The Winter Is Now Past.Saint Gregory of Nyssa.

"My beloved calls to me, “Arise, my darling. Come away with me, my beautiful one. For now the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers have appeared in the countryside; the season of singing has come, and the cooing of turtledoves is heard in our land"(Cant2: 10-12).…

And the flowers beamed

 in the countryside...

The Word has spoken to the bride, calling her my love because she is close to Him, and my dove because she is beautiful. He now goes on to say that the sadness of winter no longer dominates our souls. For the cold cannot resist the rays of the sun. Behold, He says, winter is now past, the rain is over and gone (Cant. 2.II).

Sin is given many different names in accordance with its different effects. It is called winter, rain, drops-each name suggesting a different sort of temptation. In wintertime everything that is lovely withers away. All the leaves, which are the natural crown of the beauty of the trees, fall from the branches and are mingled with earth. The song of the birds is silent, the nightingale flies away, the swallow sleeps, and the dove leaves its nest.

Everything imitates the oppression of death. The blossom perishes; the grass dies; the branches are stripped of their leaves like bones of their flesh, and what was once lovely flower and leaf is now an ugly spectacle.

La fête…l'allégresse du cœur.Archimandrite Aimilianos Simonopetra.

Portrait de L'Archimandrite Aimilianos

offert par Père Elisée, higoumène de Simonopetra, 

au monastère Saint Jean-Baptiste, Liban.

L’Archimandrite Aimilianos (Vafeidis) fut l’higoumène du monastère Simonopetra  dès 1974 jusqu’à 2000. Comme jeune enthousiasmé, il avait l’intention de devenir un missionnaire à l’étranger, mais en tant que moine il a vécu une expérience spirituelle spéciale qui l’a transformé en un moine enflammé de zèle pour la rénovation de la vie monastique. C’est ainsi que fut renouvelée la vie monastique au monastère Simonopetra au Mont-Athos, et fondé le monastère de L’Annonciation à Ormilia en Grèce.

         Je suis très heureux de pouvoir, enfin, vous réunir après les jours si denses que nous venons de vivre. Nous pouvons dire que ce temps liturgique, celui de la Grande Semaine, fut le plus beau de l'année.

Les fêtes sont passées. En nous résonnent encore les hymnes de la Passion, auxquelles ont succédé les cris jaillissant de nos cœurs devant le Seigneur ressuscité. Personne ne peut nier que nos fêtes étaient splendides. C'était les fêtes de Dieu, et non de ces fêtes dont on dit: «Je méprise vos fêtes», car elles ont rendu nos cœurs joyeux dans le Christ Jésus.

"For the olive tree is like John. He foretold a symbol of his Lord."

Saint Ephrem The Syrian.

   

    In this hymn Ephrem argues that the priesthood and the kingship of the Chosen People have passed through Christ to include the Gentiles along with the Jews. Through Moses and Solomon these offices were bestowed on the Jewish people (str. 1). Zechariah's prophetic vision of two olive trees shows the continuation of these two lines in two covenants, one for Jews, the other for Gentiles (str. 2), but it also presents the typological key for understanding that Jesus is the Messiah, the Anointed One. The olive branch brought back by the dove after the Flood symbolizes not only peace but also Jesus, the Anointed, the First-born of the dead (str. 3-4). The entry into Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, the anointing of Christ by the sinful woman, the preparation of the way of Christ by John the Baptist all are interwoven with the oil of the olive tree, thus implying that Jesus is heir to the priesthood and kingship (str. 5-9). The properties and uses of olive oil itself also point to Christ and his followers: steadfastness (str. 10), the anointing of athletes (str. 11-13), oil as a means of easing conflicting forces (str. 14).

The same melody

 1 - Oil in the likeness of the Heavenly One became the giver of kingship.

From the horn [of oil] a pure cloud descended upon the head of a body,  

as God descended upon the top of the mountain  and gave brightness to Moses,

and Solomon received brightness symbolically.

From the horn of messiahship. From the People to the peoples it went out.

Instead of the few, many will be anointed and cleansed.

Refrain: Blessed is He Who gave eyes to the peoples to see the symbols of the Son, the Anointed.