Pascha Services
Great and Holy Friday — 14th April — 8.30 pm
Matins of Great Saturday (Lamentations)
Great and Holy Saturday — 15th April — 9 am
Vesperal Liturgy
Holy Pascha — 16th April — 9 am
Matins and Liturgy
(No night time service of the Resurrection)
Dear Friends
Love is seen universally as a good thing: everyone is pro-love. But this immediately leads us to the question, what is love? In other words, how should we express love for one another? And there is confusion and there is debate around this issue.
From the pages of Scripture, we discover the shortest definition of God: “God is love.” (First John 4:8) But we could examine the context of this statement.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
First John 4:7–11
And we see the love that God has for us expressed not as mere feelings but direct actions.
These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. … These things I command you, that you love one another.
John 15:11–13,17
So the Cross is the fulfillment—literally ‘filling full’—of love: that God, in his infinite love for you and in his infinite love for me, loves us by laying down his life for us, his friends.
And this is madness according to the world, this is folly, but it is the only way to truly love. The Church is here to proclaim to the world, “If you want to truly love your husband, love your wife, love your children, love all those whom you care about—you need the Cross.”
But this is not the end of the story, ours is not a faith of morbidity and self-punishment. Christ has shown us that when we love, truly love, our co-crucifixion alongside his will lead to our co-resurrection alongside his. For his love for us is stronger than Death himself. Death no longer is the end of all of our race because Christ’s resurrection defeats him, annihilates him, vanquishes his power. And even though we will die we never accept Death for our tombs are temporary because Life reigns.
And so, by learning to love as God has loved us we may love more deeply, not as an emotion but really love our families, our friends, our neighbours and, even, all. “What is love?” asks the world, and we reply, “God is love, and he shows us how to love.”
Come! Be a part of the resurrected life. Come and celebrate the defeat of Death and the Resurrection of Christ. Come and discover how we can love our world, love our neighbour, truly and perfectly.
Come and see!
I wish you all a joyful celebration of Pascha.
May the Light of the Resurrection shine in your hearts!
We serve a meal following the Liturgy on Sundays. All are welcome.
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Sermon
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
Throughout the Gospels, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord teaches and heals many yet it is rare for him to raise the dead—only Jairus’ daughter (Matthew 9:18–26, Mark 5:21–43, Luke 8:40–56), the son of the Widow of Nain (Luke 7:11–17) and Lazarus (John 11:1–44) are mentioned by the Evangelists. The Lord shows himself as having power over Death itself, the last enemy (First Corinthians 15:26), and so a crowd came—specifically because of Lazarus’s raising—for “The reason why the crowd went to meet [Christ] was that they heard he had done this sign [this miracle].”
You and I, dear brothers and sisters, have been raised as if from the dead. We have heard the Gospel and been brought back to life, back to wholeness, and we cry out “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” Yet are we satisfied with this? Are we limited by this? Do we want merely to be brought back to life according to the standards of this life? For Jairus’ daughter, for the son of the Widow of Nain, for Lazarus, would all return to the grave, return to the earth, return to dust. Do I want to have a mere second chance at this life or do I want true life, eternal life?
The Lord comes as a conquering King unlike any in human history. His Gospel is one inviting his subjects to become co-heirs with him, that we might co-reign with him in his Kingdom. And he comes not to take possession of a human city but in humility he comes to take our hearts if we will offer them to him.
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Archive of Past Sermons.
Services this week
Friday 14th April
Matins of Holy Saturday (Lamentations), 8.30 pm
At St Francis’ Hall, Eastleigh
Saturday 15th April
Vesperal Liturgy, 9 am
At St Francis’ Hall, Eastleigh
Sunday 16th April
Matins & Divine Liturgy of Pascha, 9 am
At St Francis’ Hall, Eastleigh
Please join us: all are welcome, come and see.
Attending Church
We meet at St Francis’ Hall, Nightingale Avenue, Eastleigh, SO50 9JA. Come and See.
Can I help you?
I am here for you, you need only ask. Is there a way I can support your life of faith? Get in touch.
Can you help the community?
Yes, absolutely. Offer yourselves to the Lord: pray! Make available to him all your talents and ask him how he would like you to use them — listen for his reply.
Your prayers!
With love in Christ
Fr Alexander
[email protected]