The Catalog of Good Deeds: Great Lent

Showing posts with label Great Lent. Show all posts

Great Lent, my beloved brethren, begins today and will be completed in forty days on the Friday of Lazarus. As our Church introduces us to this blessed arena of spiritual struggles and virtues, whose main weapon is the weapon of fasting, together with the accompanying weapons of almsgiving, prayer, personal struggle and the mysteries, it is an opportunity to deepen a little the way we will emerge from this struggle, to complete productively, creatively and spiritually the journey of the forty days that stretch before us.

This journey has an analogy in the treasures of the Old Testament. The analogy is the journey of the people of Israel from Egypt to the Land of Promise, with one difference: it did not take place over the course of forty days but forty years. That journey, as recorded in the Book of Exodus and completed in the Book of Joshua the son of Nun, lasted forty years.

If I'm not mistaken, the Israelites had been enslaved for five generations after Joseph in Egypt, and after terrible drama and intense repression they wanted to leave and return to their own country. They embarked with Moses as their leader after a dizzying adventure and their journey brought them to what Exodus calls "a land flowing with milk and honey." This is what Moses promised them.

Let us look at some of the features of this journey and try to find corresponding analogies with our brief forty day journey in this blessed wilderness of Great Lent.

The first similarity is that they walked through the wilderness as a people. They did not try to escape slavery as individuals, but all together as a nation. They collected and aggregated together, they were given a leader, and everyone embarked on their journey. Imagine a caravan of thousands of people with the common sense that they were the chosen people of God and they were related as a nation. They all left Egypt together and journeyed across the wilderness. And we similarly are one people, the people of God. Together we are the Church.

If we all embark on this journey together we will also arrive together. We should not sense that we are alone in our struggle, that we will go through the process alone and emerge victorious without caring what happens to other people. Our salvation, our struggle, is social and done within the secret Body of the Church, together. Not only as many as we are now, or only those who confess that they constitute the Church, but even those that are within God's embrace perhaps without themselves realizing it.

Just as God Himself "wants all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth," in the same way we, the New Israel, should want to leave the Egypt of this world, the worldly mindset, the passions, the ephemeral, falsehood and deceit, and to pass through the wilderness of our struggle to reach the place promised by God, in contact and communication with His saints, in His sensible kingdom, in the meeting of His person, in the Resurrection.

Therefore, the first similarity is that in our struggle during the fast we do what we do with the sense that we are doing it together. This is why we begin with the Service of Forgiveness, that we may reconcile. We are divided, we are cold, we have our differences, and we place everything aside as one body, one people, and we embark on our journey, forgiven, reconciled, as brethren, with the sense that altogether we need our salvation.

The second similarity can be found if you take the opportunity during these days to read the first chapters, especially the fifth and sixth, of the Book of Exodus. There you will find compelling dialogues reciprocated between God and Moses. You will see that Moses invokes a bunch of excuses to not respond to the honor of being called by God to lead the people of Israel and be their guide. Eventually God convinces him. He convinces him and prepares him. Initially, God reveals to Moses His name. After Moses asked, "Who are You?" He responded, "I am He Who is, Who exists, the source of life and existence, Who is I am by nature and essence."

God then gives Him the ability to work wonders, personal signs to convince the Israelites away from their twisted ways, their selfishness, setbacks, defects, weaknesses, distrust, misery and groaning, as we find throughout their journey. He thus gave these two gifts to Moses as well as a blessing to be their leader. So they embarked on their journey with a guide. What does this mean for us?

We cannot fight the struggle of Great Lent or the struggle of the wilderness of this life without having a spiritual guide. This is both the tradition and proven experience of the Church. And this guide is not merely a guide, but also a father.

He must be a man of prayer, who converses with God. To be a man who has boldness before God, even though he may be a stutterer or not well spoken, as Exodus tells us about Moses, and he may not be externally gifted, but who is called and appointed by God to lead us on the journey.

He is our spiritual father. We have great need to have a spiritual father. To be our father, our teacher, our guide, to be our intermediate with God, to hold us by the hand along our journey. Perhaps in our times God has not given us such a gift. Often we complain, rightly perhaps, that there are not many such spiritual fathers.

Let us bring this concern to prayer, and make an effort and struggle to find such a man to teach us five to ten secrets about the spiritual life, and supplement our inadequate prayers with his prayers. This is his job.

Let us experience the miracle of the return of the waters of the sea, that our thoughts, doubts, obstacles, temptations and difficulties may sink and drown. Therefore the third similarity of our journey of Great Lent is with the miraculous passage through the Red Sea of the difficulties and obstacles we meet.

The Book of Exodus tells us that eventually Moses became the leader and guide, being in reality led by God, for God went before them. And how did the presence of God appear? In two ways. During the day He appeared as a cloud, and at night as a pillar of fire. During the day He draped them with a cloud, giving them the sweetness and warmth of the divine presence, and at night He gave them light in the darkness that they may find their way and progress in their journey. We also need such an alliance in our sense of the divine presence in our struggle, not that we are struggling alone, but that we have strength from above.

But through our prayers, through the humility of our hearts, through the sweet depths of our internal longing, may we have this sense, that our struggle is under the cloud of the divine presence and the light of divine confirmation. In this way we will progress along the way of every phase in the arena of the struggle of Great Lent.

We are told they hungered, they grew tired and became weary. They saw the miracle, experienced the presence, they had Moses, they took solace, yet they still complained. How human! How natural! How unexpected! Yet for us it is also expected and natural that in our struggle, although we may see God's blessings, at the first difficulty of the desert heat and its fruitlessness, we fall on our knees.

This is what happened with the Israelites, but God told them to not worry, for He was with them and near them and saw them and followed them and guided their footsteps. That He promised that He would lead them out of Egypt to the Land of Promise, and if they were hungry then He would feed them. So He sent them a flock of quails and spread around them manna from heaven to eat. The quails were the meat of worship. God also gives us the opportunities to worship Him. Such as with the blessed Complines, what a beautiful service! He gives us Presanctifieds every Wednesday and Friday, and the Salutations during this period. These rare hymns are not chanted any other time. He gives us the Solemn Vespers, the five Sundays of the fast, the beautiful feast of the Annunciation. He gives us such a cluster of powerful food and meat. Nothing else remains than for us to reach out and grab the opportunity, to open our mouths and begin to devour the message of divine truth, as presented in a concrete meaningful way.

But He also gives us the manna. It simply satisfies us. The heavenly manna satisfies the soul, because the heavenly manna is the Divine Eucharist. The heavenly manna is the mystery by which God nourishes His people, the New Israel. It can also nourish us. Our participation in the mysteries is necessary. If we have our Moses, our spiritual father, and his permission, if we have the internal craving and need in our soul, along with repentance, then let us not ignore this untapped treasure of heavenly manna, the Divine Eucharist, which gently falls on the ground of our soul and gives us miraculous satiety.

But God did not only give them food. They were thirsty afterwards. And miraculously God gave them water. He told Moses that with the same staff he struck the sea and parted it in order to pass through, to now strike the rock so it may gush forth water. Moses struck it, and it gushed forth water. This water quenched the thirst of the thirsty Israelites in the wilderness. Similarly water can quench the thirst of our souls with the staff of our own Moses.

And this is none other than the word of God. If we could listen to one thing during these days, to even slightly open our eyes and quench the thirst of our soul, let it be with either the spoken or possibly written word. There are many books, patristic books, even more modern books, also the service books, and if we can find some time to strike the rock of this unknown treasure, we will experience the miracle of the revelation of the divine word in our hearts, which are often harder than a rock.

The Israelites, although they continued on their journey, although they overcame obstacles, crossing through the Red Sea, being satiated in the ways mentioned, quenching the thirst of their souls, quenching the thirst of their bodies, soon after came to face an enemy, the Amalekites. And God performed His miracle.

Although Moses momentarily bends, God says to Him to not worry, for He would give the people of Israel the strength to defeat them. And though the Amelakites may not have been expected, and were many and threatening, and may possibly have exceeded the strength of their people, Moses was to raise his hands in the sign of the cross, and as long as his hands were horizontal in prayer in this symbolic position, then though they were few and weak, they would conquer the many and strong. And as the hands of Moses grew tired, they were upheld by Aaron and Hur, each holding a hand in the horizontal position of prayer which was a symbol of the cross, and in this way they defeated the enemy and triumphed, so they could continue along their journey to Mount Sinai.

We also, despite our fast, despite our good intentions, despite our studies, despite our participation in the mysteries, have the fearsome Amalek who seeks to fight us. This Amalek is our impassioned self. We bear a fallen nature full of beastly passions which currently sit in the corner, perhaps with a bit of our disdain, but in the quiet of the wilderness of the fast and this period we must see who will emerge.

Whoever fights the good fight of the fast will easily discover their unknown passions. In the wilderness they will lift their head, in the quiet they will raise their voice, in the apparent peace they will create turmoil. We must expect these passions.

The solution and answer is the sign of the cross and our prayer and divine intervention will give each of us the victory, without being scared or flinching or being intimidated, to be found victors against our passions. In this way like the Israelites we will arrive at Mount Sinai, the mountain on which God Himself lowers and gives in the midst of an atmosphere of earthquakes, shock and smoke the ten commandments. He reveals to them His will.

This also, my brethren, can happen in our own lives. It must happen. Journeying through the wilderness we must also arrive at and slowly climb our own Mount Sinai, and there we will receive the revelation of the divine will in our souls. Our struggle, our prayer, our faith, our trust in God, our good spiritual dependence in our own spiritual Moses, our participation in the mysteries, our hope in the miracle and divine intervention, all these together in the struggle of the fast, together with the struggle of almsgiving, together with the struggle that each of us will carry can eventually lead us to a successful conclusion, to victory, to the Land of Promise, to the blessing of God, to the joy and experience of the Resurrection.

After forty days we will have the help of God to complete the journey of Great Lent this year. That the experience of this journey will be given to us by God endlessly, the experience of seeking, the experience of divine manifestation, the experience of the miracle that it may be endless and perpetual with the experience of the joy of the divine Resurrection. Amen.

By Metropolitan Nicholas of Mesogaia and Lavriotiki

Translated by John Sanidopolus

Source: johnsanidopoulos.com/2016/03/an-old-testament-analogy-of-great-lent.html

What is the reason for the fact that during Great Lent we have to keep a fast for 40 days? The thing is, the fast that prepares us for Holy Pascha is called Great Leant not only because of its spiritual significance, but also because of its length – it lasts for 48 days. It joins together two fasts: Lent itself (lasts for 40 days and ends on Friday of the 6^th week) and the fast of the Holy Week.

During the Old Testament period of the Holy history, the 40-days-long fasts of prophets Moses (Exodus 34:28) and Elijah (3 Kings 19:8) were the foretypes of Lent. In the Church, Lent is organized in commemoration of the 40-days-long fast of our Lord and Savior (Matthew 4:2, Luke 4:2). Jesus Christ (Who ate nothing during those days) not just blessed the fast by His own example, but ordered His disciples to keep a fast, too.

The apostles prepared themselves for services with a fast (Acts 13:2, 14:23). Later they ordered all the other Christians to keep a fast. This found a reflection in such canonical document as “The Canons of the Holy Apostles”: If any bishop, presbyter, or deacon, or reader, or singer, does not fast the holy Quadragesimal fast of Easter, or the fourth day, or the day of Preparation, let him be deposed, unless he be hindered by some bodily infirmity. If he be a layman, let him be excommunicated. (Canon LXIX)

Bishop Nicodemus (Milosh), a well-known canonist, writes that, “these canons fully deserve the names of the Holy Apostles and the respect payed to them by the Ecumenical Church. The canons express exactly what the Apostles wrote in their letters and told to their first successors. It can be proved by the full compliance of the main ideas of these canons with the teaching containing in the canonical books of the New Testament”. (The Canons of the Orthodox Church, pp. 10-11)

The Holy Fathers often wrote that by fasting for 40 days we loyally follow the example of our Divine Master:

- “It is good to keep a fast at any time. However, it is much better to spend time with Christ in fasting during Lent, for He blessed with His own fast. Those Christians, who do not keep a fast during Lent, show their disloyalty and obstinacy, violation the law given by God with their satiety. What Christian you can be, if you do not fast by the example of your Lord? If you delight while He was hungry? If you are afraid to fast for your sins, while He was hungry to save you?” (St. Ambrose of Milan. “The word about Lent”)

- “Christ was fasting before temptations, but we are fasting before Pascha. Christ was fasting for 40 days, but we measure our fast against our abilities”. (St. Gregory the Theologian)

- “We prepare for the Lord’s sacrament with the 0-days-long fast; we fast for our sins as many days as the Lord fasted for our crimes”. (Pious Jerome)

- “We keep a fast that the Lord has kept – the holy, both by its name and its essence, Lent – to purify ourselves and to please God, as if we gave Him the tithe from every year of our life” (St. Simeon the New Theologian). This is why Lent is also called the Lord’s fast.

The fast of the Holy Week is the continuation Lent. Although Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday do not refer to the Holy Week, they become the gates to the saving sufferings of our Lord, and this is why they are fast days. Since these days are feasts, the fast is weakened: caviar is permitted on Lazarus Saturday, caviar and fish – on Palm Sunday. The fast of the Holy Week was organized according to the Savior’s word: “But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days” (Luke 5:35). In “Apostolic Constitutions” it is said: “He therefore charged us Himself to fast these six days on account of the impiety and transgression of the Jews, commanding us withal to bewail over them, and lament for their perdition. For even He Himself wept over them, because they knew not the time of their visitation”. (Book V.XV)

The first week of Great Lent is over. If you have managed to tune on the right mood, the rest of Lent will be light and grace-filled for you. For this, you just need to keep in mind that that although corporal abstinence is important, it is still the means of spiritual purification, while the aim of fasting is spiritual fruits: “abstinence from food is not enough for a proper fast; let us keep a good and pleasing to God fast. The true fast is removing yourself from evil, it is tongue abstinence, suppressing your anger, refusal of lech, deceit, slander, perjury – abstinence from all of these is what the true fast is”. (St. Basil the Great)

By Fr. Job (Gumerov)

Source: http://dishupravoslaviem.ru/pochemu-v-velikij-post-my-postimsya-40-dnej/

In the services for this Sunday the Holy Church glorifies the Holy Cross and the fruits of the death of the Savior on the Cross. She will carry out the Holy Cross into the middle of the temple for veneration, and is why the Sunday is called the Veneration of the Cross. In the hymns for this day the holy Church, inviting us to honor the holy cross, tenderly appeals: "Now the angelic hosts gather in reverence and bear aloft the honored Wood, and calling together all the faithful for the veneration. Come therefore and illumined by the fast, let us fall down before it with joy and fear". "Cleansed by abstinence let us draw near, and with fervent praise let us venerate the all-holy Wood on which Christ was crucified, when He saved the world in His compassion". "Come, faithful, and let us venerate the life-giving tree, on which Christ, the King of Glory voluntarily stretched out his hands. He raised us up to the ancient blessedness, whom the enemy despoiled of old through pleasure, making us exiles far from God. Come, faithful, and let us venerate the tree whereby we have been counted worthy to crush the heads of our invisible enemies. Come, all kindred of the nations, let us honor in hymns the Cross of the Lord". Glorifying the most Holy Cross, the Holy Church sings: "Rejoice, life-bearing Cross, the beautiful Paradise of the Church, the Tree of incorruption that brings us the enjoyment of eternal glory", "The indestructible foundation, and the victory of kings and the praise of priests". "Rejoice, life-bearing Cross, piety of invincible victory, door to paradise, foundation of the faithful, protection of the church: through you the curse is utterly destroyed, the power of death is swallowed up, and we are raised from earth to heaven: invincible weapon, adversary of demons, glory of martyrs, true ornament of holy monks, haven of salvation". "Rejoice, O Cross, complete salvation of fallen Adam! Glorying in you, our faithful kings by your might laid low the people of Ishmael. We Christians kiss you now with awe, and glorifying God who was nailed on you, we cry aloud: O Lord, Who was crucified on the Cross, have mercy on us, for Thou art good and loves mankind."

The purpose of instituting the Holy Cross in the service on the third Sunday will be revealed as a beautiful comparison by the Holy Church to the tree of life in paradise, the tree which sweetened the bitter waters of Marah, the tree with the canopy of leaves under whose shade tired travelers seeking the eternal promised land may find coolness and rest. Thus, the Holy Church offers the Holy Cross for spiritual reinforcement to those going through the ascetic effort of the fast, just as food, drink and rest serve as bodily reinforcement. This spiritual reinforcement is given as the representation of the love of God to man for whom the Son of God turned Himself over to death on the Cross. It is especially necessary in the middle of our effort because now our ascetic efforts already have lost much of the freshness of its power and however yet cannot hopefully enliven itself for the near and successful ending of our ascetical effort. Having concentrated all that is the most severe and sorrowful in the worship services of the previous weeks, especially during the first, that may both frighten the sinner and apparently touch the hardest of human hearts, now in the middle of the large and difficult arena of the Holy Forty Day Fast the Holy Church offers the Holy Cross for great comfort and encouragement as needed for raising the flagging strength of those fasting. Wherefore nothing can console, encourage, and inspire the fatigued, or perhaps even the Christian weakened in spirit so much as the presentation of the eternal divine love of the Savior who turned Himself over to the struggle on the Cross for the sake of our salvation.

For such a purpose the Holy Church offers the Cross on the third Sunday of Great Lent from of old. Many hymns of praise for this Sunday were composed by Joseph and Theodore of the Studite Monastery. Everything in the worship service of this day: the most Holy Cross solemnly carried from the altar to the middle of the temple, the singing of the stichera for venerating the Cross, the Epistle recounting the suffering of the Savior on the Cross as the means of our reconcilement with God, the Gospel reminding the Christian about everyone’s duty to bear their cross in life, following the Crucified One on the Cross, - everything that promotes the deep stamp of the Cross of Christ on the heart of the believer, as a sign of our salvation, as our mighty, God-given power, saving us on earth and opening to us the entrance to the high place of our fatherland, as the highest and more powerful reinforcement of believers among the ascetics of the Holy Forty Day Fast. If the Lord suffered on a Cross for our sake then we also should practice asceticism unceasingly in fasting, prayer and other efforts of piety for His sake, discharging from ourselves and destroying in ourselves all that interferes with these efforts. With the aim of our greater enthusiasm for patience in efforts of piety, the Holy Church on the present day comfortably reminds us beforehand about coming nearer "to the light of the peaceful joy of Pascha", hymning in the troparia of the canon the holy cross and the suffering of the Savior on it, together with His joyful resurrection and inviting the faithful "with pure mouths" to sing "the song of joyfulness" (Irmos of Holy Pascha).

According to the Church hymns: "In the middle of the Fast, the all honorable Tree calls in worship" all those who "worthily follow through their passion the passion of Christ", who in the first half of the Holy Forty Day Fast have fervently practiced asceticism in fasting and prayers, in repentance and cleansing from all impurities, in acts of love and good works. For those, the Holy Cross of Christ really serves with the most comfort and strongest encouragement for the continuation of their Lenten efforts, "easing their lenten time".

But how and for what will they approach the life-giving Cross of Christ in the course of the holy days of "the soul-pleasing Forty Day Fast" when they lead the usual sinful, vain, sensual life which, perhaps, even after Holy Confession and Holy Communion remain the same as before, with the same passions and with the same insensitivity and hardness of heart? How will they kiss the Holy Cross when during the holy days of the fast they strayed to the way of vice and yet have not taken the way to true repentance, the real struggle against their passions? How will they touch the pierced side of Christ, who in their heart and during the days the Lenten tenderness did not cease to be the source only of "evil desire, theft, usury, insult, cunning, temptation, shunning, abuse, arrogance, and foolishness"? How will those touch the Holy Tree, when their impure mouth opened only for idle talk and malicious gossip, for condemnation and slander, for grumbling and indignation? How will they look on the stretched body of Christ hanging on the Cross, who with cowardice yielded to any need of the flesh, satisfied all whims, and were afraid to give up for themselves even the excessively fashionable food and clothes? Will they even worship the Crucified One on the Cross? But then will their acts of worship be distinct from those genuflections, with which the warriors of Pilate fearlessly greeted the condemned Jesus on the cross? Will they even kiss the wounds of Christ? But would these kisses be better than the kiss of Judas?

So the negligence of people and the very saving suffering of Christ can turn into condemnation, and the word of comfort cross changes to a word of bitter accusations! So from the one cup of the eternal covenant, the Christian, faithful to his name, vigilant about his salvation, or renewed by true repentance, sings of life eternal; but those uncaring about salvation, insensitive to the voice of the grace of God sings eternal condemnation! But the Holy Church offers the life-giving Cross of Christ also to the careless in hope that the beneficial power of the Cross will also touch their heart and will urge them away from the deep sleep of the sinner. "They will respect my son" said the owner of the vineyard, sending his only son to the tenants who were grumbling against him (Mt. 21:7). "They will respect the wounds of the Son of God", as if thus the Holy Church speaks about her prodigal and disobedient children, offering them the sight of the life-giving Cross of Christ. She hopes that the sight of the Divine Sufferer will remind the sinners, that as they were baptized into the death of Christ, they promised to serve the Lord instead of the world and the devil, to please God instead of their flesh, to obey the will of God instead of their lusts and passions.

The Holy Church hopes that souls will be found though guilty, but not fallen into the depths of evil, not going towards the edge of hardness, by which a look at the instrument of the suffering of the Son of God will shakes the conscience, will prick the heart, will make the saving change of thoughts and feelings so that they will return from the temple as many returned from Golgotha, "beating their breasts" (Lk. 23:48), and in their life from now on will go by the way of faith, repentance and Christian piety. (See details in "Full Collection of the Sermons of Demetrius, Archbishop of Chersonese", vol. 4, pages 324-326). They, as Ambrose of Milan teaches, should "grieve and cry, however not pushing to despair, because the One who has enlightened the eyes of the man blind from birth (Jn. 9), can make them both zealous and firm in His service if only they want to return with a pure heart. Therefore, let them recognize they are in their blindness and let them run to the Physician who can enlighten them."

By Sergei V. Bulgakov

Source: http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2011/03/why-we-glorify-cross-during-great-lent.html

In the seven weeks approaching Pascha, the Orthodox fast and pray during a season that we call, “Lent.” Lent is a practice that has been part of the Orthodox tradition for thousands of years. Let’s discover what Lent is, and learn a little more about its long historical development.

Great Lent

We can divide Eastern Orthodox Lent into three basic periods:

The Pre-Lenten Period, the three preparatory Sundays (the Publican and the Pharisee, the Prodigal Son, and the Last Judgment), followed by a preliminary week of partial fasting, and ending with the Sunday of Forgiveness;

The Forty Days of the Great Fast, beginning on Monday in the first week (or, more exactly, at Sunday Vespers on the evening before), and ending with the Ninth Hour (3pm) on Friday in the sixth week; and

Holy and Great Week, preceded by the Saturday of Lazarus and Palm Sunday.

The third of these three periods, the Paschal fast of Holy Week, is the most ancient, for it was already in existence during the second and third centuries. The fast of forty days is mentioned in sources from the first half of the fourth century onwards. The pre-Lenten period developed latest of all: the earliest references to a preliminary week of partial fasting are in the sixth or seventh century, but the observance of the other three preparatory Sundays did not become universal in the East until the tenth or eleventh century.

The Development of the Lenten Fast

The Paschal Fast in the second and third centuries

In the second century it was the custom for Christians in both East and West to observe, immediately before Easter Sunday, a short fast of one or two days, either on Saturday only or on Friday and Saturday together. This was specifically a Paschal fast in preparation for the service of Easter night. It was a fast of sorrow at the absence of the Bridegroom, in fulfilment of Christ's own words: “But the days will come, when the Bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days” (Mark 2: 20). The fast, whether of one or two days, was in principle a total one, without any food or drink being taken at all. (Today Fasting during Lent indicates abstinence from animal and dairy products, a total fast is sometimes undertaken on Great Friday if health permits)

By the middle of the third century, this Paschal fast had in many places been extended to embrace the entire week from Monday to Saturday. There was, however, no uniformity of practice, and some Christians fasted for less than the full six days. Only a few can have managed to keep a total fast throughout the whole period. In some places it was the practice to eat bread and salt, with water, at the ninth hour (3 p.m.) on the four days from Monday until Thursday, and then to keep, if possible, a total fast on Friday and Saturday; but not all the faithful were as strict as this. In this six-day Paschal fast may be seen the distant origins of Holy Week; but the developed ritual to which we are accustomed, with special commemorations on each day of the week, is not found until the late fourth century. During the pre-Nicene period, there seems to have been a unitary celebration of Christ's death and rising, considered as a single mystery, at the Paschal vigil lasting from Saturday evening until Easter Sunday morning. Friday was kept as a fast in preparation for this vigil, but it had not as yet become a distinct and specific commemoration of the Crucifixion; the Cross and the Resurrection were celebrated together during Easter night.

The Fast of Forty Days

There is no evidence of a forty-day fast in the pre-Nicene period. The first explicit reference to such a fast is in Canon 5 of the Council of Nicaea (325), where it is treated as something familiar and established, not as an innovation on the part of the Council. By the end of the fourth century the observance of a forty-day fast seems to have been the standard practice in most parts of Christendom, but in some places – possibly including Rome – a shorter fast may have been kept.

This forty-day fast, found in evidence from the fourth century onwards, differs somewhat in scope and character from the one-week fast of the pre-Nicene period, and the precise relationship between the two is not easy to determine. It is, however, clear that whereas the pre-Nicene fast was specifically a Paschal observance in preparation for Easter, the forty-day fast was connected more particularly with the final preparation of the catechumens for the sacrament of Baptism or “illumination”. In the weeks before their baptismal initiation, the candidates underwent a period of intensive training, with daily instruction, special services and fasting. The existing members of the church community were encouraged to share with the catechumens in this prayer and abstinence, thus renewing year by year their baptismal dedication to Christ. So the forty-day fast came to involve the whole body of the faithful, and not just those preparing for Baptism.

Lent, as we know it, is thus the result of a convergence between these two elements—between the six-day pre-Nicene fast, which was directly in preparation for Easter, and the forty-day post-Nicene fast, which originally formed part of the training of candidates for Baptism. It was natural that these two elements should become fused into a single observance, for they both have the same endpoint—the night of Holy Saturday. The Paschal vigil on this night, in celebration of the death, burial and rising of Christ, was for obvious reasons chosen as the occasion for administering Baptism; for this sacrament is precisely an initiation into the Lord's Cross and His Resurrection (see Romans 6:3-4).

The choice of the number forty for the days of Lent has obvious Biblical precedents. The people of Israel spent forty years in the wilderness (Exod. 16: 35); Moses remained fasting for forty days on Mount Sinai (Exod. 34: 28); Elijah abstained from all food for forty days as he journeyed to Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19:8). Most important of all, Christ fasted for forty days and forty nights in the wilderness, tempted by the devil (Matt. 4:1).

The Completion of the Pattern

During the sixth to eleventh centuries, the season of pre-Lenten preparation was gradually expanded to include three other preliminary Sundays: the “Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee”, ten weeks before Easter; following it, the “Sunday of the Prodigal Son”; and then the “Sunday of the Last Judgment” immediately before the beginning of “Cheese Week” (a week of partial fasting when meat is no longer eaten but dairy products are still eaten). Together with the “Sunday of Forgiveness” (also known as “Cheesefare”; this enables us to enter Lent having forgiven others their offences towards us) at the end of “Cheese Week”, this makes four preliminary Sundays in all. In this way the full pattern of the Lenten season was completed.

Lent Today

Today in most parts of the Church there is no organised catechumenate, and it is customary to administer Baptism on many other occasions besides the night of Holy Saturday; yet the baptismal significance of Lent has still a living importance. For every member of the Christian community, Lent is a time of spiritual training and renewed illumination. It is a time to realise afresh that, by virtue of our baptismal initiation, we are crucified, buried and risen with Christ; it is a time to reapply to ourselves the words of St. Paul, “I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2: 20). It is a time for the Orthodox to listen more closely to the voice of the Spirit in whom we were sealed at our Chrismation (Confirmation), immediately after our “burial” in the baptismal waters.

Differences between the West and the East in their observation of Lent

At Rome Holy Week was included as part of the forty days. However, in calculating the number forty all Sundays were excluded from the reckoning, Sundays being considered feast days. This produced a six-week fast of six days in each week, constituting a total of thirty-six days. To make up the full measure of forty days, four further days of fasting were then added at the beginning, with the result that Lent in the West commences on a Wednesday (Ash Wednesday). Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, was a day when Christians made a special point of self-examination consulting with their spiritual Father on matters requiring repentance and amendment. The word “shrove” means to hear a person’s acknowledgement of sin and assure of forgiveness. The term survives in ordinary usage in the expression “short shrift” by which we mean: paying little attention to a person’s excuses or problems. The day was also for thrifty housewives to use up fat and dairy produce by making pancakes so preparing for the Lenten fast.

At Constantinople, on the other hand, Holy Week - together with the Saturday of Lazarus and Palm Sunday - was not regarded as part of the forty-day fast in the strict sense. At Vespers on Friday evening in the sixth week, immediately preceding the Saturday of Lazarus, the distinction between the forty days and Holy Week is very clearly marked in the existing text of the Triodion: Fasting did of course continue during Holy Week!

“Having completed the forty days that bring profit to our soul, we beseech Thee in Thy love for man: grant us also to behold the Holy Week of Thy Passion...”

(Sticheron from Great Lent season)

Thus the forty days began on the first Monday in Lent and ended on Friday in the sixth week; then came Lazarus Saturday, Palm Sunday and Holy Week, which, while distinct from the forty days, were treated as part of the Lenten Fast in the broader sense. In this way the forty days and Holy Week together constituted a fast of seven weeks. So it is that Lent begins on Ash Wednesday in Western Christendom, while commencing in the East two days earlier on Monday.

“Fasting, neither above nor below your ability, will help you in your vigil. One should not ponder divine matters on a full stomach, say the ascetics. For the well-fed, even the most superficial secrets of the Trinity lie hidden. Christ Himself set the example with His long fast; when He drove out the devil He had fasted for forty days. Are we better than He? Behold angels came and ministered to Him (Matthew 4:11) they are waiting to minister to you too.”

(Tito Colliander, Way of the Ascetics)

Source: https://www.thegoodshepherd.org.au/history-of-lent

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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