GREAT LENT A SCHOOL OF REPENTANCE

CONTENTS


GREAT LENT 5
The Time of Repentance

SUNDAYS OF PREPARATION 7

LENTEN WORSHIP 13

HOW CAN WE KEEP GREAT LENT? 23




GREAT LENT

THE TIME OF REPENTANCE

"Brethren, while fasting bodily, let us also fast spiritually;
let us loosen every bond of injustice; let us destroy the strong
fetters of violence; let us tear up every unjust writing; let us
give bread to the hungry and let us welcome the homeless poor to
our houses, that from Christ our God we may receive the great mercy."

(=Stichira, Wednesday of the First Week=)


We are approaching again the Great Lent--the time of repentance, the
time of our reconciliation with God. Repentance is the beginning and
also the condition of a truly Christian life. "Repent!" was the first
word of Christ when He began to preach (Matt. 4:17). But =what is
repentance=? In the daily rush of our life we have no time to think
about it, we simply take it for granted that we must go to confession,
receive absolution, and then forget all about it until next year. Yet
there must be a reason why our Church has set apart seven weeks as a
special time of repentance and calls each Orthodox Christian to a
special spiritual effort. And this reason must obviously concern
=me=, =my= life, =my= faith, =my= membership in the Church. I must try to
understand it, to follow as much as I can the teachings of my Church, be
Orthodox not only by name, but in life itself. What then is repentance?
Great Lent gives the answer to this question. It is indeed a =school
of repentance=, to which each Christian must go every year in order
to refresh the understanding of his faith. It is a wonderful pilgrimage
to the very sources of Orthodoxy, a rediscovery of a truly Orthodox way
of life. Let us try to make these forty days as meaningful, as deep, and
as rich, as possible.

In this brief explanation of Lent we shall deal with:

--the preparation for Great Lent,

--the Lenten worship of the Orthodox Church,

--the Orthodox teaching on fasting, prayer and other spiritual
efforts prescribed during Lent.




SUNDAYS OF PREPARATION


Three weeks before Lent proper begins we enter into a period of
=pre-Lenten= preparation. It is a constant feature of the Orthodox
tradition of worship that every major liturgical event--(Christmas,
Easter, Lent)--is announced and prepared in advance. Knowing our lack
of concentration, the "worldliness" of our life, the Church calls our
attention to the seriousness of the approaching event, invites us to
meditate on its significance. Thus, before we can =practice= Lent, we
are given its meaning.

This preparation includes four consecutive Sundays preceding Lent, each
one of them dedicated to some fundamental aspect of repentance.


1. Humility

(Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee)

On the eve of this day (i.e. on Saturday at Vespers) the liturgical book
of the Lenten season--the =Triodion= makes its first appearance and texts
from it are added to the usual liturgical material of the weekly
Resurrection service. They develop the first major theme of repentance:
=humility=.

The Gospel lesson (Luke 18:10-14) teaches us that humility is the
condition of repentance. The parable of the Publican and Pharisee
pictures a man who is always pleased with himself and who thinks that he
complies with all the requirements of religion. He is proud of himself
and self-assured. In reality, however, he has falsified the meaning of
religion. He has reduced it to external observations and he measures his
piety by the amount of money he gives to the temple. Religion is for him
a source of self-admiration. The Publican humbles himself and humility
justifies him before God.

"Let us avoid the high-flown speech of the Pharisee"--says the Kontakion
of the day--"and learn the majesty of the Publican's humble words."