This is the night … The fire is blessed. The paschal candle is lit (despite gusts of wind and an overzealous candle snuffer). The ancient story of beginnings, enslavement, freedom, death, and resurrection has been told. In the dark night of the Easter Vigil, George from Pittsburgh said to me in old Church Slavonic: Hristos voskrese! (“Christ is risen”). The proper response is: Voistina voskrese (“He is risen, indeed!”).
There nothing quite like the Easter vigil. Happy Easter.

