Sunday 18 May 2008

Gospel of the Vespers of Easter Sunday

It being, then, the evening of that day, the first day of the week, and the doors having been closed where the disciples were gathered together for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst, and said, ‘Peace to you.’ And, saying this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples, then, rejoiced seeing the Lord. Again Jesus said to them, ‘Peace to you. As the Father sent me, I also send you.’ And saying this, he breathed upon [them] and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of some, their sins are forgiven. If you retain the sins of some, they have been retained.’ Thomas, however, one of the Twelve, he who is called ‘the Twin’, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples, then, said to him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ He said to them, however, ‘If I do not see in his hands the imprint of the nails and place my finger in the imprint of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe.’

(John 20, 19 – 25.)

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