The hour has come to drink of the cup

The sweet cup of suffering for Christ.

Behold, the wolves rush through the mountains Faster brethren, to the All-Pure Communion. And, after that, a bloody baptism! Repent for yourself and for the people, And all your thoughts to God, direct, Your evil doers, you forgive,

The doors of Paradise, for us are opening.

Let every brother, forgive his brother. Christ is Risen - that we resurrect, Faithful to Him, we are until we die!

When a man detaches his mind from earth, opens it toward God with the desire to please God, then God reveals His will in various ways. St. Peter of Damascus writes: "If a man has a full intention to please God, then God teaches him His will either through thoughts, through some other person or through Holy Scripture." Such a man becomes attentive, keen and awaits God's promptings from within and from without. For him, chances cease to exist. The entire world becomes as a ten-stringed harp which does not give out one sound without the finger of God.

CONTEMPLATION

To contemplate the resurrected Lord Jesus: 1. How He appeared to two of His disciples on the road to Emmaus and they did not recognize Him; 2. How the hearts of these two disciples burned within when He spoke to them and how they recognized Him only when He blessed and broke bread for them;

3. How, all at once, before their eyes the Lord became invisible to them.

-About living hope"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who in His mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Peter 1:3). Brethren, who has dead hope and who has living hope? He who hopes in dead things has a dead hope. He who hopes in the Living God has a living hope. Further, he who hopes in himself and in other people has a dead hope. He who hopes in the Living God has a living hope. Further, he who hopes in luck and well-being in this brief earthly existence and does not extend his hope beyond the grave, has a dead hope. He who hopes in the resurrection and eternal life in the kingdom of heaven has a living hope.

Truly, a living hope is better than a dead hope; as life is better than death; as light is better than darkness; as health is better than sickness; as understanding is better than ignorance. But, Who brought and showed man that living hope; Who, and how? The Apostle Peter gives an answer to that question: Our Lord Jesus Christ and that, by His resurrection from the dead. No one else but the Lord Jesus Christ and by nothing else than His own resurrection from the dead. By His resurrection, the Lord gave wings to the pathetic hopes of man, extended him beyond the grave and showed him the goal, purpose and fruit beyond the grave. All of this is not confirmed by a credulous man but by an apostle who wavered for a long while in his faith and who denied

Christ three times. That is why St. Peter's witness of the resurrected Lord and the significance of His resurrection is inexpressibly priceless for us. O resurrected Lord, Victor over death, uproot from us dead hope and plant a living hope in us through the prayers of St. Peter, Your great apostle. To You be glory and thanks always. Amen.