Joy in the Lord
The period of the Fifty Holy Days is a special period in the ecclesiastical cycle. The prominent feature of this period is joy. The Church prays with a festal tune in all Her liturgies and prayers, including the funerals. During this period, the Church lives the life of happiness, which was experienced by the holy disciples after Christ’s resurrection and His appearance to them. The Divine inspiration describes this joy as such, "Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord." (John 20:20) The Lord’s presence with the disciples led them to experience joy, which lasted with them for the rest of their lives. In the beginning, they saw the Lord with their eyes and touched Him, and they were happy. He continued to appear to them for forty days speaking to them about things pertaining to the Kingdom of God (Acts 1:3), until the time came for Him to leave them and ascend to heaven. However, after the forty days when Christ ceased to appear to them, the disciples’ happiness did not end.

"If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God." (Colossians 3:1)

My Beloved Brethren, Christ is Risen. He is Risen indeed.

On this glorious day, as we commemorate the blessed Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, I would like to extend my hearty wishes to all of you praying to the Risen Lord to grant us His Resurrection and make it real in our life.

My beloved sons in the lands of immigration, priests and congregation.
Peace and grace from Our Lord, hoping that God may bless your lives and sanctify them and may every work that you do be successful. We thank God Who granted us to complete this Holy Pascha in peace and has brought us to the joys of His Resurrection. Our joy is not merely the joy of the Feast after ending the fast. Our joy however, is a spiritual joy, as the apostle said, "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice." (Philippians 4:4)