Monday of the First Week of Great Lent

True fasting is putting away evil deeds
St. Basil the Great

The meaning of fasting consists not simply in refusing meat and dairy products, but most importantly in profound self-knowledge, repentance, and the struggle with the passions. “Let us tear every unrighteous union,” the Church hymns call to us on these days. “If we refrain from meat but devour our neighbors, this is a mockery of the fast,” says patristic wisdom. The true meaning of the fast is clearly revealed in one of the stichera: “Let us abandon bodily passions, and grow the gifts of the soul…” “The Springtime of repentance” is what people in the Church call the time of Great Lent.

The first week of Great Lent is the strictest. Thus, according to the rule, food is taken only after the Liturgy on Wednesday. Of course, this requirement is relaxed for the sick, infirm, aged, and pregnant or nursing mothers, with the blessing of their spiritual fathers. Nevertheless, even the strictest bodily abstinence without prayer, like a plowed but unsown field, will bring forth nothing but weeds.

During the Great Lenten services we recall the history of mankind’s fall and salvation. Bringing to life before the eyes of the mind the woeful scenes of mankind’s wandering “in a foreign land”, along the “paths of destruction”, the Church allows us to feel more sharply the bitter fruits of sins. In the evenings of the first four days of Great Lent, the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete is read in Orthodox churches. This is an inspired work, poured from the depths of the contrite heart of a holy man. Listening to the words of the Canon, the Christian as if once again lives through the life of the whole world, and relates it to his own life. From the depths of the soul, from the depths of the fall, rises the repentant, tearful voice: “Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me!” Orthodox Christians always try not to miss these services that have such an amazingly powerful effect on the soul.

Hymns in the first week of Great Lent

“Let us observe a fast acceptable and pleasing to the Lord. True fasting is to put away all evil, to control the tongue, to forbear from anger, to abstain from lust, slander, falsehood and perjury. If we renounce these things, then is our fasting true and acceptable to God.”

“Come eagerly, all ye faithful, and taking as shield the strong armor of the Fast, let us repel every delusion of the enemy. Let us not be led astray by the lusts of passion, let us not flinch before the fire of temptation; and Christ in His love will reward us with crowns for our patient endurance. Offering, then, our prayers with boldness, we fall down and cry aloud, asking for peace and His great mercy on our souls.”

Stichera for Monday of the First Week of Great Lent

Where shall I begin to weep for the actions of my wretched life? What first-fruit shall I offer, O Christ, in this my lamentation? But in Thy compassion grant me forgiveness of sins.”

“Come, wretched soul, with thy flesh to the Creator of all. Make Confession to Him, and abstain henceforth from thy past brutishness; and offer to God tears of repentance.”

From the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete

On fasting

Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.

Matthew 6:16-18

True fasting is putting away evil deeds. Forgive your neighbor his offences, forgive him his debts. “Do not fast in judgments and fights.” You may not eat meat, but you devour your brother. You may not drink wine, but you do not refrain from offence. You may wait till evening to take food, but you spend the day in places of judgment.

St. Basil the Great

You are fasting? Feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, visit the sick, and do not forget the imprisoned. Console the sorrowing and weeping; be merciful, meek, kind, gentle, long-suffering, not remembering wrongs, reverent, truthful, and pious, so that God would accept your fast and grant you abundant fruits of repentance.

St. John Chrysostom

In these days of the holy Fast, put yourself in order; make peace with people and with God. Weep and have compunction over your unworthiness and peril, and then you will receive forgiveness, and find hope of salvation. A heart that is broken and humbled, God will not despise; and without this, no sacrifices or alms will help you.

From the Letters of Igumen Nikon (Vorobev)

On repentance

If we look deeper into ourselves, then each one will say the words of the prayer: “God, cleanse me a sinner, for I have never done anything good in Thy sight.” These are the words of St. Macarius of Egypt, one of the greatest saints. How can we, wretched sinners, judge and condemn others and in so doing place ourselves higher than them, as their judges? How can we consider those to be on the right path who do not recognized themselves (recognize, and not only in words) to be the greatest sinners of all?

All the work of salvation boils down to the awareness of our own sins, our own unworthiness of the Kingdom of God, and as a result of this, the need to constantly pray to the Lord: “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” That is how the Lord taught us to pray in the parable of the publican. We are all publicans according to our sins, but we haven’t the publican’s repentance.

Forgetting all our good deeds, we should, like the publican, cry out from our whole heart: “God, be merciful to us, sinners!” And if the publican was justified of all his sins by this prayer alone, then clearly the Lord will have mercy on us also, if we pray from our whole heart and hope in God’s mercy.

With all diligence ask the Lord for the greatest and most needed gift of all gifts—to see your sins and weep over them. Whoever has this gift, has everything.

Make an effort to say the words of the prayer with attention. If you get distracted reproach yourself, open yourself to God, and again force yourself to say the prayer with attention. Then the heart will gradually soften, and at least sometimes will respond with contrition, and maybe even tears.

From the Letters of Igumen Nikon (Vorobyev)

3/3/2014

See also
Saturday of the First Week, and the Sweetness of Boiled Wheat Saturday of the First Week, and the Sweetness of Boiled Wheat Saturday of the First Week, and the Sweetness of Boiled Wheat Saturday of the First Week, and the Sweetness of Boiled Wheat
Fifty years after the death of St Theodore, the emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363), wanting to commit an outrage upon the Christians, commanded the city-commander of Constantinople during the first week of Great Lent to sprinkle all the food provisions in the marketplaces with the blood offered to idols. St Theodore appeared in a dream to Archbishop Eudoxius, ordering him to inform all the Christians that no one should buy anything at the marketplaces, but rather to eat cooked wheat with honey (koliva).
Friday of the First Week of Great Lent Friday of the First Week of Great Lent Friday of the First Week of Great Lent Friday of the First Week of Great Lent
When we loved sin, these sins were living boughs on the tree of our life and they fed from it. When we turned away from them, became disgusted with them, repented and confessed, we thereby severed them from ourselves. At the moment of absolution they fell away from us. Now they are dry branches, and the Lord comes to scorch in us this forbearance of transgression. Through the absolution of sins He is preparing a worthy dwelling place for Himself in us. —St. Theophan the Recluse
Wednesday of the First Week of Great Lent Wednesday of the First Week of Great Lent
Metropolitan Nicanor of Novgorod and St. Petersburg
Wednesday of the First Week of Great Lent Wednesday of the First Week of Great Lent
Let us keep the Fast not only by refraining from food, but by becoming strangers to all the bodily passions; that we who are enslaved to the tyranny of the flesh may become worthy to partake of the Lamb, the Son of God, slain of His own will for the sake of the world, and spiritually may celebrate the feast of the Savior’s Resurrection from the dead. So shall we be raised on high in the glory of the virtues, and through our righteous actions we shall give joy to the Lord who loves mankind (Aposticha at Vespers for Wednesday).
The First Sunday of Lent: The Sunday of Orthodoxy The First Sunday of Lent: The Sunday of Orthodoxy The First Sunday of Lent: The Sunday of Orthodoxy The First Sunday of Lent: The Sunday of Orthodoxy
The theme of the victory of the icons, by its emphasis on the incarnation, points us to the basic Christian truth that the one whose death and resurrection we celebrate at Easter was none other than the Word of God who became human in Jesus Christ.
Homily on Wednesday of the First Week of Great Lent. On the Danger of Hypocrisy Homily on Wednesday of the First Week of Great Lent. On the Danger of Hypocrisy
St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov)
Homily on Wednesday of the First Week of Great Lent. On the Danger of Hypocrisy Homily on Wednesday of the First Week of Great Lent. On the Danger of Hypocrisy
St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov)
Vainglory and its offspring, hypocrisy, are ruinous at their very root—they deprive a person of all heavenly reward, representing the vain human praise he has chosen and desired as the only reward. The Lord condemned vainglorious hypocrites.
Beginning of Great Lent 2012. Archpastoral Message of His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah Beginning of Great Lent 2012. Archpastoral Message of His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah
Metropolitan Jonah (Paffhausen)
Beginning of Great Lent 2012. Archpastoral Message of His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah Beginning of Great Lent 2012. Archpastoral Message of His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah
Metropolitan Jonah (Paffhausen)
In the three weeks that have led us to this great and solemn first day of the Fast, the Church has set before our spiritual eyes themes of exile. When our ancestors in the faith were led to captivity in Babylon, they wept; they hung up their lyres and said, “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither”
Comments
Here you can leave your comment on the present article, not exceeding 4000 characters. All comments will be read by the editors of OrthoChristian.Com.
Enter through FaceBook
Your name:
Your e-mail:
Enter the digits, seen on picture:

Characters remaining: 4000

Subscribe
to our mailing list

* indicates required
×