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The martyrdom of Father Konstantin Zhdanov in 1919, has not gone unnoticed. For many years, the parishioners of the Holy Dormition Church in Sharkovshchina, where Father Konstantin served as rector, petitioned for his canonisation.
The joyous Easter season or Paschaltide is finally here! In the Orthodox Church, this season starts on Easter Sunday (April 12th) and continues for forty days until the eve of the feast of Ascension, which falls on May 21th this year.
God, who gives the sinners and the righteous their dues, is not someone who lies in waiting to punish a wrongdoer after the fact. What gives us fear and trembling is the hurting wound of not responding to the love that He had given to us.
As we pray for our dead, we remember that all the living will enter eternal life in their time. We also realise how vain and fragile our earthly lives are, how finite are our worldly comforts and wealth, how small are many of our daily concerns.
On February 15th, the Orthodox will celebrate one of the most joyful feasts of the entire liturgical year - the Meeting (Presentation) of our Lord. This ancient celebration gives a lot of hope and light and inspires us to keep going.