Patriarchal and Synodical Paschal Epistle 2025

Archpastoral Paschal Greetings 2025 from His Eminence Metropolitan Joseph

ARCHPASTORAL PASCHAL GREETINGS 2025
from His Emi­nen­ce Metro­po­li­tan Joseph

Christ is risen! Inde­ed, He is risen! (John 1:1–17)

Dea­rest Beloved,

Today—thanks be to God—there is good news! On this bright and holy Pas­cha, all the news is good: glad tidings, joy­ous tidings, tri­ump­hant tidings! It is the Resur­rection of our Lord and Savi­or Jesus Christ from the dead. This is won­drous news not only for Christ’s sake—for death could not hold Him in the grave—but also for ours, for His victory is our victory. We pro­claim this tri­umph in the joy­ful tro­pa­rion of the Feast: “Christ is risen from the dead, tram­pling down death by death, and upon tho­se in the tombs bestowing life!”

Time and again, this hymn echo­es through our churches—and yet we never tire of it, for it is full of life and hope.

Christ is risen from the dead”

This is no mere metap­hor; it is fact. Jesus died on Gre­at and Holy Fri­day and was laid in the tomb. A gre­at sto­ne sea­led the gra­ve. Sol­di­ers stood guard at its entran­ce. But no eart­hly power could impri­son the Lord of life. At dawn on that first Pas­chal mor­ning, Christ bro­ke through eve­ry bar­ri­er and rose in glory from the dead! When the holy women came to ano­int His body, they found the tomb empty—and an angel pro­clai­m­ing: “Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here. He is risen!” (Luke 24:5–6) From that moment to this very day—two thous­and years later—the fait­h­ful con­ti­nue to echo the ange­lic gre­e­ting: Christ is Risen! And each one of us is cal­led to respond in joy and faith: Inde­ed, He is risen!

So cen­tral was this mira­c­le that the Apost­les chan­ged their day of wors­hip from Satur­day to Sun­day. The first day of the week beca­me the Day of Resur­rection, the day of God’s new cre­a­tion. And to this day, we Ortho­dox call Sun­day the Lord’s Day—the Day of Resur­rection. Eve­ry Sun­day is a “litt­le Pas­cha,” and the hymns and rea­dings of our ser­vi­ces throug­hout the year pro­claim this mes­sa­ge again and again: Christ is risen!

Tram­pling down death by death”

Death—the anci­ent ene­my of mankind, fea­red and relentless—has at last been overt­hrown. For cen­turi­es, death clai­med count­less lives and left behind sor­row, fear, and des­pair. But now Christ has bro­ken its power. He ente­red into death wil­ling­ly, and then rose again in glory. What power does death hold if it can­not keep its prey? The Lord shat­te­red its grip once and for all. This is why we rejoi­ce! This is why we pro­claim Jesus Christ as Victor, the Conqueror of all conquerors!

As St. Paul exclaims: “O death, whe­re is thy sting? O gra­ve, whe­re is thy victory?” (1 Cor. 15:55). The sting of death is no more, for the tomb is no lon­ger the end. Christ’s open and emp­ty sepul­cher reve­als the gre­at myste­ry: that death itself is now but the gateway to eter­nal life.

And to tho­se in the tombs bestowing life”

Some may won­der: “What does Christ’s Resur­rection have to do with me?” It has eve­ryt­hing to do with us. Becau­se Christ is risen, our belo­ved dead shall rise. Becau­se He lives, we too shall live—freed from cor­rup­tion, sor­row, and pain. The Resur­rection means life for all: life in abun­dan­ce, life ever­la­sting, life wit­hout sor­row, tears, or sick­ness. So let the good news be heard far and wide! Let eve­ry heart rejoi­ce, and eve­ry tongue pro­claim with one voi­ce and one spi­rit: Christ is risen from the dead, tram­pling down death by death, and upon tho­se in the tombs bestowing life!

Christ is risen! Inde­ed, He is risen!


Påske­bud­ska­bet blev oplæst Påske­nat, den 20. april 2025:

Ånd uden krop er fup – De Myrrabærende Kvinders Søndag – Prædiken af f. Poul – 19. maj 2024

Læs­nin­ger:
ApG. 6: 1–7
Mark. 15:43 – 16:8

Jeg tror” – Trosbekendelsen – Den Treenige Gud

Oplæg af f. Poul Seb­be­lov til den anden sam­ta­le­ef­ter­mid­dag, lør­dag den 10. febru­ar 2024, i kaf­festu­en i Guds­mo­ders Beskyt­tel­ses Menig­heds loka­ler, base­ret på bogen “Kristus er opstan­den – Orto­doks Kris­ten­dom”:

Læs mere om efter­mid­da­ge­ne her

Under den efter­føl­gen­de sam­ta­le blev føl­gen­de bog omtalt:

Step­hen de Young: The Reli­gion of the Apost­les — Ortho­dox Chri­sti­a­ni­ty in the First Century

Vi tal­te også om Kri­sti ord på Kor­set: Min Gud, min Gud! Hvor­for har du for­ladt mig?
Dis­se ord fin­der vi også i sal­me 22:
https://www.bibelselskabet.dk/brugbibelen/bibelenonline/Sl/22

De kend­te ord “Ordet blev men­ne­ske, for at vi kun­ne bli­ve Gud” blev også nævnt. De kom­mer fra hel­li­ge Atha­na­sios den Sto­re fra Ale­xan­dria.

Prædiken af f. Poul, De myrrabærende kvinder og Josef af Arimatæas Søndag, 30. april 2023

Læs­nin­ger:
ApG 6:1 – 7
Mar­kus 15:43 – 16:8

Prædiken af f. Poul, Thomas' Søndag, 23. april 2023

Læs­nin­ger:
ApG 5:12 – 20
Joh. 20:19 – 31

Radioprogram om ikoner og Påsken

Tirs­dag den 16. april 2019 med­vir­ke­de f. Poul i radiopro­gram­met “De Høje­re Mag­ter” på Dan­marks Radios P1. Pro­gram­met omta­les såle­des på DRs hjem­mesi­de: “Kan iko­ner­ne hjæl­pe til at gøre Gud nær­væ­ren­de? Skal de være frem­stil­let på en sær­lig måde for at vir­ke? Og hvor­dan bin­der iko­ner­nes ver­den sig ind i påskens fortælling?”

Lyt til pro­gram­met via det­te link

Se også det­te ind­læg på blog­gen, som rela­te­rer til radiopro­gram­mets emne:

Iko­ner er hel­li­ge bil­le­der – teo­lo­gi i farver

Aarhus: Den lange vej mod Opstandelsen

Oplæg til sam­ta­le, fre­dag den 9. marts 2018, kl. 16.00 i Vor Frue Kir­kes Kloster­kir­ke, Vor Frue Kir­ke­plads 2, 8000 Aar­hus C

Den Orto­dok­se Kir­kes Tra­di­tion anvi­ser en bestemt, vel­de­fi­ne­ret og mar­kant vej frem mod Påske, hvor vi får del i Kri­sti Opstan­del­se, Hans sejr over døden og spræng­nin­gen af døds­ri­gets por­te. Ram­men for de tro­en­des for­be­re­del­se til høj­ti­den er de 40 dage, som udgør Den Sto­re Faste; men vi ind­le­der alle­re­de ind­flyv­nin­gen til Påske gen­nem de 4 søn­da­ge, der lig­ger for­ud for sel­ve Fasten. Vi skal tale om, hvad faste i det hele taget bety­der og om nog­le af tema­er­ne for de enkel­te søn­da­ge gen­nem mere end 2 måne­ders forberedelse.

Guds­tjenester i Aarhus

Påskefejring 2013

Her føl­ger en ræk­ke udvalg­te bil­le­der fra lidel­ses­u­gens Sto­re Fre­dag frem til Påske­søn­dag, 5. maj, og til sidst bil­le­der fra Den Lyse Uges åbne kirke.