2016

Now, if all those voices are speaking the truth in focusing on the defeat and note that the Christian Church today is incapable of giving meaning to its existence, to the manner of its presence in modern society and especially to its relationship with the stranger, the different, the Other, then we ought to confess boldly that this weakness is directly linked to the person of Christ. To put it another way, it is linked to the inability of the members of the ecclesiastical body to understand and therefore experience the Orthodox Church as the Church of the Incarnation. And naturally this, has nothing to do with the ideological quotation of Christian references nor, of course, with a corresponding contribution ...

In the silence of the night… Despair and sorrow at their height… His disciples hiding in fear… The myrrh-bearers ran to the Tomb and saw that it was empty! Can any human person imagine the joy they felt when they gazed upon Joy itself, the Risen Lord? This was their reward for the courage they displayed: they were the first to receive the Joy of the Resurrection! Fallen nature was bursting because it couldn’t contain the Lord of Life and was anxiously awaiting this joyful message of the Resurrection. Because ‘it was not possible for the Lord of Life to be held in corruption’… The Light of the Resurrection shone in the world, dispelling the darkness of sin which had had dominion over people. Christ, has risen, conquering death! Christ ...

People who preserve the experience of painful contrition before the Lord in all its potency, an experience which comes from the recognition of the dangers and difficulties of the spiritual life, these people have found the right path.