Like every year, the feast of Holy Pascha was a great joy for the community of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Ss. Constantine and Helen in Chicago. After the services of the Holy Week, many Orthodox Romanian believers participated in the service of the Lord's Resurrection. At midnight, HE Metropolitan Nicolae offered the light to the clergy and people. It followed the procession around the church, the reading of the Gospel, and the litany in front of the church. HE Nicolae wished to those present: "May the light of the Resurrection enlighten your life, may the joy of proclaiming the victory of life over death comfort your souls and bring peace to families and to the whole world. Go and proclaim to all the light, joy and peace of the Lord's Resurrection.
"The Canon of the Resurrection continued in the church, followed by the service of the Divine Liturgy. The responses were provided by a group of young people and the Cathedral choir. Many believers received the Holy Communion, fulfilling the seven-week Lenten effort. At the end of the Liturgy, HE Nicolae spoke precisely of the fasting journey that is being fulfilled on the morning of the Resurrection as a prefiguration of our journey through earthly life to the everlasting Kingdom of the Risen Christ: “The renewal of creation, the liberation of those held captive by hell, the victory of life over death through Christ’s Resurrection are motives for universal joy: ‘Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice. Let the whole world, visible and invisible, keep the feast, for Christ is risen, our eternal joy!’ And this joy is accompanied by the light of the Resurrection which conquered the darkness of hell and restored the entire creation to the light of the glory of God: ‘Now all is filled with light: Heaven and earth and the lower regions’. We who have fasted and sorrowed over our sins are now illumined and we rejoice with the entire creation in our rebirth and renewal, in the chance to live together with the Risen Christ in His Kingdom,” HE Nicolae told them. The Consul General of Romania in Chicago, Mr. Tiberiu Trifan also attended the service.
On Sunday afternoon, the Resurrection Vespers service, also called the Second Resurrection, was officiated. After reading the Gospel in several languages, HE Nicolae interpreted the meaning of proclaiming peace and the power of forgiveness of sins to all nations. The traditional Easter lunch concluded this feast of the Holy Resurrection at the Cathedral of Ss. Constantine and Helen of Chicago.
