"And He said unto them: With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer: For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God." (Luke 22:15-16) Dear Brothers and Sisters, parishioners of our church, At the Mystical Supper our Lord Jesus Christ once again opened to us His human and divine natures. His humanity was opened to us through His strong desire to spend His final earthly Passover with His friends – the holy apostles. His divinity was made clear to us by His foreknowledge of the coming passions that were to begin that night. Without a doubt, at that last supper, when Christ for the first time communed His friends, He especially enjoyed the company of the disciples, noticed all the unique qualities of each one’s character and delighted in them. After this Passover, the wonderful farewell disclosure Christ shared with the apostles while they walked through the dark and sleepy Jerusalem, and the intense and sorrowful prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ’s most agonizing hours began, when He felt complete abandonment and said the following words of the 21st (22) psalm: "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? why art Thou so far from helping me?" It is probably not an exaggeration to say that in a matter of hours, the lives of Christ and His disciples completely changed. The feeling of comfort, the close and pleasant company of friends and the feast were replaced by desolation, fear, pain, suffering and fear. Like the apostles, who had no idea that night that Christ was willingly going to His death, we, simple mortal people, have no foreknowledge of the future. Likewise we did not know beforehand that our churches would be closed and we would be forced to pray exclusively in our homes. Therefore let’s appreciate the church services, common prayer and fellowship, knowing (now from personal experience) that everything can change in a heartbeat, everything can be lost. We can take comfort in the fact that Christ did not leave His apostles forever, nor will He abandon us, as He Himself said: "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" (John 14: 2-3). Remember that your places in church are waiting for you and, more importantly, that Christ has prepared your own personal places in the Heavenly Church! In several days Pascha, "the feast of feasts and triumph of triumphs," will be upon us. For many this will be the most unusual Pascha of their lives, although every year many, many people are not able to attend the church service due to various reasons, and of course are very saddened by this. In a certain way, the only real difference between this year and every other year is that everyone has a good excuse why they cannot come to church. For those who are interested, I can offer the following suggestion, which will seem completely strange and out of character for me, in these holy days: to put today’s situation in context, to better understand what the essence of paschal joy is, and to accent what we can contemplate on this coming holy night, read (or if you have already read it before, reread) A. P. Chekhov’s short story "Easter Eve" (you can find the story here in Russian : http://chehov-lit.ru/chehov/text/svyatoyu-nochyu.htm or here in English: http://www.online-literature.com/anton_chekhov/1159/). It seems to me that if you read this story it won’t be a waste of time and will set you in the right mood to greet Pascha in this strange and unusual year. priest Alexis