| It is that time of year again, and the internet is filling up with homilies and musings on the theme of Great Lent. It seems that every year the messages are the same: be kind, pray more, fast more–and, by the way, here are a few Lenten recipes to die for. On the one hand, the repetitions are understandable. First, what more can be said that has not already been said over the centuries? Any modern writer who wishes to write about Lent inevitably has to take into account the very same writings of the very same great saints that every other writer has been reading and quoting for a millennium. Of course, there are some occasional extravagant takes on the issue of Lent. One priest posted an opinion, not altogether unfounded, on a reputable web resource that goes roughly as follows: “Lent is not about food. If you want yogurt, eat your yogurt. If you want a beef cutlet, eat your beef cutlet. Just don’t devour your neighbor.” While I think I understand what he meant by this piece of advice, and much can be said about setting proper priorities when allocating our limited will-power resources or about the futility of a diet without a proper spiritual disposition, it seems that in the modern world of bite-sized attention spans, this approach to fasting misses the very point of this ascetic discipline, turns Great Lent into an amateur self-help anger-management exercise, strangely equates eating meat with “devouring” neighbors–if I think I was a little less angry at my neighbor, does that mean I do not have to fast during Great Lent?–and essentially makes Lent meaningless. Indeed, I should not “devour” my neighbor any day of the year. So, if I practice that–however I may define it–I never have to fast, right? And the saints, the ascetics, and the entire monastic tradition of the Church has been completely mistaken in its fasting efforts, right? For the most part, however, modern writers repeat sensible and pious tropes about forgiveness, humility, discipline, and patience, and do recommend that lay people fast–at least as much as they are able. |
| Forgiveness Sunday In the Orthodox Church, the last Sunday before Great Lent – the day on which, at Vespers, Lent is liturgically announced and inaugurated – is called Forgiveness Sunday. On the morning of that Sunday, at the Divine Liturgy, we hear the words of Christ: " If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses... " (Mark 6:14-15) Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann 13 March 2005 In the Orthodox Church, the last Sunday before Great Lent – the day on which, at Vespers, Lent is liturgically announced and inaugurated – is called Forgiveness Sunday. On the morning of that Sunday, at the Divine Liturgy, we hear the words of Christ: “If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses…” (Mark 6:14-15) Then after Vespers – after hearing the announcement of Lent in the Great Prokeimenon: “Turn not away Thy face from Thy child for I am afflicted! Hear me speedily! Draw near unto my soul and deliver it!”, after making our entrance into Lenten worship, with its special memories, with the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian, with its prostrations – we ask forgiveness from each other, we perform the rite of forgiveness and reconciliation. And as we approach each other with words of reconciliation, the choir intones the Paschal hymns, filling the church with the anticipation of Paschal joy. What is the meaning of this rite? Why is it that the Church wants us to begin Lenten season with forgiveness and reconciliation? These questions are in order because 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: |
| The First Sunday of Lent: The Sunday of Orthodoxy Introduction The Sunday of Orthodoxy is the first Sunday of Great Lent. The dominant theme of this Sunday since 843 has been that of the victory of the icons. In that year the iconoclastic controversy, which had raged on and off since 726, was finally laid to rest, and icons and their veneration were restored on the first Sunday in Lent. Ever since, this Sunday has been commemorated as the " Triumph of Orthodoxy. " Historical Background Icon of the The Sunday of Orthodoxy used with permission and provided by: ΕΚΔΟΣΗ και ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΥ , ΓΑΛΑΚΤΙΩΝΟΣ ΓΚΑΜΙΛΗ ΤΗΛ. 4971 882, ΕΚΤΥΠΟΣΗ Μ. ΤΟΥΜΠΗΣ Α.Ε.,http://www.toubis.gr The Seventh Ecumenical Council dealt predominantly with the controversy regarding icons and their place in Orthodox worship. It was convened in Nicaea in 787 by Empress Irene at the request of Tarasios, Patriarch of Constantinople. The Council was attended by 367 bishops. Almost a century before this, the iconoclastic controversy had once more shaken the foundations of both Church and State in the Byzantine empire. Excessive religious respect and the ascribed miracles to icons by some members of society, approached the point of worship (due only to God) and idolatry. This instigated excesses at the other extreme by which icons were completely taken out of the liturgical life of the Church by the Iconoclasts. The Iconophiles, on the other-hand, believed that icons served to preserve the doctrinal teachings of the Church; they considered icons to be man's dynamic way of expressing the divine through art and beauty. The Council decided on a doctrine by which icons should be venerated but not worshipped. In answering the Empress' invitation to the Council, Pope Hadrian replied with a letter in which he also held the position of extending veneration to icons but not worship, the last befitting only God. The decree of the Council for restoring icons to churches added an important clause which still stands at the foundation of the rationale for using and venerating icons in the Orthodox Church to this very day: " We define that the holy icons, whether in colour, mosaic, or some other material, should be exhibited in the holy churches of God, on the sacred vessels and liturgical vestments, on the walls, furnishings, and in houses and along the roads, namely the icons of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ, that of our Lady the Theotokos, those of the venerable angels and those of all saintly people. |
| Elder Cleopa on the Eight Sources of Temptation On the second Sunday of Great Lent,the Orthodox Church celebrates the memory of St. Gregory Palamas, Archbishop ofThessalonica, the great defender of hesychasm. In order to demonstrate that thespiritual experience so beautifully described by St. Gregory Palamas continuesto live to this day within the Orthodox Church, we offer the following accountof a spiritual instruction offered by an outstanding contemporary hesychast, Elder Cleopa (Ilie) (1912-1998) of Sihastria Monastery in Romania. On the second Sunday of Great Lent, the Orthodox Church celebrates the memory of St. Gregory Palamas , Archbishop of Thessalonica, the great defender of hesychasm . In order to demonstrate that the spiritual experience so beautifully described by St. Gregory Palamas continues to live to this day within the Orthodox Church, we offer the following account of a spiritual instruction offered by an outstanding contemporary hesychast, Elder Cleopa (Ilie) (1912-1998) of Sihastria Monastery in Romania. What follows is an excerpt from an article written by His Grace, Atanasije (Jevtic) , Retired Bishop of Zahumlje and Herzegovina (Serbian Orthodox Church), entitled “Teachings of the Blessed Elder Cleopa.” In it, Bishop Atanasije describes a pilgrimage he undertook in 1976 with a fellow disciple of St. Justin Popovich , Metropolitan Amfilohije (Radovic) of Montenegro and the Littoral – both bishops were then hieromonks – to visit Elder Cleopa. Following a detailed history of the practice of hesychasm in Romania, His Grace relates how, sitting on a hill overlooking the fruit orchard, with Elder Cleopa kneeling before them, he asked the Elder how to live in this world while struggling with one’s passions and the temptations of the world. This is the reply the Elder offered him, as related by Bishop Atanasije: Teaching on the Eight Means of Temptation and the Struggle Against Them The Holy Fathers say (this is how Fr. Cleopa began to express concisely his spiritual experience to us, inherited from the Holy Fathers and personally experienced by him, as every one of his words clearly confirms) that on the path of salvation one is tempted by the devil from eight sides: from the front, from behind, from the left, from the right, from above, from below, from inside, and from the outside. |
| Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen! After going through a long and arduous journey through Great Lent, we are often so exhausted and tired from the grind of the spiritual boot camp that we had just been through, that we forget (or do not pay as much attention to) the 40-day celebration and reward for our efforts! Just as we had Sundays during Lent, where we were inspired by figures like St. Gregory Palamas, and St. Mary of Egypt, we have these same celebratory Sundays which always follow Great and Holy Pascha! Today, we have the Church’s version of “Mother’s Day”, as we learn from the incredible example of the Myrrh bearing Women. This is the Sunday where the Church shouts from the rooftops after experiencing the Resurrection, what it means to have “Christian Courage” in life. St. Mary Magdalene our Patroness, the Theotokos, Joanna, Salome, Mary the wife of Cleopas, Susanna, Mary and Martha of Bethany…unlike Joseph of Arimathea who we also commemorate today, there was no “secret discipleship” for them! They publically cared for Christ, they cared for the disciples, and they all had a deep devotion to our Lord. And when the hard times came, when Christ ran into trouble with the civil authorities…these women didn’t abandon Christ. Even when his closest friends abandoned Him, denied Him, betrayed Him, and left Him alone to suffer and die…the Myrrh Bearers stayed by His side. Their love for Christ was so great. Their devotion was unmatched, and their desire to remain in contact with Him remained so strong…that not even the power of the Roman empire, the soldiers, nor the Jewish leaders, could intimidate them. Brothers and Sisters in Christ, it takes courage to love like this. This is something that is desperately lacking in each and every one of our lives today. To have Christian courage means to be able to walk through life with COMPLETE CONFIDENCE in Who Christ is and what He has done for us. This is what those Myrrh bearing women did! They walked through the dangers of the world with perfect freedom! They were afraid of no one! They were intimidated by no one! There was no place that they could not go, and there was nothing that they could not do! |
| John Anthony McGuckin Calendar JOHN A. MCGUCKIN The calendar, in Orthodox usage, signifies the manner in which the yearly cycle of liturgical feasts is arranged in the church. From the very beginnings of the Christian Church there was a marked desire among believers to celebrate liturgically that central moment of salvation history: the monumental events surrounding the Lord’s death and resurrection, the great Paschal Mystery which included his cross and his glory as one. Liturgically separated out, so as to provide pause and meditative space for the faithful to “ponder these things” ( Lk. 2.19 ), the Paschal Mystery itself refuses to be divided up by aspect or human chronology. It is one living reality, not a series of disparate events. So, to that extent, it is impossible to set apart the Lord’s ministry from his sufferings, for they make a seamless weave. It is impossible to separate Great Friday from Pascha Sunday, or to divide out the mystery of Ascension and Pentecost. It is only a time-bounded chronological mindset that sets them in different chronological sequences. In God’s work of salvation it is not Chronos (time sequence) that matters but Kairos (the timeless moment of the opportunity of Grace). Pentecost and Pascha are not just things of the past, they are things of the present moment of God’s glory, and of the church’s future hope – its eschatological reality. The calendar, therefore, is a meditative aid to realize the complexity of the eschatological Kairos which the church senses as profound Mystery of Christ. It is not meant to be a ground plan, objectively real and definitive, as much as a cycle of recurring and elliptical reflections on the central mystery of the Word’s redemption of his people. Liturgically, the calendar revolves around Pascha. The Paschal cycle begins four weeks before Lent opens, with the Sunday of the Prodigal Son (announcing the overarching theme of repentance). Prior to Pascha come the Sundays of Great Lent, each with their own theme and motif, announced in the gospel of the day as well as in certain “saints of repentance” who are commemorated (Mary of Egypt, for example, or John of the Ladder), and also the Entry to Jerusalem. |
| On the second Sunday of Great Lent, there is a great feast in the blessed city of Thessalonika, Greece. It is the feast of St. Gregory Palamas. On this day, the holy relics of the saint are taken from the Church of St. Gregory in a procession throughout the city, escorted by bishops, priests, sailors, policemen, and thousands of faithful. One wonders why his earthly remains are still held in such great veneration. How could his bones remain incorruptible more than six hundred years after his death? Indeed, St. Gregory’s life clearly explains these wondrous facts. It illustrates the inspired words of the apostles that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 6:19) and that we are " partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). A Childhood Passion for the Eternal St. Gregory Palamas was born in the year 1296. He grew up in Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) in a critical time of political and religious unrest. Constantinople was slowly recovering from the devastating invasion of the Crusades. It was a city under attack from all sides. From the west, it was infiltrated by Western philosophies of rationalism and scholasticism and by many attempts at Latinization. From the east, it was threatened by Muslim Turkish military invaders. The peace and faith of its citizens were at stake. Gregory’s family was wealthy. His father was a member of the senate. Upon his father’s sudden death, Byzantine Emperor Andronikos II Paleologos (1282–1328), who was a close friend of the family, gave it his full financial support. He especially admired Gregory for his fine abilities and talents, hoping that the brilliant young man would one day become a fine assistant. However, instead of accepting a high office in the secular world, Gregory sought “that good part, which will not be taken away” from him (Luke 10:42). Upon finishing his studies in Greek philosophy, rhetoric, poetry, and grammar, Gregory, at only twenty or twenty-two years of age, followed a burning passion in his heart. Like a lover who strives to stay alone forever with his loved one, Gregory was thirsty for this living water (see Revelation 22:17). Therefore, no created thing could separate him from the love of God (see Romans 8:39). He simply withdrew to Mount Athos, an already established community of monasticism. He first stayed at the Vatopedi Monastery, and then moved to the Great Lavra. |
| Because if it’s in the mind it’s also in the heart. An interview on prayer Standing in the doorway before the Great Lent, we search for some guidance, for some way to start this thorny and blessed journey with Christ. A way to seek him and words to show us the way. Elder Dionysius (Ignat) of the St. George Kellion (Mt. Athos, Greece) answers questions of the most important kind (about prayer) during Lent. Humble-Mindedness : The Doorway to Pure Prayer Over the past ten years it has become a common occurrence for pilgrims on Mount Athos to make the one-hour trek from Vatopedi Monastery to the Kellion of St. George. The long and dusty uphill trail passes by monastery fields and within sight of the place where St. Gregory Palamas labored. After several steep ascents, the trail branches off onto a winding path that cuts across the verdant mountainside. In springtime, the thick foliage threatens to choke the passageway, while a myriad of wildflowers paints a dazzling landscape—a fitting offering to the mountain’s protectress, the Theotokos. Proceeding past the ruins of centuries-old monastic dwellings, the pilgrim arrives at a terraced plot of land overlooking the Aegean Sea. There, amidst well-tended gardens and enclosed by a rustic, tree-limb railing, stand a few whitewashed stone buildings adorned with blue trim: the Kellion of St. George. Outside, sitting on benches, one would find a few pilgrims waiting in hope of receiving a few profitable words from the humble Elder, Hieroschemamonk Dionysius (Ignat). Four years ago in these pages we presented the life story of Elder Dionysius in a three-part article on the Elders of Kolitsou Skete, a Romanian dependency of Vatopedi Monastery, Mount Athos, Greece. On April 28/May 11, 2004, this righteous Romanian Elder reposed in the Lord after a long, God-pleasing life of ninety-five years. Elder Dionysius had been a monk for eighty-two years, seventy-seven of which were spent on Mount Athos, and sixty-six of which were spent in the same kellion. He was a wonderful, loving monk and spiritual father, well known by his fellow Athonite monks but largely unknown to those outside the Holy Mountain until the last fifteen years or so. |
| Patriarch Kirill Congratulates Metropolitan Hilarion on the 10th Anniversary of His Service as DECR Chairman Source: DECR Photo: mospat.ru On March 31, 2019, the 3d week of the Great Lent, the Sunday of the Adoration of the Cross, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations (DECR), celebrated the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great at the Moscow church of Our Lady the Joy to All the Afflicted-in-Bolshaya-Ordynka. The day marked the 10 th anniversary since Metropolitan Hilarion was appointed as head of the DECR. The archpastor was assisted by Metropolitan Niphon of Philippople, representative of the Patriarch of Antioch and All the East; Bishop Dionisiy of Voskresensk, first deputy chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchate; Archpriest Nikolay Balashov and Archimandrite Philaret (Bulekov), DECR vice-chairmen; Archimandrite Seraphim (Shemaytovsky), representative of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands of Slovakia; Hegumen Arseny (Sokolov), representative of the Patriarch of Moscow to the Patriarch of Antioch; and other church officials and staff members of the DECR in holy orders. After the Prayer of Fervent Supplication, His Eminence Hilarion lifted up a prayer for peace in Ukraine. After the service, the worshippers venerated the cross taken out to the center of the church. Bishop Dionisiy read out Patriarch Kirill’s message of congratulations to Metropolitan Hilarion: ‘The Most Rev. HILARION Metropolitan of Volokolamsk Chairman Department for External Church Relations Your Eminence, Ten years have passed since by the Holy Synod decision you were appointed as head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate. I would like to thank you cordially for the help you and your co-workers give me in my hard Primatial ministry. I highly appreciate the contribution made by your synodal department to bearing witness to Christ before the world, to the beauty and truth of the Orthodox faith. |
| This Great Lent let us be thankful as we serve joyfully without complaint. Jesus’ visit to the home of Martha and Mary in Bethany teaches us a great deal about joyful service and the power of our thoughts, whether positive or negative, to shape our day. In this Gospel account, we learn that we can give glory to God in the little things we do for one another. In this encounter, Jesus invites Martha to renew her mind (Ephesians 4:23-24), taxed with negative thinking, and illuminate her thoughts with the thought of Him by rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks to God for the opportunity to serve her Lord. Martha felt alone, unheard, and unappreciated. She was distracted with much serving and was worried and troubled about many things while her sister Mary sat at Christ’s feet and heard His word. Martha cried out to the Lord for help. The Gospel tells us that Martha approached Jesus and asked Him if He didn’t care that her sister had left her alone to serve. She begged Jesus to tell Mary to get up from His feet and help her. Jesus answered, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:41-42) What is this better part Mary chose? Was it wrong for Martha to be focused on completing her household responsibilities while Jesus was visiting? What do these two sisters and their encounter with Christ teach us? Jesus said that He came to serve and not to be served. (Matthew 20:28) Therefore, the wrong Martha committed could not have been with serving as such. Rather, as Martha was setting the table, pouring the water, mending the food, sweeping the floor, and welcoming guests- all beautiful and necessary things by the way- her mind was worried and her heart was troubled. Mary chose the better part because she was present to Christ, but Martha could have chosen the best part by being present to Christ whilst seeing her tasks as her divine calling and sacred service. |
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