Behold we are going up...

 

                   Behold we are going up...Come,therefore...

Thank God in Trinity, our one and only holy God who has made us worthy of reaching these

holy days again and becoming participants in the sufferings of Christ, but also we will

definitely become participants in the resurrection,as well.

We thank PANAGIA,

the Mother of life,

the Mother of love,

the Mother of Light,

who graces and honours us with the...responsibility and blessing of walking with

HER!!!towards the Divine Passion of the Lord,not participating and watching like the viewers

on the stands do,but heartily commiserating and suffering with Him regardless of whether

our own passions act in us because they diminish and they are altered and softened through

participating worshippingly in the Divine Passion and we experience the strange alteration in

a decent, holy,life-saving and life-changing way...

Approaching the Divine Passion with patience and no despair but with irrefutable and good

hopes,She graces us once again to reach the present global, national, ecclesiastical ,

spiritual and personal ordeal but being as a whole and united with the link of love like the

Apostles were.

We listen to the most beautiful troparion of the Service of the Bridegroom :

Behold,we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of the Man will be handed over...

Look!!!We are heading to Jerusalem and the Lord will be handed over,..etc..

You see? The service of the Bridegroom...

He is the Bridegroom of Church,

the Bridegroom of our souls,..

and PANAGIA is the bridal leader of the saints, of every soul ; She is the one who joins and

unites every soul with Christ...

Rejoice,bridal Chamber of a seedless marriage,

Rejoice,thou who dost join the faithful to the Lord;

Rejoice, fair Nursing-Mother of virgins,

Rejoice, bridal Escort of Holy souls.

But,as we can see,although He is the Bridegroom of church, the bridal Chamber of every

soul is the acceptance of the ordeal of the Suffering, the endurance of difficulties and

carrying our cross patiently and uncomplainingly,rejoicing, as the Holy Scripture says,while

going through trials,and God is given the opportunity to dwell within us and the spirit of truth

can dispel and expel every cunning and filthy spirit .Many times,miseries may march within

us but with the coming of the Holy spirit, the divine grace acts and the expulsion of the

cunning spirits is achieved ,while at the same time the marching of every good and benign

spirit is accomplished and the spirit of truth replaces all spirits and the spirit of falsehood.

 

This beautiful troparion, in the service of the Bridegroom as the Lord is coming to the

Passion willingly,invites us to participate along with the army of saints and benevolent souls

by proceeding and suffering along with Him in order to live with Him and raise us to the

heavenly town and homeland towards the pre-falling beauty, the salvation, the eternal life...

Come,therefore, and let us accompany Him,with minds purified from the pleasures of

this life, And let us be crucified and die with Him,And that we may hear Him say to us:

I go now,not to the earthly Jerusalem to suffer,But unto my Father and your Father

And my God and your God, And I will gather you up into the heavenly Jerusalem, Into

the Kingdom of Heaven....

What a greatness!!!!

what a hope!!!!

what a bravery!!!

what a truth!!!!

what a donation!!!!

what an honor!!!!

what a blessing!!!

what a beautifulness!!!

what a splendour!!! hymnological,but mainly meaningful, existing, real and of unrivalled

language!!!

Another Bridegroom, the real and eternal Bridegroom, the Truth, with the spiritual sober

insobriety ,invites us through our participation in His divine Passion, to be partakers and

heirs of God,co-heirs of Christ to the kingdom of heaven...

He invites us to participate in His divine Passion by accepting the ordeal patiently and

He,SHE,take over the rest;it is like a magnate who sees a destitute, hungry,naked,desolate

,homeless beggar and gives him money to meet his needs ,telling him :....here,take this

money and go to the supermarket (which he owns) and get whatever you need,the only thing

you have to do is just go there...

Likewise, we are destitute of the divine grace , we have gone bankrupt and lost the divine

grace due to the debauchery and wrong course of our life ,being desolate of the blessing

and donation , homeless of the divine protection, hungry for the word of God and the Lord

comes giving us our talent, the ordeal ,so that we can proceed with Him and accompany Him

with patience and faith, in order to give us the rich gifts of His blessing and grace and our

entrance to the ancient...homeland...

how hopeful, powerful, strengthening,lifesaving, true!!!

Let us move forward together, as we chant,with purified minds and clean thoughts, with

expiation and purity and be crucified ,not be fixated on a cross,but patiently carry our cross

on the shoulder and have an unforced force in the struggle against passions and in this way

we are crucified for the world along with the Crucified savior ,in order to experience the life-

saving resurrectional words:...

 

Yesterday,O Christ, I was buried with Thee,and today I arise with Thy

raising.Yesterday I was crucified with thee.Glorify me,O Savior,with Thee in Thy

Kingdom...

Taking the great opportunity and blessing, let us follow Him Who is the Way,the Truth , the

Life, the Resurrection and grants us the resurrection for free with a necessary prerequisite

for this donation ,which is our willing participation in the present ordeal uncomplainingly,

patiently and steadfastly.

Our patience to our ordeals and our faithful steadfastness to the acceptance of difficulties

and miseries are our betrothal for the eternal life,which we pray for all of us to be able to

achieve through the intercessions of the Queen of Heaven,the Lady of the Angels, the

Mother of God, PANAGIA....

PANAGIA!!!!

You say it and the mouth fills,the soul and the heart fill with grace and blessing and the

surroundings fill with angels.

Amen so be it.