| Българска патриаршия
Again the inexpressible grace of God touches our hearts feeling the joy of the sacred Pascha – the Holiday of all holidays and the Feast of all feasts! On this brightest day of the most glorious Resurrection of Christ the Holy Orthodox Church is exulting spiritually, “having beheld Christ the King issuing forth like bridegroom from the tomb!”
“O Christ, Thou great and most sacred Pascha! O Wisdom, Word and Power of God!”
The word “Pascha” means “passing over” – passing over from corruption to incorruption, from death to life, from sin to salvation, from the transient to the eternal, from “the valley of weeping” (Ps. 83:6) and “the shadow of death” (Ps. 22:4) to the never-ending day in “the New Jerusalem” of the Heavenly Kingdom. The Resurrection of Christ is the most long-awaited and yearned for event in the human history, preached about and prophesied by the Old Testament prophets, witnessed by the holy apostles and the myrrh-bearing women and sealed with the blood and the suffering of an innumerable community of martyrs and confessors of the faith. The Resurrection of Christ is our ceaseless joy and inspiration. It is a meaning and purpose of our life. The Resurrection of Christ is a consolation for those who have lost hope, courage for the discouraged, exculpation for the downtrodden, rise for the fallen, power for the weak. It is the centre of our faith. By the power of the Resurrection the sting of death is unrooted from the world once and for all. Because, if Christ has not been raised, our faith is in vain (cf. 1 Cor. 15:17). If Christ has not been raised, our life would not have meaning. “But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead! He did become the first fruits of those who are asleep” (1 Cor. 15:20). “Let no one fear death, for the Saviour’s death has set us free”, Saint John Chrysostom exclaims. As Christ rose from the dead, so would we and our closest ones be raised on the last day, as we confess during every Liturgy: “I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the age to come!“
In the troubled times we live in, constantly hearing about wars, death, violence, injustice, conflicts which are tearing our world apart, we have one and only hope: CHRIST IS RISEN! We have one undeceitful promise by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Himself: “Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). Let us not fear. Let us stand upright, lively, with trust in the Risen Saviour. Let us adopt the intransient evangelical virtues, let us participate in the sacramental life of our Holy Orthodox Church, let us imitate the saints, let us forgive our neighbours, let us be merciful, let us fight against individualism, dependencies, the divisions and alienation among us, as well as against each sin, “which so easily entangles us” (Heb. 12:1). May the light of the Resurrection of Christ be our guiding star, so that we can fearlessly serve God in holiness and justice before Him during all the days of our life (cf. Luk. 1:75).
We wish to all the children of our Holy Church – those in Bulgaria and those far away from our Motherland, health, peace, spiritual strength and Paschal joy! Let us be made worthy as well, as the apostles of Christ and the myrrh-bearing women, to meet the Risen Saviour, to communicate with Him in prayer, to live united with Him, with our actions to be true witnesses to His most holy and salvific Resurrection!
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ Who has risen from the dead, the love of God and the Father and the communion in the Most Holy Spirit be with us all!
CHRIST IS RISEN!
HEAD OF THE HOLY SYNOD
† D A N I I L
PATRIARCH OF BULGARIA AND METROPOLITAN OF SOFIA
MEMBERS OF THE HOLY SYNOD:
† Metropolitan YOSIF of USA, Canada and Australia
† Metropolitan GRIGORIY of Veliko Tаrnovo
† Metropolitan IGNATIY of Pleven
† Metropolitan GAVRIIL of Lovech
† Metropolitan NIKOLAY of Plovdiv
† Metropolitan ANTONIY of Western and Central Europe
† Metropolitan YOAN of Varna and Veliky Preslav
† Metropolitan SERAPHIM of Nevrokop
† Metropolitan NAUM of Rousse
† Metropolitan CYPRIAN of Stara Zagora
† Metropolitan GRIGORIY of Vratsa,
† Metropolitan YAKOV of Dorostol
† Metropolitan ARSENIY of Sliven
† Metropolitan PAHOMIY of Vidin
