« Archpriest Benedict Ramsden: "Nothing-not even this present calamity-is outside the Providence of God" »

In this bewildering time I want to try and send some encouragement as we a face a Holy week and an Easter that none of us could have imagined.The first thing I want to say is that we have been given wise directions by H.H. Patriarch Kyrill, by Metropolitan Antony and by our own Bishop Matthew. It is loving and caring advice;we should all be very grateful and try to be obedient. I know that there has been criticism, both in Russia and in this country. I beg you not to join with it. Nothing-not even this present calamity-is outside the Providence of God. He is able to bring good out of everything. I think then that instead of being dismayed we should all make a real effort to find out what we can learn from this strange time. We should try to realise that Easter, the Victory of Christ , is not something outside us, from which we can be cut off by any external circumstance. It is a Mystery, planted deep within us by our Baptism-something we can experience , not just in church, but in our own hearts. Think of St. Seraphim of Sarov. In those last miraculous years of his life, Easter was something from which he was never separated. Whatever the time of year, he would greet everyone"My Joy! Christ is Risen!" In the last hours of his life , and he died in early January, he was heard singing the Easter Hymn "Christ is Risen from the dead ". We are none of us St. Seraphim-but we all have the same potential he had, the Mystery of Baptism, by which he and we alike "have put on Christ". Let us pray - and St. Seraphim will help us - that we may come to realise that the Sacraments are at work within us. Not only have we put on Christ in Baptism , we have been sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit, whose work it is to make Christ present to us. And if we have, even once in our life,received the Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood, do we imagine that anything can separate us from him? So, at this strange time , instead of being in any way despondent,try, and try again, to pray - and don't hesitate to ask St. Seraphim to help you - trusting that God will give you to know Easter in your hearts. If we do this, I am confident that when at last we can come together again, we shall know a Joy together such as we never could have imagined. God give you all a blessed Holy Week, and the Joy of Easter. Christ is Risen!

Very Rev. Archpriest Benedict Ramsden