From Holy Thursday to Resurrection – Father Pimen

Listen to Father Pimen as he recapitulates the great events of Passion Week that lead to the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Enjoy!

Look dear ones, we are seeing each other again! We have reached Holy Week. You see today, Holy Thursday…  I’ve spoken about this in the previous video, our greatest mystery is the Divine Liturgy. The Savior Communed the disciples and told them to do this further. For us here, it is customary that always on Holy Thursday, in the morning, meaning today, we have Holy Liturgy, everyone Communes, and afterwards we have Holy Unction with all the priests, with at least 7 priests. We can say that the services are more special, beautiful services… Afterwards it is Great Friday. It doesn’t have more hours, but it’s the Friday the Savior was crucified and then put in the ground.

Who is our Savior and God, and what have we humans done? What gratitude have we shown Him for all the good He has done us? See how weak we are? How quickly we deny Him and throw mud at Him when something doesn’t suit us? Right away we find God guilty, even though He has given us all the good in the world. We are always murmuring and dissatisfied. We have hands and feet, we are whole, we can work, but we still think that God did not give us enough, that He did not give us wealth like to others, that He did not give us [enough] to be well, to be happy…

We seek happiness in material things, without seeking it in God! Let’s surrender ourselves completely into His care, let’s give ourselves totally to Him, and then you will see that if we entrust our lives into His hands, we will be able to say that we are happy because then we don’t have to worry about anything. Everything that comes to us we take as from the hand of God, understand?

Friday evening are the Lamentations at the Tomb; all of you go, be there for the Savior, in prayer, in silence; leave those preparations for Pascha, for the Resurrection, for a little while… Those are good too, to have enough of what you need, but don’t fill all your time with just preparing food and other things like that. Do those too, but try to go to church for the Lamentations at the Tomb, sing there together with the whole church, to rejoice spiritually, to feed yourselves spiritually!

After that, Saturday, Holy Liturgy is celebrated again. Whoever can go, do go! It is Saturday, close to the Resurrection, the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is being celebrated. After that comes the Resurrection! But let’s see, can we rejoice at the Resurrection? Have we done the right thing? Yes, dear ones. How can we rejoice at the Resurrection if we have not labored a little, if we have not fasted, if we have not confessed?

There are 2-3 days left! Whoever has not been able to confess so far, go now! Run fast while the priests can [still hear your confession], because now there are longer services. Those of you who remained [unconfessed], try to go, do not let the Resurrection find you unconfessed. You don’t realize the significance of confession! Go and confess so you can rejoice in the Resurrection!

And then at the Resurrection… Many have the habit of going a little at the beginning to take the Holy Fire and then flee home. That is not the Resurrection. The Resurrection means going, taking the Holy Light, and staying until the end! Listen to the songs of the Resurrection, the Divine Liturgy, and receive Communion there! Only then do you truly experience the joy of the Resurrection. Do you understand? Do not run beforehand as Judas ran to get his silver! Stay there and rejoice in the Lord’s Resurrection!

There is little time left, too little! The Resurrection is approaching, try to do something so that you can rejoice in it as much as possible! And after the Resurrection, after Communion, come home and rejoice with the whole family, gather together, taste something together! No drunkenness, don’t eat until you feel sick and have to go to the emergency room. Rejoice, do everything in moderation, a little of that, a little of this, taste a little wine, rejoice in the family, sing together “Christ is Risen,” live the joy of the Resurrection!

I remember what Venerable Jacob Tsalikis said as a child. I translated his book, his life, called “A Holy Abbot, Blessed Jacob Tsalikis.” Search for it and you will see. He was a 7-9 year old kid and what would he do? He would go to the Resurrection, rejoice there, receive Communion, and then come home and before eating, he would take a red egg and run into the woods where he had a cave-like place and he imagined himself to be a hermit. And he would say, “The hermit wouldn’t eat in the morning!” and he would start singing “Christ is Risen!” until he was hoarse! Only then did he eat the red egg, after he had abundantly glorified God. [As] a child! And now he has become a saint and we rejoice in him, we have him in the calendar and we pray to him, the venerable Jacob Tsalikis. So let us have discernment!

Afterwards, taste something, rejoice in the family and rest because if you have been to the Resurrection service, a part of the night you were there and tired yourselves. Why? Rest so that in the afternoon you can go to church again, to the service that is also called the Second Resurrection. You sing again, it’s the Vespers of the Resurrection and the Gospels which here, [are said] in several languages. In some places they are said in 12 languages, in others in 7 according to how many priests and people there are. Again, it’s very beautiful. Go to church and rejoice then too to fully live this joy of the Resurrection. And then you’ll see what else there is to do.

The second day of the Resurrection follows. You have the day off, go to church again, don’t go to the kind of fun where you will lose everything! And if your spiritual father allows you, receive Communion the next day! But try to eat less in the evening! Don’t overeat so that you can.

I was told by my brother-in-law who is a priest, married to my youngest sister and they have 10 children, [that] he told people that those who observe all Lent, besides the fact that he would Commune them during Lent, He told them, “For the three days of the Resurrection, on Pascha, on the second, and third day after the Resurrection I will Commune you without you observing another fast, only eat less in the evening, so that the stomach may be lighter. And I will Commune you everyday. This is a reward in a way, because you struggled, toiled and fasted the entire Lent.” Do you see? That’s what God does for us! When He sees that we have toiled, He gives us some joy. Let us try to enjoy these days of the Resurrection!

It’s going to be a wonderful week. Here we have Liturgy everyday with the songs of the Resurrection for Bright Week. That is, the Resurrection Service is sung every day and the Divine Liturgy every day, it is a week of joy! The whole week of the Resurrection there’s no fasting, and I say it again, let’s rejoice, [but] let’s not have to go to the emergency room.

Let’s rejoice nicely. And as often as possible to go to church to rejoice in these services. And not only that, sing “Christ is Risen” at home, sing as much as you can both alone and as a family. You have work to do, you have animals to feed… go, do your work and sing “Christ is Risen.” It doesn’t matter what the neighbors say if you are in a village. Or at home, in the family, even in an apartment…

These days of the Resurrection don’t vacation who-knows-where, go to monasteries because there are beautiful services there to rejoice as much as possible this week if you have the time off, if you can, go and rejoice. Because what did the Savior say at the Resurrection when He appeared to the myrrh-bearing women? As they were going there weeping, [thinking] the Savior was in the Tomb. They saw that the Savior was gone and didn’t know what was happening. And the Savior showed Himself, and what did He say? “Rejoice!” Understand? Nothing else! Or when He appeared to the Apostles, do you know what He said to them? “Fear not! Rejoice! My peace I give to you.” 

These were the words of the Savior, let us not fear because we have God who made everything out of nothing. Whom are we to fear if we have Him who is Almighty? And He also said to rejoice and that He gives us His peace. What does His peace mean? Inner peace that no one can take away from you.

Now everyone talks about peace and everyone provokes wars. With God, it’s about inner peace which, if you have it, doesn’t matter what happens around you, however many troubles, however much suffering… I met people who were paralyzed but nevertheless they rejoiced. Why? They had gained inner peace and then what was happening around them no longer affected them so much. That doesn’t mean they weren’t suffering, that it wasn’t hard, but they rejoiced because they lived in Christ.

We must reach this, to live in Christ, to live Christ, to have contact with heaven, with the Mother of God, to lay at her feet our joys and sufferings because the Mother of God is a mother. Think of what She suffered during this week of passion as a mother? That suffering of seeing her child whom she carried with such care in her womb, in her arms, a girl of only 16 years, and raised Him with such care, slowly… Joseph was elderly and that’s why he was entrusted with the Mother of God, as an elder to take care of her.

Joseph went to the Lord, and the Mother of God was left alone, the Savior worked as a carpenter to have something to support themselves… The Mother of God wove, knitted, would make all kinds of things like that. That’s why we also have the Sash of the Mother of God woven of camel hair by the Mother of God herself, the shirt of the Savior about which it was said was seamless, of one piece, made by the Mother of God.

They lived in poverty, worked and supported themselves with patience and love. And for the Mother of God to see her child, at 30 or 33 years old, killed by the people she had done good to… Do you realize how much suffering? That’s why I always say, pray to the Mother of God as she understands your pain in every situation because she is a mother and has suffered a lot. That’s why She constantly prays for everyone, she understands what it means to lose a child, when you have a sick child, when you suffer, when you go through trouble…

The Mother of God understands everything. That is why, pray to the Mother of God because she never leaves us, she is at the right hand of the Savior. She suffered, but the Savior gave her the greatest honor and placed her at His right hand. That is why we must constantly rejoice that we have the Mother of God as intercessor, who is from among us and is always there and asks for us. Let us have much love for the Mother of God, let her be like our mother, talk to her, embrace her icon, hold her in our arms and say: “Mother of God, my mother, do not leave me! Help me!” and you will see how much she helps us!

When you go on the road [say] “Mother of God help me!” have Her icon in your pocket… Anywhere you go, “Mother of God help me!” If you are a child, when you go to school pray “Mother of God, help me, enlighten me to learn, to do the right thing!” When you go to work, the same! In any situation, in any problem, ask for help from the Mother of God and you will see how much you will receive. Yes, dear ones!

And as I said before, rejoice in the Resurrection. I will conclude here with a case from the monastery of St. Paul with a Romanian father about whom I have talked about several times, but because it has to do with this, I will repeat it. [It’s about] Father Neophytos, a Romanian deacon from Lacu Skete in that period before 1990, when most of the inhabitants here had died and there was no one left to take care of the last elders, and then the monastery of St. Paul took him in. He was looked after by the fathers of the monastery for a few years.

When I went in ’95 to St. Paul’s, and stayed there for 2 years, he was still alive. And the brother who cared for him called me almost every night to read him something in Romanian. Elder Neophytos knew Greek perfectly; he listened to the services in Greek, as they had set up a speaker for him, but [the brother] said to bring him a little joy, him being Romanian to listen to Romanian. And I would go in the evening.

The elder was blind and he also had a broken leg, he could not move in bed and the brother who cared for him turned him from side to side. Think that he stayed like this for about 5-6 years, without being able to turn, being turned by others… That’s how the elder was, who had come as a child to Athos. A whole life. This is what the Mother of God allowed, she knew why, so that he may earn a crown for himself. I’ll skip over all this.

I would go in the evening, I would read the Akathist of the Mother of God, a word from the Holy Fathers and the elder rejoiced. When it came time for his departure so to speak, the abbot visited him after the Resurrection service, on Pascha day. Usually after the service, in the evening, the abbot would have the habit, right after the Resurrection Vespers, Sunday, to visit the elderly who were sick to see how they are, to tell them “Christ is Risen!” to crack an egg with them. And so he went to visit the deacon, to Father Neophytos and asked him, “Well, father, how are you today?” and he replied, “Hirotera!” – that is, “Worse!” in Greek. “How can you say such a thing?” Well, the man had pain, you can imagine, not being able to move, with a broken leg, blind… And well, he was saying how he felt.  The abbot asked, “How worse, father? Do you know what day it is today? It’s the Resurrection of the Lord! How can you say worse? Today you have to rejoice! Don’t you know that the Savior, when He appeared to the myrrh-bearers, He said to them, ‘Rejoice’? Did you hear? He told them to rejoice! You rejoice too!” After that, the abbot left.

The elder was still for a few moments after the abbot left, and began to say, somewhat questioningly, to himself, “Rejoice? Rejoice?” … and then he seemed to come to life, saying, “Rejoice, Rejoice!” So blind, without seeing, the elder cried out while lying in bed, “Rejoice!”

The brother who was taking care of him told me that all that night the elder had uttered “Rejoice!” Just think, a whole night. [The brother] said he could not sleep. The elder shouted, “Rejoice!” as if he wanted the whole of creation to hear and rejoice. He kept saying, “Rejoice! Rejoice! “Rejoice!” All night he cried out, “Rejoice!” and in the morning he closed his eyes and went to the Lord. Do you see the pious death? Crying out to all creation to rejoice.

This is what we must do too, to rejoice in the Resurrection of the Lord and because we have such a good, merciful and loving God and the Mother of God, our intercessor. Do you understand? May the good God and the Mother of God help us!

And because from now on, if we get there safely, we will speak again in Bright Week, on Thursday, and because in the meantime there will be the Resurrection of the Lord, I also say to you from now, “Christ is Risen!” and rejoice, brothers! May God help us!

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