We congratulate and bless you with joy on the Resurrection of Christ, the children of the Georgian Orthodox Church living in San Francisco and throughout California!!! Today, eternal life – Christ the Savior – has dawned upon humanity… From the rising of the sun to its setting, the world rejoices, for He is the renewer and life-giver of all creation… The gates of heaven are open and the earth sings with the heavens… Rejoice!!! and be glad!!! For Christ is risen and the torch of eternal life and eternal joy has shone!!! Today in San Francisco, the first glorious Easter Vigil service was celebrated…. Today St. The Cross of St. Nino shone for the first time on the Golden Gate of San Francisco, and the motherly grace of the Georgian Orthodox Apostolic Church was poured out on the Georgians living here and on all – the children of our Church….
You know that for a year now, my prayers have not ceased for the children of the Georgian Orthodox Church living in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and throughout California… And while we are talking about the joy of Easter, it is natural to talk about the issues of organizing our church. This one year has shown us how our compatriots are thirsty for the grace of our Mother Church, they are thirsty for unity, i.e. Love for each other… We have gone through many trials here, without a mother church, we have also suffered great spiritual pain for our own homeland in trial… And we went like orphans to the doors of different churches to receive spiritual comfort… Of course, the Orthodox Church is one, but just as everyone loves their mother, their hearth more, so we love the hearth of our spiritual homeland the most… We could not have other churches be mothers here… And here, today we are speaking in Georgian to the Lord of Rights… The members of today’s parish are like spiritual missionaries in this area… In our hands, in the far west of this world, a Georgian Church with a 17-century history is being formed and established… Our ancestors, when they founded churches and monasteries abroad, were true preachers of Christ both in word and deed, and their main value was love for God and neighbor… One of the reasons for this A prime example is Anthimose of Iveria, who is today considered one of the luminaries of the Romanian Church… Orthodoxy is not the religion of any nation, it is the faith of love, where there is no partiality… We know that for many centuries the greatest empires preached Orthodoxy… Some empires no longer exist… But Orthodoxy is and will be until the end of this world… Orthodoxy has never been preached in Georgia by force. It was both the beginning and the continuation of love… And so it is today… And today when we see a Georgian person, even a non-church person, involuntarily ‘that’ love emanates from him…
From today's festive Gospel, the Spirit of God once again revealed the truth to us, and we too have witnessed once again that Jesus Christ is not only true man but also true God, who descended from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit... He bore the cross... He was crucified... He was buried... as a man... and rose again on the third day... and ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father...
He is… which was… which is… and which will be… forever…
The miracle of the Resurrection is an unfathomable mystery – God became man and man became deified… God endured death on the cross so that we might become immortal with Him in eternal life… However, it is no longer unfathomable because we have attained resurrection with Christ. . . And this is a wondrous and great mystery… So, brothers and sisters, let us receive the flesh of Christ and taste the source of immortality…
Christ is risen!!!
Truly!!!
Christ is risen!!!
Truly!!!
Christ is risen!!!
Truly!!!
With Christlike love, Priest-Nun Ioane (Kavsadze).
