Greetings Brothers and Sisters in Christ, As we complete the 5th week of Great Lent, we know full well by now that we have been focusing on the process of repentance: our turning away from our sins and turning to God with contrition and firm purpose of amendment of life. The Church has kept this…
“Awesome and paradoxical is the mystery that we see unfolding today. He who is untouchable is now arrested. He who releases Adam from the curse is taken prisoner. He who searches and tries the hearts and minds is unjustly put on trial, and He who shut the Abyss is locked up in a prison. Before…
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?…
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…
Greetings Brothers and Sisters in Christ, As we come to the end of the third week of Lent, the Church reminds us that before we can reach the unending joy of Pascha, we first have to go through the Cross (with all that it implicates). We know this because not only did our Lord go…
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…
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, As we finish the 2nd week of Lent, I would like to focus on a service that is peculiar to this holy season—the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. It is a beautiful Liturgy, one only celebrated during the Great Fast. There is much history to this service, and while we…
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…
“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…
