Posts
Dear Parish Faithful,
In the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts [catechumens] are prayed for with special fervor. This prayer has not lost its meaning, for still...there are catechumens preparing for Baptism.... We will be praying for them during Lent.... And we ourselves, after all, never stop being catechumens. The Word of God made flesh never ceases to educate us. The Holy Spirit never ceases to educate us. The Holy Spirit never stops knocking at the door of our hearts. Lent is a time which is particularly well suited to hearing, to listening to, the voice of God.
—A Monk of the Eastern Church, The Year of Grace of the Lord
_____
"A Monk of the Eastern Church" is actually Fr. Lev Gillet, who was a very popular writer in the 20th c. up to the time of his death in 1980. Fr. Lev - a "convert" to the Orthodox Church - was known as a very gentle spirit who wrote extensively on a variety of topics, including a wonderful book in which he studied the historical development of the "Jesus Prayer." During Great Lent, especially, we all humbly become catechumens - "learners" - as we pray for our actual catechumens preparing to enter the Church through Baptism and/or Chrismation.
