Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"What is the aim of the incarnate dispensation of God's Word, preached in all the Holy Scriptures but which we, who read them, do not know? The only aim is that, having entered into what is our own, we should participate in what is His. The Son of God has become Son of Man in order to make us, men, sons of God, raising our race by grace to what He is Himself by nature, granting us birth from above through the grace of the Holy Spirit and leading us straightway to the kingdom of heaven, or rather, granting us this kingdom of heaven within us (Luke 17:21), in order that we should not merely be fed by the hope of entering it, but entering into full possession thereof should cry: our 'life is hid with Christ in God' (Col. 3:3)." -- St. Simeon the New Theologian, Practical and Theological Precepts

To all my non-Orthodox Christian friends and relatives, a Joyous Easter! Χριστος Ανεστη! He is risen!

[Having both Orthodox and protestant roots, I celebrate Easter twice in years where the two traditions' observances of Easter don't fall on the same date. TBH, I haven't quite figured out yet which feels like "the real Easter" to me -- I guess I'm more excited that it happened than concerned with when we celebrate it (even though disagreements over that have been significant in the history of my religion), or that I pick one specific weekend to do so. Though I can certainly see the merit of picking one day to focus on the observance and really get into it, feeling all the intensity concentrated in one spot in the calendar, or even the particular moment when the church is darkened and then one candle's flame is passed throughout the congregation to hundreds of candles, as a special moment of concentratraded shared joy, at least for now I am comfortable splitting that intensity between two groups -- Orthodox and Western -- that I want to share it with. Anyhow, this year the two Easters are a week apart, so today is Orthodox Palm Sunday.]