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Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, sent his greetings with the Resurrection of Christ to His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople; His Beatitude Pope and Patriarch Theodoros II of Alexandria, His Beatitude Patriarch John X of Antioch; His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos III of  Jerusalem, His Holiness and Beatitude Catholics-Patriarch Iliya II of All Georgia, His Holiness Patriarch Irenej of Serbia, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel of Romania, His Holiness Patriarch Neofit of Bulgaria, His Beatitude Archbishop Chrysostomos II of Cyprus, His Beatitude Archbishop Hieronymos II of Athens and All Greece, His Beatitude Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana and All Albania, His Beatitude Metropolitan Savva of Warsaw and All Poland, His Beatitude Metropolitan Rastislav of the Czech Lands and Slovakia; and His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon of All America and Canada. The text reads as follows:

From the depths of my heart I congratulate you on the Holy and Great Passover of the Lord:

CHRIST IS RISEN!

By his Resurrection the Son of God and the Son of Man freed people from enslavement to sin and returned to them paradise lost. Henceforth the human person in Christ is a “new creation” (2 Cor 5:17), and together with him the whole world “is glad and rejoices, for Christ has risen and hell has been made captive” (9th Ode of the Paschal Canon).

The Lord, in fulfilling his saving mission, revealed to people the hidden mystery of the divine economy. As we immerse ourselves in the contemplation of the Saviour’s becoming human, his life, his preaching, his sufferings, his death and his victory over it, we behold the “mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints” (Col 1:26), being assured in our faith in the Son of God and in the hope of life everlasting with him.

May the joy of the Resurrection of the Author of life Christ abide with you always, and may strong health, prosperity and the all-powerful aid of God accompany you for the many years of your Primatial ministry.

 

With reverential love in the risen Lord,

 

+ Hilarion

Metropolitan of Volokolamsk

Chairman

Department for External Church Relations

Metropolitan of Volokolamsk