On April 8, 2018, the parish of St. George the Victorious met the long-awaited holiday – the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! From 16 o’clock the Acts of the Holy Apostles were read, and for half an hour before midnight the Easter vesper began, on which the Shroud was brought to the altar. And our chorus at first quietly, and then louder and louder began to sing the verse “Your Resurrection, Christ The Saviour, angels sing in heaven, and on earth give us a pure heart to carol You”. Joyfully singing the clergy and parishioners came out of the church for the procession. “Christ is Risen” – proclaimed the priests, “Truly, He is Risen” – all the parishioners answered like a harmonious chorus.

At the liturgy everyone received Eucharist. The senior priest of the cathedral Valery Voloschuk, in his sermon, congratulated everyone on the holiday, stressed that “the Resurrection of Christ is a holiday for all: fasting and not, working and lazy, rich and needy. This is the depth of our Faith. All in Christ are one. At present, we very often see all sorts of divisions, disconnections, quarrels. Some liberal views say that the Faith is outdated, that the principles that have created Russia for centuries have become obsolete. We need to find something new, unusual, to connect us. This is madness. Christ says in the Holy Scriptures that He is always the same. At the present time, there is a lot of information, but the centuries-old experience of the people, of the state, has more power than just information. Let us go along the beaten path, which has revealed to us many holy people: both glorified and those whom we do not fully know by name, but there were many of them not only in apostolic times but also in times very close to us. Today we have heard the wonderful words of our Metropolitan about the new martyrs and confessors, about the Holy Royal Martyrs – a family that bore a special mission – to preserve the Faith, preserve the Fatherland and lead the people to Christ. They are very close to our time. Very often we forget our history. If everyone takes his surname and looks in the assembly of those new martyrs and thousands of people who have been tortured for the Faith in our fatherland over the past 100 years, they will most likely find namesakes or even close people of their kind who have become saints. So deep and holy is our Church, that we can see holiness and reach with hand.

All this should fill us with hope, imbue with love and affirm in the Faith. Let us be unshakable in our Faith, let us not be embarrassed by external and internal things. Let our spiritual life be built in such a way that by thinking about Christ, we knew that He came into the world not just for the whole of humanity, but came personally for me. Let everyone feel how close the Lord is to us, how sacred is communion with Him, how close He is always to us. Everything we have in life is from Christ. You can even say that our heart beats not because, as we were taught in the last decades of materialism, the heart muscle contracts, but because He holds his hand in each breast and presses the heart with it and waits for love in return. Let us have strength, joy and God’s help. Christ is Risen!”

We thank the sisterhood, active parishioners for their help. Let the Lord protect you and your loved ones!