Celebrations of Holy Pascha in Pakistan

I am deeply moved by the quiet bravery and dedicated faith of Fr. Joseph Farooq and these congregations, who shine as Light in the midst of the darkness of the Islamic nation of Pakistan.  ~ CHRIST IS RISEN! ~

See also:

• Palm Sunday in Pakistan�Spiritual Preparation for Holy Pascha
• Celebrations of 700th Anniversary of St. Sergius of Radonezh in Sargodha, Pakistan
• The Blessed Feast of the Nativity of Christ in Pakistan

Celebrations of Holy Pascha in Pakistan
Pravoslavie � April 15, 2015

With the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan HILARION, Archbishop of Eastern America and New York, First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, on April 12, 2015, the ROCOR faithful in Pakistan joyfully participated in the Paschal Divine Liturgy. The congregation was given the chance to prepare themselves during the Holy week. The parishioners participated in the services starting from Palm Sunday; it is the most joyous feasts of the year, as we commemorate the Entrance of our Lord into Jerusalem and with full passion and true spirit the Orthodox faithful were taught well by Fr.Joseph Farooq how to follow the holy traditions of the Orthodox Church during the Passion Week. All the main services were well attended, with many parishioners receiving the sacrament of Confession and Holy Communion.

This year a seminar was held on �Great Lent and Holy Traditions of the Russian Orthodox Church.� In this seminar Fr. Joseph Farooq described to the faithful that fasting is very important for Orthodox Christians, and according to the holy traditions, the Orthodox faithful observe the fast on Wednesday and Friday throughout the year. Further he mentioned that we Orthodox Christians fast before Christmas, �The Nativity fast.� The faithful were also taught that Holy Saturday is a day of strict fasting for Russian Orthodox Christians. The motive of the seminar was the spiritual preparation of the Orthodox community for Holy Pascha.

Metropolitan Hilarion's 2015 Paschal Epistle:

His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion in his Paschal Epistle greeted all the faithful of the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia in Pakistan on the Great Feast of the Resurrection of Christ. This Paschal Epistle strengthens the Orthodox clergy and faithful with the unique teaching of the undivided apostolic Church, and His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion encourages the believers on the great feast of the splendid Resurrection of Christ by saying, �In the midst of our sorrows and temptations, renew us all with the joy of His Life-bearing Resurrection, support faith and piety with within us, illumine us with trust in the coming, eternal celebration on the never-waning day of His Kingdom. Amen.�

Active Participation of the Congregation:

This year all the Orthodox faithful and catechumens joyfully participated in all services and went through the spiritual experience of the Holy Week. Beside this they learned the holy traditions of the Russian Orthodox Church. The youth of St. Sergius Orthodox parish voluntarily and with full spirit and passion decorated the Church arena with buntings, banners and colorful ribbons. The Paschal Joy, Triumph of life, Christ's Resurrection bring many blessings for the Orthodox Church in Pakistan and throughout the world.

Humble Request:

With the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan HILARION, Archbishop of Eastern America and New York, First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, dedicated the year 2015, that God willing we shall be able to buy land and build the first Holy Russian Orthodox Church in Pakistan and school for Orthodox and Non-Orthodox Christian Children. I earnestly pray to God that He may provide us the kind and generous donors for the completion of this sacred project.

Mission: Saint Michael Archangel Orthodox Mission in Pakistan.

Parish: St. Sergius of Radonezh Orthodox Church Sargodha Pakistan.

For queries about the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia in Pakistan, kindly contact: fr.joseph.rocpk@gmail.com

The Mystery of Christ's Death and Burial: 'This is the Blessed Sabbath'

The whole creation was altered by Thy Passion: for all things suffered with Thee, knowing, O Word, that Thou holdest all in unity.

He who at the beginning by His will alone set the earth upon its course, now descends dead beneath the earth. Tremble, O heaven, at this sight.

The spiritual powers and the angelic hosts are amazed, O Christ, at the mystery of Thy burial past utterance and speech.

 ~ From the Praises (commonly called the 'Lamentations'), Matins of Holy Saturday, celebrated on Holy Friday evening in anticipation. For more of these mystical and moving verses, see here.

On Great and Holy Saturday we also sing this hymn:

The great Moses mystically foreshadowed this day, when he said,
God blessed the seventh day.
This is the Blessed Sabbath;
this is the day of rest,
on which the Only-Begotten Son of God rested from all His works. 

By suffering death to fulfill the plan of salvation,
He kept the Sabbath in the flesh;
by returning again to what He was,
He has granted us eternal life through His resurrection,
for He alone is good, and the Lover of man.

Holy Saturday can be "skipped over" so easily amidst the preparations for the Pascha/Easter Feast, but it is actually a profound mystical occurrence. See the article by Fr. Alexander Schmemann, 'This is the Blessed Sabbath'.

Is Jesus Christ calling you? Visit 'Journey to Orthodoxy', and visit an Orthodox Christian Church as soon as you can!

The King of Glory, Crucified

Today He who hung the earth upon the

waters is hung upon a tree. 

He who is King of

the Angels is arrayed in a crown of thorns. 

He who wraps the heavens in clouds is wrapped

in the purple of mockery. 

He who freed Adam

in the Jordan receives blows on the face. 

The Bridegroom of the Church is affixed to the

cross with nails. 

The Son of the Virgin is

pierced by a spear. 

We worship Your passion, O Christ. 

We worship Your passion, O Christ.

We worship Your passion, O Christ. 

Show us also Your glorious Resurrection.

~ Antiphon XV, Matins of Great and Holy Friday ~

The Eschatological Nature of Holy Week & Pascha

"Do we understand that when the world rejected its Savior... 'normal life' came to its end and is no longer possible... By the death of Jesus the 'normal' world, and 'normal' life were irrevocably condemned. Or rather they revealed their true and abnormal inability to receive the Light, the terrible power of evil in them. 'Now is the Judgment of this world' (John 12:31). The Pascha of Jesus signified its end to 'this world' and it has been at its end since then."

by the Very Rev. Alexander Schmemann

MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY: THE END 

These three days, which the Church calls Great and Holy have within the liturgical development of the Holy Week a very definite purpose. They place all its celebrations in the perspective of End ; they remind us of the eschatological meaning of Pascha. 

So often Holy Week is considered one of the "beautiful traditions" or "customs," a self-evident "part" of our calendar. We take it for granted and enjoy it as a cherished annual event which we have "observed" since childhood, we admire the beauty of its services, the pageantry of its rites and, last but not least, we like the fuss about the paschal table. And then, when all this is done we resume our normal life. 

But do we understand that when the world rejected its Savior, when "Jesus began to be sorrowful and very heavy... and his soul was exceedingly sorrowful even unto death," when He died on the Cross, "normal life" came to its end and is no longer possible. For there were "normal" men who shouted "Crucify Him," who spat at Him and nailed Him to the Cross. And they hated and killed Him precisely because He was troubling their normal life. 

It was indeed a perfectly "normal" world which preferred darkness and death to light and life.... By the death of Jesus the "normal" world, and "normal" life were irrevocably condemned. Or rather they revealed their true and abnormal inability to receive the Light, the terrible power of evil in them. "Now is the Judgment of this world" (John 12:31). The Pascha of Jesus signified its end to "this world" and it has been at its end since then. This end can last for hundreds of centuries this does not alter the nature of time in which we live as the "last time." "The fashion of this world passeth away..." (I Cor. 7:31). 

Pascha means passover, passage. 

The feast of Passover was for the Jews the annual commemoration of their whole history as salvation, and of salvation as passage from the slavery of Egypt into freedom, from exile into the promised land. It was also the anticipation of the ultimate passage - into the Kingdom of God. And Christ was the fulfillment of Pascha. He performed the ultimate passage: from death into life, from this "old world" into the new world into the new time of the Kingdom. And he opened the possibility of this passage to us. Living in "this world" we can already be "not of this world," i.e. be free from slavery to death and sin, partakers of the "world to come." But for this we must also perform our own passage, we must condemn the old Adam in us, we must put on Christ in the baptismal death and have our true life hidden in God with Christ, in the "world to come...."

And thus Easter is not an annual commemoration, solemn and beautiful, of a past event. It is this Event itself shown, given to us, as always efficient, always revealing our world, our time, our life as being at their end, and announcing the Beginning of the new life.... And the function of the three first days of Holy Week is precisely to challenge us with this ultimate meaning of Pascha and to prepare us to the understanding and acceptance of it. 

1. This eschatological (which means ultimate, decisive, final) challenge is revealed, first, in the common troparion of these days: 

Troparion - Tone 8 

Behold the Bridegroom comes at midnight, And blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching, And again unworthy is the servant whom He shall find heedless. Beware, therefore, O my soul, do not be weighed down with sleep, Lest you be given up to death and lest you be shut out of the Kingdom. But rouse yourself crying: Holy, Holy, Holy, are You, O our God! Through the Theotokos have mercy on us!

Midnight is the moment when the old day comes to its end and a new day begins. It is thus the symbol of the time in which we live as Christians. For, on the one hand, the Church is still in this world, sharing in its weaknesses and tragedies. 

Yet, on the other hand, her true being is not of this world, for she is the Bride of Christ and her mission is to announce and to reveal the coming of the Kingdom and of the new day. Her life is a perpetual watching and expectation, a vigil pointed at the dawn of this new day. But we know how strong is still our attachment to the "old day," to the world with its passions and sins. We know how deeply we still belong to "this world." 

We have seen the light, 'We know Christ, we have heard about the peace and joy of the new life in Him, and yet the world holds us in its slavery. This weakness, this constant betrayal of Christ, this incapacity to give the totality of our love to the only true object of love are wonderfully expressed in the exapostilarion of these three days: 

"Thy Bridal Chamber I see adorned, O my Savior And I have no wedding garment that I may enter, O Giver of life, enlighten the vesture of my soul And save me."

2. The same theme develops further in the Gospel readings of these days. First of all, the entire text of the four Gospels (up to John 13: 31) is read at the Hours (1, 3, 6 and 9th). This recapitulation shows that the Cross is the climax of the whole life and ministry of Jesus, the Key to their proper understanding. Everything in the Gospel leads to this ultimate hour of Jesus and everything is to be understood in its light. Then, each service has its special Gospel lesson 

On Tuesday: At Matins: Matthew 22: 15-23, 39. Condemnation of Pharisees, i.e. of the blind and hypocritical religion, of those who think they are the leaders of man and the light of the world, but who in fact "shut up the Kingdom of heaven to men." 

At the Presanctified Liturgy: Matthew 24: 36-26, 2. The End again and the parables of the End: the ten wise virgins who had enough oil in their lamps and the ten foolish ones who were not admitted to the bridal banquet; the parable of ten talents ". . . Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh." And, finally the Last Judgment. 

3.These Gospel lessons are explained and elaborated in the hymnology of these days: the stichiras and the triodia (short canons of three odes each sung at Matins). One warning, one exhortation runs through all of them: the end and the judgment are approaching, let us prepare for them:

"Behold, O my soul, the Master has conferred on thee a talent Receive the gift with fear; Lend to him who gave; distribute to the poor And acquire for thyself thy Lord as thy Friend; That when He shall come in glory, Thou mayest stand on His right hand And hear His blessed voice: Enter, my servant, into the joy of thy Lord." (Tuesday Matins)

4. Throughout the whole Lent the two books of the Old Testament read at Vespers were Genesis and Proverbs. With the beginning of Holy Week they are replaced by Exodus and Job. Exodus is the story of Israel's liberation from Egyptian slavery, of their Passover. It prepares us for the understanding of Christ's exodus to His Father, of His fulfillment of the whole history of salvation. Job, the Sufferer, is the Old Testament icon of Christ. This reading announces the great mystery of Christ's sufferings, obedience and sacrifice. 

5. The liturgical structure of these three days is still of the Lenten type. It includes, therefore, the prayer of St Ephrem the Syrian with prostrations, the augmented reading of the Psalter, the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts and the Lenten liturgical chant. We are still in the time of repentance for repentance alone makes us partakers of the Pascha of Our Lord, opens to us the doors of the Paschal banquet. And then, on Great and Holy Wednesday, as the last Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is about to be completed, after the Holy Gifts have been removed from the altar, the priest reads for the last time the Prayer of St Ephrem. At this moment, the preparation comes to an end. The Lord summons us now to His Last Supper.

Jesus' Words Backed by Archaeology: The Stones Are Crying Out

Holy Week is an ideal time to post examples of the many historical, archaeological and scientific confirmations of the Biblical witness to the Christian Faith, which itself is part of the Living Tradition of the Orthodox Church. This is especially important when it comes to the challenge posed by Islam, as the Koran claims that Jesus was not crucified:

In fact, they never killed him, they never crucified him � they were made to think that they did. All factions who are disputing in this matter are full of doubt concerning this issue. They possess no knowledge; they only conjecture. For certain, they never killed him. (Sura 4:157)

This patently false assertion in the supposedly divine Koran goes against not only the Gospel accounts, but even the historical witness of first century Roman and Jewish historians, as I note in my book, Facing Islam (p. 57):

...From a purely secular standpoint alone, Jesus the Christ is written of by numerous Roman and Jewish historians from the mid first-century onwards, including Thallus (who wrote circa 52 AD about Jesus� crucifixion and the darkness over the land), Mara Bar-Serapion (writing ca. 70 AD), the renowned Jewish historian Josephus (ca. 93 AD), the Roman historian Tacitus (ca. 110-120 AD), and others.  As Orthodox Christians, we of course rely primarily on the integrity of the Apostolic witness, the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles and the Holy Tradition of the Church for our knowledge and understanding of the life, ministry and Person of Jesus Christ.

For an excellent study of the validity of the Gospel accounts, I strongly recommend 'Jesus and the Eyewitnesses - The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony', by Richard Bauckham. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy and share the below article as we journey with the Lord to His cross and resurrection.


Jesus' Words Backed by Archaeology: The Stones Are Crying Out
by Charles Colson, Charisma News via Pravoslavie
February 7, 2015

A few years ago, people exploring caves outside Jerusalem came across the find of a lifetime: an ancient burial cave containing the remains of a crucified man. This find is only one in a series of finds that overturns a century-old scholarly consensus.

That consensus held that the Gospels are almost entirely proclamation and contain little, if any, real history. The remains belonged to a man who had been executed in the first century A.D., that is, from the time of Jesus.

As Jeffrey Sheler writes in his book Is the Bible True? the skeleton confirms what the evangelists wrote about Jesus' death and burial in several important ways.

First, location�scholars had long doubted the biblical account of Jesus' burial. They believed that crucified criminals were tossed in a mass grave and then devoured by wild animals. But this man, a near contemporary of Jesus, was buried in the same way the Bible says Jesus was buried.

Then there's the physical evidence from the skeleton. The man's shinbones appeared to have been broken. This confirms what John wrote about the practice of Roman executioners. They would break the legs of the crucified to hasten death, something from which Jesus, already dead, was spared.

This point is particularly noteworthy, since scholars have long dismissed the details of John's Passion narrative as theologically motivated embellishments. Another part of John's Gospel that archaeology has recently corroborated is the story of Jesus healing the lame man in John 5.

John describes a five-sided pool just inside the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem where the sick came to be healed. Since no other document of antiquity�including the rest of the Bible�mentions such a place, skeptics have long argued that John simply invented the place. But as Sheler points out, when archaeologists decided to dig where John said that the pool had been located, they found a five-sided pool. What's more, the pool contained shrines to the Greek gods of healing.

Apparently John didn't make up the pool after all. The dismissal of biblical texts without bothering to dig points to a dirty little secret about a lot of scholarly opinion: Much of the traditional suspicion of the biblical text can only be called a prejudice.

That is, it's a conclusion arrived at before one has the facts. Scholars long assumed that the Bible, like other documents of antiquity, was essentially propaganda, what theologian Rudolf Bultmann called "kerygma" or proclamation.

But this prejudice does an injustice to biblical faith. Central to that faith are history and memory.

Christians believe that God has acted, and continues to act, in history. For us, remembering what God has done is an act of worship�something that brings us closer to God.

Thus, while these discoveries in the desert may come as a surprise to some skeptics, they're no surprise to Christians. While archeology alone cannot bring a person to faith, these finds are an eloquent argument for not dismissing the truth of Scripture before at least examining the evidence, because, as we are learning every day, Jesus meant it when He said, "The very stones will cry out."

Bridegroom Matins of Great and Holy Tuesday: 'Work diligently with the talent given to you...'

May all who have received a talent from God,  now, with the help of Christ, increase according to the grace given by Him and sing: �Bless the Lord, O works of the Lord!� (from Ode 8 of the Canon)

Behold the Bridegroom...

The first half of Holy Week in the Orthodox Church directs us to repentance, fruitfulness and vigilance, in anticipation of the Lord's Second Coming.

As the enemy of our salvation stirs up persecutions against us and our brothers and sisters throughout the world, together with "wars and rumors of wars," and as he "prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Pet 5:8), trying to lull us into laziness and love for the pleasures of this life, therefore we must rouse ourselves and contend for "the Faith once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3).

May these excerpts from the Bridegroom Matins of Holy Tuesday help inspire us to "Work diligently, therefore, with the talent given to us..." 
____

Tone 8 Troparion

Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight,

and blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching;

and again, unworthy is the servant whom He shall find heedless.

Beware, therefore, O my soul, do not be weighted down with sleep,

lest you be given up to death 

and lest you be shut out of the Kingdom!

But rouse yourself, crying: �Holy, holy, holy, are You, O our God!�

Through the Theotokos have mercy on us!

Tone 4* Kathisma Hymn (following Kathisma 9)

Let us love the Bridegroom, O brothers!

Let us keep our lamps aflame with virtues and true faith,

so that we, like the wise virgins of the Lord,

may be ready to enter with Him into the marriage feast!//

For the Bridegroom, as God, grants unto all an incorruptible crown.

Tone 2 Kontakion

You know that this is the last hour, O wretched soul,

and fear the cutting of the fig tree.

Work diligently, therefore, with the talent given to you.

Keep watch and cry://

�Let us not remain outside the bridal chamber of Christ!�

Ikos

Why are you idle, my wretched soul?

What useless cares cause you to be lost in dreams?

Why busy yourself with things that pass away?

The last hour is at hand, and we shall be parted from all earthly things.

Therefore, while there is time, rouse yourself and cry:

�I have sinned before You, O my Savior!

Do not cut me off like the barren fig tree!

In Your compassion, O Christ, take pity on me who call out in fear:

�Let us not remain outside the bridal chamber of Christ!�� 

Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins

Ode 8 of The Kanon

Let us cast aside all idleness, 

and with shining lamps and hymns meet Christ, the Immortal Bridegroom, singing:

�Bless the Lord, O works of the Lord!�   Refrain

May we together have enough oil in the vessels of our souls, 

so that, not wasting the time of rewards in buying more, we may sing: 

�Bless the Lord, O works of the Lord!�  Refrain

May all who have received a talent from God, 

now, with the help of Christ, increase according to the grace given by Him and sing: 

�Bless the Lord, O works of the Lord!�

Exapostilarion

Your bridal chamber I see adorned, O my Savior,

and I have no wedding garment that I may enter.

O Giver of Light,

enlighten the vesture of my soul, and save me!

The Praises (Psalms 148. 149, 150)

v. Praise Him for His mighty deeds; praise Him according to His exceeding

greatness! (Ps 150:2)

Tone 1 (from the Lenten Triodion) 

How shall I, the unworthy one,

appear in the splendor of Your saints?

For if I dare enter Your bridal chamber with them,

my garments will betray me:

they are unfit for a wedding.

The Angels will cast me out in chains.

Cleanse the filth of my soul, O Lord,//

and save me in Your love for mankind!

v.  Praise Him with timbrel and dance; praise Him with strings

and pipe! (Ps 150:4)

Tone 2  

O Christ the Bridegroom,

my soul has slumbered in laziness.

I have no lamp aflame with virtues.

Like the foolish virgins, I wander aimlessly when it is time for work.

But do not close Your compassionate heart to me, O Master!

Rouse me, shake off my heavy sleep!

Lead me with the wise virgins into the bridal chamber,

that I may hear the pure voice of those that feast and cry unceasingly://

�O Lord, glory to You!�

Tone 4  

You have heard the condemnation, O soul,

of the man who hid his talent.

But do not hide the Word of God!

Proclaim His wonders,

that, increasing the gift of grace,//

you may enter into the joy of your Lord!

Aposticha

Tone 6 (from the Lenten Triodion)

Come, O faithful,

let us work zealously for the Master,

for He distributes wealth to His servants!

Let each of us, according to his ability,

increase his talent of grace:

let one be adorned in wisdom through good works;

let another celebrate a service in splendor!

The one distributes his wealth to the poor;

the other communicates the Word to those untaught.

Thus we shall increase what has been entrusted to us,

and, as faithful stewards of grace,

we shall be accounted worthy of the Master�s joy.

Make us worthy of this, O Christ our God,//

in Your love for mankind!