The Holy Fire was delivered to Riga

And memorial services are not held until Radunitsa, the day of remembrance of all the dead, which this year falls on May 14.

The services this week are short, but in the Nativity Cathedral the Holy Fire, which descended on Holy Saturday in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, or Resurrection of the Lord in Jerusalem, glows. It was transported to Riga via complicated routes… You can use it to light your home lamps and candles. And this year God’s Mercy towards us continued to last – the Holy Fire descended.

On the eve of the Holy Resurrection of Christ, on Holy Saturday, there was great excitement at all Orthodox churches and at the Riga Holy Trinity-Sergius Convent.

Whole families of believers walked, with small children and strollers, and everyone was holding festively decorated baskets or large bags with Easter cakes baked the day before, Easter cottage cheese, and colored eggs. The stream of people with Easter offerings did not dry up until late in the evening.

Huge tables stretched through all the churches, joyful priests, following special prayers, sprinkled the Easter offering and everyone gathered with holy water. People donated to the temple and shared what they had prepared with those who, unfortunately, did not have such a good meal on this bright holiday.

Many of us with the greatest joy took part in the Easter procession around the Nativity Cathedral, in the Midnight Office, Bright Matins and Divine Liturgy, which fit into one Easter night.

In the middle of the temple, Vladyka Metropolitan Alexander and other priests read the Gospel in four languages ​​- Greek, Old Church Slavonic, Russian and Latvian.

– Since the day of the Resurrection of Christ, there have been no words on earth more amazing, more beautiful, more solemn and joyful for the Christian soul than the holy Easter greeting “Christ is Risen!” – said the Metropolitan. – Let it warm your hearts and enter your home, filling you with faith, hope and love.

On Tuesday of Bright Week, today, there is a traditional celebration of the miraculous icon of the Most Holy Theotokos “Iverskaya”, or the Goalkeeper. According to the legend, the holy image was launched across the sea in the 9th century by a woman who wanted to save it from the iconoclasts. The icon, supported by a pillar of fire, was seen 200 years later, in the 11th century, by the monks of the Georgian Iveron Monastery on Holy Athos. They placed it in the temple, and they found it more than once in the morning above the gates of the monastery. They left it there…

And on Friday, Easter week, May 10, is the feast of the miraculous icon of the Mother of God “Life-Giving Spring,” which came from Byzantium. The temple in honor of this holy image was the predecessor (built in the 17th century) of the Riga Church of the Holy Blessed Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky. A copy (copy) of this icon is still kept in the temple.