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 - Day XII

 

 

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.

 

The Culmination of our Lenten Effort

Dear Parish Faithful,

GREAT LENT - The Twenty-third Day

At the Presanctified Liturgy last Wednesday evening, we began with a series of transitional hymns, that in addition to reminding us that we have reached the midpoint of the Fast, combine our own ascetical effort - and the need for its continuation for the remainder of the Fast - with clear reference to the Lord and Cross that is the culmination of His earthly ministry:

The fast, the source of blessings,
now has brought us midway through its course.
Having pleased God with the days that have passed
we look forward to making good use of the days to come,
for growth in blessings bring forth even greater achievements.
While pleasing Christ, the giver of blessings, we cry:
O Lord, who fasted and endured the cross for our sake,
make us worthy to share blamelessly in Your paschal victory,
by living in peace and rightly giving glory to You
with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

O Cross, boast of the apostles,
surrounded by archangels, powers and principalities;
Save us from all harm who bow down before you.
Enable us to fulfill the divine course of abstinence
and to reach the day of salvation, by which we are saved.

And there are hymns that are something of an ecstatic expression of the inexpressible boundlessness of the Cross' meaning on a cosmic and personal level:

Today, as we bow before the cross of the Lord, we cry:
Rejoice, O tree of life, the destroyer of hell!
Rejoice, O joy of the world, the slayer of corruption!
Rejoice, O power that scatters demons!
O invincible weapon, confirmation of the faithful:
Protect and sanctify those who kiss you!

The Cross is the culmination of our journey through Holy Week. Practically speaking, that must in turn be the culmination of our lenten effort, or else the sacred forty days and Holy Week will be reduced to empty forms devoid of spiritual power. "Lay aside all earthly care" during Holy Week. Try and plan your schedules so as to maximize your time in church for the services that will bring us to the Cross and Resurrection. Even when unable to be in church, let it be a time of greater silence and concentration, so that empty distractions are kept to a minimum. If possible, use a "vacation day" from work and make Holy Friday a time to immerse yourselves into the Mystery of the Cross. If your children are home on Holy Friday, direct them toward the Church and the "solemnity" of that unique day. In a world that offers us an abundance of the superficially attractive, resist such temptation by focusing on the essential - "the one thing needful" - Jesus Christ.

In Anticipation of Great Lent 2019

Dear Parish Faithful,

Great Lent 2019

Great Lent for 2019 is "right around the corner," so I am trying to keep ahead of our schedule by providing some hopefully useful pastoral directives and suggestions as we prepare for the season.



THE RULES OF FASTING — Please read through this attachment on Lenten Fasting to better understand the nature of the fast that we are directed to observe during Great Lent. Yet, in addition to the fasting discipline, I also include some pastoral considerations on how we can approach the fast in a constructive and spiritually-healthy manner either as individuals or within our families. The "spirit" of the fast is meant to transcend the "letter" of the fast. We have a If you are new to this and would like some further pastoral directives, please contact me.

LITURGICAL SERVICES — There are services that are unique to Great Lent, meaning that this is the only time in the entire year that we use these particular liturgical services. There are also changes within our established services - usually in the form of specific lenten hymnography and appointed scriptural readings - but I will focus on the full services that characterize lenten worship:

+ The Canon of Repentance by St. Andrew of Crete — This Canon is divided into four parts and served during the first four evenings of Great Lent, and that would be Monday through Thursday, March 11-14 this year. I not only encourage you, but urge everyone to make a real attempt to be present at least on one of these evenings. Beginning Great Lent through this intense and highly personal plea of repentance can "set the tone" for the entire forty days. Each evening, the service will begin at 7:00 p.m. and last a little over an hour. I would also encourage parents to bring their children to this service if and when possible. This is equivalent to planting seeds that will remain with them all through their lives. The atmosphere in the church is quiet, prayerful and focused.

+ The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts — This unique lenten service is celebrated on Wednesday evenings during Great Lent beginning at 6:00 p.m. The one exception is in the first week, when it is reserved for Friday evening so as to allow for all four parts of the Canon mentioned above. With the exception of the Feast of the Annunciation (March 25), the eucharistic consecration is not allowed during the weekdays of Great Lent (the absence of the Bridegroom), but we receive the Eucharist from the gifts "presanctified" - or consecrated - at the previous Sunday Liturgy reserved on the altar table for that purpose. We then receive the eucharistic gifts at this service as the children of Israel ate of the manna in the wilderness to sustain and strengthen them through the wilderness. After the service we break the fast with a pot-luck lenten meal that also allows for some fellowship.

+ The Akathist Hymn to the Theotokos — This service is celebrated on Friday evenings during Great Lent. As with the Canon of Repentance, it is broken up into four parts and then sung and chanted in its entirety on the Fifth Friday of Great Lent. It is the masterpiece of Byzantine hymnography dedicated to praising the Theotokos in an endless variety of titles and images. Though never that well-attended, you may want to consider "something different/new" by way of expanding your lenten experience.

CONFESSION OF SINS — Confession is a major part of our "lenten effort," and for many this is the only time of year that some will participate in sacramental confession. That is not a good practice, but at least a recognition of the importance of Great Lent and one's need to confess. Perhaps my greatest pastoral challenge during Great Lent is to "work in" all of these confessions in forty days. Without doing the math, that must be at least one hundred and fifty or more when including age-appropriate children together with adults. That is why I reserve the hours between 9:00 a.m - Noon every Saturday during Great Lent, to be in the church to hear confessions. This is a good time to schedule an appointment for Confession, especially for families with children/young adults. Otherwise, there is before or after Great Vespers on Saturday, or any other time during the week if you let me know ahead of time. For those of you who come to church but do not participate in the Sacraments of Confession and Communion, here is a "golden opportunity" to renew your life in the Church.

ORTHODOX LITERATURE — Everyone who is literate should read a good piece of Orthodox literature during Great Lent together with reading the Holy Scriptures. And during Great Lent I would stress Orthodox literature. We are responsible to know our Faith as well as possible. As we pray, give alms, and fast, expanding our knowledge of our shared Orthodox Faith is a "good thing." The choices of good books are virtually limitless these days. If you would like some suggestions about a good book, please feel free to ask me. We now have our parish bookstore reopened, and our parish library has an excellent choice of books. An excellent choice that I spent a few minutes promoting last Sunday during the post-Liturgy discussion is Peter Bouteneff's How to be a Sinner. This would make good lenten reading as Dr. Bouteneff explores what it means to self-identify as a "sinner." As he wrote in The Introduction: "The thesis of this short book is that there are realistic, useful, and healthy ways to understand ourselves within the dynamic of sin - just as there are also destructive and unhelpful ways. The goal is to help us find and walk a well-directed path through critical self-reflection, in freedom, joy and divine grace, and mercy." The book basically unpacks that thesis in a very accessible and helpful manner. Highly recommended!

A very rich Season indeed!

The Fifth Week of Lent: 'Summary and Fulfillment'

Dear Parish Faithful,

Beginning today, we have a very full series of lenten liturgical services in the church for the remainder of the week.  Here is the schedule with some explanatory words that may inspire you further to "take Lent seriously" and come to church to worship and pray:

Wednesday at 6:00 p.m.
Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts

"The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is one of the great masterpieces of Orthodox piety and liturgical creativity. It reveals in its form and content the central Christian doctrine and experience, namely that our entire life must be spent in prayer and fasting in order that we might enter into communion with Christ who comes at the end as a 'thief in the night'.

"It tells us that all of our life, and not only the time of Great Lent, or one day of the Fast, is completed  with the Presence of the Victorious Christ who is risen from the dead. 

"It witnesses to the fact that Christ will come at the end of the ages to judge the living and the dead and to establish God's Kingdom 'of which there will be no end'. It tells us that we must be ready at His coming, found watching and serving, in order to be worthy to 'enter into the joy of the Lord'."

- Fr. Thomas Hopko

Thursday at 7:00 p.m.
The Canon of St. Andrew of Crete,
and The Life of St. Mary of Egypt

"If at the beginning of Lent this Canon was like a door leading us into repentance, now at the end of Lent it sounds like a 'summary' of repentance and its fulfillment.  If at the beginning we merely listened to it, now hopefully its words have become our words, our lamentation, our hope and repentance, and also an evaluation of our lenten effort:  how much of all of this has truly been made ours?  How far have we come along the path of this repentance?" 

- Fr. Alexander Schmemann

"The Life of St. Mary of  Egypt is read, so that the intellect and will of the believer may be detached from love of the world and, following in the footsteps of the saint, may be guided into the heart of the desert, into the heart of the mystery of repentance."

- Panagiotis Nellas

Friday at 7:00 p.m.
The Akathist Hymn to the Theotokos

"Theologically, poetically, and musically, one of the most profound and beautiful compositions bequeathed to us by Byzantium's sacred hymnographers is the Akathist Hymn to the Most Holy Theotokos. In this unparalleled  composition, Orthodox Christianity bears eloquent witness to its unshaken belief in the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God, and the Church's devotion to the 'Virgin who conceived and bore a Son'."

- Holy Transfiguration Monastery

The Presanctified Liturgy: "A Day in Our Life," and "Our Life in One Day"

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

GREAT LENT: The Eleventh Day

If we look inside our hearts
and find there even a trace of animosity toward others
for the wrongs they have done to us,
then we should realize that we are still far removed
from the love of God.
The love of God absolutely precludes us
from hating any human being.

~ St. Maximus the Confessor

_____

Yesterday evening, we served the Liturgy of the Presanctifed Gifts for this second week of Great Lent. I believe that it was Fr. Thomas Hopko who said that this is one of the true "masterpieces" of the Byzantine liturgical tradition. After a long, hard day of work - combined with fasting - we enter into the presence of our Lord within the stillness and solemnity of this superb lenten service. Into the darkened church Christ will come as the "Gladsome Light" that "illuminates all." We are all tired, hungry and humbled by our weakness. Thus we learn of our great dependency on God - for truly "man does not live by bread alone." We offer the day back to God, with its sorrows and joys; its successes and failures. And God does not disappoint us, for at the end of the service we will receive the very Body and Blood of Christ from the presanctified Gifts that were prepared for this moment. This is the manna that sustains us through the "desert" of the Fast. This is the "Bread from heaven" which is Christ Himself. Now we are strengthened in order to "complete the course of the Fast." What an incomparably blessed way to end the day! Yet another gift from God. Many will stay for the "agape" meal to follow; others will have to leave. Either way, we then return to our homes - still tired! - but no longer hungry because our hunger was fulfilled by receiving the Eucharist. At the end of the day there is Christ - and that is everything.

Perhaps we can understand this day of the Presanctified Liturgy as a microcosm of our entire lives. At the end of our lives, we hope to encounter the glorious Light of the presence of Christ. We hope to enter the Kingdom of Light where the Holy Trinity dwells in inexpressible glory. That will be the unending Banquet of Life where are fellowship with God will be our fellowship with each other. Our entire life is a preparation for that encounter. It means a life spent in prayer and fasting; in following the commandments of Christ amidst all of the temptations and tests that life presents before us. There are sorrows and joys; successes and failures. And we will offer all of this back to Christ Who will "judge" it. Thus, we are "rehearsing" our greatest hope as Christians when we experience Christ in this particular service at the close of the day. It makes for a long, perhaps even exhausting day; but that is how life is often.

When you choose to attend and then prepare for the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, you are anticipating your deepest desire for how you want your life to end - in union with Christ. One of the many gifts that Great Lent brings to us.

Fr. Steven