Christ is Risen!
Bright Monday
Hieromartyr Hypátios of Gángra;
St. Innocent of Moscow
March 31/April 13 ns 2026
~ No Fasting ~
ANECDOTE: Be honest, is not this life one of ups and downs, and to what end? Does that sound like a description of what God is? Are we not made in His image? Christians KNOW for a fact that we ARE! Then why are our lives unlike Him? {I did not say like "His" because He doesn't "have" life, HE IS LIFE!
Simple, sin brings us down, even at times without knowing how it happened, but God has NO SIN.
Pascha means Passover. Passover, means that we can pass over sin and death but there is only one way to do it.
So, in sin, we thirst each time we stop experiencing God, Who is eternal, NON STOP, love and joy.
Sin takes it away because it is not "of God". It isn't so much that sin has any power at all but we have the freedom and the power to stray from being with God and when we do, we make a non-entity our God. We cannot love both.
In the email from the priest we are encouraged to passover (PASCHA) from moment to moment, not ONCE A YEAR! But how, you may ask? It is sooo simple! Simple match remembering Christ in your heart with your breath. Impossible? Yes! Yes! but not impossible with God! Once He sees you have given up everytghing in your heart for Him alone, He makes it happen and He is not only "within", "The Kingdome of Heaven is within" but you are IN HIM.
Its even simpler. What did St. Photini need to do to be in a perpetual state of love and joy without ever thirsting for it again?
IF YOU NEED TO THINK ABOUT IT - NO NEED. Simple read the Gospel from the St John the Divine 4 KJV.
Hypátios was born in Cilicia and was the bishop of Gángra. He was present at the First Ecumenical Council [Nicaea, 325. A.D.] and was renowned throughout because of his pious and saintly life and his miracle-working.`````````````
The Emperor Constantius ordered that a likeness of Hypátios be made during the saint's lifetime. The emperor kept this likeness in his palace as a weapon against all adverse powers.
Once upon returning from Constantinople, Hypátios was attacked in a narrow gorge by Novatian heretics and, along with others, was hurled to the ground in mud. At that moment a woman from that group struck him in the head with a stone {icon above}and thus, the saint died. Immediately that woman went insane and took that same stone and struck herself with it. When they took her to the grave of St. Hypátios, he interceded before God on her behalf. She was healed by the great compassionate soul of Hypátios and lived the remainder of her life in repentance and prayer. St. Hypátios died and took up habitation in the eternal Kingdom of Christ the God, in the year 326 A.D.
Acts 1:12-17, 21-26 KJV
12 Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey.
13 And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James.
14 These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.
15 And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,)
16 Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus.
17 For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry.
21 Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,
22 Beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.
23 And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias.
24 And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen,
25 That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.
26 And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.
Saint John 1:18-28 KJV
18 No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
19 And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou?
20 And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ.
21 And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No.
22 Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself?
23 He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.
24 And they which were sent were of the Pharisees.
25 And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet?
26 John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not;
27 He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose.
28 These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.
St. John Maximovitch: . . . God saves His fallen creature by His own love for him, but man’s love for his Creator is also necessary . . .
Now the Church consists of both her earthly and heavenly parts, for the Son of God came to earth and became man that He might lead man into heaven and make him once again a citizen of Paradise, returning to him his original state of sinlessness and wholeness and uniting him unto Himself.
This is accomplished by the action of Divine grace grated through the Church, but man’s effort is also required. God saves His fallen creature by His own love for him, but man’s love for his Creator is also necessary; without it he cannot by saved. Striving towards God and cleaving unto the Lord by its humble love, the human soul obtains power to cleanse itself from sin and to strengthen itself for the struggle to complete victory over sin.
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