(L, P)br...
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(L, P)
It is difficult for us to recapture the great surprise of the women at the tomb on Easter morning -- for we know, as they did not, that Christ indeed was risen. Perhaps the best way I know to experience some of the excitment of that day is to participate in an Orthodox Easter eve service. After a preliminary service in a church stripped of rich trappings and with a shroud representing the dead Christ as the centerpiece, most people leave the church. While they are gone, a few take away the shroud, and restore the glory to the church. Then everyone returns at midnight to shouts of hallelujah, Christ is risen, and from one candle the light goes from one to another until the church is aglow with the lights of everyone's candle. And then the Easter service begins. The exciting change from somber mourning to exuberant joy is the nearest thing I know to the experience of the women on Easter day -- and it is a pale reflection I am sure.
-- Shearburn
It is difficult for us to recapture the great surprise of the women at the tomb on Easter morning -- for we know, as they did not, that Christ indeed was risen. Perhaps the best way I know to experience some of the excitment of that day is to participate in an Orthodox Easter eve service. After a preliminary service in a church stripped of rich trappings and with a shroud representing the dead Christ as the centerpiece, most people leave the church. While they are gone, a few take away the shroud, and restore the glory to the church. Then everyone returns at midnight to shouts of hallelujah, Christ is risen, and from one candle the light goes from one to another until the church is aglow with the lights of everyone's candle. And then the Easter service begins. The exciting change from somber mourning to exuberant joy is the nearest thing I know to the experience of the women on Easter day -- and it is a pale reflection I am sure.
-- Shearburn
