Rating: 10|Votes: 23
Wherefore, enter ye all into the joy of your Lord; Receive your reward, both the first, and likewise the second. You rich and poor together, hold high festival! You sober and you heedless, honour the day! Rejoice today, both you who have fasted and you who have disregarded the fast. The table is full-laden; feast ye all sumptuously. The calf is fatted; let no one go hungry away. Enjoy ye all the feast of faith: receive ye all the riches of loving-kindness.
Vincent Martini
Rating: 7,5|Votes: 10
Notice that Christ mentions the discipline of fasting as a foregone conclusion for his followers. We also see that fasting is pointless if it is not done with the right spirit. Those who fast “publicly” and with great “fanfare” have received their reward, and it is both temporal and fleeting. True fasting is a relational and Spiritual discipline that affects one’s whole person and transforms one into the likeness of Christ.
Abba Dorotheos
Rating: 10|Votes: 1
How is the house of the soul built? We can learn this by observing how a material house is built. For he who wishes to build such a house much fortify all around by building walls on all four sides, and not concern himself with one side only, neglecting the other three. Otherwise he will derive no benefit at all, but will waste everything in vain—his intention, expense, and labor. So does it happen also with the soul: for a man who desires to build a house of the soul should not neglect a single wall of his building, but should erect it evenly and harmoniously.
Rating: 4,3|Votes: 3
On Wednesday evening a very special service is celebrated in Orthodox churches—the Great Canon with the Life of St. Mary of Egypt. This is the only time in the year when the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete, which was read in four parts during the first week of Great Lent, is read in its entirety, along with the canon to St. Mary of Egypt. This canon contains every motivation toward fasting and repentance, and the Church repeats it in the fifth week in its entirety in order to inspire us with renewed strength to finish the course of the fast. The Life of St. Mary of Egypt is also read to that end—to motivate us to be attentive and repent.
Fr. Seraphim Holland
Rating: 1|Votes: 5
There is no other sacred hymn which compares with this monumental work, which St Andrew wrote for his personal meditations. Nothing else has its extensive typology and mystical explanations of the scripture, from both the Old and New Testaments. One can almost consider this hymn to be a “survey of the Old and New Testament”. Its other distinguishing features are a spirit of mournful humility, hope in God, and complex and beautiful Trinitarian Doxologies and hymns to the Theotokos in each Ode.
