Fragments for Friday -- Turning towards the Ultimate Reality

 

Source: legacyicons.com

Later today, Great Lent will be over for this Year of the Lord 2026. We are on the eve of Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday. We will celebrate both of these great Feast Days over the course of the next two days. 

Then, of course, Holy Week will begin with the Bridegroom Matins on Sunday evening. Fr. Sergius Bulgakov once described Holy Week as a "mystic torrent"that carries us along toward the paschal mystery of the Lord's death and resurrection. 
Everything around us in our lives is "real" - sometimes "all too real" - but in my mind what occurs in the church during the Holy Week services is somehow "more real." Or, at least as revealing the ultimate realities of life if Jesus is indeed the Christ, the Son of the living God; and if His death is the death of God on our behalf and for our salvation. Everyone must make their choices as to what extent they are willing or able to participate in this ultimate Reality.

At the same time, with a glance back at the last forty days, we may want to make an assessment of our "lenten efforts." Did I "redeem the time;" or did it slip away despite my intentions and actions? 

As one way of making such an assessment, I am re-sending a text that I often share at the beginning of Great Lent. St. Theodore the Studite (+826) really gets to the deeper meaning of the Fast, far beyond my eating or viewing habits (yet not to be shrugged at, considering our level of dependence in this area). 

 Although a rather severe ascetic from the Byzantine era of the Church, St. Theodore is refreshingly  "holistic" in his approach to Great Lent as he emphasizes the lenten struggle as no less than aimed at "purity of heart," only achieved by a wide-ranging practice of the virtues.

What is this struggle? Not to walk according to one's own will. This is better than the other works of zeal and is a crown of martyrdom; except that for you there is also change of diet, multiplication of prostrations and increase in psalmody are in accord with the established tradition of old.

And so I ask, let us welcome gladly the gift of the fast, not making ourselves miserable, as we are taught, but let us advance with cheerfulness of heart, innocent, not slandering, not angry, not evil, not envying; rather peaceable toward each other, and loving, fair, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits; breathing in seasonable stillness, since hubbub is damaging in a community; speaking suitable words, since too unreasonable stillness is profitless; yet above all vigilantly keeping watch over our thoughts, not giving place to the devil.

We are lords of ourselves; let us not open our door to the devil; rather let us keep guard over our soul as a bride of Christ, unwounded by the arrows of the thoughts; for thus we are able to become a dwelling of God in Spirit. Thus we may be made worthy to hear, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

Quite simply, whatever is true, whatever noble, whatever just, whatever pure, whatever lovely, whatever of good report, if there is anything virtuous, if there is anything praiseworthy, to speak like the Apostle, do it; and the God of peace will be with you all.

Lenten Meditation -- Second Thursday of Great Lent

 

Source: wikipedia.org

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

Lenten Meditation -- Second Tuesday of Great Lent

 

Source: oca.org

Love between sinners is essentially expressed in forgiveness. There is no other way. It cannot be otherwise. Forgiveness is the singular expression of love in this fallen world. If, therefore, we desire to be loved and forgiven by God—and even more if we know that as a matter of fact we are so loved and forgiven—then we must love and forgive each other. The lenten season exists for this purpose: to express the love of God for one another through mutual forgiveness. This is the teaching of Jesus Himself.

And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against any one; so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your trespasses. (Mk. 11:25–26) 

—Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko, The Lenten Spring

Monday Morning Meditation

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As we begin the Second Week of the Fast, I am sharing some insightful and challenging passages for us to "meditate" (think hard) on from two fellow Orthodox priests currently serving in their respective parishes. Both priests present that "bigger picture" that is essential to grasp in order for the Fast to be truly fruitful.

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"You can follow all the fasting rules of the Orthodox Church to the nth degree and never have an empty stomach once for all six weeks. Which means you miss one of the chief reasons for fasting - to be hungry! - and being hungry, to have some sympathy for the poor and needy, and then to act on that sympathy in measurable ways. Eating lobster instead of tuna is not fasting, it's abstaining. And abstaining isn't all that impressive ... it's something that every diabetic or person with IBS or celiac disease does every day of his life."

"And so our conclusion: In the Orthodox Church, Lent is simple: we fast from food. We go hungry a little bit so that someone else might eat (i.e. almsgiving with money saved by fasting). Or as St. Euthymius told his monks" Correct abstinence is consuming a little less than the belly would like. In the season of Great and Holy Lent, I invite you - for the sake of the hungry, homeless, hurting Christ out there - give up a meal and feed the Lord instead. This is the Gospel, this is Good News - not only for the poor around us, but for all of us who discover that in skipping a meal, we unknowingly fed the Lord, who rewards us forever with a place at his eternal banquet of love."

- Fr. Mark Sietsema Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church
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"Our hearts are not softened through the vain repetition of fasting regulations, but through the realization that our lives are not sustained simply by the food we eat, but by the Word of God. The experience of the Church teaches us that by restricting both the type and quantity of food we consume, we begin to learn — not just intellectually, but deeply within our hearts — upon Whom we truly depend."

"The rules of the fast should not be dismissed. At the same time, they must be applied and understood properly, so that they cultivate and till the soil of our hearts rather than merely strengthen our sense of accomplishment. Properly embraced, the fast prepares us to receive and participate fully in the joy of Christ’s resurrection."

- Fr. Gregory Ealy

The Apostle Paul Orthodox Church

Lenten Meditation -- First Saturday of Great Lent: St. Theodore the Recruit and the Miracle of the Boiled Wheat

Source: oca.org

Sabbath, the day of Creation, the day of [the goodness of] “this world,” became—in Christ—the day of expectation, the day before the Lord’s Day. ...

[Saturday is] a day of feast and a day of death. It is a feast because it is in this world and in its time that Christ overcame death and inaugurated His Kingdom, because His Incarnation, Death, and Resurrection are the fulfillment of creation in which God rejoiced at the beginning. It is a day of death because in Christ's Death the world died, and its salvation, fulfillment, and transfiguration are beyond the grave, in the “age to come.”...

During Lent this meaning of Saturdays acquires a special intensity, for the purpose of Lent is precisely to recover the Christian meaning of time as preparation and pilgrimage and of the status of the Christian as “alien” and “exile” in this world (1 Peter 2:11). These Saturdays refer to the lenten effort to the future fulfillment and thus give Lent its special rhythm. On the one hand,Saturday in Lent is a “eucharistic” day marked by the celebration of the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, and Eucharist always means feast. The peculiar character of that feast, however, is that it refers to Lent itself as journey, patience, and effort, and thus becomes a “stopover” whose purpose is to make us reflect on the ultimate goal of that journey. 

—Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann, Great Lent

Lenten Meditation -- Great Lent - Day 5 -- Clean Friday

Source: svots.edu

For too many people Lent means primarily, and almost exclusively, a change of diet, the compliance with ecclesiastical regulations concerning fasting. They understand fasting as an end in itself, as a “good deed” required by God and carrying in itself its merit and its reward. But, the Church spares no effort in revealing to us that fasting is but a means, one among many, towards a higher goal: the spiritual renewal of man, his return to God, true repentance and, therefore, true reconciliation. The Church spares no effort in warning us against a hypocritical and pharisaic fasting, against the reduction of religion to mere external obligations. As a Lenten hymn says:

In vain do you rejoice in no eating, O soul!
For you abstain from food,
But from passions you are not purified.
If you persevere in sin, you will perform a useless fast.

—Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann, Introduction to Forgiveness Sunday Vespers

Coffee With Sister Vassa -- REFLECTION for WEDNESDAY of THE 1st WEEK OF LENT

“For if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding; and if you seek it as silver, and search diligently for it as for treasures; then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; and from his presence come knowledge and understanding, and he treasures up salvation for them that walk uprightly: he will protect their way;” (Prov 2: 3-7)

Discernment. Wisdom. Knowledge. Understanding. Are these the things I’ve been searching for “diligently, …as for treasures”? At times, yes. But I need to be reminded, again and again, that these essential gifts, without which my life becomes utterly unmanageable, come from God. I must not only ask Him for them, but “cry out” for them when need be. Because I desperately need God to nudge me in the right direction, despite the weaknesses and distortions in my own vision of things.

Let me re-connect with, and stay close to, Him, this first Wednesday of Lent, especially when I don’t know what I’m doing, or what to do next. Because “from his presence come knowledge and wisdom.” Help me, Lord, do the next right thing today, in Your presence and grace. Amen!

Fr. Thomas Hopko on the purpose of Lent

 

Sent to me by Mother Paula, an Orthodox nun who was once a member of our parish. + Fr. Thomas Hopko: MP’s notes from his homilies  During Great Lent we are purposely remembering paradise. Radically repenting and changing our hearts and minds. Lent is called the tithe of the year. 10% of the year (365 days) We must be merciful. Forgiveness stops the power of evil. When one really forgives, we want everyone to be saved. Remember, we have been baptized, died, raised with Him and sealed with the Holy Spirit. Our life is not our own, we belong to God, our master. It is only through truth that we are loved by God, created, saved, wounded and healed. No matter how much we fall and sin, He takes us back. He never turns his back on us. We are God’s workmanship. During the Fast all things we do are a means to an end.Prayer, fasting, almsgiving, etc. Read the daily Lenten Bible readings. Attend the Lenten Church services. Receive Lent with gladness!Pray to God to show mercy to one another, constantly forgiving. Lent is a gift from the crucified Lord. Take it and say thank you! God gives us the grace to do this. Pray, accept the gift of life during this time. Fasting and almsgiving should all be done in secret. Pray, go into your heart, your closet. Be joyful when you fast, be not dismal. Just live one day at a time. All of our problems come from thinking, analyzing, and trying to figure things out. Instead we should think of God and have an awareness of Him. Don’t look back and don’t be anxious for tomorrow.Live peacefully, calmly and patiently. Lent is a gift given to us by God for our salvation and for the glory of God. The purpose of the Great Fast is to obtain a broken, contrite and humble heart. “Come to me all who are heavy laden and I will give you rest.Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is good and my burden is light.” (Mt. 11: 28- 30)

The Place of the Body in Christian Life

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

GREAT LENT: Day One

Nostalgia for Paradise

The Sunday Before Great Lent is called Cheesefare Sunday, because we begin to fast from dairy products after this day. But another theme is the "Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise." There is a wonderful hymn from the Great Vespers that unfolds that theme with both rich imagery, "compunction" (Gk. katanuxis) and spiritual insight:

Adam was cast out of Paradise through eating the tree. Seated before the gates he wept, lamenting with a pitiful voice and saying: 'Woe is me, what have I suffered in my misery! I transgressed one commandment of the Master, and now I am deprived of every blessing. O most holy Pardise, planted for my sake and now shut up, pray to Him that made thee and fashioned me, that once more I may take pleasure in thy flowers.' Then the Savior said to him: 'I desire not the loss of the creature which I fashioned, but that he should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth; and when he comes to me I will not cast him out. 

Apostikha from Great Vespers of the Sunday Before Great Lent

The Future Life and the Body

It is perhaps most obvious during Great Lent just how much our bodies participate in the very act of worship. We will soon be making prostrations and bowing deeply at the waist; services during which we do our best to stand are somewhat longer, and so forth. Of course, that is the "outward person" and not yet the "inward person." Those very practices can be lifeless if done somewhat mechanically. Yet, the point I am trying to make her very briefly is that we need to respect our "bodily nature" as integral to our very humanity. That this is expressive of a holistic Orthodox anthropology at its most complete. These are simply a few comments which are meant to preface a passage from the book Theology of the Body by the French Orthodox theologian, Jean-Claude Larchet. His book is a very thorough examination of the many-sided approaches to the human body and its relation to the "soul" and/or "spirit" which are essential for us to understand to fully grasp our understanding and experience of human nature as created by God. The passage here is a nice summary of the over-all teaching of the Church on the body:

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The fact remains that original, authentic Christianity is, by its very nature, the one religion that values the body most of all. This is seen in the doctrine of creation, whereby the body too is deemed to be made in the image of God. Similarly, Christianity's portrayal of future life is one in which the body is also called to participate. Indeed, it is seen in its conception of the human person as composed inextricably of soul and body, and who thus does not simply have a body but in part is a body, marked by all its spiritual qualities. Without question, such exceptional value and significance accord the body is lined to the very basis of Christianity - namely, the incarnation. It is a consequence of the fact that the Son of God became man, assuming not simply a human soul but a human body; that in this body he experienced what we experience; that in his person he delivered it from its weaknesses and ills, making it incorruptible, granting it eternal life; and that he gave it as food to his disciples and believers, making them partakers of his divinity, and of all associated blessing.

Theology of the Body, p. 11, by Jean-Claude Larchet

Forgiveness Vespers

 

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

"Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me."

Great Lent will begin on Monday, February 23; but actually for the parish it will begin as we serve the Forgiveness Vespers on Sunday following the Liturgy. 

This is a very "special" service that inaugurates the lenten fast. The theme, together with the beginning of Great Lent, is that of forgiveness. And that is clearly at the heart of the service, which is the Rite of Forgiveness, which actually comes at the very end.

What happens is this: Everyone comes and stands before everyone else at the service - beginning with me as the parish priest and our other clergy. 

We make a full bow at the waist before each other, accompanied by the words: "Forgive me." The response is then: "God forgives," and then we move on to the next person. We will not exchange the "kiss of peace," and it is not the place to chat with each other. 

We continue to move along in this fashion to the next person, who has taken a position in the line after his/her exchange with the last person in the line, until we have gone through to the very last person. 

The point is to fulfill the Gospel command to forgive one another, as God has forgiven us. The Gospel reading for Sunday's Liturgy will be Matt. 6:14-21. 

Everyone who is there is invited to stay. And that, of course, is a matter of choice. It is a free decision. No compulsion or obligation. 

On Monday - Thursday of the First Week of Lent, there will be a unique lenten service, described in the following manner by Fr. Thomas Hopko:

"At the Compline services of the first week of lent the Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete is read. This is a long series of penitential verses based on Biblical themes, to each of which the people respond: Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me (with a bow at the waist." This canon will be repeated on the Fifth Monday of Great Lent (only this year) in a modified form.

Fragments for Friday -- Taking Lent Seriously

 

Source: pixbay.com

The gateway to divine repentance has been opened: let us enter eagerly, purified in our bodies and observing abstinence from food and passions, as obedient servants of Christ who has called the world into the heavenly Kingdom. Let us offer to the King of all a tenth part of the whole year, that we may look with love upon His Resurrection.

(Sessional Hymn, Matins of Cheese Week)

Meatfare Sunday is behind us and we are now in The Week Before Lent known as Cheese Week approaching Cheesfare Sunday. If that sounds a bit esoteric, it simply means that – prepared or not - we are approaching the beginning of Great Lent on Monday, February 23. (But we did have four weeks of pre-lenten preparation). Holy Week follows Great Lent and that leads to Pascha on April 12. (The Western Easter in on April 5 this year.  Holy Week and Pascha are at the very heart of the liturgical year and of our lives as Orthodox Christians.

Great Lent is the “school of repentance.” It is roughly equivalent to an“annual tithe” in which we offer ourselves back to God so as to be received with love as was the prodigal son. As such, Great Lent is a gift from God, guiding us toward a way of life we may be reluctant to assume on our own, suffering as we often are from spiritual apathy or a simple lack of focus. Great Lent is also goal-oriented, for it leads us on a spiritual pilgrimage of preparation toward the “night brighter than the day” of Pascha and the Risen Lord. Great Lent is “sacred” and “soul-profiting.” It is a key component in the Orthodox Way of living out the Christian life we have been committed to in holy Baptism.

During Great Lent we will recover the essential practices of prayer, almsgiving and fasting. These practices are the tools that can assist us in returning and remaining close to God. Liturgical services unique to Great Lent immerse us in a way of communal pray that is solemn and penitent; but which also lighten and unburden the soul through the mercy and grace of God so abundantly poured out upon us through these inspired services. You leave the church tired in body perhaps, but brighter inside – in the mind and heart. 

Great Lent invites us to see our neighbors as children of God and of equal value in the eyes of God, and thus deserving of our attention, patience and care. Charity can be distributed through material means or through an encouraging and warmly-spoken word. Great Lent liberates us from the excessive appetites of our bodies through the discipline of fasting. Our diet essentially becomes vegan as we seek to be less weighed down by a body overly-satiated with food and drink. This is healthy for both soul and body. The human person does not live by bread alone as the Lord taught us as He Himself fasted in the desert for forty days. We also fast from entertainment, bad habits, obsessions, useless distractions, vulgar language and the like. We try and simplify life and redeem our newfound time through more focused and virtue-creating tasks. If approached seriously, perhaps we will be able to carry some of this over into the paschal season – and beyond. 

What can we do? How do we not squander this time set aside for God? 

• Prayer - Make provision to be in church for some of the Lenten services. Start with the first week of Great Lent and the Canon of Repentance of St. Andrew of Crete. Assume or resume a regular Rule of Prayer in your home. Read the psalms and other Scripture carefully and prayerfully. Pray for others.
• Charity – Open your heart to your neighbor. If you believe that Christ dwells within you, then try and see Christ in your neighbor. Make your presence for the “other” encouraging and supportive. Restrain your “ego” for the sake of your neighbor. Help someone in a concrete manner this Great Lent. 
• Fasting – Set domestic goals about the manner in which you will observe the fast. Test yourselves. Resist minimalism. If you “break” the fast, do not get discouraged or “give up,” but start over. Assume that your Orthodox neighbor is observing the fast. Seek silence. Allow for a different atmosphere in the home.

Jesus set the example of fasting for forty days. We imitate Him for the same period of forty days. If it was hard for Him, it will be hard for us; but not as hard as it was for Him! Jesus went to the Cross following His “holy week” in Jerusalem. We follow Him in our Holy Week observance and practices. Jesus was raised from the dead following His crucifixion, death and burial. We seek the resurrection of our spiritual lives here and now as we await our own death at the appointed time and the resurrection of the dead at the end of time.

“Taking Lent seriously” (Fr. Alexander Schmemann’s phrase) is a concrete sign of taking God seriously. Our surrounding culture is not serious about taking anything too seriously. When serious issues arise, however, people have a difficult time dealing with them. Yet Jesus was very serious. Especially when it came to issues of life and death – and God and salvation, and so forth. Great Lent helps us to focus on these very themes, therefore making it meaningful and important for our lives.

The Liturgy of St. Basil the Great

Source: orthodoxchristiansupply.com

 

St Basil's Liturgy: Deserving our Deepest Attention and Overwhelming Awe

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,


During the five Sundays of Great Lent we turn to the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great for our Eucharistic celebration on the Lord's Day. This Liturgy is used another five times during the year, two more of which are during Holy Week - Thursday and Saturday. (The other three times are the Feasts of Nativity and Theophany, and then on St. Basil's day of commemoration, January 1). This Liturgy is known for its long(er) prayers, some of which may challenge our capacity to stand still in concentration and prayerful attention. But what prayers! They strike me personally as being unrivaled in our entire Tradition for their beauty of expression and the depth of their theological/spiritual content. Even though we are hearing them in translation, that beauty and depth remain intact and shine through quite well.

Now St. Basil did not sit down and "compose" the entire Liturgy "from scratch," to use that expression. The basic structure of the Liturgy was already an essential element of the Church's living liturgical Tradition. However, there is every reason to believe that he is responsible for the magnificent Anaphora prayers. These prayers reflect St. Basil's intense preoccupation with the Church's Trinitarian faith - that we worship the One God as the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; the Son and the Holy Spirit being consubstantial with the Father as to their divine nature, and thus co-enthroned and co-glorified with the Father from all eternity. (St. Basil wrote a separate magnificent treatise On the Holy Spirit, demonstrating the divinity of the Holy Spirit through his knowledge of the Scriptures and the Church's liturgical Tradition). 

That belief in the Holy Trinity, though present "in the beginning" of the Church's proclamation of the Gospel, was under attack during the turbulent fourth century, with the Arian heresy and its various offshoots stirring up seemingly interminable debate and dissension. St. Basil was one of the premier exponents of the Church's faith that the one God is the Holy Trinity; and he helped establish the classical terminology of the Church in expressing that Faith: God is one in "essence" (Gk. ousia), yet three distinct "Persons" (Gk. hypostaseis). That terminology remains intact to this day. The opening Anaphora Prayer, "O Existing One, Master, Lord God, Father almighty and adorable! ..." is steeped in praise and glorification of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; and thus deserves our deepest attention and sense of overwhelming awe as we stand in the presence of the Holy Trinity and as we join the angelic powers in "singing, shouting, and proclaiming: Holy! Holy! Holy! Lord of Sabaoth!

In profound relationship to the prayers of the Liturgy revealing the Church's belief in the Holy Trinity, we find St. Basil's unrivaled expression of the divine "economy" (Gk. oikonomia) throughout. This refers to God's providential dispensation/design toward His creation - culminating in the salvation of the world - in and through the Incarnation, Death, Resurrection and Glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ. If I were asked to present to an interested inquirer the most compelling and succinct expression of the divine economy as taught and proclaimed by the Orthodox Church, I would definitely refer this person to the long Anaphora Prayer of St. Basil's Liturgy beginning where the Thrice-holy left off:

"With these blessed powers, O Master who lovest mankind ..."

After praising God "for the magnificence of Thy holiness," we begin to prayerfully recall - and thus make present - the full extent of His providential dispensation toward the world:

"When Thou didst create man by taking dust from the earth, and didst honor him with Thine own image, O God ..."

This long remembrance takes us through what we refer to as the "Fall," through the promises of the prophets — "foretelling to us the salvation which was to come ..." — all the way through to the Lord's Incarnation, Death, Resurrection, Ascension and even Second Coming:

"Ascending into heaven, He sat down at the right hand of Thy majesty on high, and He will come to render to every man according to his works ..."

Further recalling, and thus actualizing "the night in which He gave Himself up for the life of the world," this entire process will culminate with the Epiklesis, or Invocation of the Holy Spirit "to bless, to hallow and to show" that the bread and wine of our offering will "become" the Body and Blood of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ. We will then receive the Holy Gifts "for the remission of sins and unto life everlasting."

Today, the Orthodox faithful are blessed in that the prayers of St. Basil's Liturgy are read aloud so that the entire gathered assembly of believers may actually "hear" the prayers that reveal the Lord God's Trinitarian nature and the divine economy together with the consecration of the Holy Gifts. In the past that may have not been so, and even today it is not so in all Orthodox churches. So we thank God for our own liturgical revival which has so enlivened our contemporary worship experience with full parish participation in the Church at prayer and praise.

 And there is a final prayer near the very end of the Liturgy that the priest will say while facing the Table of Preparation and the remaining Holy Communion that will eventually be consumed by the priest or deacon, and while the choir is singing "Blessed be the name of the Lord, henceforth and forevermore"three times:

The mystery of Thy dispensation, O Christ our God, has been accomplished and perfected as far as it was in our power;
for we have had the memorial of Thy death; we have seen the type of Thy Resurrection; we have been filled with Thine
unending life; we have enjoyed Thine inexhaustible food; which in the world to come be well-pleased to vouchsafe to us
all, through the grace of Thine eternal Father, and Thine holy and good and life-creating Spirit, now and ever and unto
ages of ages. Amen.

This summation of the meaning, purpose and experience of the Liturgy is an "awesome" claim that perhaps may strike us in its awesomeness even more effectively if we break the prayer down into its component parts:

• We have had the memorial of the Lord's death;
• We have seen the type of the Lord's Resurrection;
• We have been filled with the Lord's unending life;
• We have enjoyed the Lord's inexhaustible food;
• We ask to continue in this partaking in the world to come;
• All this through the grace of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit!

That is quite a Sunday morning experience which we so blandly describe as "going to church!" Clearly the remainder of the day is all downhill - no matter what we do! When we begin the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great we know that we have a long road ahead of us. That will require some patience, concentration, and a willingness to "stay with it" through to its dismissal. If we are able to do that, then the "rewards" are inestimable. It will also test our deepest desires about what is "the one thing needful" in our lives and what is the treasure of our hearts. Yet, the Sundays of Great Lent are a unique opportunity to further our movement towards the Lord as we move through Great Lent and our lives toward the gladsome light of the Kingdom of God.

Coffee With Sister Vassa: The Lenten Exile

 

THE LENTEN EXILE

This past Sunday immediately preceding the beginning of Lent recalled the Exile from Paradise, inviting us to embrace “Adam’s Lament” over a Paradise Lost. How and why should we relate to the whole topic of Exile, which is a leitmotif of Great Lent? Note that it’s also the main theme of Psalm 136/137, By the Rivers of Babylon…, chanted in our churches these past three Sundays, so, there’s something very important about Exile that we’re meant to recognize as part of our human (or human-divine) story, as we enter into the voluntary, communal Lamentof the Lenten season.

We all experience some form of exile, or separation from something or someone beloved, at some point in our lives. Some of us are from war-torn or otherwise troubled countries, which we had to leave and which we might miss. Some of us have experienced a painful divorce from a once-beloved spouse. Others of us might have lost our jobs; or lost a loved one who passed away, and we might feel lost without them. Maybe we have experienced burnout in this or that occupation, and feel we have lost ourselves. Or maybe we have lost our freedom by slipping into a crippling addiction or obsession, which now alienates us from others, to some degree.

These are all different experiences that can help us relate to the biblical narratives related to Exile. And we can channel our pain toward and into the healing hands of a loving Father, our loving God, who clothes us (as He made clothing for Adam and Eve at the end of Genesis 3) before entrusting us with the new, productive work we are given to do henceforth in our Exile. This “work” is described in Genesis 3 as bearing children and working the soil, symbolizing the kinds of God-given creativity we are blessed with in different ways; our creativity, which brings forth new life in our world.

It’s not a joyless or unproductive “lament,” is my point, even while we do have this hole in our hearts that “remembers” our Paradise Lost. On the way of the cross, which is always leading to resurrection, our pain is transfigured into new life, with God’s blessing and “clothing.” The new clothing in the era of the Church is our being clothed in Christ, all of us who are baptized in Christ. We’re getting back in touch with this reality, with these truths, throughout Lent, so we can “re-story” ourselves and regain a proper perspective of our common, human-divine story, which is neither meaningless nor purposeless in our Exile. Anyway, these are a few thoughts on our upcoming, dignifying journey towards Pascha. Happy Lent to you, dear friends. Forgive me and pray for me a bit, if you could. SV

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Please remember: Sister Vassa  will visit our parish and deliver a talk on March 19. The title of the talk is: "Great Lent as the Great Catechism."

Taking Lent Seriously

 Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ, 

Great Lent is the “school of repentance.” It is roughly equivalent to an“annual tithe” in which we offer ourselves back to God so as to be received with love as was the prodigal son. As such, Great Lent is a gift from God, guiding us toward a way of life we may be reluctant to assume on our own, suffering as we often are from spiritual apathy or a simple lack of focus. Great Lent is also goal-oriented, for it leads us on a spiritual pilgrimage of preparation toward the “night brighter than the day” of Pascha and the Risen Lord. Great Lent is “sacred” and “soul-profiting.” It is a key component in the Orthodox Way of living out the Christian life we have been committed to in holy Baptism.

During Great Lent we will recover the essential practices of prayer, almsgiving and fasting. These practices are the tools that can assist us in returning and remaining close to God. Liturgical services unique to Great Lent immerse us in a way of communal pray that is solemn and penitent; but which also lighten and unburden the soul through the mercy and grace of God so abundantly poured out upon us through these inspired services. You leave the church tired in body perhaps, but brighter inside – in the mind and heart.

Great Lent invites us to see our neighbors as children of God and of equal value in the eyes of God, and thus deserving of our attention, patience and care. Charity can be distributed through material means or through an encouraging and warmly-spoken word. Great Lent liberates us from the excessive appetites of our bodies through the discipline of fasting. 

Our diet essentially becomes vegan as we seek to be less weighed down by a body overly-satiated with food and drink. This is healthy for both soul and body. The human person does not live by bread alone as the Lord taught us as He Himself fasted in the desert for forty days. 

We also fast from entertainment, bad habits, obsessions, useless distractions, vulgar language and the like. We try and simplify life and redeem our newfound time through more focused and virtue-creating tasks. If approached seriously, perhaps we will be able to carry some of this over into the paschal season – and beyond.

What can we do? How do we not squander this time set aside for God?

• Prayer - Make provision to be in church for some of the Lenten services. Start with the first week of Great Lent and the Canon of Repentance of St. Andrew of Crete. Assume or resume a regular Rule of Prayer in your home. Read the psalms and other Scripture carefully and prayerfully. Pray for others.

• Charity – Open your heart to your neighbor. If you believe that Christ dwells within you, then try and see Christ in your neighbor. Make your presence for the “other” encouraging and supportive. Restrain your “ego” for the sake of your neighbor. Help someone in a concrete manner this Great Lent.

• Fasting – Set domestic goals about the manner in which you will observe the fast. Test yourselves. Resist minimalism. If you “break” the fast, do not get discouraged or “give up,” but start over. Assume that your Orthodox neighbor is observing the fast. Seek silence. Allow for a different atmosphere in the home.

Jesus set the example of fasting for forty days. We imitate Him for the same period of forty days. If it was hard for Him, it will be hard for us; but not as hard as it was for Him. Jesus went to the Cross following His “holy week” in Jerusalem. We follow Him in our holy week observance and practices. Jesus was raised from the dead following His crucifixion, death and burial. We seek the resurrection of our spiritual lives here and now as we await our own death at the appointed time and the resurrection of the dead at the end of time.

“Taking Lent seriously” (Fr. Alexander Schmemann’s phrase) is a concrete sign of taking God seriously. Our surrounding culture is not serious about taking anything too seriously. When serious issues arise, however, people have a difficult time dealing with them. Yet Jesus was very serious. Especially when it came to issues of life and death – and God and salvation, and so forth. Great Lent helps us to focus on these very themes, therefore making it meaningful and important for our lives.

May God be with you and with our entire parish community!

A Word about Great Lent

Source: legacyicons.com

 A Word About the Great Fast

St. Theodore the Studite

What is this struggle? Not to walk according to one’s own will. This is better than the other works of zeal and is a crown of martyrdom; expect that for you there is also a change of diet, multiplication of prostrations and increase of psalmody all in accord with the established tradition from of old. And so I ask, let us welcome gladly the gift of the fast, not making ourselves miserable, as we are taught, but let us advance with cheerfulness of heart, innocent, not slandering, not angry, not evil, not envying; rather peaceable toward each other, and loving, fair, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits; breathing in seasonable stillness, since hubbub is damaging in a community; speaking suitable words, since too unreasonable stillness is profitless; yet above all vigilantly keeping watch over our thoughts, not opening the door to the passions, not giving place to the devil. We are lords of ourselves; let us not open our door to the devil; rather let us keep guard over our soul as a bride of Christ, unwounded by the arrows of the thoughts; for thus we are able to become a dwelling of God in Spirit. 

Thus we may be made worthy to hear, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Quite simply, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is just, whatever pure, whatever lovely, whatever of good report, if there is anything virtuous, if there is anything praiseworthy, to speak like the Apostle, do it; and the God of peace will be with you all.

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A wonderful text from St. Theodore. If we recall that he was a rather severe and austere ascetic, his words are refreshing, as he captures a very holistic understanding to Great Lent which will bring meaning and depth to our fasting and prostrations. Ultimately, if we can learn to love God and neighbor during this season, then it will truly be a "lenten springtime."

Hearing the Parable of the Prodigal Son

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

 

Have I Ever Really 'Heard' the Parable of the Prodigal Son?

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

As we move forward in the pre-lenten Sundays and the upcoming week of the Last Judgment (MATT. 25:31-46), perhaps we can "meditate" throughout this week on the Parable of the Prodigal Son from yesterday's Liturgy. When thought over deeply, we begin to understand how inexhaustible it really is!

This parable is chosen at this particular time in order to draw us toward repentance (Gk. metanoia); to remind us that Great Lent is the “school of repentance;” and that without repentance, our other “lenten efforts” become rather meaningless – if not spiritually dangerous. What will it take to convince us that we, too, need that “change of mind” and return to our heavenly Father that is the truest expression of living according to the Gospel?

As I ponder that question, I ask myself further: Have I ever really heard this parable in the way that Christ refers to “hearing?” And that would mean being shaken at the very core of my being. Am I only paying “lip service” to this greatest of the parables, as I listen to it as a wonderful short story that is exciting to analyze and discuss; but not quite capable of moving me any closer to genuine repentance? Again, these are the questions that come to my mind as I have heard this parable in the Liturgy for over forty years now as a priest.

Yet, if we have spent some time in analyzing the richness of this parable, then we realize that it is not only about the prodigal son, with the two other characters – the father and the older brother – acting in a clearly subordinate manner or for the sake of rounding out the story. They are both integral to the parable and hold equal weight as we try and grasp the parable as a whole. Without the father and the older son, the parable would suffer from a certain one-sidedness or incompleteness.

This is absolutely true when it comes to the very core meaning of the parable - which is repentance. We are deeply moved by the movement of the prodigal son toward his return to his father’s home. We first read of his journey to a “faraway country” and rapid and total decline wherein he wastes his inheritance in “loose living.” An all too-familiar tale. This is followed by a spiraling descent that has him longing for the pods that serve as food for the pigs he has been hired to tend. His re-ascent begins with his “coming to himself” after what must have been a painfully honest self-assessment of his stricken condition of estrangement from even basic human fellowship. This culminates in the thought of returning to his father and begging for mercy and the actual movement of “arising” and doing it.

None of this would have born any fruit, however, without the compassion and love of the prodigal son’s father who embodies the forgiveness that completes his repentance. If the father had been stern, or absorbed with his own sense of being offended; if he had chastised his son with the predictable and perhaps satisfying retort, “I told you so;” then the parable would collapse with an all too-human reaction that would be plausible but unworthy of the Gospel that Jesus came to proclaim. For the father of the parable is a figure of our heavenly Father’s compassion, love and forgiveness that Christ came to offer to all and every sinner. The father remains unforgettable as a “character” precisely because he confounds our expectations in his boundless love fully revealed by running out to his son, falling on his neck and kissing him. This is how the Father “Who is without beginning” acts toward his wayward creatures who have spent their inheritance – the “image and likeness” of God – in the faraway country of self-autonomy and the “swinish” fulfillment of the most base desires. Our repentance results in a cosmic joy that God shares with the angels and the preparation of the “banquet of immortality.”

The older son represents precisely that all too-human response referred to above of hurt feeling and an offended sensibility that leaves him insensitive to his repentant brother’s return and salvation. No matter how justified such a response would seem from our human perspective, it remains outside of the Gospel’s “transvaluation of values.”

This is our “invitation” to Great Lent offered to us by the Lord Jesus Christ: “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand” (MATT. 4:17). To help us understand the beauty of that movement of repentance, the Lord delivers what just may be his “parable of parables,” the one we usually name after the prodigal son. So before we get out our lenten cookbooks, we must first really “hear” this parable and pray to God that He will direct and guide us toward true repentance. 

The lenten cookbook will not save us – but repentance will.

LENTEN MEDITATION - Day XL — 'Glory to Thee, O God, Glory to Thee'

 

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

'Glory to Thee, O God, Glory to Thee' (3x)

When the soul enters into the trial of spiritual aridity, or dryness, for the first time, it becomes extremely dismayed. This is especially true if there was a disciplined devotion to worship in sincerity of heart. One begins to be troubled and to wonder why this has happened and to look for the faults that may be the cause.

But spiritual aridity is not a sign of any kind of failure in a healthy relationship with God. It is only an important phase that the soul has to undergo, which may be regarded as a kind of pruning to prepare the soul for a more advanced spiritual life, not contingent upon psychological incentives or subjective pleasures....

It is therefore wrong to be upset during the phase of aridity. It is also wrong to stop praying on the pretext of finding no pleasure in prayer, for aridity is a living part of the very nature of prayer. It is able, if we accept it with contentment and understanding, to raise us to the higher stage of pure prayer, which is not contingent on emotions, sentiments, or incentives of any kind.

Thus, whenever you feel that grace seems to have abandoned you, be content with its hidden action. Rely instead on the strength of the impetus previously gained from your life with God....

The best thing to do is to accept aridity as it is and persist in spiritual activity with calm and awareness. Allow yourself to exert every effort to keep on progressing at the speed of one who travels across the desert and is never deterred by the pleasures of the city he has left behind from striding across the arid wilderness until he reaches his destination....

Spiritual trials in general are not undergone for the sake of attaining perfection, for this implies a sense of self-deification. Rather, we should submit to the sovereign purposes of God so that we may fulfill his will, for our obedience to God is the foundation of our life with him, and it is only this that leads us to perfection.

—Matthew the Poor,  Orthodox Prayer Life: The Interior Way

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If I am not mistaken, Matthew the Poor, a very well-known and respected Coptic monk/elder, is referring by "aridity" what the spiritual tradition terms akedia. This is translated as "spiritual torpor," "listlessness," "apathy," etc. It literally means "not caring." It is a widespread spiritual condition, and not too many people - including desert-dwelling monks! - can escape its clutches. So encouraging, then, to hear how a spiritual master examines this condition and finds the providential dimension inherent in it.

A short personal note: When I was quite young, and well before I moved toward seminary and the priesthood, I encountered a small article about Matthew the Poor in Time magazine. This 20th c. desert-dwelling recluse (Egypt) really grabbed my attention at the time!

 

*** In yesterday's meditation on Phono sapiens, I failed to credit the author of the first paragraph, and hence that now rather unforgettable term. It was Matthew Gasda.

LENTEN MEDITATION - Day XXXIX — 'Phono Sapiens'

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

People who grew up with phones—and even many older people who didn’t—can’t read a novel anymore, sit through a film without looking at their phones, sit through a TV show without pausing it to check their emails, finish an article online—in short, can’t really do anything without multitasking. There’s no moment of rapture in reading the first page of a book because the mind no longer expects to reach the end. The old tools of storytelling are obsolete; distraction supersedes even entertainment, let alone art. And because we can’t narrate our lives, “we can’t construct narratives connected to our own inner truth.” Truth simply falls out of the human vocabulary, replaced by big data: charts, memes, viral clips. Phono sapiens is “lost” in a “forest of information,” without passion or purpose.

—Matthew Gasda

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Not exactly the usual "lenten" fare that I have been sending out this Great Lent. But no less challenging than what we have read thus far from a Church Father, or our more contemporary voices: Metropolitan Anthony Bloom, Frs. Alexander Schmemann, Thomas Hopko, and Lev Gillet, to mention a few. My contribution is not to add what you just read above, but to admit - confess! - that I, too, have found myself doing the same mindless and meaningless "stuff" with my phone. I am glad to be a member of homo sapiens, but distressed to even think that unless I am vigilant, I may be degraded to the ranks of Phono sapiens! In fact to curtail some of the above in my own life has been one of my focused "lenten projects" this year. Yet, I do continue to read long novels (and watch films) with great joy and attention, I am glad to further share. A suggestion: Choose a good, long novel for the summer and commit to reading it from start to finish.