When the prince of evil and his angels have built their nest there [in human heart]
and have built roads and highways on which the powers of Satan walk about inside your mind and in your thoughts,
then, really, are you not a hell and a sepulcher and a tomb dead to God?
For there it was that Satan stamped out counterfeit coins of silver.
In such a soul he sowed bitter seeds.
He leavened it with old leaven.
There is where a murky, muddy fountain flows.
But the Lord descends into the souls of those who seek him.
He goes into the depths of the hellish heart and there he commands death, saying:
“Release those captive souls that seek after me, those that you hold by force in bondage!”
He breaks through the heavy stones that cover the soul.
He opens the tombs.
He truly raises to life the dead person and leads that captive soul forth out of the dark prison.
Take the example of a man bound with chains, hand and foot,
and someone comes to remove his shackles and to set him free so he may walk unencumbered.
In a similar way the Lord removes the chains of death strangling the soul
and he releases it and sets the mind free so that it may amble without disturbance, but in tranquillity before God.
The rain also falls from the heavens and penetrates all the parts of the earth where it moistens
and renews the dried roots and gives them new life (Macarius, Homilies 11:11-13).
Christ is risen! Ⲡⲭⲥ ⲁϥⲧⲱⲛϥ! ϧⲉⲛ ⲟⲩⲙⲉⲑⲙⲏⲓ ⲁϥⲧⲱⲛϥ! Happy Easter to you all!
May we always live in the light of Christ’s resurrection!
***
Ⲁⲛⲟⲕ ⲡⲉ ⲡⲓⲕⲟⲩϫⲓ (Anok Pe Pi Kouji) “I Was Small” (Psalm 151) Sung by the St Macarius Monastery Chorus
(Recorded Live, April 23, 2022)
