Great Lent: A School of Repentance Part 2

Who are saved by faith and cry out to Thee:

O our Light and our Saviour, glory to Thee."

(=Wednesday Matins, Fourth Week=)

The =Triodion= unfortunately has not yet been translated into English.

Its wonderful riches are still hidden: short three-ode canons (hence the name "Triodion"), kathismata (stanzas sung after the psalms), hymns to the Holy Trinity, etc. Of all the liturgical books it is one of the most inspiring, most directly connected with the spiritual needs of man.

5. The Psalter

The Psalms occupy a very central position in Orthodox worship. But in Lent the use of the psalter is doubled. Normally it is read once every week; during Lent it is read twice. Of course this is done mainly in monasteries, yet it is important to know that the Church considers the psalms to be an essential spiritual food for the Lenten season.

6. The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts

On weekdays of Lent (Monday through Friday) the celebration of the Divine Liturgy is strictly forbidden. They are =non-liturgical days= (with one possible exception, the Feast of Annunciation). The reason for this rule is that the Eucharist is by its very nature a festal celebration, the joyful commemoration of Christ's Resurrection and glorification and His presence among His disciples. But twice a week, on Wednesday and Fridays, the Church prescribes the celebration after Vespers, i.e., in the evening, of the =Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts=. It consists of solemn Great Vespers and communion with the Holy Gifts consecrated on the previous Sunday. These days being days of =strict fasting= (theoretically: complete abstinence), are "crowned" with the partaking of the Bread of life, the ultimate fulfillment of our efforts....

"... When Thou has freed us and Thy faithful people from all impurities, sanctify the souls and bodies of all of us with a sanctification not to be taken away; that with a clear conscience, peaceful presence and enlightened hearts we may partic.i.p.ate in those divine Sacraments, and be quickened through them and become one with Thy Christ Himself, our true G.o.d, Who said: Who so eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood, abides in Me and I in Him. So that by Thy Word dwelling in us and walking with us we may become, O Lord, a temple of Thine all-holy and adored spirit ..."

(=Prayer at the Presanctified Liturgy=)

7. Liturgical Music and Vestments

The spirit of Lent is also expressed in the liturgical music. Special lenten tones and melodies are used for responses at litanies, for the "Alleluias" and the hymns of the Presanctified Liturgy. Slow, deep and solemn, these melodies provoke in us a longing for purity, and also the sadness for not living up to the "pristine beauty" for which we were created....

And finally, as an external symbol of this state of repentance, preparation and humility, dark =purple vestments= are used in the Church.

8. Sat.u.r.days and Sundays of Lent

Lenten Sat.u.r.days, with the exception of the first, dedicated to the memory of the Holy Martyr Theodore Tyron, and the fifth, the Sat.u.r.day of the Akathistos, are days of =commemoration of the departed=. And it would be good to restore this practice of one weekly universal commemoration of all Orthodox Christians departed this life, of their integration in the Eucharist which is always offered "on behalf of all and for all."

Each Sunday in Lent, although it preserves its basic meaning: that of the weekly feast of Resurrection, has its own special theme:

The First Sunday--=Triumph of Orthodoxy=--commemorates the victory of the Church over the last major heresy: Iconoclasm (842).

The second Sunday is dedicated to the memory of =St. Gregory Palamas=, a great Byzantine mystic and theologian of the 14th century, who centered his teaching on the high calling of man, on his "deification"

in Christ.

The third Sunday is the Sunday "=of the Veneration of the Holy Cross=."

At Matins the Cross is brought in a solemn procession from the sanctuary and placed in the center of the Church, where it remains for the whole week. This rite announces the approaching of the Holy Week, with its commemoration of Christ's Pa.s.sion. A special veneration of the Cross takes place at the end of each service.

Fourth Sunday--=St. John of the Ladder=, one of the greatest Ascetics, who in his "Spiritual Ladder" described the various stages of spiritual life.

Fifth Sunday--=St. Mary of Egypt=, whose life is a most wonderful example of repentance.

On Sat.u.r.days and Sundays, days of Eucharistic celebration, the dark vestments are replaced by light ones, the Lenten melodies are not sung and the prayer of St. Ephrem with prostrations is omitted. The order of services is not of the Lenten type, yet =fasting= remains a rule and cannot be broken. Each Sunday night at Great Vespers a special =Great Prokimenon= (verses from a psalm) inaugurates a new week in the penitential effort.

HOW CAN WE KEEP GREAT LENT?

It is obviously impossible for us to go to Church every day. And since we cannot keep the Lent liturgically, the question arises: what is our partic.i.p.ation in Lent, how can we spiritually profit by it? The Church calls us to deepen our religious conscience, to increase and strengthen the spiritual contents of our life, to follow her in her pilgrimage towards renewal and rededication to G.o.d.

1. Fasting

The first universal precept is that of fasting. The Orthodox teaching concerning fasting is different from the Roman Catholic doctrine and it is essential to understand it. Roman Catholics identify =fasting= with a "good deed," see in it a sacrifice which earns us a "merit." "What shall I give up for Lent?"--this question is very typical of such an att.i.tude toward fasting. Fasting thus is a formal obligation, an act of obedience to the Church, and its value comes precisely from obedience.

The Orthodox idea of fasting is first of all that of an =ascetical effort=. It is the effort to subdue the physical, the fleshly man to the spiritual one, the "natural" to the "supernatural." Limitations in food are =instrumental=; they are not ends in themselves. Fasting thus is but a means of reaching a spiritual goal and, therefore, an integral part of a wide spiritual effort. Fasting, in the Orthodox understanding, includes more than abstinence from certain types of food. It implies prayer, silence, an internal disposition of mind, an attempt to be charitable, kind, and--in one word--=spiritual=. "Brethren, while fasting bodily, let us also fast spiritually...."

And because of this the Orthodox doctrine of fasting excludes the evaluation of fasting in terms of a "maximum" or "minimum." Every one must find =his= maximum, weigh his conscience and find in it his "pattern of fasting." But this pattern must necessarily include the spiritual as well as the "bodily" elements. The Typicon and the canons of the Church give the description of an ideal fast: no dairy products, total abstinence on certain days. "He that is able to receive it, let him receive it" (Matt. 19:12). But, whatever is our measure--our fasting must be a total effort of our total being.

According to the rules of the Church the fast cannot be broken for the entire Lenten period of forty days: Sat.u.r.days and Sundays are no exception.

2. Prayer

We must always pray. But Lent is the time of an increase of prayer and also of its deepening. The simplest way is, first, to add the Lenten prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian to our private morning and evening prayers. Then, it is good and profitable to set certain hours of the day for a short prayer: this can be done "internally"--at the office, in the car, everywhere. The important thing here is to remember constantly that we are in Lent, to be spiritually "referred" to its final goal: renewal, penitence, closer contact with G.o.d.

3. Spiritual Reading

We cannot be in church daily, but it is still possible for us to follow the Church's progress in Lent by reading those lessons and books which the Church reads in her worship. A chapter of the Book of Genesis, some pa.s.sages from Proverbs and Isaiah do not take much time, and yet they help us in understanding the spirit of Lent and its various dimensions.

It is also good to read a few Psalms--in connection with prayer or separately. Nowhere else can we find such concentration of true repentance, of thirst for communion with G.o.d, of desire to permeate the whole of life with religion. Finally, a religious book: Lives of the Saints, History of the Church, Orthodox Spirituality, etc. is a "must"

while we are in Lent. It takes us from our daily life to a higher level of interests, it feeds us with ideas and facts which are usually absent from our "practical" and "efficient" world.

4. Change of Life

And, last but not least: there must be an effort and a decision to =slow down= our life, to put in as much quiet, silence, contemplation, meditation. Radio, TV, newspapers, social gatherings--all these things, however excellent and profitable in themselves, must be cut down to a real minimum. Not because they are bad, but because we have something =more important= to do, and it is impossible to do without a change of life, without some degree of =concentration= and discipline. Lent is the time when we =re-evaluate= our life in the light of our faith, and this requires a very real effort and discipline. Christ says that a =narrow path= leads to the kingdom of G.o.d and we must make our life as narrow as possible. At first the natural and selfish man in us revolts against these limitations. He wants his usual "easy life" with all its pleasures and relaxations. But once we have tasted of such spiritual effort, once we have made by it one step towards G.o.d, the reward is great! We discover a joy that cannot be compared to any other joy.

We discover the reality of the spiritual world in us. We begin to understand what St. Paul meant by "the joy and peace in the Holy Spirit."

=G.o.d Himself enters our soul=: and it is this wonderful coming that const.i.tutes the ultimate end of Lent:

"If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him." (John 14:23)

Let us make =this= Lent a real Lent!

For a fuller treatment of the meaning of Lent, cf. the book =GREAT LENT=, also written by Rev. Alexander Schmemann.