Українська Католицька Катедра св. Йосафата
St. Josaphat Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral
Христос Воскрес! Воістину Воскрес! Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!
Томина Неділя Saint Thomas Sunday
The Sunday of Saint Thomas the Apostle:
This is also called the Sunday of the “Anti – Pasch, “which means “instead of the Pasch,” because on this Sunday, Easter is being renewed for the first time. Another name for this Sunday is “the Sunday of Renewal” or “New Sunday.”
On the Sunday the church commemorates the risen Christ’s appearance to the
Apostles and, among them, to doubting Thomas. Hearing of Christ’s
resurrection, St. Thomas refused to believe unless he himself saw and
touched Jesus. Our risen Lord granted his wish and came to him, changing
his doubt into a magnificent profession of faith. St. Thomas is thus the
great example for men of a worldly frame of mind, turned away from God. The
Saviour lets His five wounds shine against the darkness and says to them,
“Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” The Lord Jesus kept the five wounds
in His glorified body that He might exercise the incomparable power over
men’s hearts until the end of the world. This divine wisdom is praised in
the prokimenon: Great is our Lord and mighty in power; to His wisdom there
is no limit.” The kontakion gives a poetic resume of this Sunday: “O Christ
our God, with an eager hand Thomas explored Your live – giving side. When
You entered through the locked doors, he cried out with the other apostles:
My Lord and my God. Also on this Sunday the “Artos,” a holy bread blessed on
Easter Sunday, is distributed to the Apostles.
Basil Shereghy
2nd Sunday of Pascha:
He is Risen! He is not here!
Christ is risen from the dead, by death He conquered Death, and to those in the graves He granted life. Paschal Troparion
Come; Receive the Light which never fades!
By His death and resurrection Christ has defeated Death once and for all. He destroys our enslavement to sin. Through faith He offers us new life. Let us celebrate the Resurrection of Christ and, in faith, allow Him to transform our lives.
I was buried yesterday with You, O Christ; but today I rise, resurrected with You. Yesterday I crucified myself with You, O Savior. Now glorify me with You in Your kingdom. (From Pascha Matins)
“And he departed from our sight that we might return to our heart, and there find Him. For He departed, and behold, He is here.”
*********************************************