The Great Lent

The long seven weeks’ period until Easter comes from the forty days of Jesus’ fasting in the desert, immediately prior to His sermon. During Lent, the Orthodox Christians abstain from food of animal origin: meat, milk, eggs, but also make special efforts to overcome everything that  distances them from God – selfishness, anger, envy, gluttony, greed… In a way, Lent is for the Church and each of its member a quicker way towards a rejoicing event of Resurrection, towards a new life with Christ. On Easter, joint baptisms used to be performed, and the whole Lent period was the time of preparation for those who ere getting ready for baptism. Each Sunday of the period of the Great Lent was a section on the road to Easter. The first Sunday is called the Sunday of Orthodoxy, from the second to the fifth week, the Church remembers the great ascetics and eremites – St Gregory Palamas, St Mary of Egypt, St John Climacus – the third Sunday is called Adoration of Cross, to remind us of the Lenten way, the way of the Cross and Martyrdom. On the sixth Sunday, Palm Sunday, along with the Lord we enter  Jerusalem and then the seventh week starts, the week of the Passions, the sufferings of Jesus Christ. On Maundy Thursday we commemorate the Last Supper of Jesus and participate in the first liturgy and the Holy Communion, and on Good Friday we weep below our Lord’s Crucifixion. Holy Saturday, the last day of the Great Lent is the day of silence, which our Lord spent with the dead…