Dear brothers and sisters – Christ is Risen! Христос Bоскресе!As we enter the third week of Pascha, having celebrated the Sunday of the Myrrh-Bearing Women, yesterday, the need to rejoice in every day of this joyful Resurrection season presses upon us. Repeating myself, hopefully not too monotonously, I encourage all of the members of our community to have the words of the Paschal hymns upon their lips continually, as a means of preserving the Paschal joy in hearts and minds. Again, if possible, pray the Paschal Canon each day.
Paschal joy should overflow in our lives, and we should instinctively wish to share the resurrectional message of the angel, as we read in the Gospels and hear in the Paschal hymns –
“Come from the vision, O ye women, bearers of good tidings, and say ye unto Sion: Receive from us the good tidings of the Resurrection of Christ; adorn thyself, exult, and rejoice, O Jerusalem, for thou hast seen Christ the King, like a bridegroom come forth from the tomb.
The myrrh-bearing women in the deep dawn stood before the tomb of the Giver of life; they found an angel sitting upon the stone, and he, speaking to them, said thus: Why seek ye the Living among the dead? Why mourn ye the Incorruptible amid corruption? Go, proclaim unto His disciples.”
As always, we thank those who laboured for the Lord in celebrating the Sunday of the Myrrh-Bearing Women, on which it was aptly several sisters of the parish who were first to arrive, already waiting and ready to prepare St Philip’s for Orthodox worship. Having more people to set up at 8:30 is pressingly important, given that clergy entrance-prayers, confessions and proskomedia ALL hinge on set up. It doesn’t happen magically or miraculously, and we would particularly value the presence of our young people to assist.
It was lovely to welcome sisters back from Ukraine visits and to have them singing on our kliros. Thanks to our brothers for sharing the load, given there was only a few singers, and chanting the anaphora so prayerfully in English, with the welcome change of Byzantine chant.This weekend’s celebration came after a week of memorial services, in Bradford-on-Avon (at Wessex end-of-month prayers), in Glastonbury, Swansea and Cardiff.
Father Luke will concelebrate with Father Mark the Younger on Sunday 18 May, also hearing confessions, as needed, though those who confess in the week ahead will be blessed to commune on the following two Sundays, unless need for confession arises. If in doubt, Father Mark or Father Luke may be consulted for advice.
We ask for continued prayers for Lyudmila among the sick; for the newly departed Irinia, Sophia, Alexey and Sophia; and for oltarnik Panagiotis whose exams start on Friday, and for Stefan, Tara and Annie, who have exams in the following weeks.
