Fifty days after Pascha we come to the feast of Pentecost, the feast of the descent of the Holy Spirit, the feast of the Holy Trinity. When our Lord was preparing His apostles for His Pascha and His going to the Father He told them: “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14.2b-3). The apostles, troubled by this announcement and fearful of losing their

As we keep the feast of our Lord’s ascension there is no other book of the Bible more important than St Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. This is a bold statement, I know, particularly since the entire New Testament and, rightly understood, the Old Testament, too, are the result of Christ’s ascension and the Church’s conviction that he is therefore “the Lord”. This earliest Christian confession – Jesus is Lord – is based upon the Lord’s ascension to be seated at the right hand

As we near the end of the Paschal season it is worthwhile to look at the account of Mary Magdalene's encounter with the risen Lord in chapter 20 of St John’s Gospel. Mary went to the tomb of Christ and when she first encountered him mistook him for the gardener. But when Christ spoke her name she immediately knew him and ran to him, presumably to cling to his feet and worship him. Christ stopped her, however, saying: "Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to My Fath

The hymns of the Church are a school of spiritual life. In fact, it has often been said that if you want to learn the Orthodox Faith and teachings all you need to do is go to Church and pray with attention, for the great hymn-books of the Church - the Menaion, the Octoechos, the Triodion, and the Pentecostarion - contain all our dogmas and spiritual teaching in doxological form. An exceptional example of this are the hymns of Pascha, the Feast of Feasts. The hymnographers, in