During this week
the holy Church continues to exhort us to fasting, prayer, penance, charity and
other efforts of virtue, opening also to the true self these ascetic efforts.
In the hymns for this week the holy Church chants: "Prayer and fasting are
a marvelous weapon: this Moses points out to us as the writer of the Law and
Elijah shows us in zealous sacrifices", "When the men of Nineveh
repented, Thou has delivered them from the wrath", "Fasting bore
Samuel as fruit;" "through fasting Samson grew up brave",
"Elisha after fasting brought the dead child back to life";
"through fasting priests and prophets were made perfect". "As
Christ has taught us in the scriptures, a pure fast means the putting away of
sin, the rejection of the passions, love for God, attentiveness in prayer,
tears of compunction, and acts of mercy to the poor".
Thus the holy church
also appeals to us: "let us keep a true fast before the Lord: let us
abstain not only from food but from angry speech and lying, and from every other
passion", "Let us keep a spiritual fast: let us loose every bond; let
us avoid the stumbling blocks of sin; let us absolve our brothers from their
debts, that we too may be forgiven our transgressions." "Come let us
cleanse ourselves with mercies and compassions for the poor, not trumpeting
them, nor revealing our good deeds, but let us not hang on the left hand the
right hand business, let us not squander with vanity the fruit of
mercies"; "In this season of repentance, let us stretch out our hands
in works of mercy; and then the ascetic struggles of the Fast will bring us to
eternal life. For nothing saves the soul so much as generosity to those in
need, and almsgiving combined with fasting will deliver a man from death. Let
us do all this with gladness, for there is no better way, and it will bring
salvation to our souls."
From Monday of the
second week we sing in the Compline the canons of the saints from the Menaion,
which belongs to the period between Lazarus Saturday and Thomas Sunday, with
the Theotokions of the canon; first we sing the canon to the Theotokos, then
from the Menaion; after the third ode sing the kontakion and sessional hymn
from the Menaion: then after the sixth ode sing the sessional hymn of the
Theotokos: we sing the stikhera from the Menaion after the canon.
The order of
service for all the Fridays up to the Friday of the Fifth Week is in the
Rubrics, for the order of Wednesday and Friday of the first week, and for the
Friday of the second week. On all the Fridays of the Holy Forty-day Fast we do
not make prostrations at Vespers and Compline, except for those fixed in the
Presanctified Liturgy (see the Rubrics for the Order of Friday of the First
week and Monday of the Second week). On all the Fridays of Lent the Priest does
the Little Dismissal at Compline.
On the Saturdays
of the second, third, and fourth weeks of Great Lent the holy church prays for
all the Saints, asking them, to intercede before God for us especially during
Lent, and prays to the Lord for the departed.
Similar to the
service for the departed done on the Saturday of the second week, there are
like services on the following two Saturdays, except when a feast of the
Forerunner, the 40 Holy Martyrs, or the Annunciation falls on them.
Source: https://www.orthodox.net/ustav/bulgakov-second-week-great-lent.html
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