(Acts 1:1-8; John 1:1-17). Pascha, the Lord's Pascha! The Lord brought us from death to life by His Resurrection. And now this Resurrection is "sung by the angels in heaven," having seen the brightness of the deified nature of man in the glory predestined for him in the person of the Lord the Redeemer, in whose image by the power of His Resurrection all those who truly believe in Him and cling to Him wholeheartedly had to be transformed. Glory, O Lord, to Thy most glorious Resurrection! The angels sing, rejoicing in us and foreseeing the replenishment of their host; vouchsafe us, O Lord, to glorify Thee Risen with a pure heart, seeing in Thy Resurrection the cessation of the corruption that devours us, the seeding of a new life of the most radiant and the dawn of the future eternal glory, into which Thou didst enter as a forerunner through the Resurrection for our sake. Only inhuman, but at the same time angelic tongues are not able to express Thy ineffable mercy to us, O most gloriously risen Lord!

Monday. (Acts 1:12-17; 21–26; John 1:18-28). Announcing the Incarnation of the Lord, the angel says: "Rejoice, full of grace!" and, announcing to the pastors the birth of Christ the Savior, he also says: "Behold the great joy that preaches to you." But, announcing to the women about the Resurrection of the Lord, the angel only says: "He is not here, He is risen!" He does not add "rejoice," for joy will fill the heart by itself, as soon as the confirmation comes that the Lord is truly risen. At that time this assurance was tangible: the angel prepared it, the Lord completed it by His appearance. And everyone's joy was inexhaustibly complete! Now we have a church, dwellings and squares — everything is clothed in the garment of joy, and everyone is carried away by the general flow of joy. But move your thoughts a little away from the outward and, gathering yourself in your heart, raise up the truth of the Resurrection in all its breadth, depth and height, so that you may not only outwardly appear rejoicing, but also carry within yourself the spirit of joy emanating from within, like a spring of bright water gushing out of the bowels of the earth.

Tuesday. (Acts 2:14-21; Luke 24:12-35). Then the Jews tried to obscure the light of Christ's Resurrection with a light fog of lies: "The disciples stole." This insignificance was easy to overcome, and the truth triumphed. But even to this time the enemy does not cease to befog before the Sun of the Resurrection, hoping to eclipse it. Let no one be confused! What can we expect from the father of lies, except lies? He taught many of his minions to write whole books against the Resurrection. This book fog is dispelled by books. Do not take a bad book and you will not lose your mind, but if you happen to accidentally attack such a book, take a good book as an antidote and refresh your head and chest. There is another fog from the enemy — in thoughts. But this one will immediately dissipate, like smoke from the wind, from the sound reasoning of Christians. Consider all that has happened, and you will see clearly as day that all this could not have been accomplished otherwise than by the power of Christ's Resurrection. This conviction will then be for you a stronghold, on which you will easily begin to repel and defeat the enemies of the truth.

Wednesday. (Acts 2:22-36; John 1:35-51). The truth of the Resurrection can be proved by reason by its considerations on the basis of Scripture, and the force of its arguments cannot but be recognized by the unbeliever, so long as the sense of truth has not yet been stifled in him. The believer does not require proofs, because the Church of God is filled with the light of the Resurrection. Both of these pointers of truth are true and convincing. But against the considerations of reason, counterconsiderations can be born and encountered, and faith can be disputed and shaken by perplexities and doubts that come from outside and arise from within. Is there not an impregnable fence for the truth of the Resurrection? Eat. This will be when the power of the Resurrection, received already in baptism, will begin to be effectively revealed in the destruction of the corruption of soul and body, the establishment in them of the beginnings of a new life. Such will walk in the light of the Resurrection, and everyone who speaks against the truth of the Resurrection will seem foolish to him, as to him who walks by day, who says that it is night now.

Thursday. (Acts 2:38-43; John 3:1-15). Beneficent is the work of those who, with sound considerations, shatter the lie perched against the truth of the Resurrection. Read and arm yourself with these considerations; but at the same time, do not be lazy to give more and more space for the power of Christ's Resurrection to enter into you. The more you do this, the more you will breathe the air of the Resurrection, and the safer you will become from all the arrows of the enemy directed against this truth. You may ask, what is needed for this? Nothing special: be what you ought to be according to the covenant which you entered into in holy baptism, which is our resurrection. Have you spat on Satan and all his works? — and continue to behave in this way in relation to him. Did you marry Christ? — and abide with Him. The works of darkness and light are manifest. Run away from some and be diligent for others. But do this without any concessions, not even the slightest, so that the norm of your life is this: there is no communion between light and darkness, Christ with Belial.

Friday. (Acts 3:1-8; John 2:12-22). The Holy Fathers praise certain persons who are glorious for their Christian life, which consists in the fact that they were resurrected before the general resurrection. What is the secret of such a life? In the fact that they assimilated to themselves the characteristic features of life after the resurrection, as they are indicated in the word of God, and made them qualitative in themselves. The future life seems to be detached from all carnal things: there they will not marry, nor encroach, they will not eat dead food there, and the body itself will take on spiritual food. Thus, whoever lives in detachment from all things carnal takes into himself or grows in himself the elements of the future life after the resurrection. Reach the point where all that is carnal in you will be stilled, and you will become resurrected before the future resurrection. The Apostle shows the way to this when he says: "Walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh" (Gal. 5:16). And he certifies that in this way it is probably possible to attain tea: "He who sows," he says, "in the Spirit shall reap eternal life from the Spirit" (Galatians 6:8).

Saturday. (Acts 3:11-16; John 3:22-33). We have two lives, carnal and spiritual. It is as if our spirit is buried in the flesh. When, having been revived by the grace of God, he begins to extract himself from co-dissolution with the flesh and appear in his spiritual purity, then he is resurrected or resurrects himself part by part. When it has completely plucked itself out of this coherence, then it proceeds as from the grave in renewed life, and thus the spirit becomes, in itself, alive and active; and the sepulchre of the flesh in itself is dead and inactive, although both are in one and the same person. And this is the mystery of what the Apostle says: "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" (2 Corinthians 3:17). It is freedom from the corruption that surrounds our incorruptible spirit, or from the passions that corrupt our nature. This spirit, which has entered into the freedom of the children of God, is the same as an attractively colored moth fluttering out of its ball. Here is its rainbow coloring: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control (Galatians 5:22). Is it possible that such beauty of perfection is not strong enough to arouse competition in us?