Paschal Message by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia (2025)

Paschal Message  
by Patriarch KIRILL of Moscow and All Russia  
to the archpastors, pastors, deacons, monastics 
and all the faithful children of the Russian Orthodox Church 

Beloved in the Lord Most Reverend archpastors, all-honourable presbyters and 
deacons, God-loving monks and nuns, dear brothers and sisters: 

CHRIST IS RISEN! 

It is with these life-affirming words filled with great spiritual power that from the 
depths of my heart I greet and congratulate you all on the great and radiant feast of 
Holy Pascha. 

It is not fortuitous that church tradition calls this day the “feast of feasts” and the 
“triumph of triumphs”, for Christ’s Resurrection is the solid foundation of our faith and 
hope. At the heart of it we find the transformation and renewal of every human being, 
the light of life everlasting and the fount of constant joy. Christ’s Resurrection has 
vanquished the most terrible enemies of the human race, which are sin and death, it has 
torn down the barrier between God and people and delivered us from the power of evil. 

Glorifying the Resurrection of the Saviour, a Serbian saint, Bishop Nikolaj 
(Velimirović) of Ohrid and Žiča, wrote: “Christ’s victory is the sole victory in which 
all human beings can rejoice, from the first-created to the last. All other victories on 
earth have divided and continue to divide people… Yet only Christ’s victory can be 
likened to the sun pouring forth its bright rays upon all those who stand beneath it” 
(Conversations. The Gospel on the Vanquisher of Death). 

This means that every human being who strives for salvation, every believer and 
follower of Christ, has been granted the opportunity to obtain victory over sin and 
become, as the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John says, one of the beloved “children of 
God” (1 John 3.1). 

We celebrate Pascha not as a passage from one land to another, even a Promised Land, 
as the ancient Hebrews celebrated the Old Testament Passover, rejoicing in their 
liberation from the long years of Egyptian captivity. Our Pascha has a different 
meaning, for the Lord has delivered us from the “darkness of sin and the shadow of 
death” (Luke 1.79) and granted to us the kingdom of heaven. 

“Out into the light of freedom did Christ lead the despondent captives; to the heavenly 
heights of Paradise led them He, rejoicing” (Hymn XXXVIII). These inspired words of 
Saint Ephrem the Syrian express our profound experience of the Paschal mystery, 
which is the mystery of salvation of the human person from the influence of evil. Evil 
has not disappeared, yet we have found a way, by the power of God’s grace, of 
combating and vanquishing it through repentance, prayer and through partaking of the 
Body and Blood of the Saviour in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. For this reason, 
we may affirm, along with the Apostle Paul, that “he who raised Christ from the dead 
will also give life to our mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in us” 
(Romans 8.11).

Christ’s Pascha heralds the passing over from earthly corruption to life eternal with 
God, to union with our Maker and Redeemer. Thus, as we rejoice in Jesus, who has 
risen for us, and with thanksgiving “lift up the cup of salvation” (Psalm 116.13) through 
which the Church gives us the true food and drink of immortality which is the Body 
and Blood of Christ, we shall tirelessly and without ceasing glorify the Lord with deeds 
of love and kindness, thereby showing ourselves to be his true disciples. 

And although our striving for good and growth in God’s cause may at times seem to 
be the modest “widow’s mite” (Mark 12.42), let us always try to ensure that our strong 
faith and hope does not weaken, “because we know that in the Lord our labour is not 
in vain” (1 Corinthians 15.58).

Let us, then, render praise and glory to the Risen Saviour, let us embrace each other 
with love and let us share the unfading Paschal joy with every person whom God brings 
to us on our path through life, testifying in word and deed that 

CHRIST HAS RISEN INDEED! 

+KIRILL

PATRIARCH OF MOSCOW AND ALL RUSSIA 

Pascha 2025 

From: mospat.ru