesus fought for truth. Jesus fought for the will of the Father. And because Jesus was a fighter, we have victory. Because Jesus fought against the devil, we have victory. But the fight that Jesus does, the fight that Jesus does and the saints do, it isn’t to destroy things. It’s to free things, to free people. I’ll give you an example.
Today we’re commemorating St. Alexis Toth. He’s in the icon right behind you guys. And St. Alexis, he was not always Orthodox. He was in America when America was still kind of young a little bit.
But he comes from a people in Europe who, they were Orthodox a long time ago. But at one point in time, they were conquered. And certain countries had come in, they had fought and they had conquered his people and made them to become Roman Catholic.
So for a long time, St. Alexis, his people, they were Roman Catholic. Although they kind of looked like Orthodox, they were still Roman Catholic. And so they were used to being told what to do and how to do things in a certain way that was not in Orthodox fashion.
And so when St. Alexis came here, and he was a priest in this Catholic church, they called them Uniates. Uniates, meaning that they were kind of a mix of Orthodox, kind of a mix of Catholic. When he came over here, he was shocked.
And why was he shocked? He was shocked because he looked around at all his people. And he realized that they weren’t being treated the way that Christ wanted them to be treated. That they weren’t being given proper churches and proper sacraments.
And that really they weren’t given the life of Christ. They weren’t being taught how to pray and how to love Christ. And so St. Alexis, he went to that Catholic bishop and he said, “Your Grace, I see that my people aren’t being provided the way that God wants them to be provided for. Can we change this?” And over and over and over again, St. Alexis was rudely put down, told that he had no business telling the bishop what to do, and that the people, well, they just need to deal with it.
Now this was a problem for St. Alexis, but you have to understand something. It wasn’t a problem because he was personally offended. It was a problem because he knew, number one, that this isn’t what Christ wanted. This was not the Father’s will. The Father’s will was not that his people would go and struggle without true, deep piety and faith. Without Orthodoxy.
So, there came a time when St. Alexis said, “Enough is enough. I have to fight. Not for my opinion. Not because I want something nicer. But for the sake of the will of the Father.” So, St. Alexis, he began to fight.
And he began not to fight in the way of destroying churches and destroying people. He began to fight that his people would be liberated and brought back to the true faith. That they’d be brought to a place where they could have prayer again. And rich Liturgies and full sacraments and deep piety. This is why he fought for the will of the Father. And he fought hard and it was a struggle.
But St. Alexis had the icon of Christ in his mind and in his heart. And so he fought. And he fought. And he fought. And then eventually, Christ rewarded his fighting. But remember, was he fighting because he didn’t get what he wanted? No. Was he fighting because people didn’t respect him personally? No. He fought for love. He fought for the will of the Father.
And God rewarded St. Alexis. Why? Because the Father rewarded Jesus in his fight for our liberation from the devil. Our liberation from sin. And our liberation from our flesh.
So, my sons and my daughters, you’re going to fight one way or the other. The question for you is, are you going to fight for love? Are you going to fight to do good things? Or are you going to fight for selfishness or for pride? Let us be warriors, all of us.
And let us be warriors for the sake of Christ. Christ is risen!
Tuesday, May 6, 2025: St. George the Great Martyr and St. Sophia of Kleisoura
ACTS 8:5-17
JOHN 6:27-33
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Christ is risen. Today we commemorate the Great Martyr George the Trophy Bearer.
George, this ubiquitous figure of Orthodoxy. St. George, a soldier during the reign of Diocletian who’s awarded all the accolades of valor. St. George shows us that – not so far from the word of St. Paul – to remain in your calling, in which you were first called when the Lord found you.
St. George, a soldier, and all the qualities of a soldier. When we think of a soldier, not in this corrupted age in which cynicism, abuse, all these things have corrupted every single icon of vocation. Nevertheless, for you to have more pure eyes and to look upon the vocation of a soldier, one who serves his king, one who is valiant, one who seeks to preserve the life of their country, their countrymen, this is the ideal of the soldier, this is the icon of the soldier.
St. George encapsulates, epitomizes this icon of the soldier. And so, in this earthly life and in the eternal one, St. George remains this ideal of a soldier, what it means to serve. To some degree, even more importantly, St. George reveals to us something very profound, which is that there is life after death, that there is eternal life, and that beyond quote-unquote mythology and these things, that the spirit in which God bestows upon a man is true and efficacious and leads to eternal life.
Let me tell you a story. A great ascetic, he’s a saint, but a great ascetic, Geronda Arsenios, he was the deputy of St. Joseph the Hesychast. And Geronda Arsenios, before he was a monastic, him and his brother were captured by the Turks. And they languished in prison, so much so that they had to suffer various cruel and inhumane tortures, lacking food, lacking water, and being forced to even drink their own urine. The deprivation and the humiliation of the Turks being such. And truly, Arsenios relays that he thought he was going to die.
That him and his brother and the other Greek national men that had been captured, that they were going to die. Now take in mind, this is some time in the 40s. 1940s.
Not that long ago. And so St. Arsenios, he relays how, as they were just about to lose hope that they were to die, a rousing rescue happened. A man on horseback came, rounded out the Turks, and allowed these men to go free, including Arsinius and his relative.
Amazed and giving thanks to God, they make it back to their home and lo! What does Arsenios find? Who does he find? Arsenios finds his father. He opens the door, he finds his father standing in front of the icons, praying.
“Papouli, I’m home!” His father, surprised but not exhausted. He starts giving thanks to God, starts giving thanks to St. George. Because, he says, “From the very moment that I heard that you and your brother were taken, I did not leave this corner. I did not sleep, I did not eat, I did not drink. I sat” – excuse me – “I stood here and I prayed to St. George and I begged him to free you.”
Did not St. George come and free Arsenios and all those Greek men on that day? Surely he did. Surely he did. More of a soldier in the eternal life than he ever was in this earthly life. This is what it means to be in theosis. It means that you become truly who you were always meant to be in Christ. Through the prayers of St. George, Lord help us to embrace our cross, become truly who You call us to be.
Christ is risen!
Monday, May 5, 2025: Day of the Angels
ACTS 6:8-7:5, 47-60
JOHN 4:46-54
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christ is risen!
In the Epistle today, we hear of the first martyr, the proto-martyr Stephen, Stephen the deacon. Stephen, who gives the church a great gift. You see, in the Epistle today, it speaks of how a young man saw that the accusers laid their clothing at his feet, and then they began their work.
So Saul bore witness to this, Saul bore witness to Stephen’s great martyrdom. “Lay not this sin at their charge, Lord. Into Thy hands I commend my spirit.”
Saul heard the word of the Lord, but more importantly, he saw the word of the Lord made flesh. You see, we cannot separate Saul witnessing the martyrdom of Stephen from the transformation from Saul into Paul. When we think of Paul, the apostle, the one who wrote half of the New Testament, when we think of Paul, we think about his transformation on the road to Damascus. We think about him being struck blind by the uncreated light by Christ. But we must remember that before the Lord struck him on Damascus, Saul, before he became Paul, Saul saw Christ in Stephen. Saul heard the word of the Lord coming forth from Stephen.
You see, it is only by witnessing Christ is one transformed. And these seeds are very deep. But Saul, this Jew among Jews, tribe of Benjamin, student of Gamaliel, circumcised on the eighth day, a Pharisee of Pharisees, he knew the Scriptures. But more than just knowing the Scriptures as information, as a source of his earthly tradition, something mystical happened that day. It is when we see Christ manifest, it’s when we see Christ revealing Himself to us, this is where the transformation happens. And for Saul, that seed began in the witness of Stephen because it is in that moment God has revealed not just simply teachings and philosophies, but God.
Why? Because it’s in death that Christ was revealed to Stephen. It was in death that Stephen said, “My Lord and my God.” It was in his death that Stephen looked and he saw the heavens parted and he saw the right hand of the Father who was there, Christ. But in some sense, even more importantly for the life of the church, Saul witnessing that death because by Saul witnessing that death, something began there. A deep seed was planted. Christ was manifested in the death of Stephen. And it’s in that death that seeds were planted, seeds beyond just hearing something. A burning began to begin in Saul.
And so when we recognize that the gift of Stephen, his martyrdom, that it was more than just his bearing witness to all of us, it was the bearing witness to Saul. And that gift has given us countless joy, countless guidance, the Epistles of Paul. They are the pillars of the New Testament life.
But those pillars were established in the blood of Stephen because the blood of Stephen revealed the obedience to Christ. In the Gospel today, the man from Capernaum whose son is dying, he only hears the word from the Lord. And on that word, he has faith, he obeys.
Obedience, but obedience in the face of death. This is a mystery to us, but we recognize it. Why? Because Christ reveals Himself as God in His obedience to the Father, which was an obedience unto death.
And we know, especially in the apostles’ time, that that obedience unto death is the seed of resurrection. We need to be aware. We need to listen and we need to look because Saul that day had no idea that what he was witnessing was going to transform his life.
How often do we come across God working our lives when we have no idea what we’re witnessing? Because what we see is death, but instead of, you know, kind of a failure, instead of something not being right, we should recognize it as the seed of something so much greater. The failure of Stephen was the seed which brought Saul. And even the failure of the Man, quote unquote, Jesus of Nazareth, His failure, His crucifixion, that was the seed towards eternal life.
Christ is risen!
Sunday, May 4, 2025: Sunday of the Myrrhbearing Women
ACTS 6:1-7
MARK 15:43-16:8
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Christ is risen! Today we commemorate the Holy Myrrhbearers. We commemorate these brave women.
We remember their work and their dedication to the Lord on that early morning, that morning of tragedy, mourning the loss of their Master, mourning the loss of their Teacher – but inspired. Inspired by love, they go to the tomb, they go to the tomb to tend to Jesus. We also see Joseph of Arimathea, who although in the time of Jesus walking with him on the earth, he did not display this courage, it says very clearly in the Gospel that he bravely, with courage, he went and asked for the body of Jesus.
This is important because the reality of our own life with Jesus is revealed here. I remember when my mother passed away, and I remember being in the midst of the funeral and looking upon my mother’s body, and I remember the feeling of a particular kind of loneliness because my sister and I were the only ones really left, and everyone was mourning my mother, but there was something different. The connection of love that my sister and I had with our mother, we looked upon her differently than everyone else did, and this is something very hard for people to understand that they’ve never really experienced death because as Christians, just like Jews, we have a tradition.
When someone passes away, we gather, we pay our respects, we pay respects to the person who’s passed away, and we feel sorrow. We may have known and loved this person to a degree, but life kind of moves on, but depending on your relationship with the person who’s passed away, you will see the body very differently. I saw my mother differently than everyone else did. Why? Because of my love for her. And my love for my mother, I can tell you, was greater than my own grief. My grief caused me to suffer pain deeper than everyone else, yes, but it also inspired me to live in such a way that would honor my mother because I loved her.
And so the Myrrhbearing women, they were inspired by the love of Christ. It moved them out of just the kind of tradition, the formality, the expectation. They didn’t just do what was expected of them. They did what moved them out of love. They didn’t care what other people thought. “Why would you do this? Why would you spend all this money to care for this dead Teacher already? You’ve already mourned for Him. Why would you do this?” People who think this way, they didn’t have the love for Christ that they did.
Because love inspires courage. Love inspires greatness. Love inspires a desire to remember. Love moves you beyond just your obligation and your duty in a community, your obligation and your duty in religion.
And so for many of you, you may be even maybe feeling guilty of what I’m saying. You may not even understand what I’m saying. But you will. When death touches you, you will. You’ll understand. But I appeal to you as your spiritual father that you should understand on another level.
Why? Because your love for Christ is precisely what determines whether you’re alive or whether you’re dead. Are your prayers cold? Are you just kind of going through the motions? It’s because you have no love. And so now you would say to me, “Well, Father, how do I get love? How do I love Christ? When I say my prayers, I’m here in church right now. Shouldn’t you just be saying this sermon to the people that aren’t in church?” Maybe. But I know that many of us struggle with coldness. I mean, many of us struggle with just checking the boxes. And yes, I preach about checking the boxes, and yet we still struggle with checking the boxes.
So here is the secret: don’t just do what’s asked of you. Don’t just do your bare minimum, and that’s why you have no love. You see, the love for God will inspire you not to perform better in the community, not that people would see you as more pious. No.
The love of God will inspire you in such a way where you don’t care if anyone even sees you, let alone what they think about you. Your love for God will carry you to places you didn’t even think was possible. Many of us have had this experience. We’re shocked that we’re in the Orthodox Church. We’re shocked that we’re maybe a priest, or a reader, or a nun, or that we go to services all the time. We’re shocked. Because the love of God gave us a different kind of madness. It brought us to a place of inspiration. But some of us may have had it and lost it. And you lost it because you began to just do the bare minimum.
No. It’s going above and beyond. That’s where the love is found. That’s how you get the love back. You don’t just do what’s expected. You do what’s pulling you. You do the thing that is outside of you. You do the thing that is greater than you.
That’s love. That’s love. And that’s the love that the Myrrhbearers had. Can you imagine? If they had been caught, arrested, or maybe even worse, who knows what they would have done to those women? They didn’t care. Their love inspired them for something so much greater.
So, we know better than they do. At that moment in time, on that dark morning, they didn’t know that He’s risen, but we do. And in your heart, do you sing Christ is risen? Of course you do during the Pascha season because we’re all doing it. But what I’m saying to you is, you need to sing Christ is risen all the time. Because a heart that’s in love and a heart that’s consumed with the fire of God sings Christ is risen year round.
Christ is risen!