{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_36415/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_36415","id":"gutenberg_36415","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36415","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Religion/Spirituality","Lent","Orthodox Eastern Church -- Liturgy"],"text":"</pre>\n\n\n\nProduced by Gerard Arthus, David Garcia and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: GREAT LENT A SCHOOL OF REPENTANCE (front cover)]\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGREAT LENT\n\nA SCHOOL OF REPENTANCE\n\n_Its Meaning for Orthodox Christians_\n\n_by_\n\nThe Rt. Rev. Alexander Schmemann\n\n  DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION\n  ORTHODOX CHURCH IN AMERICA\n\n\n  New York 1970\n  Second Printing 1977\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n  GREAT LENT                                             5\n    The Time of Repentance\n\n  SUNDAYS OF PREPARATION                                 7\n\n  LENTEN WORSHIP                                        13\n\n  HOW CAN WE KEEP GREAT LENT?                           23\n\n\n\n\nGREAT LENT\n\nTHE TIME OF REPENTANCE\n\n    \"Brethren, while fasting bodily, let us also fast spiritually;\n    let us loosen every bond of injustice; let us destroy the strong\n    fetters of violence; let us tear up every unjust writing; let us\n    give bread to the hungry and let us welcome the homeless poor to\n    our houses, that from Christ our God we may receive the great mercy.\"\n\n                           (=Stichira, Wednesday of the First Week=)\n\n\nWe are approaching again the Great Lent--the time of repentance, the\ntime of our reconciliation with God. Repentance is the beginning and\nalso the condition of a truly Christian life. \"Repent!\" was the first\nword of Christ when He began to preach (Matt. 4:17). But =what is\nrepentance=? In the daily rush of our life we have no time to think\nabout it, we simply take it for granted that we must go to confession,\nreceive absolution, and then forget all about it until next year. Yet\nthere must be a reason why our Church has set apart seven weeks as a\nspecial time of repentance and calls each Orthodox Christian to a\nspecial spiritual effort. And this reason must obviously concern\n=me=, =my= life, =my= faith, =my= membership in the Church. I must try to\nunderstand it, to follow as much as I can the teachings of my Church, be\nOrthodox not only by name, but in life itself. What then is repentance?\nGreat Lent gives the answer to this question. It is indeed a =school\nof repentance=, to which each Christian must go every year in order\nto refresh the understanding of his faith. It is a wonderful pilgrimage\nto the very sources of Orthodoxy, a rediscovery of a truly Orthodox way\nof life. Let us try to make these forty days as meaningful, as deep, and\nas rich, as possible.\n\nIn this brief explanation of Lent we shall deal with:\n\n    --the preparation for Great Lent,\n\n    --the Lenten worship of the Orthodox Church,\n\n    --the Orthodox teaching on fasting, prayer and other spiritual\n      efforts prescribed during Lent.\n\n\n\n\nSUNDAYS OF PREPARATION\n\n\nThree weeks before Lent proper begins we enter into a period of\n=pre-Lenten= preparation. It is a constant feature of the Orthodox\ntradition of worship that every major liturgical event--(Christmas,\nEaster, Lent)--is announced and prepared in advance. Knowing our lack\nof concentration, the \"worldliness\" of our life, the Church calls our\nattention to the seriousness of the approaching event, invites us to\nmeditate on its significance. Thus, before we can =practice= Lent, we\nare given its meaning.\n\nThis preparation includes four consecutive Sundays preceding Lent, each\none of them dedicated to some fundamental aspect of repentance.\n\n\n1. Humility\n\n(Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee)\n\nOn the eve of this day (i.e. on Saturday at Vespers) the liturgical book\nof the Lenten season--the =Triodion= makes its first appearance and texts\nfrom it are added to the usual liturgical material of the weekly\nResurrection service. They develop the first major theme of repentance:\n=humility=.\n\nThe Gospel lesson (Luke 18:10-14) teaches us that humility is the\ncondition of repentance. The parable of the Publican and Pharisee\npictures a man who is always pleased with himself and who thinks that he\ncomplies with all the requirements of religion. He is proud of himself\nand self-assured. In reality, however, he has falsified the meaning of\nreligion. He has reduced it to external observations and he measures his\npiety by the amount of money he gives to the temple. Religion is for him\na source of self-admiration. The Publican humbles himself and humility\njustifies him before God.\n\n\"Let us avoid the high-flown speech of the Pharisee\"--says the Kontakion\nof the day--\"and learn the majesty of the Publican's humble words.\"\n\n\n2. Return to the Father\n\n(Sunday of the Prodigal Son)\n\nThe Gospel reading of this day (Luke 15:11-32) gives us the second theme\nof Lent and repentance: that of the =return to God=. It is not enough\nto acknowledge sins and to confess them. Repentance remains fruitless\nwithout the desire and decision to change life, to go back to God, to\nbegin the movement of ascension and purification. We must realize that\nwe have lost our spiritual beauty and purity and we must want to recover\nthem: \"... I shall return to the compassionate Father crying with tears:\nReceive me as one of Thy servants.\" At Matins we sing Psalm 137: \"By\nthe rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered\nZion.... If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her\ncunning.\" The Christian remembers and knows that he has lost communion\nwith God, the peace and the joy of His Kingdom, the purity of the new\nlife. For he was baptized, introduced into the Body of Christ, but his\nsins have driven him away from God. Repentance, therefore, is this\ndesire to return to God, a movement of love and trust: \"I have wickedly\nstrayed away from Thy Fatherly glory, and wasted the riches Thou gavest\nme among sinners. Then do I raise the prodigal's cry unto Thee, O\nBountiful Father, I have sinned against Thee: take me back as a\npenitent, and make me as one of thy hired servants....\"\n\n                                               (=Kontakion of the day=)\n\n\n3. The Last Judgment\n\n(Meat Fare Sunday)\n\nOn Meat Fare Saturday (preceding this Sunday) the Church prescribes the\nuniversal commemoration of all her departed members. The Church is unity\nand love in Christ. We all depend on each other, belong to each other,\nare united by the love of Christ. Our repentance, therefore, would not\nbe complete without an act of love towards all those who have departed\nthis life before us. Repentance is primarily the recovery of the spirit\nof love: \"By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you\nhave love for one another\" (John 13:35). Liturgically this commemoration\nincludes Vespers on Friday, Matins and Divine Liturgy on Saturday.\n\nThe Sunday Gospel (Matthew 25:31-46) reminds us of the third theme of\nrepentance: preparation for Divine Judgment. A Christian lives under\nChrist's judgment. This means that we must refer our actions, attitudes,\njudgments to Christ, to His presence in the world, that we must see\nChrist in our fellow men. For \"inasmuch as you have done it unto one of\nthe least of these My brethren, you have done it to Me....\" The parable\nof the Last Judgment gives us the \"terms of reference\" for our\nself-evaluation as Christians.\n\nOn the week following Meat Fare Sunday a limited =fasting= is prescribed.\nWe must train and prepare ourselves for the great effort of Lent. On\nWednesday and Friday the Divine Liturgy is not served and the type of\nworship is already Lenten. On Cheese-Fare Saturday the Church commemorates\nall men and women who were \"illumined through fasting\"--the Holy\nAscetics and Fosters. They are the patterns we must follow, our guides\nin the difficult art of fasting and repentance.\n\n\n4. Forgiveness\n\n(Cheese Fare Sunday)\n\nThis is the last day before Lent. Its liturgy develops three themes:\n(a) \"=the expulsion of Adam from the paradise of bliss.=\" Man was created\nfor paradise--for knowledge of God and communion with Him. His sins have\ndeprived him of this blessed life and his existence on earth is an\nexile. Christ, the God-man, opens the doors of Paradise to every one who\nfollows Him and the Church is our guide to the heavenly fatherland.\n\n(b) Our fast must not be hypocritical, a show off. We must \"appear not\nunto men to fast, but unto our Father who is in secret\" (cf. Sunday\nlesson from Matthew: 6:14-21).\n\n(c) The condition for such real fasting is that we =forgive each other=\nas God forgives us--\"If you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly\nFather will also forgive you....\"\n\nOn the evening of this day, at Vespers, Lent is inaugurated with the\nGreat Prokimenon: \"Turn not away Thy face from Thy servant, for I am\nin trouble; hear me speedily. Attend to my soul and deliver it.\" At the\nend of the service the faithful ask forgiveness from one another and\nthe Church begins her pilgrimage towards the joyful and glorious day\nof Easter.\n\n\n\n\nLENTEN WORSHIP\n\n\nThe Great Lent consists of six weeks or forty days. It begins on Monday\nafter Cheese Fare Sunday and ends on Friday evening before Palm Sunday.\nThe Saturday of Lazarus' Resurrection, Palm Sunday and the Holy Week\nform a special liturgical cycle with which we shall deal in a special\npamphlet.[1]\n\nThe meaning and the spirit of the Great Lent find their first and most\nimportant expression in worship. Not only individuals but the whole\nChurch acquires a penitential spirit, and the beautiful Lenten services\nmore than anything else help us to deepen our spiritual vision, to\nreconsider our life in the light of the Orthodox teaching about man.\nWe shall briefly analyze the most important of the liturgical\nparticularities of Lent.\n\n\n1. The Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete\n\nThe Lent begins with the Great Penitential Canon of St. Andrew of Crete.\nWritten in the seventh century by one of the greatest hymn-writers of\nthe Orthodox Church, this canon is the purest expression of repentance.\nThe author contemplates the great history of salvation, recorded in the\nOld and the New Testaments and applies its various images to the state\nof his sinful soul. It is a long, pathetic lamentation of a Christian\nwho discovers again and again how much God has loved him, how much He\nhas done for him and how little response came from the man:\n\n\n  \"How shall I begin to deplore the deeds of my miserable life?\n  What beginning shall I make, O Christ, to this lament?\n  But since Thou art compassionate, grant me remission of my trespasses.\"\n\n  \"Like as the potter gives life to his clay,\n    Thou hast bestowed upon me\n  Flesh and bones, breath and life;\n  Today, O my Creator, my Redeemer and\n    My Judge,\n  Receive me a penitent...\"\n\n  \"I have lost my first made beauty and dignity,\n  And now I lie naked and covered with shame...\"\n\n\nAnd to each one of these troparia the congregation answers: \"Have mercy\non me, O God, have mercy on me.\"\n\nThe Great Canon is sung and read twice during Lent: in four parts at\nGreat Compline on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of the first\nweek; and again completely at Matins on Thursday of the fifth week. It\nis a real introduction to Lent, it sets its tone and spirit, it gives\nus--from the very beginning--the true dimension of repentance.\n\n\n2. The Prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian\n\nOn weekdays of Lent this prayer is read twice at the end of each\nservice: first, with a prostration after each of its petitions, then\nwith one final prostration. Here is the text:\n\n\n    \"O Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of\n    sloth, despair, lust of power, and idle talk.\"\n\n    =Prostration.=\n\n    \"But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience\n    and love to Thy servant.\"\n\n    =Prostration.=\n\n    \"Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own sins and not\n    to judge my brother; for Thou art blessed unto ages of ages.\n    Amen.\"\n\n    =Prostration.=\n\nThen all bow twelve times saying: \"O God cleanse me, a sinner.\"\n\nAnd the whole prayer is read again, with one prostration at the end.\n\nThis prayer, constantly repeated throughout the services, is the\nsimplest and purest expression of repentance in all its dimensions:\ndesire for purification, desire for improvement, desire for a real\nchange in relations with other people. The Lenten rules of the Orthodox\nChurch pay great attention to =prostrations=: through them the body\nparticipates in the effort of \"breaking down\" our pride and\nself-satisfaction.\n\n\n3. Biblical Readings[2]\n\nA characteristic feature of Lenten services is the use of the Old\nTestament, normally absent from the daily cycle of worship. Lessons from\nthree books of the Bible are read daily throughout Lent: =Genesis= and\n=Proverbs= at Vespers, =Isaiah= at the Sixth Hour. These readings\nindicate that Lent is a =time of preparation=, a spiritual return to\nthe Old Testament, which announced and prepared the coming of Christ\nand the inauguration in Him of a new life. The book of =Genesis= tells\nus the story of Creation, Fall and the beginnings of the history of\nsalvation. =Proverbs= teach us the Wisdom of God as revealed to man and\nleading him to repentance and renewal. Finally, =Isaiah= is the great\nprophet of Redemption and Salvation, the announcer of the Kingdom\nof God.\n\n\n4. The Lenten Hymns\n\nThe liturgical book of Lent is the =Triodion=. Besides the biblical\nreadings, it contains special Lenten hymns to be sung every day at\nMatins and Vespers. Of a special beauty are the \"idiomela\" of St.\nTheodore of Stoudion, short penitential hymns, one sung at Matins and\none at Vespers, which more than anything else express the Lenten\nspirituality of the Orthodox Church. Here are a few examples:\n\n\n    \"Let us begin, O people the spotless fast, for it is the\n    salvation of our souls.\n\n    Let us make our devotion to the Lord in fear, anointing\n    our heads with the oil of good works and washing our faces\n    with pure water,\n\n    Not many worded in prayer, but saying as we have been taught\n    to say.\n\n    Our Father Who art in heaven! Forgive us our trespasses,\n\n    For Thou art the lover of mankind.\"\n\n                                         (=Tuesday Matins, First Week=)\n\n\n    \"O come ye faithful, let us work the works of God in light,\n\n    Let us walk honestly as in the day, let us cast away from\n    ourselves every unjust writing against our neighbor, and not\n    put a stumbling block as an occasion for his falling on the way;\n\n    Let us put away the pleasures of the flesh;\n\n    Let us increase the graces of our souls;\n\n    Let us give bread to those in need;\n\n    Let us draw near to Christ in penitence, crying out:\n\n    \"Have mercy on us, O our God!\"\n\n                                         (=Friday Vespers, First Week=)\n\n\n    \"Why art thou idle, O my soul? And why dost thou dedicate thyself\n    to sin?\n\n    Why art thou weak yet not come to the physician?\n\n    Now is the fruitful time, and now is the real day of salvation.\n\n    Arise! Wash thyself in the tears of repentance and enlighten thy\n    lamp with the oil of good works,\n\n    That thou mayest obtain from God forgiveness and great mercy.\"\n\n                                        (=Tuesday Matins, Second Week=)\n\n\n    \"Arriving midway on that road of fasting which leads to Thy\n    venerable cross,\n\n    And hoping for a glimpse of that day when Abraham caught up\n    Isaac from the grave\n\n    We entreat Thee to make us partakers of Thy mystical supper\n\n    Who are saved by faith and cry out to Thee:\n\n    O our Light and our Saviour, glory to Thee.\"\n\n                                      (=Wednesday Matins, Fourth Week=)\n\n\nThe =Triodion= unfortunately has not yet been translated into English.\nIts wonderful riches are still hidden: short three-ode canons (hence the\nname \"Triodion\"), kathismata (stanzas sung after the psalms), hymns to\nthe Holy Trinity, etc. Of all the liturgical books it is one of the most\ninspiring, most directly connected with the spiritual needs of man.\n\n\n5. The Psalter\n\nThe Psalms occupy a very central position in Orthodox worship. But in\nLent the use of the psalter is doubled. Normally it is read once every\nweek; during Lent it is read twice. Of course this is done mainly in\nmonasteries, yet it is important to know that the Church considers the\npsalms to be an essential spiritual food for the Lenten season.\n\n\n6. The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts\n\nOn weekdays of Lent (Monday through Friday) the celebration of the Divine\nLiturgy is strictly forbidden. They are =non-liturgical days= (with one\npossible exception, the Feast of Annunciation). The reason for this rule\nis that the Eucharist is by its very nature a festal celebration, the\njoyful commemoration of Christ's Resurrection and glorification and His\npresence among His disciples. But twice a week, on Wednesday and Fridays,\nthe Church prescribes the celebration after Vespers, i.e., in the\nevening, of the =Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts=. It consists of\nsolemn Great Vespers and communion with the Holy Gifts consecrated on the\nprevious Sunday. These days being days of =strict fasting= (theoretically:\ncomplete abstinence), are \"crowned\" with the partaking of the Bread of\nlife, the ultimate fulfillment of our efforts....\n\n\n    \"... When Thou has freed us and Thy faithful people from all\n    impurities, sanctify the souls and bodies of all of us with\n    a sanctification not to be taken away; that with a clear\n    conscience, peaceful presence and enlightened hearts we may\n    participate in those divine Sacraments, and be quickened\n    through them and become one with Thy Christ Himself, our\n    true God, Who said: Who so eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood,\n    abides in Me and I in Him. So that by Thy Word dwelling in us\n    and walking with us we may become, O Lord, a temple of Thine\n    all-holy and adored spirit ...\"\n\n                                (=Prayer at the Presanctified Liturgy=)\n\n\n7.  Liturgical Music and Vestments\n\nThe spirit of Lent is also expressed in the liturgical music. Special\nlenten tones and melodies are used for responses at litanies, for the\n\"Alleluias\" and the hymns of the Presanctified Liturgy. Slow, deep and\nsolemn, these melodies provoke in us a longing for purity, and also the\nsadness for not living up to the \"pristine beauty\" for which we were\ncreated....\n\nAnd finally, as an external symbol of this state of repentance,\npreparation and humility, dark =purple vestments= are used in the Church.\n\n\n8.  Saturdays and Sundays of Lent\n\nLenten Saturdays, with the exception of the first, dedicated to the\nmemory of the Holy Martyr Theodore Tyron, and the fifth, the Saturday\nof the Akathistos, are days of =commemoration of the departed=. And\nit would be good to restore this practice of one weekly universal\ncommemoration of all Orthodox Christians departed this life, of their\nintegration in the Eucharist which is always offered \"on behalf of all\nand for all.\"\n\nEach Sunday in Lent, although it preserves its basic meaning: that of\nthe weekly feast of Resurrection, has its own special theme:\n\nThe First Sunday--=Triumph of Orthodoxy=--commemorates the victory of\nthe Church over the last major heresy: Iconoclasm (842).\n\nThe second Sunday is dedicated to the memory of =St. Gregory Palamas=,\na great Byzantine mystic and theologian of the 14th century, who\ncentered his teaching on the high calling of man, on his \"deification\"\nin Christ.\n\nThe third Sunday is the Sunday \"=of the Veneration of the Holy Cross=.\"\nAt Matins the Cross is brought in a solemn procession from the sanctuary\nand placed in the center of the Church, where it remains for the whole\nweek. This rite announces the approaching of the Holy Week, with its\ncommemoration of Christ's Passion. A special veneration of the Cross\ntakes place at the end of each service.\n\nFourth Sunday--=St. John of the Ladder=, one of the greatest Ascetics,\nwho in his \"Spiritual Ladder\" described the various stages of spiritual\nlife.\n\nFifth Sunday--=St. Mary of Egypt=, whose life is a most wonderful example\nof repentance.\n\nOn Saturdays and Sundays, days of Eucharistic celebration, the dark\nvestments are replaced by light ones, the Lenten melodies are not sung\nand the prayer of St. Ephrem with prostrations is omitted. The order of\nservices is not of the Lenten type, yet =fasting= remains a rule and\ncannot be broken. Each Sunday night at Great Vespers a special =Great\nProkimenon= (verses from a psalm) inaugurates a new week in the\npenitential effort.\n\n\n\n\nHOW CAN WE KEEP GREAT LENT?\n\n\nIt is obviously impossible for us to go to Church every day. And since\nwe cannot keep the Lent liturgically, the question arises: what is our\nparticipation in Lent, how can we spiritually profit by it? The Church\ncalls us to deepen our religious conscience, to increase and strengthen\nthe spiritual contents of our life, to follow her in her pilgrimage\ntowards renewal and rededication to God.\n\n\n1. Fasting\n\nThe first universal precept is that of fasting. The Orthodox teaching\nconcerning fasting is different from the Roman Catholic doctrine and it\nis essential to understand it. Roman Catholics identify =fasting= with\na \"good deed,\" see in it a sacrifice which earns us a \"merit.\" \"What\nshall I give up for Lent?\"--this question is very typical of such an\nattitude toward fasting. Fasting thus is a formal obligation, an act of\nobedience to the Church, and its value comes precisely from obedience.\nThe Orthodox idea of fasting is first of all that of an =ascetical\neffort=. It is the effort to subdue the physical, the fleshly man to\nthe spiritual one, the \"natural\" to the \"supernatural.\" Limitations in\nfood are =instrumental=; they are not ends in themselves. Fasting thus\nis but a means of reaching a spiritual goal and, therefore, an integral\npart of a wide spiritual effort. Fasting, in the Orthodox understanding,\nincludes more than abstinence from certain types of food. It implies\nprayer, silence, an internal disposition of mind, an attempt to be\ncharitable, kind, and--in one word--=spiritual=. \"Brethren, while\nfasting bodily, let us also fast spiritually....\"\n\nAnd because of this the Orthodox doctrine of fasting excludes the\nevaluation of fasting in terms of a \"maximum\" or \"minimum.\" Every one\nmust find =his= maximum, weigh his conscience and find in it his\n\"pattern of fasting.\" But this pattern must necessarily include the\nspiritual as well as the \"bodily\" elements. The Typicon and the canons\nof the Church give the description of an ideal fast: no dairy products,\ntotal abstinence on certain days. \"He that is able to receive it, let\nhim receive it\" (Matt. 19:12). But, whatever is our measure--our fasting\nmust be a total effort of our total being.\n\nAccording to the rules of the Church the fast cannot be broken for\nthe entire Lenten period of forty days: Saturdays and Sundays are no\nexception.\n\n\n2. Prayer\n\nWe must always pray. But Lent is the time of an increase of prayer and\nalso of its deepening. The simplest way is, first, to add the Lenten\nprayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian to our private morning and evening\nprayers. Then, it is good and profitable to set certain hours of the day\nfor a short prayer: this can be done \"internally\"--at the office, in the\ncar, everywhere. The important thing here is to remember constantly that\nwe are in Lent, to be spiritually \"referred\" to its final goal: renewal,\npenitence, closer contact with God.\n\n\n3. Spiritual Reading\n\nWe cannot be in church daily, but it is still possible for us to follow\nthe Church's progress in Lent by reading those lessons and books which\nthe Church reads in her worship. A chapter of the Book of Genesis, some\npassages from Proverbs and Isaiah do not take much time, and yet they\nhelp us in understanding the spirit of Lent and its various dimensions.\nIt is also good to read a few Psalms--in connection with prayer or\nseparately. Nowhere else can we find such concentration of true\nrepentance, of thirst for communion with God, of desire to permeate the\nwhole of life with religion. Finally, a religious book: Lives of the\nSaints, History of the Church, Orthodox Spirituality, etc. is a \"must\"\nwhile we are in Lent. It takes us from our daily life to a higher level\nof interests, it feeds us with ideas and facts which are usually absent\nfrom our \"practical\" and \"efficient\" world.\n\n\n4. Change of Life\n\nAnd, last but not least: there must be an effort and a decision to\n=slow down= our life, to put in as much quiet, silence, contemplation,\nmeditation. Radio, TV, newspapers, social gatherings--all these things,\nhowever excellent and profitable in themselves, must be cut down to a\nreal minimum. Not because they are bad, but because we have something\n=more important= to do, and it is impossible to do without a change\nof life, without some degree of =concentration= and discipline. Lent\nis the time when we =re-evaluate= our life in the light of our faith,\nand this requires a very real effort and discipline. Christ says that a\n=narrow path= leads to the kingdom of God and we must make our life as\nnarrow as possible. At first the natural and selfish man in us revolts\nagainst these limitations. He wants his usual \"easy life\" with all its\npleasures and relaxations. But once we have tasted of such spiritual\neffort, once we have made by it one step towards God, the reward is\ngreat! We discover a joy that cannot be compared to any other joy.\nWe discover the reality of the spiritual world in us. We begin to\nunderstand what St. Paul meant by \"the joy and peace in the Holy Spirit.\"\n=God Himself enters our soul=: and it is this wonderful coming that\nconstitutes the ultimate end of Lent:\n\n\n    \"If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will\n    love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with\n    him.\" (John 14:23)\n\n\nLet us make =this= Lent a real Lent!\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFor a fuller treatment of the meaning of Lent, cf. the book =GREAT\nLENT=, also written by Rev. Alexander Schmemann.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES\n\n\n[Footnote 1: Cf. =Holy Week=, by Alexander Schmemann]\n\n[Footnote 2: For a guide to the reading of the Bible, cf. =Reading\nthe Bible=, by Rev. Thomas Hopko.]\n\n\n\n\nLENTEN PAMPHLETS\n\n\n=Forgiveness Sunday Vespers.= Complete text of the service of\n    Vespers on the eve of Great Lent, with music for the Great\n    Prokimenon of the day. Introduction by Father Alexander\n    Schmemann. 27 pp.                                              $.50\n\n=The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts.= The full text of the\n    lenten service of Holy Communion with appendices for the\n    movable verses and readings. Contains complete text with\n    musical notation for the antiphonal chanting of the Psalms.\n    Introduction by Father Thomas Hopko. 62 pp.                    $.75\n\n=Passion Gospels.= The twelve readings from the Gospel for the\n    Matins service of Great and Holy Friday. Contains a valuable\n    introduction by Father Paul Lazor on the meaning of the\n    texts. 60 pp.                                                  $.50\n\n=Great and Holy Friday.= Complete text of the service of Vespers\n    of Holy Friday, with music for the major hymns of the day.\n    Introduction by Father Paul Lazor. 54 pp.                      $.75\n\n=The Praises.= The complete text of Psalm 119 and the verses\n    of the Praises for the Matins service of Great and Holy\n    Saturday. Includes a brief introduction to the meaning of\n    the hymns. 47 pp.                                              $.50\n\n=Great and Holy Saturday: Vespers and Liturgy.= The text of\n    Vespers with the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great, complete\n    with all the readings, verses, and music for the Prokimena.   $1.00\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<pre id=\"pg-footer\">","title":"Great Lent: A School of Repentance. Its Meaning for Orthodox Christians","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":4519}