|

Fasting

Dear Faithful, We are officially halfway through the Holy Fast. Great Lent is already past its midpoint. During the middle of the Fast, it is good for us to examine ourselves.   How am I doing this Lent?  Am I repenting? Have I really attempted to repent through the means of prayer, almsgiving, and fasting?…

Prayer
| |

Prayer

Dear Faithful,   By the mercy of God, we have completed the third week of Great Lent. What a joy it has been to be in the Church, to attend the services, and to commune with our Triune God. We have discussed that the foundation and purpose of Lent is our repentance, our return to…

Soul Saturdays
| |

Soul Saturdays

  Dear Faithful,   Congratulations on completing the second week of Great Lent. As we noted last week, Great Lent’s main theme is repentance. The Church teaches that we can work out our repentance through three main methods—prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Regarding almsgiving, it isn’t just monetary; it is a work of mercy to help…

| | | | |

Sunday of Orthodoxy: Troparion, Kontakion and Gospel Readings

Troparion — Tone 2 We venerate Your most pure image, O Good One, / and ask forgiveness of our transgressions, O Christ God. / Of Your own will You were pleased to ascend the Cross in the flesh / to deliver Your creatures from bondage to the enemy. / Therefore with thanksgiving we cry aloud…

Repentance
|

Repentance

  Dear Faithful, Welcome to Great Lent! Thanks be to God for this holy opportunity to renew our lives to the Lord through the Holy Fast! Truly this liturgical season is a time in which the Church is cleansed and renewed in Christ through the grace of repentance. Indeed, Great Lent is meaningless if we…

|

A Reflection on the Canon of St. Andrew of Crete

“The lenten journey begins thus with a return to the ‘starting point’–the world of Creation, Fall, and Redemption, the world in which all things speak of God and reflect His glory, in which all events are referred to God, in which man finds the true dimension of his life, and having found it, repents” (Great…