First Week of Lent
Clean Week
Monday, Feb. 27th
Canon of St Andrew: 6pm
Tuesday, Feb 28th
Canon of St Andrew: 6pm
Wednesday, March 1st:
Confessions: 4:30-5:30pm
First Presanctified Liturgy of the Season: 6pm
Thursday, March 2nd
Canon of St Andrew: 6pm
Saturday, March 4th
Confessions followed by Great Vespers: 5pm
Sunday, March 5th: Sunday of Orthodoxy
Matins: 9:00am
Divine Liturgy and Icon Procession: 10am followed by Coffee Hour
The Canon of St. Andrew of Crete
The Canon of St. Andrew of Crete is a very lengthy, penitential prayer that is broken up into three nights of communal prayer during Clean Week. We will gather together Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday to pray a portion of the prayer. To learn more about this beautiful, powerful prayer, be sure to check out this article.
Presanctified Liturgy
The first Presanctified Liturgy of the Lenten season is will be Wednesday night of Clean Week. Presanctified Liturgy is a mid-week liturgy that provide the faithful with an extra opportunity to receive the Eucharist to strengthen them during the intense spiritual struggle of fasting. Below is a description of this beautiful service: Presanctified Liturgy: The Gift of Lent.
Strict Fasting
Many Orthodox Christians observe a strict fasting practice during the first few days of Clean Week. We all abstain from meat and dairy during the fast, but Orthodox Christians who are able are also encouraged to add additional discipline to their fasting on Clean Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Many monastics do not eat or drink anything during this period. Others will eat only in the evenings, and then only simple foods like fruits, vegetables, and bread. If you are struggling with what to do, please reach out to Fr Seth.
Clean the House
In the spirit of Clean Week, many people do a “spring cleaning” of their homes. Any extra food, clothing, and other items can be given to the poor.
Go Outside
One Clean Monday tradition for Greek Orthodox Christians, is to spend the day outdoors. Many families also fly kites on this day.
CLEAN WEEK TIPS
Start Small
It is really easy, especially as a new convert, to try to take on everything at once. To jump right in with ALL of the beautiful Orthodox traditions available. This can quickly lead to burn out! Instead, start small. Perhaps you will choose one tradition to focus on this year with your family. (I would recommend starting by attending TWO of the services of Clean Week). Then next year you can add another tradition, and so on over the next several years.
Know Your Season
This tip relates to starting small: Know the season of life that you are in. Are you currently nursing one baby and chasing after a toddler at the same time? This is probably not the year to try a strict fast. Do you have teenagers that keep you running around from activity to activity each night? Then trying to make all sorts of new dishes for dinners is probably not practical. Speak with Fr Seth if you need help navigating.
Keep Your Family in Mind
What does this mean, practically? Even if we are strictly fasting, we need to plan good meals for kids. Attending all services might not be possible right now with early bedtimes. So, as you begin Clean Week, make sure to consider the other members of your family.
Plan Ahead for Meals
Clean Week can get busy with all of the special services, so it is good to plan ahead for meals. You can try the book Fasting as a Family and the meal-planning worksheets in the back. When you set out to make the meal plan for the week, consider the activities of the day and plan accordingly.
Talk with Your Priest
As always, if you need help or have questions, speak with Fr Seth. He will be able to best advise you as you enter Great Lent and Clean Week.
Preparation for Great Lent
The season of Great Lent is the time of preparation for the feast of the Resurrection of Christ. It is the living symbol of man’s entire life which is to be fulfilled in his own resurrection from the dead with Christ. It is a time of renewed devotion: of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. It is a time of repentance, a real renewal of our minds, hearts and deeds in conformity with Christ and his teachings. It is the time, most of all, of our return to the great commandments of loving God and our neighbors.
In the Orthodox Church, Great Lent is not a season of morbidity and gloominess. On the contrary, it is a time of joyfulness and purification. We are called to “anoint our faces” and to “cleanse our bodies as we cleanse our souls.” The very first hymns of the very first service of Great Lent set the proper tone of the season:
Let us begin the lenten time with delight . . . let us fast from passions as we fast from food, taking pleasure in the good words of the Spirit, that we may be granted to see the holy passion of Christ our God and his holy Pascha, spiritually rejoicing.
Thy grace has arisen upon us, O Lord, the illumination of our souls has shown forth; behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the time of repentance (Vespers Hymns).
It is our repentance that God desires, not our remorse. We sorrow for our sins, but we do so in the joy of God’s mercy. We mortify our flesh, but we do so in the joy of our resurrection into life everlasting. We make ready for the resurrection during Great Lent, both Christ’s Resurrection and our own. (source)
2023 Calendar for Great Lent / Holy Week
Some notes about this years Lenten Calendar
I want to draw your attention to some changes to the 2023 Lenten schedule at St. Tikhon’s. There are a few edits. We will be serving the Presanctified Liturgy for Lazarus Saturday on Friday night before Holy Week. On Lazarus Saturday itself, we will be celebrating the sacraments of the Reception of Converts into the Church and Baptism followed by our Church Clean Up Day and Festal Vespers for Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday morning we will celebrate Festal Matins followed by the Liturgy. On Monday-Wed we will be serving Bridegroom Matins of which I will be present on Wednesday. On Holy Thursday morning we will be adding the service of the Vesperal Liturgy celebrating the institution of the Mystical Supper. From that evening on, we will be serving the same services we normally do for Holy Week.
Resources for Great Lent
Read about the services of Lent here.
Read about Presanctified Liturgies here.
Read about the Sundays of Lent here.
Orthodox Pebbles Resources for KIDS! Is here.
Attending Services during Lent
This is the season of a marked increase in divine services. Please simplify, plan ahead, and prepare yourself for attending as many of the services of the Church as you can. I especially encourage a serious effort for laying that groundwork in the first week of Lent. There is a service to attend every day. Take turns with your spouse in attending services. Turn off Netflix, silence your phone notifications, give of your time and treasures, eat less, and pray more. You will discover that Christ is closer to you than you are to yourself...
Confessions during Lent
We are given 40 days of the Lenten Season before we enter Holy Week. Please make your confession during this season during these 40 days. I am available for confession on Wednesdays before Presanctified Liturgy as well as after Vespers on Saturdays. I will not be hearing confessions after the Presanctifed Liturgy of Lazarus Saturday, unless there is a particular need (distance, illness, etc.). If you have any questions please let me know!
“Even if we fall a hundred times a day, it does not matter; we must get up and go on walking toward God without looking back." - Elder Thaddeus, Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives
Praying during Lent
Seek God in prayer. Read the Psalms. Do your morning and evening prayers. Consult the priest and get a prayer rule. Read these homilies by St. Theophan on prayer. Memorize the prayer of St. Ephraim appointed to be read during the weekdays of Lent. Pray and do prostrations. Use your prayer rope! Seek God in prayer.
Fasting during Lent
“Let us fast with a fast pleasing to the Lord. This is the true fast: the casting off of evil, the bridling of the tongue, the cutting off of anger, the cessation of lusts, evil talking, lies and cursing. The stopping of these is the fast true and acceptable.” (Monday Vespers of the First Week).
Fast according to the tradition of the Church. Unless you cannot do so, seek advice as to how to enter into the fast. Refrain from unnecessary and excessive food and drink. The Fathers are clear that our war against the passions starts with fasting. Here is a refresher essay from Metropolitan Kallistos Ware and Mother Mary on the True Nature of Fasting. Here is also a wonderful reflection from Fr. Sergei Sveshnikov Fasting for Non-Monastics. Read more about fasting here.
Almsgiving during Lent
Almsgiving is another invaluable pillar of Lent and of our lives in Christ. Read this reflection on almsgiving. One of the assumptions of the Fast is that the money we save through fasting is owed to the poor. Find a way to give, give in secret, give generously, and give from your heart.
Spiritual Reading during Great Lent
“Hearken, I entreat you, all you that are careful for this life,
and procure books that will be medicines for the soul.” St. John Chrysostom
PDF of entire Old Testament Readings for Great Lent - compiled by Dn. Raphael
Book Recommendations
Fr. Alexander Schmemann “Great Lent: Journey to Pascha”
Fr. Thomas Hopko “The Lenten Spring”
Olivier Clement “The Song of Tears: An Essay on Repentance based on the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete”
Frederica Mathewes-Green “First Fruits of Prayer: A Forty Day Journey through the Canon of St. Andrew”
Elder Thaddeus “Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives”
Fr. Joseph Honeycutt “Defeating Sin: Overcoming Our Passions and Changing Forever”
St. John of Kronstadt “Season of Repentance: Lenten Homilies of St. John of Kronstadt”
Read the Lives of the Saints
“In the Lives of the Saints are shown numerous but always certain ways of salvation, enlightenment, sanctification, transfiguration, ‘christification,’ deification; all the ways are shown by which man conquers sin, every sin; conquers passion, every passion; conquers death; conquers the devil, every devil. There is a remedy there for every sin: from every passion─healing, from every death─resurrection, from every devil─deliverance; from all evils─salvation. There is no passion, no sin for which the Lives of the Saints do not show how the passion or sin in question is conquered, mortified, and uprooted.” St. Justin Popovich, Orthodox Faith & Life in Christ, “Introduction to the Lives of the Saints”
Prologue of Ohrid either online or hardcover
The Synaxarion (Complete Set)
Catechism I Class
Catechism Class this week is to go to church! :)
We will be offering a Lenten Book Study after Wed night services again this year. Christopher Johnson will be leading us in a study of Olivier Clément’s book “Song of Tears” which takes us through the Canon of St Andrew. Books will be available next week.
DETAILS
The Great Canon has been described as one of the jewels of Orthodoxy’s ascetic spirituality. In the first week of Lent, during Great Compline, it is sung and declaimed in portions; on Thursday of the fifth week, during Matins, in its entirety. Throughout, accompanied by bows or prostrations, the refrain is: Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.This short, yet full, essay by Olivier Clément serves as an enriching commentary and guide for reading The Great Canon of St Andrew of Crete. The author begins the journey with a study of the meaning of “awakening” and “the fear of God”: the stepping stones toward true repentance. He then follows the Canon’s path of identifying our fallen nature, the passions, Christ's liberation from sin and death, humility, and asceticism, and ends with a comparison between the shedding of tears and the holy chrism of baptism. Clément ultimately encourages us to see repentance as the key to being fully alive—and The Great Canon as our roadmap toward becoming alive in Christ. A translation of the Great Canon accompanies the text.
EXCERPT:
"A remarkable interpretation of the Bible unfolds throughout the Great Canon.... Originally the Great Fast was a preparation for Christian initiation, the death-and-resurrection with Christ that was conferred during the Paschal night. Each day... the bishop would give a biblical catechesis in which the literal and spiritual meaning fitted each other, and in which the entire Bible was interpreted as being the encounter of the two Adams, as one vast parable of the Prodigal Son. These efforts to understand were inseparable from a committed asceticism—as they still should be—for one must approach Scripture with an intelligence that is purified, heart and mind united. Traces of this primitive catechesis survive in the hymnography of the Triodion, particularly in Saint Andrew’s Great Canon. Eight of its nine odes consist, in the main, of a 'metanoic' [i.e., repentant] rumination on the Old Testament, with the grace of the life-giving Cross appearing not just in the typology but directly in the final troparia of each ode before coming into its own in the ninth, which is entirely devoted to it. In this way, the Bible becomes the story of humanity, the story of the 'total Adam,' of the 'single Man,' as the Fathers put it, and consequently of my story. Not in the sense that I should turn the Bible into a game of pietistic allegories so as to express the various states of my soul. Rather, in the sense that I am wrested from my smug or dreary individuality and discover that I am “consubstantial” with the heart-rending experience of all men.... [O]ur fallen state is not something closed in on itself. Despair turns into hope. Someone has descended into our hell to make light shine in it." —Olivier Clément