Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

This is the all time best sermon ever preached. It's the amazing Paschal Sermon of St. John Chrysostom - the Golden Throat. It is preached every year in Eastern Orthodox Churches to Celebrate the first moments of Pascha - Easter. Blessings to you!

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

Are there any who are devout lovers of God?
Let them rejoice in the splendor of this triumphal feast;

Are there any who are grateful servants?
Let them rejoice and enter into the joy of their Lord!

Are there any weary from fasting?
Let them now receive their due!

If any have toiled from the first hour,
let them receive their reward.

If any have come after the third hour,
let them with gratitude join in the feast!

If any have arrived after the sixth hour,
let them not doubt; for they too shall be deprived of nothing.

And if any have delayed until the ninth hour,
let them not hesitate; but let them come too.

And those who arrived only at the eleventh hour,
let even them not be afraid of arriving too late. For the Lord is gracious and receives the last even as the first.

He gives rest to those who come at the eleventh hour,
even as to those who have toiled from the first.

To one and all the Lord gives generously.
The Lord accepts the offering of every work.
The Lord honors every deed
and He commends every intention.

So then, all of you, come!
Enter into your Master's joy:

First and last alike, come! receive your reward!
Rich and Poor together, rejoice in the bounty of the Lord!
Sober and Slothful, celebrate the day!

You who have kept the fast, and you who have not,
rejoice, this day, for the Table is richly spread!

Feast royally upon it, for He has prepared the fatted calf.
Let no one, No One, go away hungry.

Partake, all of you, of the banquet of faith.
Come and enjoy the bounty of the Lord's goodness!

Let no one grieve being poor,
for the Kingdom of Kingdoms has been revealed.

Let no one lament failing over and over again,
for forgiveness has risen from the grave!
Let no one fear death,
for the death of our Savior has set us free.

The Lord annihilated death by enduring it.
The Lord destroyed the power of hell when
he descended into it.
The Lord embittered Hell even as it tasted of his flesh.

Isaiah foretold this when he said,
"You, O Hell, were embittered when you met him below."

Hell was embittered, because it was abolished.
Hell was embittered, because it was destroyed.
Hell was embittered, because it was slain.
Hell was embittered, because it was overthrown.
Hell was embittered, because it was fettered in chains.

Hell grasped a corpse, and met God.
Hell seized earth, and behold! encountered heaven!

Hell took what it saw,
and was overcome by what it could not see.

Where, O Death, is your sting?
Where, O Hell, is your victory?

Christ is risen, and Death is overthrown!
Christ is risen, and the demons are crushed!
Christ is risen, and the Angels rejoice!
Christ is risen, and New Life reigns!
Christ is risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead.

For Christ, having risen from the dead,
is become the first-fruits of those who sleep.

So to Him be glory and dominion unto ages of ages.
Alleluia! Amen! Alleluia! And Amen!

The Feast of the Annunciation to the Mother of God

Today is the beginning of our salvation, God is come among men; He who cannot be contained is contained in a womb; the timeless enters time. A great mystery! His conception is without seed, his emptying past telling! So great is this mystery! For God empties himself, takes flesh and is fashioned as a creature, when the angel tells the pure Virgin of her conception: “Rejoice, you who are full of grace; the Lord who has great mercy is with you!” (Stichera of Annunciation, St. John the Monk)


Luke 1:24-38 - After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she hid herself, saying, "Thus the Lord has done to me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men."

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, "Hail, O favored one, the Lord is with you!" But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there will be no end."

And Mary said to the angel, "How shall this be, since I have no husband?"

And the angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, your kinswoman Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible."

And Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her. (RSV)

Today is the beginning of our salvation,
And the revelation of the eternal mystery!
The Son of God becomes the Son of the Virgin
As Gabriel announces the coming of Grace.
Together with him let us cry to the Theotokos:
"Rejoice, O Full of Grace, The Lord is with You!"
"Annunciation" - An Armenian miniature from the Roslin Gospels, 1287.

What is Lent?

The word Lent comes from the old English word lencten. It signifies that time of the year when the days begin to lengthen. That time of the year is Spring! Lent is a word that really means "Spring”. In the Church Lent is a forty day period where we mark the days that Jesus spent in the wilderness. It is also the season of preparation for the passion and resurrection of Christ (Holy Week and Easter).

The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord's passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. This season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism . It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness. Book of Common Prayer pp. 264-265

We mark Lent with prayer, fasting and alms giving. We use the time for introspection, self -examination and repentance. It is a time to prepare for the amazing work of God's redemption at Easter.

Lent is also marked by the color purple which symbolizes Christ's suffering and his royalty. All crosses and icons are covered or veiled by purple cloth. All flowers are removed and no more "alleluias" are said until Easter day. This is all done to remind us of the suffering of Jesus and the consequences of our sin.

Traditionally, the church fasted from anything "of the flesh" which meant that meat, cheese, eggs, butter and milk were eliminated from the diet. Also, confession of sins was made before the beginning of Lent. The period of carnival, and the day of Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras, were created to prepare for Lent.

Carnival comes from the Latin carne levarium which is the removal of meat. Shrove Tuesday comes from the customary pre-Lenten "shrift" or confession. And Mardi Gras means Fat Tuesday. They are all different names for the same time - a time to confess our sins and use up all of the meats, cheeses, eggs, butter and milk from our larders. Thus we have the traditions of the Shrove Tuesday pancake dinner or the King cake where all of these food items are used up.

In Anglicanism, and for most of the Western Churches, Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent. On Ash Wednesday a service is held where we enter this time corporately. Ash Wednesday is where we look to our own mortality and the consequences of sin. Times of penitence were often marked by the wearing of sackcloth and ashes. An outward sign of our penitence and mortality is the marking of our foreheads with ashes in the sign of the cross. We are reminded that we are "but dust and to dust we shall return" (Genesis 3:19). We are reminded that without Christ all we are is dust and ashes.

Although the fast is not as strictly observed today as in the ancient church, many now fast from meat every Friday during Lent and give up something like sweets, coffee, or television. The decision is an individual one, whatever you feel that God is calling you to.

The idea behind alms giving should come from a sacrifice made, like not buying sweets, magazines or a daily coffee and then giving the money saved to the poor.


Special Notes:

Traditionally, Ash Wednesday was marked by fasting and then ended with the consumption of something small and simple (i.e. the hot cross bun).

Sundays are not included in the fasts since Sundays celebrate the resurrection of Christ.

The ashes used on Ash Wednesday are made from the Palm Sunday palms of the
previous year.

Since Lent is a time for fasting, no fleshly things were consumed and small meals were instituted. A whole array of regional dishes were created to accommodate the fasts. Simple vegetarian soups were made: the split pea soup in Eastern Europe, the onion soup in France and Italy, and meals that centered around vegetables and fish.

The pretzel is the oldest Christian food and was created to accommodate the Lenten fast. It is made without using butter, milk, eggs. The shape is of arms folded in prayer.

Stephen Colbert & the Lambeth Conference

Enjoy!

Great Post over at Faith and Theology:

Theology with Sufjan Stevens: heaven in ordinary

At the moment I’m absolutely infatuated with the music of Sufjan Stevens. Commentators have often talked about Stevens’ creativity as a musician and composer; but he’s also an extraordinary lyricist. Many of his best songs are ballads, stories that relate, with simple poignancy, the everyday dramas of friendship, love and family life. And it’s here that Stevens’ poetic gift really lies: the ability to evoke, with just a few words, the tragic and beautiful ambiguities of personal relationships.



Read it all. It's great.

So you proclaim the death of Jesus till he come

This post by Halden on the significance of eating and death is purely amazing.

"The bread and wine of the Eucharist do not so much represent Jesus’ being killed, as his total self-expenditure, culminating in death through which we are nourished, sustained, and transformed. Eating signifies death, not because death is violent mutilation, but because it is the form of the radically prodigal, self-expending love that is the divine life which is given to us in Christ. The Eucharist embodies the transformation of identity from possession to gift. It proclaims a logic of redemption in which life, rather than needing to be secured as a possession, can be given away to the fullest."

See the rest here: Eating and Death

N.T. Wright on the Resurrection