LENT EXPLANATION Holy Wisdom 2009 first draft. Holy Wisdom, 2010, Rev 2014 for Web & Catechetical use

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1 LENT EXPLANATION Holy Wisdom 2009 first draft. Holy Wisdom, 2010, Rev 2014 for Web & Catechetical use Many people look at The Great Lent as consisting of a bunch of negatives We can t do this, we can t do that. Fasting, long church services, no dancing, no celebrations, limited parties, no weddings, giving things up, and so on and on. What does this tell us? What? It tells us that we need refreshment regarding The Great Lent so that we understand that there IS something else in Lent. This something, that if not understood and brought into our mind the Lenten prescriptions and rules lose their meaning. This something else that is there is atmosphere. A climate into which we must enter in order to have a meaningful Lent. I will try to explain this to you in a nutshell, if that is possible. But first I want to emphasize that the purpose Great Lent is not to attempt to force us to comply with a bunch of negative rules and regulations! NO! It is not to attempt to force us to comply with a bunch of negative rules and regulations! Its purpose is to give us a break from out daily routine and focus on improving our relationship with God. This Lenten atmosphere, this state of mind which the Fathers called a bright sadness is brought about by the various changes to which we are introduced in our liturgical lives and worship. We can t take them separately or individually. To understand the Church s Lenten mind, we must get into Great Lent in its completeness. Get into this period of Bright Sadness, this atmosphere, and experience the true gift ofgreat Lent. I ll say that again We must get into this period of Bright Sadness, this atmosphere and experience the true gift. Let s begin with the Presanctified Liturgy. Why do we serve it instead of the Divine Liturgy during Lent? The Presanctified Liturgy speaks directly to Lent, our understanding of Eucharist and the celebration of the Cosmic Banquet. The Cosmic Banquet is that continuous celebration of the Divine Liturgy that goes on eternally in heaven. It is by far the greatest celebration in the Church! Let me say that again. It is by far the greatest celebration in the Church! In this period of time in which The Great Lent appears, we have weekdays Monday thru Friday, then are the Sabbath (Saturday) and then Sunday, which always commemorates Christ s Resurrection the day of RECREATION. The Sabbath (Saturday) and Sunday are always Eucharistic days in which we celebrate the Divine Liturgy. It is a much too joyful of a celebration to be conducted during the weekdays

2 that are the more subdued, reflective and repentive days of bright sadness. The Divine Liturgy is simply too joyful for us to do when we are fasting. In Matthew 9:15, Christ tells us: You cannot fast while the Bridegroom is with you. Christ is the Bridegroom of the Church. That is why Saturdays and Sundays that fall in the time period of the Great Lent are outside of the Lenten period. That s because the Bridegroom is with us in the Divine Liturgy we celebrate on these days. We do not fast, and particularly, refrain from the Divine Liturgy. God the Father created the world in 6 days and He rested on the seventh and directed that we keep it Holy. This is the Sabbath. The Book of Genesis tells us that Adam and Eve were disobedient and the world fell. Christ was then born by Mary, was crucified, and was resurrected on the eight day the day of Recreation. That is why these two days, Saturday and Sunday are always joyful and fasting does not fit into their atmosphere. The week days in Great Lent are something else. They are called aliturgical days, days on which we do not celebrate the Divine Liturgy. Why? Because it is the greatest celebration of the Church and it would then break our fast and that more somber, bright sadness atmosphere of Great Lent But, BUT!, the Church knows that the Eucharist is necessary for us to sustain the metanioa, the spiritual warfare we are undergoing in the Great Lent, to bring ourselves into more perfect communion with Christ. Essentially, Holy Communion is both the source and the beginning of our spiritual effort our spiritual warfare with the devil. Communion sustains us in our spiritual fight. After all, the devil has not given up on us and continues to work steadily to corrupt our Lenten efforts and bring us to spiritual ruin. Always keeping our welfare in mind, the church then provides us with a mid-week communion service the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts to sustain us with the essential food of Christ s Body and Blood as we continue our spiritual fight. It is truly Manna from Heaven. To recap: There is no celebration of the Divine Liturgy on fasting days because the celebration is one continuous celebration and movement of joy. However, the Eucharist is reserved from the previous Sunday specifically for us to give us strength in the Presanctified Liturgy at mid-week. We need this strength to sustain us and give us victory in our spiritual fight with the Prince of Evil the devil. This is why we serve the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. Lets now summarize briefly what we have said. Aliturgical days are days without the Divine Liturgy) The Great Fast is a period of bright sadness. In keeping with this penitential season, we stay away from celebratory experiences. The Divine Liturgy is a joyful celebration which does not fit this attitudinal tradition. Consequently, the Divine Liturgy is reserved for the Sabbath (Saturday) and The Day of Resurrection (Sunday). However the Church knows the value of the Eucharist to strengthen the

3 faithful and sustain them through the Fast. Therefore, a more penitential, subdued service of the Eucharist for the people is used. This service is the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts and it is served during mid-week, weekdays of the Fast (Monday through Friday). It has been in use since around the fifth century and is reported to be a favorite of Saint Gregory Dialogos the Pope of Rome who is reputed to have documented its use for the first time. Lets move on with our discussion of the Great Lent. Saint Ephrem the Syrian who lived alone in a desert-life filled with prayer, reputedly died in 373, gives us the following prayer which is highly popular during Lenten periods and can be called the Lenten Prayer of our Church. PRAYER OF SAINT EPHREM O Lord and Master of my life, drive from me the spirit of indifference, despair, lust for power and idle chatter. Instead, bestow on me, Your servant, the spirit of integrity, humility, patience and love. Yes, O Lord and King, let me see my own sins And not judge my brothers and sisters, For You are blessed for ever and ever, Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ! As you can tell, it is focused on the individual and is the solitary prayer of the praying soul and its relationship with God, the Father. Should we, the penitent, be so fortunate and adopt it for ourselves, follow it, and pray it honestly, we would, in the writer s opinion, understand the purpose of our Lenten period and have a successful Great Lent. In the American Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the faithful begin Great Lent on the Monday after Forgiveness Sunday, which is the Sunday belore Ash Wednesday on the Roman Catholic Liturgical Calendar. This Sunday is also referred to as Cheesefare Sunday. This first Lenten Day, Monday, is a day of strict fast when we do not eat Meat or Dairy products and we focus on what Great Lent means to us. The period of bright sadness begins in our hearts as we focus on our relationship with God and the Trinity and come to the resolve to develop the desire to repent of our sins if we have not already done so. At mid week, we now can participate in the evening service of the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts which has been reserved for the Presanctified Liturgy (as many

4 refer to it). If you haven t done so recently, confession is usually available or if you prefer, you may make an appointment to do so with your confessor or parish priest or any priest. The first weekend of Great Lent and Sunday is here. The First Sunday of Great Lent typically begins with a procession of icons to celebrate the restoration of the orthodoxy of venerating icons. This was decreed orthodox at the Seventh Ecumenical Conference, the 2 nd at Nicea as lawful for the faithful to venerate icons and use them. For a few hundred years before that time, their veneration and use was prohibited and disallowed. The Second Sunday of Great Lent commemorates St. Gregory Palamas who was proclaimed a Saint in 1368 thereby clearing away all the heterodox accusations of his enemies. After the proclamation of sainthood, the second Sunday was proclaimed as a triumph of orthodoxy in his honor and a vindication of his teachings. He was a leading proponent of Theosis which has as its theme Christ became a man so that man could become like God. This theme, is highly supported by the Church and encouraged. At the mid-point of the Great Fast, we celebrate the Veneration of the Life Giving Cross. Much in the same manner as we do when we celebrate the Exaltation of the Cross we celebrate the Cross by Venerating the Cross and mark the mid-point in our Lenten Journey. After all, the Road to Pascha has been marked as a journey the road is marked as we have made it half way through the Fast. We have dodged the devil and all the potholes that he has placed for us to stumble upon. At this point we are on the down-hill slope. The Fourth Sunday of the Great Fast, we honor Saint John of the Ladder. He was a monk who sometimes is referred to a St. John Climacus (of the Ladder) and was the Abbott of Saint Katherine s Monastery in the Sinai Desert. St. Helen, the mother of Constantine the Great, funded the building of the monastery s church in the Fifth Century which remains to this day as the oldest Christian Church in continuous operation in the world. It s collection of icon collection is spectacular and boasts some of the finest and largest collection of icons that predate the Iconoclasm (breaking Icons). The Monastery s library is likewise very fine and is second in size to only the collection at the Vatican. Saint John Climacus headed the Monastery of St. Katherine in the Sinai at the end of the Fourth and beginnings of the Fifth Centuries. He is the author of The Heavenly Ladder. It describes the process of achieving or losing personal salvation in the course of one s life by depicting the rungs on a ladder one for each of the years of Christ s life. The treatise is one of the jewels of orthodox Christianity. The Fifth Sunday of Great Lent, is the last Sunday of Great Lent. It is dedicated to Saint Mary of Egypt. Mary was a woman of poor reputation for many years before she was converted to the Orthodox-Catholic faith at the door of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. From that point on, she led a pious and holy life of repentance. She is held as an example of what is possible for a person to accomplish if they wish to

5 expend the effort to accomplish it. The Canon of St. Mary is served during the week as we approach Christ s Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem. The Forty Day Great Fast is now ended, we have both Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday as a brief break in our experience and now it is time to begin on Holy Monday, the Passion Week which will have the recurrence of The Resurrection of Christ on Pascha. But first, we must endure and commemorate Holy Passion Week. The first three days of this week are preparation days of which the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is served to help fill our hearts with the Love of Christ that is reserved for Eucharist. On Wednesday, many churches will offer a service of anointing just prior to the Vesper Liturgy of St. Basil the Great on Holy Thursday. That same day, Holy Thursday, the Twelve Passion Gospels will be proclaimed in the evening. Then on Good and Holy Friday The holy hours may be served and the Vespers of the Descent from the Holy Cross will be served in the evening. The Church is set-up to represent a flower bedecked tomb, and the Body of Christ will be taken from the Holy Cross, carried in procession and placed in the tomb as the people sing hymns to honor Christ. All then in the Church come up to venerate body of Christ portrayed on the Shroud (Pashchanytsya). Some will remain in the Church and pray before the Tomb and contemplate what has happened. Christ, the Creator of us all, has been put to death by the creature he has created! We now await His resurrection on Easter Sunday The Great, Holy and Joyful Pasch. Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!