Set of three books below, at more than a 15% discount.  Great and Holy Friday is the ultimate expression of the unspeakable love and humility of God. Here, in the depths of seeming defeat, God's glory—His humble, self-sacrificing love—is clearly seen. In harmony with this, the Church's Good Friday services are deeply solemn, yet never gloomy-beneath all the sorrow is a current of joy. Holy Saturday is the Sabbath—the Day of Rest to which all other Sabbaths point. As Christ rested from the work of creation on the seventh day, now, He rests from His work of re-creation, which He finished on Good Friday, the sixth day. It is also the day on which Christ begins to free Hades captives. Thus it is a day of hushed expectation—solemn, yet already deeply joyful. Pascha itself is the day of sheer joy. Life has blossomed forth from the tomb, creation is made new, the doors of the Kingdom are opened wide. So, the Resurrection is the core of the Christian Life. Only because Christ is risen can we forgive one another, be healed of all our diseases of soul and body, and rise to the Life God intends for us—His own Life, of which we can partake because Christ has fully partaken of our own.
Little books for little hands. 24 pages each.
About the author and illustrator Sister Elayne is a member of the community of St. Barbara Orthodox Monastery in Santa Barbara, California. Since the time she wrote this series of poems, she has been tonsured as a stavrophor nun, and has received a new name, Mother Melania. Bonnie Gillis is an iconographer and illustrator. She lives in Langley, B.C. where her husband, Father Michael, is pastor of a new Orthodox mission.