Archpastoral Letter For Pascha 2024
Saturday, May 4, 2024
Protocol 7/2024
To the Very Reverend Protopresbyters, Very Reverend and Reverend Fathers, and the Faithful Laity (young and old) of our God-Protected Diocese:
CHRIST IS RISEN! INDEED, HE IS RISEN!
"The reign of life has begun, the tyranny of death is ended. A new birth has taken place, a new life has come, a new order of existence has appeared, our very nature has been transformed! This birth is not brought about by human generation, by the will of man, or by the desire of the flesh, but by God.” St Gregory of Nyssa,
Today I greet you with great love and joy in the Name of our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ following His glorious Resurrection. On Great and Holy Pascha, we behold the triumph of Christ, as He rose from death to life, from darkness of the tomb into the Light. With the Resurrection of Christ, all Creation is filled with a new Light of life and joy. On this Feast of Feasts, this Holy Day of Holy Days, we all proclaim the only truth that matters, the Truth that Christ is Risen!
We gather together as family and friends, in joy and in love, celebrating the presence of the Risen Lord in our midst, and singing with one voice the triumphant hymn "Christ is risen from the dead, trampling death by death, and to those in the tombs bestowing life." As true believers and followers of Jesus Christ we can shout out joyfully that “CHRIST IS RISEN!”, “CHRISTOS VOSKRESE!”, “CHRISTOS ANESTI!” And we can respond “INDEED HE IS RISEN!”, “VOISTINNU VOSKRESE!”, “ALITHOS ANESTI!”
Let us sing the beautiful triumphant hymn of the Resurrection with great strength and joy every day, multiple times a day, for 40 days.
On this Bright and Holy Feast, I extend my prayerful best wishes to you, the Clergy and Laity, Friends and Supporters of the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese. May you truly experience the love, joy, and excitement of the early followers of Christ when they first saw Him after His Resurrection. Christ is Risen!
Greetings from Johnstown with much agape,,
+ Metropolitan Gregory of Nyssa
To be read as the sermon in all churches of the Diocese at the Paschal Divine Liturgy on the Feast of the Resurrection of our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ.