Lenten News from the Parish of St. Sergius of Radonezh

At the parish of St. Sergius of Radonezh, before the beginning of Great Lent on Forgiveness Sunday, believers asked each other for forgiveness in order to enter the fast with a kind soul, focus on spiritual life, cleanse their hearts from sins in confession, and with a pure heart, greet the Bright Resurrection of Christ.

This is necessary for us if we want to live with the Lord, both here on Earth and in eternal life. We all desire eternal salvation. But this is only possible if there is no resentment in our hearts, no mutual condemnation or hostility. Otherwise, all our efforts during the upcoming fast will be in vain. The Lord will not accept our many earthly prostrations if our hearts continue to harbor grievances against our brothers, malice, and ill will toward our neighbors.

“Let us begin the Lenten season with light… let us cleanse the soul, cleanse the flesh, and break every bond of falsehood.”

“O Lord and Master of my life! A spirit of idleness, despondency, ambition and idle talking give me not. But rather a spirit of chastity, humble-mindedness, patience, and love, bestow on me, Thy servant. Yea, O Lord King! Grant me to see my failings, and not condemn my brother, for blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages. Amen.”

Twice a year, at the beginning of Great Lent and in its middle, we hear in our churches the inspired work of St. Andrew of Crete—his Great Penitential Canon, which is read in parts (as in the first four days of Lent) or in its entirety (in the fifth week of Lent, at the service of the so-called “St. Andrew’s Standing”). And it is with the reading of this canon that Great Lent truly begins for all of us, the Orthodox faithful.

Great Lent is the silence that we are completely deprived of in the modern world. Not physical silence, but spiritual silence. Silence—not as the absence of sound, but as the presence of another dimension of life within us and among us.

After these touching services in the first week of Great Lent, on the Feast of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great was celebrated by Archbishop Andronik of New York and North America. He delivered a sermon on the significance of the day, discussing the history of this feast, which is associated with the Seventh Ecumenical Council that restored the veneration of icons after a long period of iconoclasm.

At the conclusion of the Liturgy, the rite of the Triumph of Orthodoxy was performed. Its texts solemnly proclaim the victory of the Christian Orthodox faith over heresies. During the bishop’s service, anathemas are pronounced upon all heretics who have sown discord in the Church’s order and Christian theology. This rite proclaims the true glorification of God, in accordance with the teachings of the Church.

Translated from the Russian Original rocana.org