ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN EASTER : RESURRECTION FOCUSED ON LIBERATION AND COMPASSION.............

This year the difference in the Catholic-Christian Calendar and the Orthodox Christian Calendar for the celebration of Easter Sunday is five weeks.  Whereas Catholic-Christians celebrated the Easter Vigil / Easter Sunday on March 30 / 31, Orthodox Christians celebrated on Saturday night and yesterday.  300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide who gathered for the Great Vigil of the Holy Fire and the Liturgy of Easter Sunday, celebrated the Resurrection of Jesus The Christ and the granting of Liberation and Compassion of the Living and True God.  The Orthodox Christian Easter opens with a Solemn Vigil at  12 Midnight, which the 4th Century Patriarch of Constaninople, St. Gregory Nazianus called, "brighter than any sunlit day", opens with a magnificent fire from which the Holy Light of Easter is produced.  The faithful gathered here the words proclaimed, "Come receive the light !".  In the spirit of Ecumenism that the Second Vatican Council proclaimed is our responsibility as Catholic-Christians in the Council Document, 'Decree On Ecumenism', November 21, 1964; let us extend to the present Orthodox Christian Patriarch Bartholomew and his flock, the joy and hope Easter brings.  May liberation from the consequences of sin, and the compassion of a merciful and forgiving God, be theirs and ours in the glory and victory of New and Risen Life in Jesus the Christ of Eternal Salvation.............Fr.  Troy