Inasmuch as everything was meant to be beautiful in Eden, then sinful souls will be treated as gardeners treat withered trees—that is, they’ll be cut down and thrown into the fire.

Therefore, brethren, it’s absolutely necessary to be renewed beforehand and, drinking the water of life and being warmed by the sun of grace, to begin to bear fruits of grace—we must resurrect here so as not to die an eternal death there!

☦️St. Innocent of Kherson

The angel of God asks the Myrrh-bearing women as though in astonishment: “Why do you seek the living One among the dead?” As though the perceiver of the mystery of God and God’s power wanted to say: “How could you have thought for a moment that He is the hostage of death? Do you not know that He is the principal source of life? Do you not know that all life is through Him and that not one living thing can borrow not even a drop of life from any other source? Did He not fully reveal to you His authority over life and death on earth? Who gave life to the lifeless Lazarus? Who took away the life of the barren fig tree?”

O my brethren, let us also cease to look for the living among the dead. If there are some of us who are still seeking Christ among the dead, let them desist from this soul-destroying effort. This is the vain effort of the Jews, pagans and non-Christians. We know that the Lord and Giver of life is not in the tomb but on the Throne of Glory in the heavens. The spirit, not darkened by sin, looks up into heaven and does not see the tomb; and the spirit, darkened by sin, looks into the tomb and does not see heaven. Sin and virtue govern the spiritual vision of man and reveals to each man its own world at cross-purposes with one another. Sin overthrows the vision of the spirit to the earth and reveals to it the corruption of the world. Virtue uplifts the spirit to heaven and reveals to it the eternal world and the resurrected Christ as the King in that world.


+ St. Nikolai (Velimirovic)

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When the wicked are multiplied, transgression increaseth: but the righteous shall see their fall.

Prov. 29:16

#Bible_Quote

Here in this world, we celebrate Holy Pascha for a very short time. Joy passes and again tribulations, sorrows, temptations and many other evils come. But in heaven, in the other world, Pascha will last forever, and there will be no end. It will be the Pascha of eternity, and there will be no end to it. - Elder Ephraim of Arizona