March 7-20, 1954
Great Lent - all of its services are united by the idea of
preparing for Holy Pascha, to meet the risen Christ with a clean heart. Why do
we prepare in this manner? What is Pascha? Pascha is a taste of the joy of
paradise! What is this joy? It is that we see God and His glory! The Church
loves the glory of the Lord! When she celebrates the Feast of Orthodoxy, she
keeps the festival of the day of the reestablishment of the veneration of
icons. An icon is simply a reminder of Christ the God-Man on earth. Icons of
the saints are reminders of all those who followed Christ, who were faithful
and devoted to Him, and burned with love for Him. The veneration of the holy
icons is the veneration of the glory of the Lord. He Who
rejoices in the glory of God and in everything that reminds him of it in this
life will also rejoice in the age to come. He who in this life strove toward
God will rush to Him joyfully when he hears the words, "Come unto Me, ye blessed..." at the dread judgment. All those who
do not know how to rejoice in the glory of God, in whom the divine realm and
its laws call forth a state of unhappiness, who love gloom or semi-gloom, who
do not love the light, will not answer to the call of "Come unto Me."
They will shrink back in indignation, unhappiness, in jealousy and anger, from
the humble and the meek who will go toward the light,
from God Himself, Whom they will begin to blame for being in their state. They
will even shrink from themselves, though they will not want to admit their guilt.
Such a state is true suffering. Hades is not a place, no, but a state of the
soul. It begins here on earth. Just so, paradise begins in the soul of a man
here in the earthly life. Here we already have contact with the divine, on the
day of the Bright Resurrection and when we worthily receive Holy Communion. It
is necessary to prepare for confession: All of a splinter must be removed, for
if there is any left, infection will begin. It is necessary to pray for
repentance and for the joy of purification, so that a ray of light will touch
our soul and it will come to love the light... It is necessary to pray to meet
the Risen Christ with a clean heart, to taste of the joy of the kingdom of
heaven at least in the smallest degree.
Return to the first page
