“We will begin the Lenten time brightly,” the Holy Church cries at the onset of Great Lent and in a whole series of touching hymns calls us to rejoice in the fact that “fasting has come, the mother of chastity, the accuser of sins, the preacher of repentance, the residence of angels and the salvation of men” (stichera in 1- 1st day of fasting), for “blessed is the grace of all-honorable fasting” (sedalen on Tuesday).
At the same time, the Holy Church reminds us that true fasting does not consist in bodily abstinence alone: fasting, “pleasant and pleasing to the Lord,” is “the alienation of the evil, the abstinence of the tongue, the putting aside of rage, the excommunication of lusts, speaking, lying and perjury” ( verse on Monday of the 1st week of Lent).
Just before the onset of Lent - on the Week of Cheese Fat - St. The Church reminds us of the fall of our ancestors Adam and Eve and their expulsion from paradise, that is, their loss of that heavenly bliss for which they were created. This mournful memory explains to us why fasting is needed.
We have inherited from our first parents a nature damaged by sin, and therefore we ourselves sin – we sin just like them, by disobedience to God and intemperance, being carried away by all sorts of passions and vices, mental and physical. We are not healthy, but sick, and what sick person would not want to get well? Here is St. The Church is meeting us halfway, offering us a “course of treatment” - holy fasting. Through the voluntary feat of fasting, the feat of obedience and abstinence, we can rise again and regain the lost heavenly bliss. Everyone can experience the benefits of fasting as a powerful means of liberation from the sinfulness that oppresses us.
The Old Testament gives us many examples of Lenten feats. The New Testament similarly affirms the importance and necessity of fasting. The Great Faster was the Forerunner of the Lord, St. John the Baptist. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself, before going out into public service to the human race, retired into the desert and spent forty days and nights in fasting. During His Sermon on the Mount, He gave instructions on how to fast: not for human praise, but for God (Matthew 6:17-18). Explaining to His disciples why they could not cast out the demon from the youth brought to them, the Lord pointed to fasting as a necessary means in the fight against dark demonic power: “this generation does not proceed only by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:21).
The holy apostles, fathers of the Church and all the great ascetics of Christian piety fasted. They left us many wonderful instructions about the benefits, importance and necessity of fasting, which is of great importance in the matter of pleasing God and our spiritual success.
Saint Basil the Great taught about fasting: “Keep the commandment of fasting, honor the gray hairs of fasting, for it is as old as the human race.”
Saying of St. John Chrysostom: “He who fasts is light, deeply attentive, prays soberly, extinguishes evil desires, appeases God and humbles a proud soul.”
“Fasting is a chariot that ascends to heaven,” taught St. Ephraim the Syrian, - fasting is a good protection for the soul, a reliable companion for the body. Fasting is a weapon for the valiant, a school for ascetics. Fasting is the path to repentance.”
Countless numbers of such patristic testimonies can be cited.
The feat of fasting does not represent anything gloomy, as some may think. On the contrary, fasting, carried out correctly according to the statutes of the Church, gives extraordinary spiritual lightness and incomparable joy to anything on earth. It gives health to the soul and body. It is no coincidence that at the onset of Great Lent the Holy Church rejoices and rejoices, showing us in it the glorious field of struggle against sin until the final victory over it. And everyone who understands this cannot help but rejoice at the onset of fasting, for fasting, according to the figurative expression of our church hymns, is like spring for our souls. Great Lent is a time of spiritual consolation for all repentant sinners, for all true Christians who have hated the Pharisees’ “proud voice” and are zealous for the publican’s “compassionate prayer”: “God, be merciful to me a sinner!”
Let us not just outwardly “serve” the fast, let us not forget that it consists not only in refusing fast food: “As we fast, brothers, physically, let us also fast spiritually... so that we may receive great mercy from Christ God” (stichera on Wednesday 1- th week). And just as the Great Lent that we spend annually leads us to the bright joy of Christ’s Resurrection, so the life of each of us, if we voluntarily and willingly liken it to the Lenten feat, will lead us in due time to the glorious resurrection from the dead, to justification at the Last Judgment of God and to eternal endless joy in the blissful chambers of heaven.
Monk Moses Svyatogorets has been asceticizing on Holy Mount Athos for about thirty-five years. He is an icon painter, poet, critic and writer. He published 52 books and wrote more than 1000 articles. His works have been translated and published in many countries around the world. He held the position of senior secretary at the Holy Cinema of the Holy Mountain. For about twenty-five years he has been an elder of the kaliva of St. John Chrysostom of the monastery of the holy great martyr Panteleimon from the Kutlumush monastery. We bring to your attention the word of the elder dedicated to Lent.
The period of Great Lent preceding Holy Easter evokes (or at least should evoke) special feelings and emotions in us. Beautiful and touching chants, numerous long services, abstinence in food are designed to help us gather strength. Look inside yourself, think, realize your sins - and bring sincere repentance.
Most of humanity does not want to come closer to understanding fasting and continues its monotonous life.
People say that they are bored with their drab existence, but they are not ready to take even a small step to change something.
Many people go on a strict diet, but don’t want to hear about fasting.
They go to a psychologist, watch TV for hours, but they have no time to go to church and confess.
Modern man is not ready to give anything to others. He strives only to receive, without expending any labor and without sacrificing anything. He is afraid to look inside himself and is tormented by the emptiness that destroys his soul from the inside.
Lent acts like an X-ray, like a camera, like a mirror. We are, to some extent, afraid of it because it reveals our true ugly spiritual condition.
The spirit of consumption, the search for convenience and self-esteem does not allow a person to free himself from the numerous excesses with which he has filled his life. Lent is a chance for spiritual transformation. The prayer of Ephraim the Syrian, which is heard five hundred times during Lenten services, calls us to leave the spirit of idleness, despondency, covetousness, idle talk and acquire chastity, humility, patience and love. This beautiful prayer of repentance, filled with great meaning, ends with a request to God: “Grant me to see my sins and not condemn my brother.” Thus, we must stop gossiping, stop making comments to each other, stop criticizing and condemning our neighbors. Pay attention to your own shortcomings and devote yourself to correcting them.
Lent is meant to help us focus and come to our senses. Called to help us heal from spiritual diseases that darken our minds, complicate and fill our lives with sorrows.
If we can at least to some extent look inside ourselves, realize our sins and bring repentance to God, Lent will not become a dull and fruitless time for us, but an important step that will bring us closer to love of God and brotherly love. Then Lent will soften our hardened hearts, rather than becoming a time filled with formal and obsessive obligations.
The rationalistic spirit of the difficult times that we are experiencing seeks to instill in us the rejection of everything supernatural, mysterious, mystical, hesychast, sacred. The results of departure from God are visible to the naked eye. There is despondency, melancholy and despair everywhere. The stamp of sadness lies on the hearts of many people. The time has come to bring sincere repentance for leaving God and return to the cradle of Our Church and Divine love.
During the period of fasting, temptations, trials, conflicts and falls often occur.
They do not happen by chance, but so that we become more mature spiritually, come into balance and humble ourselves. Let us not forget that the life of every Christian is the way of the cross to Calvary. Without the crucifixion there is no Resurrection.
Great Lent is a great opportunity to prepare and take the bright path of ascent. Lent stands on two legs: prayer and abstinence. But prayer and fasting without humility and love will not bear any fruit. Therefore, let us pray and abstain from food not in order to become proud, but in order to humble ourselves, moderating our pride.
Let's not waste the chance that fasting gives us. “Now is the time auspicious, now is the time of repentance...”
In the Holy Church the solution to all our problems can be found. After the icy winter will come the spring of spiritual rebirth. Clouds never hide the sun from us forever.
- a bright and favorable field of virtues, which the Church offers us at a certain period and opens its doors to us, so that we all enter into it with joy and good disposition, in order to take upon ourselves a special feat and bring our own time to God as a gift.
“This is an auspicious time, now is the day of salvation,” we hear such tender words at the evening service. This is now a favorable time for serving God, a time of repentance and a time of salvation. Holy Pentecost is characterized by the grace of repentance, which attracts the grace of the Holy Spirit into the human heart. For this reason, from the first day of Holy Pentecost, the Mother Church places forgiveness and the leaving of grievances between us as the foundation. “If you forgive people their sins, then our Heavenly Father will also forgive you” (cf. Matthew 6:14), says Christ in the Gospel.
When a person struggles with passions and infirmities, he needs the presence of Divine grace, because this is not just a struggle in his own strength with himself, passions, the devil and the world (in the negative sense of the word). Also, fasting is not a diet that is followed for the sake of physical health, according to a strictly defined program, relying only on one’s own resources. Lent has a completely different meaning and purpose. Its meaning is to attract Divine grace into the human heart, to avoid sin, to kill the passions that deaden our soul. The Lord enlightens the heart, cleansed of passions, with His Divine light, and it becomes able to see the right path to the Kingdom of Heaven. We need physical exploits and the work of fasting, but they also need Divine support. This is why we ask forgiveness from each other, humbling ourselves before each other - so that the Holy Spirit sanctifies our souls and opens our eyes, so that we can see our own sinfulness and become able to turn ourselves completely towards God and ask for forgiveness of our own sins. Because if our entire feat is not aimed at the forgiveness of sins and the blessed state of repentance, then, unfortunately, it remains fruitless.
The path of repentance is associated with mental pain and tears, but only such repentance bears fruit
The feat of repentance, according to the teaching of the Fathers of the Church, cleanses the human heart. “Sprinkle me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow” (Ps. 50:9), says the divine David in the Psalter. The path of repentance itself is associated with heartfelt contrition, mental pain, tears and regret for the sins committed. However, only such repentance brings its sweet fruits, because only such genuine repentance “washes away” the burden of sinfulness from us. The heart, purified by repentance, is again visited by Divine grace, which renews us, eases our conscience and returns us to the state of pristine, to the way God created us, creating us in His image and likeness. This is what the penitential feat of the Holy Pentecostal woman consists of.
Corporal fasting, vigil, many long services and standing during them, kneeling - all these feats of Great Lent are aimed at bringing a person’s heart, wounded by sin, to tenderness. This petrified heart, insensitive to everything spiritual from countless sins, which is not able to bring tears equivalent to its sins, because it has withdrawn from God, the Church, with its ascetic, repentant attitude and teaching, first reveals, makes it more sensitive and finally “crushes” all its fossil. From this contrition, these methodical “blows” to the heart, a person gradually comes to tenderness, and tenderness, in turn, cleanses our soul, renews it and enlightens it.
At the very beginning, the feat of repentance can be likened to scorching fire, burning everything old in a person, it leaves a certain languor in the soul; then, when a Christian constantly practices repentance, this fire no longer burns, but turns into light that enlightens him, delights him and informs him that Jesus Christ has forgiven him and is Himself the Sweetest Light, in comparison with Which all worldly blessings fade.
So let us begin this feat with great zeal, and not with cowardice and cowardice. A cowardly person will not succeed at all on this path, because he is not at all involved in the Kingdom of Heaven, since he relies only on his own strength. He forgets about the Omnipotence of God, he forgets what the Apostle Paul says: “I can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13); and again: “God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the strong things” (1 Cor. 1:27); and again: “For My power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). I can do everything - not on my own, of course, and not on my own, but by the power of Christ, which strengthens me. With such thoughts and a joyful mood, we must begin this blessed feat; St. John Chrysostom writes about it this way: we, like lions preparing to leap, should not even think that we will not be able to withstand the feat of Great Lent.
“God is with us,” is sung at Great Compline, and if He is with us, He will not leave us, but will give us strength. Give God your good disposition, and you will receive from Him the strength to complete the work of saving your soul, and not just go through the entire Great Lent.
If, due to bodily weakness, we are unable to keep the fast as prescribed by the Charter of the Church, then we must take a blessing from our confessor to relax the fast, without being embarrassed at all, since in the Church there is such a thing as oikonomia (that is, caring for someone). -either or something).
Who is stopping us from humbling ourselves and repenting, except ourselves?
Who is stopping us from humbling ourselves and repenting, except ourselves? Humility does not require a person to be young and full of bodily strength. He only needs to have a humble opinion of himself, avoid sin with all his might, and constantly have a contrite heart. We all, young and old, healthy and sick, can attract into our hearts the grace that comes from humility. What the Lord requires from us is our heart: all its desires and love must be directed towards God - “Son, give Me your heart.” We will succeed if we free ourselves from ourselves and from the passions that bind us. Fasting on this path is only the first, but a very necessary step, which raises us to a courageous state in which we “break off” the entire bundle of passions. And then, with great boldness in the spiritual struggle, we will be able to get rid of malice, deceit and everything that denigrates the icon of God - man. But we all, I repeat again and again, need to acquire humility. And a lot has been written in ascetic literature about how to achieve humility.
A humble person can easily repent of his sins, pray, and return to a healthy state of soul and body. A proud person cannot repent. He cannot soberly assess the actual state of things: understand that he needs the support of God. A proud person never feels guilty. He is always right, he never says “Sorry,” he justifies himself all the time. And what's worse is that he doesn't have Christ in his life. Christ is in the hearts of those who humbly admit themselves to be sinners and repent, but there is no place for Him in a heart filled with pride. “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6), says the Holy Scripture.
Let us make a decision during this blessed period, together with the physical feat of fasting, to pay the greatest attention to repentance. Let us think about the sacrifice Christ made for us, how He loves us and how far we are from Him. Seeing this distance separating us from God, let us lament this, let us beg Him to forgive us our sins, to come closer to us and enter our heart. And let us be sure that the Lord, seeing such our humility, will come into our hearts, comfort us and support us, assure us of His love and our salvation.
In the Church we do not live by false utopian ideas, not by moral piety, but we live by personal experience of communication with God. God always “turns His Face” to us, He is always nearby, and man is called to gain his personal experience of communication with God, which becomes for him the most significant, the most important experience of his life. Our examples are the saints, in whose lives there was a clear presence of God.
By living this way, we will eventually become genuine Christians. And the fulfillment of the Gospel commandments, if we follow this constantly, will in due time bear worthy fruit, transforming our essence, making it a temple of the Holy Spirit and a blessed vessel of God.
Sermon by Archimandrite Alexy (Polikarpov), abbot of the St. Danilov Monastery in Moscow.
“In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
On this blessed evening we stand on the threshold of the Holy Pentecost of Great and Glorious Lent - a time of action, a time of soul salvation.
Today we enter this great field with trepidation and timidity. The Lord does not desire the death of the sinner, but “as soon as he is converted... and he will live” (Ezek. 18:23), he also gives us time for correction, time to improve our lives. “This is the spring of repentance, this is the time of correction,” - this is how the Holy Orthodox Church calls to our hearts, calling us these days to salvation, so that we, having repented, will correct ourselves.
In order for us to go through this race, so that we have a spiritual field for correcting our hard hearts and we can have the spiritual fruits of holy fasting, we must acquire the grace of God, God's power through repentance, through the correction of our sins. And, above all, we must make peace with our neighbors. The Lord in the Gospel, which was read today at the Liturgy, says: “If you forgive people their sins, then your Heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive people their sins, then your Father will not forgive you your sins” (Matthew 6:14–15). Just as we want our sins to be forgiven, so we must forgive our neighbors.
And our neighbor is every person with whom we communicate. A neighbor is someone who may be offended by us, someone who has suffered injustice from us. And when we, making a bow, ask for forgiveness and say: “Forgive for Christ’s sake,” there is not always a sincere and warm heart behind this. We often say words, but there is no sincere movement in us towards God and our neighbor. We can talk and not do. We can offend our neighbor not only by deed, we can offend by word, movement, look. This is also an insult, and for this we must ask for forgiveness.
We ask each other for forgiveness and, it seems, have no evil, but we remember the insults inflicted on us. If we rejoice when our offender is dishonored and slandered, this indicates that we remember the evil, that we have not forgiven the offense. Even if we do not rejoice in his troubles and sympathize when he suffers insults, but we do not rejoice with him in his successes, this is also the fruit of rancor, as the Holy Fathers say. But we must forgive everything, forgive sincerely, from the bottom of our hearts.
To forgive means to forget, not to remember, not to cause harm to one’s neighbor, not to have any evil movement in the heart or not to think evil about him. But the highest measure is to rejoice in the joy of your neighbor. Then we can say that all our unclean, all sinful feelings have been eradicated.
True love and true forgiveness extend even to death. We have many examples of Christian attitudes towards enemies. Here is an example from the history of the Church: one military leader was mortally wounded by his heretic servant. On his deathbed, already dying, the military leader called his servant to him and said: “Give me your hand, which inflicted a mortal wound on me, and I will give you mine; as a sign of love and forgiveness, I give you freedom and life. Just tell me,” the dying man turned to the servant, “why did you kill me?” I always loved you and tried to do only good deeds.” The shocked servant replied, “I thought that by killing you I would benefit my religion.” The dying Christian exclaimed: “What is your religion that makes you kill your neighbor?!” And what is our faith, which commands us to love our enemies! Our faith, our Lord Savior, commands us: “Love your enemies”” (Matthew 5:44; Luke 6:27,35).
We all belong to this true faith. We all call ourselves Orthodox Christians. This means that we must forgive each other, not remember grievances, and only then, with God’s help and with the grace that the Lord gives us, enter this great field of the saving fast of Lent and achieve the Bright Resurrection of Christ. Everyone knows his own weakness, his own weakness - he trembles and asks for God's help.
Let us here this evening sincerely ask each other for forgiveness and apply our words to deeds that will testify to our correction.
I, as a weak and sinful person, ask forgiveness from the brethren of the holy monastery, from you, brothers and sisters, if I have offended, condemned, seduced anyone with my unworthy behavior, offended by deed, word, thought and all my feelings. I ask for forgiveness and holy prayers. With His grace, may God forgive and have mercy on all of us. Amen."
“Behold, the time of repentance” is a collection of selected teachings from Schema-Mandrit Abraham for the Sundays and feast days of Great Lent.
The circle of Lenten Gospel readings has been wisely determined by the Church so that the souls of those listening are filled with true repentant feelings: contrition of spirit, hope in God’s mercy and gratitude to the Savior who redeemed us. The author of the book encourages the reader to look at familiar gospel events and parables as if for the first time and helps him deeply experience their meaning.
A special section in the book consists of interpretations of the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete. Simple, accessible and at the same time full of spiritual experience explanations from Father Abraham make this canon alive and close to every soul thirsting for repentance.
PREPARATION WEEKS FOR GREAT LENT
About the need to rise above oneself through humility
Week of Zacchaeus
Repentance is the highest virtue.
The Week of the Publican and the Pharisee
About God's love for man.
Week of the Prodigal Son
On the importance of commemorating the dead.
Ecumenical parental (meat-free) Saturday
About the need to live according to the Gospel.
Meat Week about the Last Judgment
On the secret practice of virtues.
Raw Week, a memory of Adam's exile
THE GREAT CANON OF ST. ANDREW OF CRETE
Hymn of repentance.
About the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete
That the saints sincerely considered themselves the worst of all
How to acquire the spirit of repentance
About original sin and repentance
About the fact that we are also involved in Adam’s sin
The depth of theology in the Great Canon.
on the dogma of the Holy Trinity
About the virtue of sobriety
How can we imitate the feat of the righteous Abraham and Isaac
Saving Ark Church
About repentant crying
About our madness and flight from sin
Sacrifice to God - a broken spirit
“And I see You intelligently, Sveta Eternal...”
LENT
About the veneration of holy icons.
1st Sunday of Lent, Triumph of Orthodoxy
About relaxing our mind.
2nd Sunday of Great Lent, St. Gregory Palamas
About self-denial and firmness in faith.
3rd Sunday of Lent, Worship of the Cross
How to overcome passion?
Week 4, St. John Climacus
About the correct reading of spiritual books
About when the Most Holy Theotokos helps us.
Praise of the Most Holy Theotokos (Saturday Akathist)
That repentance works great miracles.
5th Sunday of Great Lent, Venerable Mary of Egypt
The incomprehensible miracle of the Savior.
Lazarev Saturday. The Resurrection of Righteous Lazarus
About the perception of gospel events with the heart.
6th week of Lent, Vaiy. Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem
PASSIONATE WEEK
About spiritual and physical service to God.
Great Wednesday
About worthy and unworthy communion.
Maundy Four
What is impossible for man is possible for God
About accepting the Sacrifice of the Cross.
Great heel
About Divine humility.
Holy Saturday
