Quote for the Morning: Easter

[Shin]

'Brethren and fathers, Lent is already galloping past and the soul rejoices at the imminence of Easter, because by it it finds rest and is relieved of many toils.

Why did this thought sound for me in advance? Because it is as if our whole life directs its reason contemplating the eternal Easter.

For this present Easter, even though it is great and revered, is nevertheless, as our fathers explain, only a type of that Easter to come.

For this Easter is for one day and it passes, while that Easter has no successor.

From it pain, grief and sighing have fled away; there everlasting joy, gladness and rejoicing; there the sound of those who feast, a choir of those who keep festival and contemplation of eternal light; where there is the blessed breakfast of Christ and the new drink of which Christ spoke, I shall not drink of the fruit of this vine, until I drink it with you new in the kingdom of my Father.

Of this he spoke to his disciples when he was about to ascend to heaven, I am going to prepare a place for you and, if I go, I will prepare a place for you. I am coming again and I will take you to myself, so that where I am you maybe also. And where I am going you know, and the way you know.

And a little further on, On that day you will know that I am in the Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. And elsewhere, Father, I wish that where I am they may be with me also, so that they may see my glory, which you gave me, because you loved from before the foundation of the world.

But because this concerns not only the Apostles, but also ourselves, he also said, I do not ask this only for them, but also for those who through their word believe in me, so that all may be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you, that they may also be one in us.

What could be more comforting than these words? What could be more appealing?

What soul can they not soften? What heart not prick with compunction, even should someone say that the human heart is a nature of stone?

With thoughts like these the saints bore all that they bore, considering afflictions as joys, constraints as freedoms, struggles as delights, harsh training as relaxation, deaths as lives.'

St. Theodore the Studite

[Shin]

'I beseech you, my brother, should not we also, since we have the same aim [as the saints] and seek the same Easter, bravely and courageously bear our present condition, not falling, not succumbing to despondency, but rather roused with greater fervour watching for the wicked serpent who works to deceive us by the passions, transforming himself into an angel of light, and altering things from what they are; show dark as light, bitter as sweet.

This was how he ensnared our forefather, bewitching his sight and depicting as beautiful what was not, and as a result through food casting him out of Paradise.

But let us, who have learned by experience what a deceiver he is, not leave the paradise of God's commandments, nor, when he indicates to us that the fruit is beautiful, let the eye of soul or body be directed there, otherwise we are being caught in the snare. But let us flee by every means from looking. What the is the fruit which seems beautiful? The love of the flesh, the evil lust of every one of the destructive passions.

If we avoid experiencing them, my brothers, we shall be saved and Easter to age on age, with all the Saints in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and might with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.'

St. Theodore the Studite

[Speramus]

He is risen!

Happy Easter.

[eschator83]

Happy Easter to all, prayerful, blessed, thankful, and generous..

[Shin]