The Importance of Faith in the Afterlife: On Radonitsa

Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov) 

There is no man that liveth and sineth not.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!

Christ is Risen!

Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, one of the main questions of great importance for each and everyone is that of the afterlife. Both those who are religious and those who are indifferent to religion ponder this question. Everyone is taken up by the question of how we are going to live after our death. We believers know that there is and will be a future life, but how it will take shape and what this new life will be – all these details have not been given us to know; they are hidden from us. Nonetheless, the word of God truthfully confirms that there is a future life.

Tuesday of St. Thomas: 

Radonitsa (Day of Rejoicing)

By Sergei V. Bulgakov

Radonitsa ("Day of Rejoicing") is a holiday in the Orthodox Church which falls on the Monday or (more commonly) Tuesday of Saint Thomas Week—eight or nine days, respectively, after Pascha (Easter). The day is a general memorial for the departed.

On Thomas Monday, in some places on Tuesday, the commemoration of the departed is done. Actually in the service of these days according to the Ustav [Typikon] the special prayers for the departed are not prescribed and the commemoration on these days is done according to the pious custom of the Russian Church. The basis for this commemoration of the departed, on the other hand, serves to commemorate the descent of Jesus Christ into Hades, tied not only to Thomas Sunday but also for another reason, is the decision of the church Ustav [Typikon] to do the usual commemoration of the departed, beginning with Thomas Monday. Under this decision the faithful come to the graves of their relatives with the joyful news about the resurrection of Christ. From here also the very day of commemoration is called Radonitsa [Day of Rejoicing]1.