"As the Beginningless One Who holds the middle of all things..."

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

Jesus Christ, the Wisdom of God (source)

 
You destroyed the gates of death through Your power, making known and opening the gates of the way of life without corruption for those who cry out with faith: Glory to Your power, O Lord.

As the Beginningless One Who holds the middle of all things, and their end and their beginning, You stood in the middle of the feast, crying out: Come, partake of divine gifts, O godly-minded ones.

As God Who holds all authority, as the Mighty One, You brought down the kingdom of death, sending down, O Christ, the Holy Spirit, Who proceeds from the Father.
-Excerpts from the Matins Canons of Mid-Pentecost
 
(source)
 

Christ is risen from the dead, by death, trampling down upon death, and to those in the tombs, He has granted life!

Truly the Lord is risen!

St. Luke of Simferopol on Condemnation

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

St. Luke the Surgeon, Archbishop of Simferopol of Crimea (source)

   

"Where does condemnation come from? From pride, by the fact that many perceive themselves as higher and better than others. We furthermore condemn out of malice, out of hate, by the fact that, in our heart, there is very little love."
-St. Luke of Simferopol
 
(source)
 

Christ is risen from the dead, by death, trampling down upon death, and to those in the tombs, He has granted life!

Truly the Lord is risen!

St. Porphyrios: "Take delight in all things that surround us..."

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

Icon of the Resurrection of Christ decorated with flowers (source)

   

“Take delight in all things that surround us. All things teach us and lead us to God. All things around us are droplets of the love of God — both things animate and inanimate, the plants and the animals, the birds and the mountains, the sea and the sunset and the starry sky. They are little loves through which we attain to the great Love that is Christ. Flowers, for example, have their own grace; they teach us with their fragrance and with their magnificence. They speak to us of the love of God. They scatter their fragrance and their beauty on sinners and on the righteous.”
-St Porphyrios
   
(source)
   

St. Porphtrios of Kavsokalyvia (source)

Christ is risen from the dead, by death, trampling down upon death, and to those in the tombs, He has granted life!

Truly the Lord is risen!

O true friend of Christ, first leader among His Champions..."

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

St. George the Great Martyr and Trophy-bearer (source)

    

O true friend of Christ, first leader among His Champions, all-radiant lamp of the world, brightest star, shining light, unsleeping protector of those who honor you: protect us, O Martyr George.

The Church skips and claps her hands at the sacred Resurrection of the Savior, and now for the repose of the Champion, chanting: two good things have been joined together.

There is nowhere on the earth, nor on the sea, nor in the city, nor the desert, in which the sounds of your wonders has not reached, O Martyr, forming an overflowing sea, for your wondrous name is praised throughout the whole earth.

All of the peoples of the nations praise, bless and hymn, crying out together: Rejoice, O savior, the joy of the faithful, rejoice, you who are the boast of Champions, O supremely-wondrous George.
-Excerpts from the Matins Canon of St. George the Great Martyr and Trophy-bearer
 
(source)
 

St. George the Great Martyr and Trophy-bearer (source)

 

Christ is risen from the dead, by death, trampling down upon death, and to those in the tombs, He has granted life!

Truly the Lord is risen!

"O women, hearken to the voice of rejoicing..."

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

The Holy Myrrhbearers greeted by the Angel at the Tomb of Christ (source)

 
O women, hearken to the voice of rejoicing, for the tyrant Hades has been trampled upon, and the world has been raised up from corruption. Hasten, tell the glad tidings to My friends, for I desire that my creation, from which came forth sorrow, would be the same to shine forth joy.
-Exaposteilarion for the Sunday of the Holy Myrrhbearers

(source)

   

Christ is risen from the dead, by death, trampling down upon death, and to those in the tombs, He has granted life!

Truly the Lord is risen!

Elder Ephraim of Arizona on Pascha, Paradise and Springtime

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

The Resurrection of Christ (source)

   

"Now in the springtime, when nature is wearing its most beautiful apparel, one feels inexpressible joy when this natural beauty is accompanied by a sublime spiritual state. Truly, our holy God has made all things in wisdom (Ps. 103:26)! The soul cannot get enough of beholding the beauty of nature. Oh, if man would only lift his mind above this earthly realm to the heavenly Jerusalem, to the inconceivable beauty of paradise where the finite, earthly mind ceases to operate! If here in exile, in this accursed land of weeping, our holy God has given us so much beauty to enjoy, I wonder how much there will be in the place where God Himself dwells! Truly, “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the coming glory and bliss (Rom. 8:18).” Theosis* in the heavens, my child! There the Lord our God will remove every tear from our eyes, and do away with all sorrow and pain and sighing, for there the angelic way of life reigns, and the only work is to chant hymns and spiritual odes! An eternal Sabbath is prepared for us where we shall live in joy with our Father, God, Who is waiting for us to be ready so that He may call us to Him forever! There every saved soul will live in an ocean of love, sweetness, joy, amazement, and wonder!" 

*Theosis: Connected with the theoria of uncreated Light, theosis, or divinization, is a participation in the uncreated grace of God. At this stage of perfection, one has reached dispassion. Through the cooperation of God with man, theosis is attained through the action of the transfigurative grace of God.

   

The Resurrection of Christ (source)

   

"Ah, if you could only see a little bit of paradise, if you could only hear for a few seconds the chanting of the sweet angels who shine with heavenly light and emit paradisiacal fragrance! Oh, what beauty! Unfortunately, we are in the dark about all these things.

There everything shines with limitless bliss. And what does the throne of Christ tell you? Christ the Master sits upon a throne, and due to His light no one can discern His sacred and most sweet face. Oh, what sweetness and beauty! What is more beautiful than this? This is truly paradise: to behold the face of our Jesus! Glory to Thy Cross, O Lord, and to Thy Resurrection!

O depth of the wisdom of God! O mysteries of the three sun Deity! Blessed is he who humbles himself like a child, obeying all commands with a guileless soul for the love of God! And woe to him who will hold on to his egotism, like me; how many divine gifts does he deprive himself of!

My children, run with humility to reach the Lord Who humbled Himself for our sake—our sweetest, beloved Christ, the light of our poor souls.

See what beauty awaits us! If you could only see how beautiful it is! You would disregard everything; you would even become like trash to be stepped on, just as long as you would not be deprived of everything that the sweet love of Jesus has prepared! These are the kinds of things my Elder used to tell me, and I am conveying them to you so that you may be sweetened. I am done—forgive me!

   

Christ, the Good Shepherd, Who came to find the lost sheep (source)

   

From Counsels from the Holy Mountain: Selected from the Letters and Homilies of Elder Ephraim of Arizona (sources 1 and 2)

Christ the Creator blessing creation (source)  
Christ is risen from the dead, by death, trampling down upon death, and to those in the tombs, He has granted life!

Truly the Lord is risen!

"This light-bearing day has become the first and lady of days..."

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

The Sunday of St. Thomas, when Christ again appeared to His Disciples after His Resurrection (source)

   

This light-bearing day [Sunday] has become the first and lady of days, in which it is worthy for the new and divine people to rejoice. And as a type of the ages, it also forms the eighth day which is to come, He Who is greatly-exalted by us and our Fathers, blessed are You, O God.
-from the Matins Canon for the Sunday of St. Thomas
 
(source)
 

Christ is risen from the dead, by death, trampling down upon death, and to those in the tombs, He has granted life!

Truly the Lord is risen!