The Myrrbearing Women and the Christian Women of Today.Elder Sofian Boaghiu

Elder Sofian Boaghiu of Antim Monastery (now with the Lord) was sentenced by the communists (in 1958) to 15 years of hard labor in the concentration camps for keeping the true Orthodox Christian faith and refusing to become atheist.

    

Elder Sofian Boaghiu.

As you know, the third Sunday after Easter is the Sunday of the Myrrh bearing women, or the Sunday of the faithful women, keepers of Christian family. You should be joyful that you partake of this special honor from our Resurrected Lord. And through our most pure Mother Theotokos and the Holy Myrrh-bearing women, you have a Sunday a year when you are especially honored. May the Lord multiply in you the grace and gifts of the Holy Spirit and may the gift of Christian love abide truly in you, in order that you may become maintainers of Christian’ warmth and harmony in your family. For many families today are met with disaster… as you know better than me, so I will not speak about it.

Meditations on Death and the Resurrection.Father Georges Masssouh.

 There is an inevitable truth that death lies is waiting for us at some moment of our life. So how must one deal with this eventuality?. Do we surrender to it and live our life in fear of it happening sooner or later?. Or should we face it with courage and live as though it could happen at any moment? Do we live this coming death in constant fear or do we regard it as something natural and go about our daily life in a normal manner?.

 "Bishop Kallistos Ware" begins his article "'Go Joyfully:' The Mystery of Death and the Resurrection", which appears in his book The Inner Kingdom as follows: "In the worship of the Russian Orthodox Church, while the prayers of preparation are being said before starting of the Eucharist, the doors in the center of the icon screen remain closed.