To struggle for holiness is always a joy; the Lord is never outdone in generosity.
Sunday, February 14, is the final day of the Pre-Lenten Triodion. St. Ann begins our journey towards Holy Week and the glorious Resurrection of Our Lord with Forgiveness Vespers, on Monday, February 15 at 5:00 p.m.
As we progress through Great Lent Fr. Tom will offer the Presanctified Liturgy on the Wednesday evenings of the Great Fast at 5:00 p.m. and the Akathist on Fridays at 5:00 p.m.
The services celebrated throughout Lent and Holy Week are essentially a toolkit – generously offered to us by the Church – to assist us on our path to holiness.
Along with fasting and abstinence from meat on proscribed days, Lent is a path back to the Garden, where Adam and Eve walked with God and enjoyed the original innocence of creation. A place where God gave them “every seed-bearing plant on all the earth and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit” as their food. (Gen.1:29). To the wild animals, the birds of the air, and all the living creatures, he gave all the “green plants for food.” (Gen. 1:30). Before the disruption wrought by the Father of Lies, meat was not eaten in Paradise. By abstaining from meat on Fridays in Lent (and on other days if one so chooses), we recall the original harmony of the Garden, where the treasure of kindness and mutual respect were hallmarks of our first parents love. We undertake a simplification of life and extend the liturgical worship into the pulse of daily life.
This Lent let us respond to the Lord’s invitation of mercy by fasting, abstinence, frequent reading of Sacred Scripture, private prayer, and more frequent Liturgical praise, petition, and thanksgiving.