Daniel Johnson on Nostr: The iconostasis doors were thrown open at the beginning of Paschal Matins, and they ...

The iconostasis doors were thrown open at the beginning of Paschal Matins, and they remain open for all of Bright Week, reminding us that the Resurrection has opened for us again the gates of the paradise of Eden.

This next Sunday is Thomas Sunday, when that disciple is invited to put his fingers in the nail-holes, and his hand in the pierced side of Christ.

The gospel reading for Thomas Sunday is from John 20, beginning thus:

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

In the Greek tradition, at Saturday evening vespers, at the moment when the words "the doors being shut" are sung in the vesperal hymns, the doors are all swung shut. (In the East-Slavic tradition, they are closed right before vespers begins.) We are reminded that even when the doors of our heart are closed, Christ is able to enter.