| Автор: Българска Патриаршия
PATRIARCHAL AND SYNODIC PASCHAL EPISTLE
In him was life; and the life was the light of men (cf. John 1:4)
CHRIST IS RISEN!
Beloved in the Resurrected Lord
Children of our Holy Church,
At the dawn of the Holy Pascha the whole universe is echoing through again with the happy word about the Resurrected God-Man and the glorious triumph of life. So our joy is full and our hope glowing with brightness, for now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept (cf.1Cor15:20).
With this unmarred hope and unfailing faith in Christ the Lord, who was raised from the dead, we live towards salvation, testifying that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son (cf.1John 5:11); that by the mercy of God we are given the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the age to come (cf. the Nicene Creed). The earnest and the firstfruits of our resurrection lie in the Resurrection of Christ. Being baptized and becoming partakers of the holysacramental life of the Church, we are then Christ`s witnesses too, eyewitnesses to his glorious and all conquering Resurrection. Though being subject to human infirmities, we look ahead in hope of salvation, anticipating the resurrection and the everlasting life in the Kingdom of the Father. Though still being captives to the underheaven hosts of malice, we live free from the power of evil and death. Our hearts as well as our thoughts being purified, we thence preach to the world that Christ is Risen, the Alpha and the Omega,… the beginning beyond explanation and the ending beyond achievement (St. Melito of Sardis, Pascha Sermon); as the Resurrection of Christ came and brought life back! (St. John Chrysostom, Praise on Pascha).
In order to bring life back and give it to us, the Savior went through lots of sufferings and was then crucified. He let us bury him into the cold and dark grave in order to bring us to the way of light and life. He went through all that suffering just because of His love, and therefore the divine Evangelist testified that God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (cf.John 3&16). And further on he added: In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him (cf.1John 4:9). That is why the Church hath believeth and preached throughout the ages that this all embracing and divine love, apart from being an essential element of God’s creation impulse, is the momentum of the divine providence as well as of God’s plan. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved (cf.John 3:17), as we are told again by the Evangelist.
Following the example of Christ the Savior: of his life, crucifix sufferings, death and Resurrection, we are called, too, to make the love we give equal to the love given by Him who entirely offered Himself to us. We are told to condemn not, but to forgive and to love one another. And also in every thing to give thanks, to have His suffering on the cross before our eyes, as it was through them that He redeemed and saved us in order that we may have abundance of life. For He told us during His days in the world that by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another (cf.John 13:35).
Dear brothers and sisters,
Christ’s Resurrection is light and the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not (cf. John 1:5). It can easily illuminate the deepest and impenetrable darkness and it is something we constantly obtain vigour for life from, even when every hope hath died away. It illuminates our way in darkest nights, dispelling even the deepest grief in our souls and melting away any disconsolateness. The Resurrection is the only true foundation of our faith as well as of our hope. Hence, let us live and labour to prove worthy of testifying for Jesus Christ who rose from the dead and brought us back from death to life, so that we might become partakers of his Resurrection.
At the dawn of the Holy Pascha we are fatherly greeting all faithful children of our holy Orthodox Church: those who are living within our Motherland as well as all those who are living abroad, and we are wishing them spiritual peace and most abundant Paschal joy in the resurrected Lord and Savior! May the blessing of Christ the Lord who rose from the dead be with you all! CHRIST IS RISEN!
HEAD OF THE HOLY SYNOD
† MAXIM
PATRIARCH OF BULGARIA
AND METROPOLITAN OF SOFIA
† Metropolitan KALINIK of Vratsa
† Metropolitan IOANICIUS of Sliven
† Metropolitan DOMETIAN of Vidin
† Metropolitan KIRILL of Varna and Velicky Preslav
† Metropolitan JOSEPH of USA, Canada and Australia
† Metropolitan SIMEON of Western and Central Europe
† Metropolitan GREGORIUS of Velicko Turnovo
† Metropolitan NEOPHIT of Rousse
† Metropolitan NATHANEIL of Nevrokop
† Metropolitan IGNATIUS of Pleven
† Metropolitan GALAKTION of Stara Zagora
† Metropolitan GAVREIL of Lovech
† Metropolitan NICKOLAI of Plovdiv
† Metropolitan AMBROSIUS of Dorostol
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