My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
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THE FIRST WEEK OF GREAT AND HOLY LENT: MONDAY TO FRIDAY
At Compline (Apodeipnos) on the first four days of Holy Lent, the Great Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete is read, divided into four sections; on Thursday in the Fifth Week, it will be read again, this time in continuous form. With its constant refrain, 'Have mercy upon me, O God, have mercy upon me', the Great Canon forms a prolonged confession of sin, an unremitting call to repentance. At the same time, it is a meditation on the whole body of Holy Scripture, embracing all the sinners and all the righteous from the creation of the world to the second coming Christ. Here, more than anywhere else in the Triodion, we experience Lent as a reaffirmation of our 'Biblical roots'. Throughout the Great Canon the two levels, the historical and personal, are skillfully interwoven. 'The events of the Sacred History are revealed as events of my life; God's acts in the past as acts aimed at me and my salvation, the tragedy of sin and betrayal as my personal tragedy.' The appeal of the Great Canon is very wide.
The Monday that follows Cheese-fare Sunday is the first day of Great and Holy Lent itself. We have now begun on this succession of forty days which prepare us for the time of the Passion and for the time of Pascha. But before going into the details of these weeks of Holy Lent, let us give a little time to the consideration of some of its general characteristics.
The first of these characteristics is, of course, the fast. One cannot ignore or treat the question of fasting from food lightly. The Holy Fathers of the Church and the collective conscience of the faithful Orthodox Christians have discerned clearly the spiritual value - a value which is both penitential and purifying -- of abstention from certain foods. It would, however, be a serious mistake to think that this abstention constituted the only observance necessary to Holy Lent. Bodily fasting must be accompanied by another fast. In the first centuries, the discipline of the Church prescribed conjugal abstinence during Holy Lent; it forbade the participation of feasts and attendance at public festivals. This discipline has perhaps become weakened and is not presented to believers quite as forcefully as in the times of the Holy Fathers. All the same, it remains as a precious indication of the spirit, the intention of the Church. But most surely, this intention is that during Holy Lent we exercise stricter control over our thoughts, our words, and actions, and concentrate our attention on the person of the savior and what He requires of us. Almsgiving (charity) is also one of the forms of Lenten observance that the Holy Fathers of the Church recommended most highly. A fast that is pleasing to god is therefore a 'whole' which cannot be separated into inner and outward aspects; of the two the former are certainly the most important.
Furthermore, the Divine Liturgy which is celebrated on Sundays during Great and Holy Lent is not the Liturgy attributed to Saint John Chrysostom. It is the Divine Liturgy to Saint Basil the Great, Archbishop of Caesaria, in the 4th century. This Divine Liturgy is longer than that of Saint John Chrysostom and the text is sometimes slightly different.
On Wednesday and Friday during Great and Holy Lent, the liturgy called the 'Presanctified' is celebrated, that is to say, the liturgy for which the Holy Gifts have been consecrated in advance. It is not a Eucharistic liturgy in the full sense, as there is no consecration. It is a communion service in which the priests and congregation take Holy Communion with the elements which were consecrated during the previous Liturgy of Saint Basil or Saint John Chrysostom, and which have been preserved since then. The Liturgy of the Presanctified is added on to Vespers. That is why, in principle, it should be celebrated in the evening. It includes certain psalms, certain special biblical readings, and certain prayers borrowed from the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom. The latter is celebrated every Saturday morning.
On Friday evening during Great and Holy Lent the Hymn called the 'akathist' is recited or sung. It is a long poem of praise to the Most Holy Ever-Virgin Mary the Theotokos. It comprises twenty-four stanzas set out in alphabetical order and broken up into our portions. These portions are read one after another -- one each Friday -- during the First Four Fridays of Great and Holy Lent. On the fifth Friday, the Akathist is chanted in its entirety.
Finally -- and perhaps above all -- the admirable prayer of Saint Ephraim the Syrian must be mentioned. In this, neither poetry nor rhetoric plays any part. We are here faced with upsurge of the soul - short, sober, and full of ardor. This prayer, accompanied by prostrations (metanoies), is said for the first time on the evening of the Sunday which immediately precedes Great and Holy Lent (the evening service being counted as already belonging to Monday, the First Day of Lent ). It is repeated during most of the Lenten services, especially in the Liturgy of the Presanctified. The prayer of Saint Ephraim the Syrian is widely known by Orthodox Christian believers; this is it text:
'O Lord and Master of my life, give me not a spirit of sloth, vain curiosity, lust for power, and idle talk. But give to me, Thy servant, a spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love.
O Lord and King, grant me to see my own faults and not to judge my brother; for blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages. Amen.'
The prayer of Saint Ephraim sums up all that is essential in spiritual life. A Christian who used it constantly, who nourished himself from it during Great and Holy Lent, would be at the simplest and best school. Even someone who restricted himself to repeating and meditating on these words. 'Lord and Master of my life', would enter deeply into the reality of the relationship between God and the soul, the soul and its God. (Source: The Year of Grace of the Lord)
(To be continued)
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DIVINE SERVICE THIS EVENING (CLEAN MONDAY [KATHARA DEFTERA] ): THE CANON OF SAINT ANDREW OF CRETE AT 6:30 p.m.
Place of worship: Chapel of Saint Nektarios
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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" - Saint John Chrysostom
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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George