Dear brothers and sisters, Christ is Risen! Христос воскресе! Hristos a înviat! Χριστός ἀνέστη!
On this Feast of the Iveron icon of the Mother of God, I am travelling to Walsingham to celebrate the altar-feast of the Orthodox shrine chapel of the Life-Giving Spring, on Friday.
The last week has been one that has left us exhausted, but full of the joy of the resurrection after the mourning of Holy Friday and the stillness of Holy Saturday, as we contemplated the Saviour’s Body in Gethsemane, in the tomb.
I now look forward to a few days in Walsingham and praying in the Holy House and sepulchre, and serving in the shrine chapel, continuing the link that our diocese has had with the shrine and village since the 1930’s, when the pioneering Father Alfred Hope Paten championed the restored devotion to the Mother of God in this little Norfolk village, once the greatest centre of pilgrimage in pre-reformation Britain: England’s Nazareth.
After the week’s pilgrimage, I shall celebrate the Divine Liturgy of Thomas Sunday in Cheltenham on Saturday morning – hearing confessions from 09:15, before the Paschal Hours and Liturgy at 10:30.
We will begin the Hours later than usual, as the Paschal format is very short in comparison to the normal Hours.
We will celebrate in the United Reformed Church, Deep St, Prestbury, GL52 3AW.
To accommodate confessions, I would appreciate emails by Thursday please) and will stop in Cardiff on the way home from Cheltenham. I know that we have a few Cardiff parishioners that work on Saturdays, and we will make it possible for them to confess on Sunday, in addition to our parishioners from the other side of the Severn. Please email: otetzmark@hotmail.com
I would like to thank everyone who worked so incredibly hard for the success of Holy Week and Pascha, and express our profound gratitude to Father Dean and Georgina for the warmth with which we were welcomed to St Mary’s, which proved to be a wonderful place to celebrate, with its beautiful sanctuary and resonant acoustic.
I encourage everyone to pray the Paschal Canon everyday this week, preserving the joy of the Resurrection, and making the Paschal hymns part of each day’s prayer and devotion.
With love in the Risen Lord.
Hieromonk Mark