Father's Message

Message from Father

Preparation for Great Lent

“Let us begin the Lenten time with delight ... let us fast from passions as we fast from food, taking pleasure in the good words of the Spirit, that we may be granted to see the holy passion of Christ our God and his holy Pascha, spiritually rejoicing”.

(First Hymn of the very 1st service of Great Lent)

When our Lord Jesus Christ started His divine journey, His first word was “Repent“(Mathew4; 17). With today’s busy lives, we consider less and less the meaning of His word and we focus more on restriction from some specific foods. Indeed, it is appropriate and correct to fast, but in addition to this wonderful practice, we should refrain more from recreational activities, confessing more often, receiving the Holy Communion well prepared, and certainly engaging in a more active spiritual life.

It is true that all these practices are part of Lent and as Orthodox Christians, it is our duty to follow them. However, at the same time we should ask ourselves “what is the repentance? Why do we need repentance? How do we repent”?

For all these questions, the season of the Great Lent offers us the answers. It is a special journey in a new world, a journey that unveils to us a new life, a life which was offered to us 2000 years ago by our Lord Jesus Christ.

This journey has several steps that starts five weeks before the Great Lent. It is a measured spiritual preparation starting with the Sunday of Zacchaeus. On that Sunday we receive our first invitation to inherit the total salvation of our soul (Luke 19; 1-10). It reveals to us the spiritual rebirth of the publican Zacchaeus and teaches us that our Lord never deprives anyone of His mercy, if that person wishes to receive Him in his house and heart as the real God.

The following Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee, teaches us the importance of humility in our process of repentance. Only a humble heart, ready to acknowledge one’s sins and to overlook the sins of another, can begin to repent.

The Sunday of Prodigal Son awakens our wish for a spiritual regeneration. This spiritual regeneration is a result of a profound desire. Only if we desire to change our sinful ways and turn ourselves toward our Creator, we will find ourselves on the right path of salvation.

Sunday of Meatfare is the day when we stop eating meat ( Apo Kreatiko). It is also called the Sunday of the Last Judgment, when we know the “sheep” will be separated from the “goats”, the righteous from the sinners and each of us will receive the due reward for his/her deeds in this life. In other words, to our attitudes of humility and longing for our Salvation, we should add the love for our neighbor as a true expression of love for God because He created man in His own Image and Likeness.

The last Sunday before the Great Lent is the Sunday of Cheesefare or Forgiveness Sunday. On this day, in addition to ceasing from eating eggs and dairy products, we receive the teaching relating to the forgiveness of sins - how to forgive and how to be forgiven: “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matthew6; 14-15)

This day is marked by a special Vespers of Forgiveness. Beautiful service that incorporate in it a powerful decision that each of us should adopt in order to start the Lent. It is the time of asking forgiveness from everybody starting from the parishioners to the clergy. We express in this our respect, obedience and forgetfulness toward each other.

After the Sunday of Forgiveness, on Clean Monday, Great Lent starts. It is the point where we continue our journey to reach the appropriate spiritual level in order to receive and understand our Resurrected Lord Jesus Christ in our soul and body.

Let us pray that this spiritual season will find us ready for this special journey and it will be more in our favor that other time.

-- Fr. Florin Craioveanu