Sunday of St. Thomas - Parish Church Slava

Christ is Risen – Indeed, He is Risen! With Paschal joy, after two challenging years because of the pandemic, on the Sunday of St. Thomas, May 1st, 2022, we were able to celebrate our Parish Feast Day – Slava here at the Holy Resurrection of Christ in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Our joy was even greater since His Grace, our Father and Bishop of Eastern America, Kyr Irinej arrived on the eve of the feast on Saturday to make this celebration of our Parish all the more beautiful and to preside over the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy the following day. For all of us here, every time His Grace Irinej comes, it becomes a special day when all our parishioners can have some time to talk to him and benefit from his edifying sermons, which, as always, in his words of comfort and spiritual wisdom bring such needed deeper understanding of how to live a spiritual life. His Grace, our Bishop and Father Irinej visited us on Forgiveness Sunday before the beginning of the Great Lent and now, upon His second visit in a short time we felt like there is no greater blessing for our Parish but to have him again in or midst and hear the voice of our Shepherd, much needed for the benefit of all of us. Let us pray that these visits become more frequent, and we hope that we can celebrate with our Bishop and Father Irinej for many years to come together in our Risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. During the sermon, His Grace Irinej taught us about the spiritual meaning of the Gospel Reading on this Antipascha as a Gospel of renewal and fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah about Christ, t