Paschal Epistle: Metropolitan Raphael (TOC-R)
PASCHAL MESSAGE
+Raphael,
ARCHBISHOP OF MOSCOW,
METROPOLITAN ALL-RUSSIA
To archpastors, pastors, monks and nuns and Faithful True Orthodox Church
Death, where is thy sting? Hell, where is thy victory? (Hos 13:14; 1 Cor 15:20)
My favorite!
St. Paul, recalling Corinthian Christians about the resurrection of Christ as the foundation of their faith, and only able to instill hope in the human soul and fill it with today’s life meaning, utters this exclamation, which for eight centuries before Christ, the holy prophet Hosea foretold that the Lord God redeemed his people, sparing him from death and hell (Hos 13:9-14). And this hope of deliverance from death, which was implicated in the human race because of Adam’s disobedience to God’s will, Koya is a blessing, was made possible through obedience to her even before his death and the death of the cross and only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ (Philippians 2:8 ). God raised Him from the dead to be the firstborn from the dead (1 Cor 15:20). Inasmuch as, proclaims bogoglagolivy Paul: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive, each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming of Christ” (1 Cor 15:22-23).
This belief through the centuries all sorts of tests carried the true Church of Christ. And in the past century in our troubled land, in a seemingly quite impossible under the rule of militant atheism saved it our glorious predecessors – witness to the truth of Orthodoxy. She comforted them, and spiritually stronger in an era of unprecedented osataneniya and cruel persecution. And it is this faith and this hope with Christ the Savior RESERVED love to near and far, they gave us as a supreme and incomparable priceless. Why do we now have confidence and cry as each other, and all who hear us:
CHRIST IS RISEN!
Yes illuminate the joy of the Risen Christ our whole future life, even to the end of our breath, and yes, it will be worthy of our Lord, who hath called us out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9).
Blagodaryaschevsegda of all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Eph 5:20) we will continue our efforts in the dispensation of the truth of our Orthodox Church, which has now stretched not only Rossiyskoyi Ukrainian soil, but stepped on the Latin American continent. In addition, efforts to establish prayerful communion with our brothers and sisters in Christ, belonging to the True Orthodox Church of Greece to the Holy Land, where Christ’s redemptive news brought the holy apostles, and above all the trouble to the Apostle of languages - bogoglagolivy Paul.
Rejoicing with those who rejoice and sympathize experiencing adversity, let us remember the apostolic exhortation that “that the current sufferings of the time nothing stόyat compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18) with a glorious second coming of our Savior.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen (2 Cor 13:13).
† Raphael, God’s mercy
ARCHBISHOP OF MOSCOW, RUSSIAN METROPOLITAN
Pascha 2011
The city of Moscow
