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The Holy Week as a way to be with Christ


By Father Andrew Lemeshonok

We are on the verge of the Resurrection of Christ. The Holy Week is an incomparable time. There are only a few steps left to make, a few days left to get through. The world is struggling against each of us, tries to separate us from God, to cause misunderstanding and resentment. It attempts to tie us down with sin, make us closed for God. This is why we should stay awake and fight for our hearts which can hold God and in which the kingdom of Heaven could start.

Quite often we are looking for certain signs, farsightedness or miracles and say: “Look, this one is insightful, and that one is a wonderworker”… However, the only criteria of the true Christianity are humbleness and love. And these things are always inconspicuous.

The Holy Week

On the one hand, the Lord voluntarily accepts the sufferings, which means His death. On the other hand, His steps towards Golgotha is a feast for us. We partake of the Holy Communion, we take His love and thus we can live. The majority of people do not live today, but simply exist. They try to do their best to live in comfort, they build and collect something, they try to make their life more interesting and entertaining, to make it be more diverse. However, they just cannot admit that all these things are unreal, that everything will end sooner or later, and people will be separated from their loved ones. Everything falls to ruins in this world. This is why the God’s steps, the steps of our Savior towards His Golgotha become  both grief and joy for us at the same time. This grief contains the real life. Our nature is completely different. People lament when they are upset. People judge and envy when there is something they do not like. All these happen because of our own foolishness.  If we face certain sorrows, then it is our fault because we are corrupted by sin. This is why we cannot understand Christ even as a person. It is impossible to join His sorrow because Christ, the Son of a Man, was free from sin. Nevertheless, His steps towards Golgotha let us live.


The Holy Week is a great opportunity to feel the real life, which can be found only in God. We thank the Lord for this and ask Him for help to stand before Christ, listening to His word…

April 10, 2017
St. Elisabeth Convent



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