Sacred Patriarchal and Stavropegial Monastery of St. Irene Chrysovalantou
  • HOME
  • News Releases
    • Patriarchal Monastery News Releases
    • Ecumenical Patriarchate News Releases
    • Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America News Releases
  • Saint Irene
    • Life of St. Irene - Βίος της Αγίας
    • Hymnology of Saint Irene
    • Paraklisis - Παράκλησις Οσίας Ειρήνης
    • Miracles of Saint Irene
  • The Monastery
    • Dependencies - Ιερά Μετόχια
    • Greek School - Ελληνικό Σχολείο
    • The Annual Feast & Church Festival
  • Multimedia
    • 2022
    • 2021 >
      • Χριστούγεννα -Σχολική Εορτή
      • ΧΡΙΣΤΟΥΓΕΝΝΑ Οικουμενικόν Πατριαρχείον
      • Πανήγυρις - Ιούλιος 2021
      • Μ. Εβδομάδα & Πάσχα 2021
      • Σχολικές Γιορτές 2021
      • Ευαγγελισμός 2021
    • 2020 >
      • Πανορθόδοξο Συλλείτουργο Κυριακής της Ορ&t
      • Κυριακή της Ορθοδοξίας 2020
      • THE FEAST OF SAINT IRENE CHRYSOVALANTOU 2020
      • Τα Άγια Θεοφάνεια 2020
      • ΧΕΙΡΟΤΟΝΙΑ π. ΓΕΡΑΣΙΜΟΥ ΜΑΡΟΥΛΑ
    • 2019 Photo Album >
      • Τα Αγια Θεοφάνεια 2019
      • Κυριακή της Ορθοδοξίας
      • Κυριακή της Σταυροπροσκυνήσεως
      • Ο Ακάθιστος Ύμνος
      • Ελληνική Παρέλαση στο Μανχάτταν
      • Palm Sunday 2019
      • Μ. Τρίτη εσπέρας
      • ΜΕΓΑΛΗ ΠΕΜΠΤΗ ΒΡΑΔΥ
      • O αείμνηστος Αρχιμανδρίτης Βασίλειος Φλιώνης
      • ΜΕΓΑΛΗ ΠΑΡΑΣΚΕΥΗ
      • ΑΝΑΣΤΑΣΙΣ
      • Η Γιορτή της Μητέρας - Σχολική Γιορτή
      • Επίσκεψις εις Φανάριον
      • Άφιξις του Σεβ. Αρχιεπισκόπου Αμερικής
      • Αποφοίτηση -Εξετάσεις Σχολείου
      • Επίσκεψις Σεβ. Μητροπολίτου Πατρών
      • Επισκέψις Σεβ. Μητροπολίτου Νέας Ιωνίας
      • Επίσκεψις Αγιορειτών Ηγουμένων
      • Επίσκεψις στον Σεβ. Αρχιεπίσκοπο Αμερικής
      • Χειροθεσία Αναγνώστου
      • Πανήγυρις - Feast and festival
      • Πανήγυρις Ι. Ν. Μεταμορφώσεως Μετοχίου Μονής Ι&b
      • Πανήγυρις Παναγίας Γηροκομητίσσης Πατρών
      • Εορτή Κοιμήσεως της Υπεραγίας Θεοτόκου
      • Θ. Λειτουργία στον Μητροπολιτικό Ναό Πατρών
      • Εορτασμός Αγίου Κοσμά στο Μέγα Δένδρο
      • ΠΑΝΗΓΥΡΙΣ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΦΑΝΟΥΡΙΟΥ
      • Επίσκεψις εις τον Αρχιεπίσκοπον Αθηνών
      • Επίσκεψις στον Σεβασμιώτατο Αρχιεπίσκοπο Α&m
      • Αγιασμός των υδάτων στο Γκρίνπορτ
      • Μέγας Εσπερινός Αγίου Νεκταρίου
      • Μεγας Εσπερινός Αγίου Νικολάου
      • Χριστουγεννιάτικη Γιορτή του Ελληνικού Σχο&l
      • Χριστούγεννα 2019
    • 2018 Photo Album >
      • Holy Epiphany - Αγια Θεοφάνεια
      • St. Athanasios Feast in Chicago
      • Κυριακη Τελώνου και Φαρισαίου
      • Greek Regents Award
      • Εκκλησιαστικό Άγγελμα - Κυριακή των Απόκρεω
      • Sunday of Orthodoxy 2-25-18
      • Sunday of the Veneration of Holy Cross (3-11-18)
      • Εκκλησιαστικό Άγγελμα - Δ' Κυριακή των Νηστειώ
      • O Ακάθιστος Ύμνος - The Akathist Hymn
      • Ο Ευαγγελισμός της Θεοτόκου (Κυριακή 25 Μαρτ
      • Σχολική εορτή Εθνικής Επετείου 25ης Μαρτίου
      • PASCHA 2018
      • Greek Parade on Fifth Ave (4-22-18)
      • Μέγας Αρχιερατικός Εσπερινός Αγίου Εφραίμ (4 Μ&al
      • Mother's Day
      • Η Ορθόδοξη Ιεραποστολή στο Κονγκό
      • Φεστιβάλ Ι. Ναού Αγίων Νικολάου και Μαρίνης, Μπρ&
      • Μέγας Αρχιερατικός Εσπερινός Αγίας Μεγαλομ&#
      • Πανήγυρις Οσίας Ειρήνης Χρυσοβαλάντου 2018
      • H Πανήγυρις της Παναγίας στη Μονή Ιβήρων
      • Πανηγυρική Θεία Λειτουργία Αγίου Νεκταρίο&
      • Εκθεσις Αγιογραφίας
      • The Elevation of Holy Cross - Η Ύψωσις του Τιμίου Σταυρού
      • Ο ΑΓΙΑΣΜΟΣ ΤΩΝ ΥΔΑΤΩΝ ΣΤΟ ΓΚΡΗΝΠΟΡΤ
      • Μέγας Αρχιερατικός Εσπερινός Αγίου Νεκταρί&omi
      • Πανηγυρικός Εσπερινός Αγίου Νικολάου
      • Αρχιερατικός Εσπερινός Αγίας Αικατερίνης
      • Χειροτονία π. Νικολάου Καλαφάτη
      • Ο Θεοφιλέστατος στον Ι.Ν. Αγίας Τριάδος Πατρώv
      • Πανήγυρις Κοιμήσεως της Θεοτόκου στην Ιερά Μ
      • Αρχιερατική Θ. Λειτουργία (16 Δεκ. 2018)
      • Χριστουγεννιάτικη Σχολική Γιορτή
      • Αρχιερατική Θεία Λειτουργία των Χριστουγένν
    • 2017 Photo Album >
      • Theophania
      • Ordination of Bishop Ierotheos (3-5-17)
      • Welcoming of Bishop Ierotheos
      • Αρχιερατικό Συλλείτουργο - Ι. Ν. Αγίου Νεκταρ&#
      • Pascha 2017
      • St. Nectarios Greek School Exetaseis (June 24, 2017)
      • Μέγας Αρχιερατικός Εσπερινός Αγίου Εφραίμ
      • Sunday of the Samaritan Woman - Mother's Day
      • Visit of H.E. Metropolitan Maximos of Sylivria
      • Graduation - Exetaseis 2017 of the Greek School
      • The Miraculous Icon of Saint Irene Chrysovalantou at St. Nicholas Church in Brooklyn
      • Μέγας Αρχιερατικός Εσπερινός Αγίας Μαρίνης
      • ANNUAL FEAST (7/27-30/2017)
      • The Dormition of Theotokos
      • Elevation of Holy Cross
      • Blessing of the Waters in Greenport
      • Nameday of H.G. Bishop Ierotheos
      • St. Nectarios Vespers
      • Christmas Greek School Celebration
    • 2016 Photo Album >
      • Three Hierarchs School Celebration (1-31-16)
      • Holy Ascension Church 2-14-16
      • Sunday of Orthodoxy (3-20-16)
      • School celebration for March 25
      • Tha Akathist Hymn
      • Metropolitan Nikitas of Dardanelles (4-17-16)
      • Palm Sunday (4-24-16)
      • Holy Thursday April 28
      • Holy Friday - Apokathelosis - April 29
      • Epitaphios Procession - April 29
      • Resurrection Service - Ανάστασις
      • Pascha 2016 in Greenport
      • Mother's Day School celebration (5-8-16)
      • Festival of St. Netarios Church (June 24-26, 2016)
      • His Eminence Metropolitan Maximos of Silyvria (5-21-16)
      • Graduation Exetaseis 2016 (6-11-16)
      • Feast and Festival of St. Irene (July 27-31, 2016)
      • Festival of St. Nicholas Church (June 10-12, 2016)
      • St. Nectarios Festive Vespers
      • St. Nicholas Great Hierarchical Vespers and Divine Liturgy
      • Elevation of the Holy Cross (9-14-16)
      • Blessing of the Waters in Greenport (9-24-16)
      • Blessing of the School Year
      • School Celebration for October 28
      • Feast of Saint Andrew (11-30-16)
      • St. Nicholas Festive Vespers
      • Archbishop Demetrios Geron of America visit (12-18-16)
      • Christmas celebration of the School (12-18-16)
    • 2015 Photo Album >
      • Rt. Rev. Archim. Elder Vasileios Iviritis at the Patriarchal Monastery
      • Εορτή των Τριών Ιεραρχών
      • Sunday of Orthodoxy - Procession of the Holy Icons.
      • Σχολική εορτή 25ης Μαρτίου
      • The Akathist Hymn (Friday March 27, 2015) 
      • Greek Parade on Fifth Avenue
      • Holy Week and Pascha 2015 >
        • Palm Sunday - Κυριακή των Βαΐων
        • Holy Thursday - Μεγάλη Πέμπτη
        • HOLY FRIDAY - ΜΕΓΑΛΗ ΠΑΡΑΣΚΕΥΗ - ΑΠΟΚΑΘΗΛΩΣΙΣ
        • Holy Friday Epitaphios Procession - Περιφορά Επιταφίου
        • Holy Saturday morning - Μ. Σάββατο πρωί
        • Pascha - Anastasis 2015
      • Mother's Day School Celebration
      • H. E. Archbishop Demetrios of America celebrates the Divine Liturgy (5-17-15)
      • Graduation Αποφοίτηση Εξετάσεις 2015
      • FEAST OF ST. IRENE CHRYSOVALANTOU
      • Blessing of the Waters, Greenport, NY
      • The Blessing of the school year (10-4-2015)
      • School Celebration for October 28th (10-25-2015)
      • Vasilopitta Blessing
      • Great Vespers at St. Nicholas Church (12-5-15)
      • Dinner Dance of St. Nicholas Church (12-6-15)
      • Christmas School Celebration (12-12-15)
      • The Abbot with the Vice President of the USA, Joe Biden.
      • Great Vespers at St. Nectarios Church (11-8-15)
  • Links
  • Contact Us

PATRIARCHAL ENCYCLICAL FOR HOLY PASCHA

4/25/2019

0 Comments

 
PATRIARCHAL ENCYCLICAL
FOR HOLY PASCHA
 
 Prot. No. 257
 
+ BARTHOLOMEW
By God’s Mercy
Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch
To the Plenitude of the Church: May the Grace, Peace and Mercy
of Christ Risen in Glory be with you All
 
 
Venerable brothers and beloved children in the Lord,
              
Having run the course of the race of Holy and Great Lent in prayer and fasting, and having reached the salvific passion of Christ God, today we are rendered participants in the joy of His splendid Resurrection.
 
The experience of Resurrection belongs to the core of Orthodox identity. We celebrate the Lord’s Resurrection not only during the feast of Holy Pascha and the ensuing paschal period, but on each Sunday and at each Divine Liturgy, which is always a luminous festivity. The Christian life in all its dimensions – in divine worship as well as in our life and witness in the world – bears a resurrectional spirit and is shaken by the victory of the risen Christ over death and by the expectation of His eternal kingdom.
              
Man is unable of itself to handle fear and the inevitability of death, which it confronts throughout and not merely at the conclusion of life. The sense that life is “a journey toward death” – without any hope of escape – does not lead to any humanization of life or enhancement of responsibility and concern for the present and future. On the contrary, humanity recoils and disengages from the essential elements of life, ending up in cynicism, nihilism and despair, in a fabrication of uninhibited self-realization and in the graceless eudemonism of “let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die.” Science, social and political activism, economic progress and prosperity cannot provide a way out of this impasse. Whatever is created by humanity bears the stigma of death, and it does not lead to salvation, because it is itself in need of salvation. The desire for eternity cannot be concealed by worldly goods and cannot be satisfied by the extension of life or the promise of false paradise.
              
Orthodoxy offers the Truth of the saving Gospel of the Resurrection to the contemporary rationalistic man. For us Orthodox, Pascha is not simply the remembrance of the Lord’s Resurrection, but also the experience of our own regeneration in the Risen Christ; it is the foretaste and conviction of the eschatological fulfillment of the divine Economy. The faithful Christian knows that existential fullness is a gift of divine grace. In Christ, our life is transfigured, transformed into a journey toward deification. For St. Paul, Christians are distinguished from “others,” who “do not have hope” (cf. 1 Thess. 4.13). They hope in Christ, who is “our life and resurrection,” “the first and the last and the living one” (Rev. 1.17–18).
              
The salvific presence of Christ in our life and the hope of the heavenly kingdom are inseparably linked to our Christian existence, which functions and is realized as a creative and transformative force in the world. It is by no means accidental that, before modern civilization could appreciate and establish man as the maker of history, the faithful were called to become “coworkers of God” (cf. 1 Cor. 3.9). It is a complete misinterpretation of Orthodox self-consciousness as well as of the social and charitable work of the Church to claim that Orthodoxy is introverted, unworldly and indifferent to history and civilization.
 
Venerable brothers and beloved children,
 
Pascha is not just the greatest feast and celebration of the Orthodox Church. Resurrection is our entire faith, all of our ecclesiastical life, the whole civilization of Orthodoxy. And from this inexhaustible source, the whole eschatological drive of our Orthodox life and witness derives its origin and nourishment. In the Resurrection and from the Resurrection, we as faithful come to know our eternal destiny; we discern the content and direction of our mission in the world; and we discover the meaning and truth of our freedom. He who descended to the lowest extremities of the earth, abolishing the gates of Hades and power of death, rises from the tomb as the liberator of humankind and all creation. It is this gift of freedom that human beings are called to receive freely, becoming incorporated in the Church as “the community of deification,” where freedom is the foundation, the way and the destination. As a gift from Christ, this freedom is experienced and expressed as “speaking the truth in love” (cf. Eph. 4.15), as an event of communion and solidarity. “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another” (Gal. 5.13). In the Church, “we exist in the way of the Resurrection,” looking unto the “common resurrection” in the never-ending day of the Kingdom.
 
With these thoughts, we give with purity of heart, glory to the Risen Lord that “gave rise to life in all,” to God that is “with us” and “for us,” Who has promised to be with us to the end of the ages. And we exclaim the joyous paschal greeting “Christ is Risen!” as we pray to the Maker and Redeemer of the world, the giver of all gifts, to illumine all of our lives through the light of His salvific Resurrection and to grant to all the fulfillment of joy and all His saving gifts, so that His all-holy and supra-celestial name may be praised and blessed.
 
At the Phanar, Holy Pascha 2019
 
+ Bartholomew of Constantinople
Your fervent supplicant to the risen Christ

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    The Sacred Patriarchal Monastery

    Archives

    December 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    July 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    December 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    March 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Sacred Patriarchal and Stavropegial Orthodox Monastery of Saint Irene Chrysovalantou | 36-07 23rd Avenue, Astoria, New York, 11105 Telephone: (718) 626-6225, Facsimile: (718) 626-7669 | Copyright 2023