'Ours is a living faith!'

'Ours is a living faith!'

For the Feast of the Holy Ascension of Christ  -  the Pascha that is always with us ...

Superimposed on the gold background of a Sinai cross (on the photo below, left) exuding the light of the kingdom of God, the Ascension of Christ vividly portrays the living connection between the human and divine in Orthodox Christianity.

Astonished and confused, the twelve Apostles have no clear understanding that the Ascension of Christ allows for the descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.
With covered hands raised in supplication like those of the holy angels in Byzantine iconography, the serene figure of the Mother of God sharply contrasts this scenario. Shown simultaneously inhabiting both the kingdom of her Son and the earthly realm of the stricken Apostles, she resolves their dilemma by demonstrating that one need but fix his gaze on Christ not in consternation, but in prayer, to share in His peace.

Below, the stark representation of the Cross recalls the cross-based imagery of the monastic schema, a black garment embroidered in red. This would have reminded Sinai monks - and all those who traverse this life's 'vale of tears' - that tribulations raise us into the Light of 'Jesus, the King of Glory' who bore the heaviest cross of all, when we support them on His love. 

'Ours is a living faith!' exclaim the devout of Greece.

'Beholding the Resurrection of Christ, we worship the Holy Lord Jesus, the only sinless one. Your Cross, O Christ, we venerate, and your holy Resurrection we hymn and glorify. You are our God, we know no other than You, we call on your name. Come all the faithful to venerate the holy Resurrection of Christ; indeed by the Cross, joy has come into all the world! Ceaselessly blessing the Lord, we hymn His Resurrection. Enduring the Cross for us, by death He has destroyed death!' 
(A Paschal hymn, on the eve of the Holy Ascension)