Great Lent

SUOF Week 2: Great Lent


Guest Speaker: Mr Anastasios Kalogerakis
Attendance: Kostan, Kyriako, Pavlos, Anastasia, Jack, Angelo, Eleftheria, Vasilia


In the second and third centuries, there was only ever a 2-day fast. It was a fast of complete abstinence - no food or drink whatsoever. In the third century, this was extended to a six-day fast for Holy Week. By the fourth century, however, documents such as the Pilgrimage of Etheria (or Egeria) show that a forty-day fast had been well-established by then. By now, it was a fast not of abstinence, but more of a limited diet.

So, what I call fast, you call diet. But it is important to understand that fasting is not just a matter of diet - it is diet partnered with prayer and almsgiving. In Greek, 'almsgiving' is known as eleimosini - which means acts of mercy. Fasting is a grouping of three. And, as we heard in the hymn last night: "true fasting is to put away evil". Be careful - it is very easy to think of fasting in terms of diet only, and even easier to let this diet control Lent. But it gets a bit ridiculous when our fasting food reaches gourmet status. If we are spending more time preparing fasting food than we would on normal food, we are doing something wrong. Whatever we eat, the most important thing is to thank God for it.

The Church knows that we're only human, and that it is difficult for us to jump straight away into this full-on kind of fasting. Therefore, it prepares us for the start of Lent by gradually easing us into both different eating patterns, and emphasising the spiritual requirements of Lent. In particular, there is a huge emphasis on repentance, forgiveness and not judging. Think of the Gospel readings we have heard over the last few weeks:

The tax collector and the Pharisee: think of how the Pharisee judged the tax collector. The Prodigal Son: not only a lesson in repentance, but also judgement - look at how the elder son judges the younger son, and suffers jealousy through his actions. Jesus separating the goats and the sheep: the lesson here is that Jesus is the only one who can judge people. The Epistle reading of St Paul: "let him who eats not judge he who does not eat ..."

Even though Lent, and Easter, occur every year, we still need to be reminded of what they mean for us. As the saints say, "it is more important to remind, than to instruct". It's up to us to decide what Easter means to us, and what we will do about it.

So, today is called Clean Monday, because we have cleaned the table of most of our foodstuffs. We have a local custom here in Sydney that on this day we make a pilgrimage to one of the local monasteries with our whole parish. This is a communal event, its purpose being to begin Lent all together within the parameters of a monastery. The bishop usually comes along as well, and gives a small homily.

Now we begin Lent in earnest. You will notice that the services now will have a more penitential character. So we're going to play a small word association game today - I'm going to give you a phrase and you'll tell me what you think of when you hear it. The phrase is Great Lent.

• hungry
• sombre
• silence
• forgiveness
• sensibility (to control yourself)
• journey

Is Great Lent just sombre? The way we usually describe it is as a joyful, or bright sadness. It is sombre, but it is also joyful - "a joy creating sorrow". Both emotions are part of our life, and should be so during Lent, especially because during Lent we are liable to fall too much into one or the other. Yes, we are sinners - but we are also saved. Yes, we repent - but we are also forgiven. Neither one or the other takes precedence, but both at once.

Silence is a part of our control during Lent, our self-examination. It's a symbolic silence as well as a physical one. Think of it this way - our life is very noisy. How in all that noise can I hear God? We should never cut down on our quiet time because we are too busy - in fact, we must double our quiet time. How else are we able to remember God?

Think of your surroundings during Lent as an arena. School, work, university, home, church - wherever you are, there are opportunities to triumph, and there are opportunities to stumble. How can we triumph? We can not judge, we can forgive, we can obey, so on. Even though our focus is on the Lord every day, Lent heightens that focus.

Lastly, remember that Orthodoxy is not a religion, a trend, a fancy ... it is a conviction that Christ is the Son of God.

We are very grateful to Tasos for sharing his wisdom with us on the subject of Great Lent. After his talk, Tasos emailed us with some books we may be interested in, and that greatly inspired him:

A Year of Grace of the Lord by a Monk of the Eastern Church (available from http://www.amazon.com/Year-Grace-Lord-Scriptural-Liturgical/dp/0913836680). This is a scriptural and liturgical commentary on the calendar of the Orthodox Church.

The Lenten Triodion translated by Mother Mary and Archimandrite Kallistos Ware (available from http://www.amazon.com/Lenten-Triodion-Mother-Maria/dp/1878997513/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1299469673&sr=1-1). This is a compilation and translation from the Greek originals of Church services for the ten weeks before Easter Sunday, providing access to the profound poetry and prayers within our Church. The Greek language service books are available at http://analogion.gr/glt/. Another English translation by Archimandrite Ephrem Lash is available at http://www.anastasis.org.uk/liturgic.htm.

The Orthodox Faith: An Elementary Handbook at http://www.oca.org/OCorthfaith.asp. This is intended to provide basic, comprehensive information on the faith and the life of the Orthodox Church for the average reader.

My Book of Great Lent. This is a children’s colouring book from Greece available in a few weeks’ time from the Archdiocese Book Centre at bookcentre@greekorthodox.org.au or tel: 9690 6100, in case people have younger siblings, nieces, nephews etc. it’s a great gift idea.