Pure Joy!

May your Pascha and paschal season be wonderful and blessed, as we celebrate the annulment of death by the Conqueror, the true Joy, the only Joy, of this world.

He is true joy because He is eternal.  Without Christ there is no joy, because everything ends in death and grief and nothingness.  But because of Christ, there is unending life for everyone.  By His mere presence there, He turns the tomb into the fountain of life, Hell into Paradise, the grave into a bridal chamber.

He is pure Joy because He is pure (unmixed) Love.

He is deepest Joy, because His is not the sort of joy that is the opposite of sorrow, or that can be lost through sorrow.  His Joy is the kind that shines through sorrow, that can even transfigure sorrow into another form of blessed communion with Him - and with one another.

Christ is risen from the dead
Trampling down death by death,
And upon those in the tombs
Bestowing Life!

Christ is risen! 
Truly, He is risen!

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!