What is Divine Love?

We have been though a long fasting period, experienced the Crucifixion of our Lord and then the joy of His Resurrection and the promise of our own resurrection.  The joy of this celebration cannot be fully expressed.  We find that there is a love within us that no one can take away from us.  It is the Christ who lives within each of us.


Elder Porphyrios says,

Christ is everything.  He is our love.  He is the object of our desire.  This passionate longing for Christ is a love that cannot be taken away.  This is where joy flows from.

How do you experience this joy?  When we encounter Christ within we feel as if we are intoxicated with spiritual wine of the best vintage.  We find it difficult to contain and impossible to express.  The challenge we all face after this great celebration is to let his joy flow out from us in an outpouring of our love for each other.


This joy can be maintained though an Orthodox Way of Life.  Review it. Continually evaluate your current activities and gradually bring them in line with this joy you experience from the Pascha celebration.


Elder Porphyrios says,

Fast as much as you can, make as many prostrations as you can, attend as many vigils as you like, but be joyful.  Have Christ's joy.  It is the joy that lasts forever, that brings eternal happiness.  It is the joy of  our Lord that gives assured serenity, serene delight and full happiness.  All joyful joy that surpasses every joy. Christ desires and delights in scattering joy, in enriching his faithful with joy.  I pray that your joy may be full.

Quotes from Wounded by Love, p 96

Hymns of Love from Scripture

At the Agape Vespers on Sunday morning we come together in love.  Here are some of the significant sections from aScripture on Love.


1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (New King James Version)
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.

1 John 4:7-10 (New King James Version)
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

John 15:9-17 (New King James Version)
“As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another.

How Did Tradition of Dyed Red Eggs Begin?

Mary Magdalene’s trip to Rome

Shortly after the ascension of our Lord and after the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, Mary Magdalene received the strong desire to go to Rome to expose the unjust actions of the Governor Pilate and the High Priests Annas and Caiphas. She obtained permission from the Theotokos and booked a sailing vessel for Rome. Once in Rome she went immediately to the palace of Caesar. There she was initially refused but as she was about to depart up came a high ranking official Puplius who was very familiar with the situation. He showed her a letter that he wrote to the Caesar. In part it read, “ The truth be told, there are some astonishing things concerning this Christ. Miracles abound: He raises the dead and heals the sick with but a word. He is a man of average height, handsome of countenance with an air of majesty. Those that encounter him are enjoined either to love him or fear him. His hair is the color of walnut, which extends to his shoulders and glistens. He belongs to the group known as Nazarenes. His forehead is smooth and calm. His face is without wrinkles or blemishes. His nose and lips are regular. His beard is dense and the same color as his hair. It is not long, but it separates in two at the middle. He has a serious look that can excite fear. He possesses a power like a ray of the sun...His manner of addressing is pleasing. His mother is also a beautiful woman, the most beautiful I might add, so that some say she looks like a goddess…. He often walks barefooted and without a head covering. Some laugh at him, while others tremble in his presence from their astonishment. He never preaches anything to promote himself in the world...this Christ has never urged anyone to do anything displeasing, but rather he exhorts the people to perform good deeds…"

His knowledge of the situation led Mary to tears. He told her that Caesar had received his letter and that even Caesar respected Jesus.

After hearing Mary’s plea for justice in this matter Puplius committed to have Caesar to issue an oder to call Pilate, Annas and Caiaphas to Rome for a trial. He asked her to give him two months to recall them. Mary thanked him and took up residence in Rome establishing the first house church there where they gathered almost every night praying and discoursing.

Three months after her first arrival the trial was set to begin. It was known that Caesar was incensed with the three who had been recalled because they killed a wonderful man who worked many miracles to benefit the people. As the trial began “Mary appeared marvelous as she walked in the midst of the court toward the autocrat. She was clad in a brown tunic, with a leather belt. She wore a long orange-colored veil the inner kerchief was a deep orange. Her whole appearance created a marvelous impression.”

“Orthodox tradition and iconography also maintains that when Saint Mary appeared before tiberius Caesar Augustus, she presented him with an egg dyed red, greeting him with the words: “Christ is risen! This is a custom that has since spread among Orthodox Christians throughout the world. The prayer read at the blessing of the eggs says near the end, “Thus have we received from the holy fathers, who preserved this custom from the very time of the holy apostles; therefore the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene first showed believers the example of this joyful offering.”

The trial proceeded and Mary clearly explained how Pilate had conducted the trial in Jerusalem against Jesus Christ.. On hearing the case Caesar said “Those who are guilty will be punished.” Caesar asked for advice from his counsel Claudius who confirmed that he (Pilate ) “acted not only in an irregular manner but even unlawfully by condemning to death this man whom he found no reason in our penal code that deserved death.”

Mary then gave further testimony about the tortures that took place. She said, “When they arrested my Teacher in the garden on the mount of Olives, they brought him bound to Annas, and then to Caiaphas, .. they thrashed Jesus pitilessly and inhumanely throughout His holy body. They brought him to the Praetorium, to the Roman GOvernor Pilate…” She continued, “The instruments of torture, O Caesar, they used to scourge my Teacher was a bullwhip, rods with knots, and ropes with iron stars and hooks positioned at a short distance from each other. These lacerated His flesh to the bones. Sixty soldiers struck again and again. The virginal and noble flesh of the God-Man was shred to pieces….when they saw his bones and blood running like a river from His veins, they were rejoicing and laughing among themselves with inexplicable satisfaction…. the executioners were as dogs, and bulls, and tigers, and wild animals. ”And she went describing the horrible treatment He had received. As she finished, the crowd at the trial began to chant: “Death! Death to the god-slayers! Death!”

Caiaphas never made it to the trial as he died on the trip to Rome. Tiberius Caesar sentenced Annas to a tortuous death and imprisoned Pilate who was eventually killed. Mary Magdalene remained in Rome for several years until the death of Pilate. She then returned to Jerusalem after having established an energetic church in Rome.

Source: Great Synaxaristes of the Orthodox Church - July pp 945-968
Download complete excerpt from The Great Synaxaristes of the Orthodox Church (pdf)

Be a Partaker of the Resurrection

Leo the Great of Rome  reminds us that we must all become partakers in Christ's Resurrection life.

“We must strive to be found partakers also of Christ's Resurrection, and 'pass from death unto life' while we are in this body. We must die, therefore, to the devil and live to God: we must perish to iniquity that we may rise to righteousness. . . . As we have borne the image of the earthy, so let us also bear the image of Him Who is from heaven, we must greatly rejoice over this change, whereby we are translated from earthly degradation to heavenly dignity through His unspeakable mercy, Who descended into our estate that He might promote us to His.” Thus has Christ fulfilled Adam’s quest for restoration.

St. Leo continues: 

“Let God's people then recognize that they are a new creation in Christ, and with all vigilance understand by Whom they have been adopted and Whom they have adopted. These thoughts, dearly beloved, must be kept in mind not only for the Paschal festival, but also for the sanctification of the whole life... so that rising ever anew from all downfalls, we may deserve to attain to the incorruptible Resurrection of our glorified flesh in Christ Jesus our Lord. . .”.

This day’s celebration of the Resurrection must be a daily celebration for those who put their hope in God. This hope gives us joy in our daily lives. Our daily lives lead us to eternal life. Eternal life is bestowed on us by him who said: “I am now going to open your graves and raise you from your graves, my people. And I shall put My spirit in you, and you will live...it is the Lord God who speaks.” Amen!

(Homily 71: On the Lord's Resurrection, Great and Holy Saturday) 

Descent into Hades

On Great and Holy Saturday the Church contemplates the mystery of the Lord's descent into Hades, the place of the dead. Death, our ultimate enemy, is defeated from within. 

"He (Christ) gave Himself as a ransom to death in which we were held captive, sold under sin. Descending into Hades through the Cross ... He loosed the bonds of death" (Liturgy of St. Basil).

Hades is a place of captivity, where souls are held in bondage because of sin. But, by receiving the soul of Christ, Hades is no longer a place of captivity for its bonds were destroyed and death itself is overcome. Hades has become for the faithful an irrelevant place, the dwelling place only for Satan and his demons,

On this Sabbath Jesus Christ in the tomb was changing the tomb from a place of death into a source of life. Likewise His soul was destroying Hades, and leading the souls of the righteous out of that place of bondage into the eternal freedom of the Kingdom of heaven.

Let's ask ourselves: Are we alive in Christ? Despite the daily difficulties, the traumas and tragedies, the abiding presence of sickness and aging, the reality of death and hell, and all the distress of our human condition, can we say we are at peace in Christ?

He can be with us in the face of all sorrows if we walk in His way — if we follow Him out of Hades, out of the bondage to sin. He will overcome all sorrow for us, if we walk with Him and keep His commandments. On Wednesday we have the service of Holy Unction because it emphasizes the expectation of Pascha: the resurrection, redemption and sanctification of all life. The purpose of Holy Unction is healing and forgiveness. It allows a person to share in the victory of Christ and raise him to the level of God's kingdom. It assures us of the spiritual power of the sacraments of the Church so that our trials of physical and spiritual sickness can be carried with courage and hope. it helps us to realize how fragile human life really is and how dependent we are on God. In this sacrament we are sanctified and united to the sufferings of Christ which we will witness in the coming days.

Great Saturday is the day between Jesus' death and His resurrection. It is the day of watchful expectation, in which mourning is being transformed into joy.

The hymnographer of the Church has penetrated the profound mystery, and helps us to understand it through the following poetic dialogue that he has devised between Jesus and His Mother:

Weep not for me, O Mother, beholding in the sepulcher the Son whom thou hast conceived without seed in thy womb. For I shall rise and shall be glorified, and as God I shall exalt in everlasting glory those who magnify thee with faith and love.

"O Son without beginning, in ways surpassing nature was I blessed at Thy strange birth, for I was spared all travail. But now beholding Thee, my God, a lifeless corpse, I am pierced by the sword of bitter sorrow. But arise, that I may be magnified."

"By mine own will the earth covers me, O Mother, but the gatekeepers of hell tremble as they see me, clothed in the bloodstained garment of vengeance: for on the Cross as God have I struck down mine enemies, and I shall rise again and magnify thee."

"Let the creation rejoice exceedingly, let all those born on earth be glad: for hell, the enemy, has been despoiled. Ye women, come to meet me with sweet spices: for I am delivering Adam and Eve with all their offspring, and on the third day I shall rise again."

The Lamentations

Jesus Christ was broken on the Cross, but He was not divided. His body and His soul were wrenched apart in death — death on a Cross — but they were not divided because both His body and His soul were united to the divinity of the Son of God.

This profound mystery is true for us also because we, too, are united to Jesus Christ in Holy Baptism, sealed with the Holy Spirit in Holy Chrismation, brought back to Him in Holy Confession, and kept in enduring communion with Him through the Holy Eucharist. These Mysteries, or Sacraments are not merely "spiritual" but they are completely holistic since they unite us body and soul to God. And if we have been so united to Him in this life, then at our death, the separation of our body and soul is not fearful, but merely a transition from earthly to heavenly life.

Death therefore has no more hold on us than it does on Jesus Christ — if we are sacramentally in union with him. Estrangement from the Church, alienation from the sacraments, distance from Christ, is the worst possible thing: it is living death.

Contemplating the iconographic image of the kouvouklion (tomb of Christ with the Epitaphion) set before us tonight, we see that Life is in the tomb, not death; Hades is emptied, not holding the souls of the righteous. The Soul of Jesus destroys the power of Hades, leading out the souls of the righteous into the Kingdom of heaven. This reality is celebrated tonight, and the great resurrection we will experience on Pascha is foreshadowed. This reality is beautifully expressed in the following hymn from the Ninth Ode of the Kanon, sung in the voice of Jesus speaking to His Mother:

"Lament not for Me, Mother, as you behold Me in the grave, Whom as a Son you conceived in your womb without seed; for I shall rise and be glorified, and as God, I shall ceaselessly exalt in glory those, who in faith and yearning, magnify you." (Katavasia of the Ninth Ode of the Kanon) 

Let us, then, stand and sing out in rejoicing the Resurrection hymn:

When You descended to the realm of death, • You as life immortal • rendered to Hades a mortal blow • by Your all-radiant divinity; • and when You from infernal depths and the darkness below did raise the dead, • all the hosts of heavens powers did proclaim and cry out: • O life-giving Christ • and our God, we give glory.

The Crucifixion

Below are excerpts from a Sermon On Holy Thursday Night by Metropolitan Isaiah of Denver.

The purpose of this service is to bring us as close to "being there" on Calvary as possible. With the centurion and his soldiers we are amazed. With the Angels we are astounded. With Mary His Mother and His other relatives we are heartbroken. Perhaps with the leaders of the people we are skeptical and maybe even mock the Lord by our hardness of heart and our sinful ways.

The focus of the service is, obviously, on death — an unnatural condition for mankind, for God created man but did not create death. 

We read in the Old Testament Wisdom of Solomon:

"God did not make death, and He does not delight in the death of the living, for He created all things that they might exist ... But through the devil's envy death entered the world." (Wisdom 1:13-14, 2:24)

Old Testament Wisdom of Solomon:

"God created man for incorruption and made him in the image of His own eternity ... But ungodly men by their words and deeds summoned death." (Wisdom 2:23, 1:16)

The truth is that death is unnatural, indeed it is an abomination of God's creation. It is a consequence of our alienation from God, it results from falling short of the Glory of God, it is the ultimate failure to choose God Who is Life.

Saint Paul states in his Epistle to the Romans:

"It was through one man (Adam) that sin entered the world and through sin death, and thus death pervaded the whole human race." (Romans 5:12)

By embracing death Jesus destroyed death. By embracing death Jesus joined death to Himself the Living One. By embracing death Jesus poured divine Life into death. Jesus destroyed death itself by His own death on the Cross.

Jesus Christ, the God-man, experienced the full horror of death. His cry, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken me" clearly expresses that death is a bad thing; those who live in a culture of death and nihilism do not know what they are doing n or what abomination and horror they are heaping upon themselves.

Yet, Jesus "perfected" death. His last word was "Tetelestai," in Latin "Perficium est;" in English, "It is finished." In other words, Jesus fulfilled and perfected His redemptive mission, accepting the full consequences of human sin, death itself, though He Himself was sinless.

The death of a man is radical "unfulfillment." It is the end of earthly life, and the disintegration (or bodily decomposition) of the image and likeness of God in which we are all fashioned. Paradoxically, the death of Jesus Christ is radical "fulfillment." In Christ death was joined to life, and the possibility of recomposition and resurrection to the image of God became a real possibility.
In the Old Testament Job asked: "If a man dies, shall he live again?" (Job 14:14). The answer is a resounding Yes! Jesus stood by two dead bodies — the daughter of Jairus and the son of the widow in Nain — and restored them to life. Jesus also stood before the tomb of Lazarus who had been dead four days, recomposed his soul and body, and resurrected him. Jesus was crucified on the Cross, raised up from the earth, embraced death, and destroyed death by His rising on the third day.

"If a man dies, shall he live again?" In Christ Jesus: ABSOLUTELY!

What does this mean for the human race? Even if physical sickness, aging, and death still appear to reign on earth, they are no longer the final stage in a long disintegrating and destructive process. Death is not a passage from life in this world to eternal death or annihilation. After Christ death is merely the indispensable doorway, the sure sign of our "Pascha" — of our passing from this life to eternal life.

We celebrate tonight that fact Christ has joined Himself to death: We have heard it in the Gospels, we have seen it in the procession, we have embraced it in faith, and we cry out:

Today is hung upon the Tree, He Who suspended the earth in the midst of the waters. A crown of thorns crowns Him, Who is King of the angels. The purple of mockery is wrapped about Him, Who wrapped the heavens in clouds. Nails transfixed Him, Who is the Bridegroom of the Church. A spear pierced Him, Who is the Son of the Virgin. (Audio) 

Metropolitan Isaiah of Denver  Ref