Christos Anesti!

Christ is Risen from the dead

And through death, He did trample upon death

And thus bestowed upon those in the tombs the gift of life.

Alithos Anesti! Truly He is Risen!

I cannot believe that Pascha has come and gone!  This past week was so incredibly moving for my whole family that I'm kind of sad to see it go.  Holy Week is an incredibly intense time of prayer, services, standing, repentance, sorrow, joy, hope... And it all culminates in that glorious and hope-filled proclamation that Christ is risen from the dead!  Truly, He is Risen!

Can I just brag on my kids for a moment?  They did AWESOME this week!  They attended just about every service I went to and they behaved so well and were so patient, I started to wonder who traded in my babies for these adults who sat still and didn't ask to be taken the loo 100 times.  I think, in total, they attended about 15 hours of services from Wednesday through Sunday.

My husband was received into the Church by chrismation just before the Resurrection service began late Saturday night.  I cannot describe the joy that I feel now that we are all united together in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.  I am so grateful to God for bringing my husband home to His Church and for giving Mark a genuine conviction about the veracity of the Orthodox Church's contention that it is the Apostolic witness alive in the world.  He could have converted just to please me- and that would've been enough for me at this point- but he seems to have genuinely embraced the Church's teachings and the demands made on your body and soul and mind.  I am very proud and very RELIEVED!

I want to write more.  I so do.  I am full of stories about Great and Holy Friday and how the Lord brought me to a wonderful place of repentance and peace before His cross that afternoon; what we do in the services; the JOY and emotion and hope of Pascha... the look on my priest's face as he sings "Christos Anesti" is priceless; you can tell that THIS proclamation- that Christ is Risen from the dead- is the center of his very soul.  It is what fuels him.  I'll never get a picture of it except in my mind.  We sing Christos Anesti/Christ is Risen at least 20 or 30 times on Pascha night alone!

As I was saying... I want to write more on these things and I plan to... but I'm falling into a post-Pascha coma at the moment.  Somehow, while we were out all week at Church, my house went to pot.  Mount Washmore looks like Mount Everest and while I started from base camp and made it a few camps upward, I still need to tackle the summit.  I put declared today a TV/non-school day and fixed up my house.  Tomorrow, its back to school and back to live as usual.

Except that life can never be the same as long as those words, Christos Anesti, continue to ring in my heart.