The Triumph of the Church

by St. John Chrysostom

"How does one prove that Christ is God? We should not try to answer this question by using the argument of the creation of heaven and earth, because the unbeliever will not accept it. If we tell him that He raised the dead, healed the blind, expelled demons, he still will not agree. If we tell him that He promised us resurrection from the dead, the kingdom of heaven, and ineffable goods, not only he will not agree, but also he will laugh at us. 

How then shall we lead him to the faith, especially when he is not spiritually developed? Surely, we shall do this by resting on truths which are acceptable both to us and to him without any dispute or shadow of doubt. 

Commemoration of the Holy Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council (787)

The Holy Icons

by Bishop Kallistos Ware

The Seventh Ecumenical Council, convoked by the Empress Irene and met at Nicaea from September 24 to October 13, 787. Patriarch Tarasios (commemorated February 25) presided. The council ended almost fifty years of iconoclast persecution and established the veneration of the holy icons as basic to the belief and spirituality of Christ's Church. As the Synaxarion says, "It was not simply the veneration of the holy images that the Fathers defended in these terms but, in fact, the very reality of the Incarnation of the Son of God."

From a Homily on the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy

St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov)

Christ the Pantocrator. Fresco in the Hagia Sophia, ConstantinopleOrthodoxy is the true knowledge of God and reverence of God. Orthodoxy is the worship of God in Spirit and in Truth. Orthodoxy is the glorification of the true God, the knowledge of Him and worship of Him. Orthodoxy is the glorification of God by man, the true servant of God, given to him through the grace of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the glory of the Christian (cf. Jn 7:39).[1] Where there is no Spirit, there is no Orthodoxy.

On the Sunday of Orthodoxy

St. Luke, Archbishop of Crimea

On the first Sunday of Lent, our Holy Church celebrates the Triumph of Orthodoxy, of true faith, which trampled down all heresies and was established. For this reason this Sunday is called the Sunday of Orthodoxy. Heresies showed up even at the very beginning of Christianity. The Apostles of Christ themselves warned their contemporaries, and with them us too, about the danger of false teachers.

The Holy Apostle Peter writes the following in his Second General Epistle: “But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed”(II Pet. 2:1-2).

THE TRIUMPH OF ORTHODOXY

Johann von Gardner

The Dormition CathedralIt was 1914. Moscow. The first Sunday of Great Lent — "The Sunday of Orthodoxy." On that day, all lovers of church splendor flock to the Uspensky Sobor, the Dormition Cathedral, to try to attend the festal services, the "Anathema," as it was known. But for an ordinary mortal, getting into the Dormition Cathedral on that day was not easy. You needed to get on line very early in the morning, almost at dawn, and even then the chances of getting into the church were slim. Long before the beginning of the service, the Cathedral was filled to capacity, and the police charged with maintaining order closed off access to the church in order to prevent people from being crushed.

Lessons from the Sermon on the Mount

Lent – an Intimate Journey to God. 

Fr. Vasile Catalin Tudora 

What is Lent? By most popular definitions lent is a period of abstinence, total or partial, from food. It is basically a diet. If it is not understood as a diet, then is often considered a period of renunciation to some of our guilty pleasures like TV, chocolate etc. The Christian understanding of fasting however and especially the Orthodox one, is much more complex than simply “giving up”something . 

So what is Lent? Of course during Lent we renounce some types of foods like meat, dairy products etc. This is an important part of our lenten journey, not to be forgotten or neglected; it helps the body become swifter and, less encumbered by heavy foods, it can rise faster to prayer and other soul enriching activities. Abstaining from food, although absolutely necessary, is not a goal in itself, but just a gate to greater things.

The First Sunday Of Lent: The Sunday Of Orthodoxy

Introduction

The Sunday of Orthodoxy is the first Sunday of Great Lent. The dominant theme of this Sunday since 843 has been that of the victory of the icons. In that year the iconoclastic controversy, which had raged on and off since 726, was finally laid to rest, and icons and their veneration were restored on the first Sunday in Lent. Ever since, this Sunday has been commemorated as the "Triumph of Orthodoxy."

WHAT IS AN ANATHEMA?

Rarely does the Rite of Orthodoxy, which is now being performed, take place without censures and reproaches on somebody's part. And no matter how many sermons are given explaining that the Church here acts wisely for the salvation of her children -- still the malcontents just keep repeating their line. Either they do not listen to the sermons, or these sermons do not strike home as regards the latters' perplexities, or perhaps they have formed their own conception of this rite and do not want to abandon it, no matter what you tell them.

SATURDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK, AND THE SWEETNESS OF BOILED WHEAT

On the Saturday of the first week of Great Lent, we commemorate an event which occurred in the year 356—a miracle of Great Martyr Theodore the Tyro ("the Recruit"), which continues to have great significance for Orthodox Christians even today, perhaps especially today.

* * *

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

Let no one be deceitful, let no one harbor anger, let no one nourish poison in his soul,

so that he might not receive Communion unto condemnation.

—St. John Chrysostom

On Friday of the first week of Great Lent, after the Vespers service with the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, a moleben canon is sung in church to the Holy Greatmartyr Theodore the Tyro and koliva is blessed in his honor—boiled wheat or rice with honey. This celebration was instituted after a certain event in Church history.

In 362, the Greek Emperor Julian the Apostate in his desire to mock the Christians ordered that blood from sacrifices to idols be secretly sprinkled on all the food being sold at the markets of Antioch. The apostate wanted in this way to defile the faithful who had been fasting strictly during the first week of Great Lent. But Greatmartyr Theodore, who had been burned to death in 306 for his confession of the Christian faith, appeared in a dream to Bishop Eudoxius, told him about Julian’s command, and advised him to have Christians eat koliva for a week instead of the defiled food.

THURSDAY IN THE FIRST WEEK OF GREAT LENT

Repentance is a sacrament by which those who confess

their sins are invisibly absolved of them by Jesus Christ Himself, at the priest’s visible expression of forgiveness.

Orthodox Catechesis

During the first week of Great Lent, all Orthodox Christians try to worthily prepare themselves for Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. They first cleanse their souls in the sacrament of confession.

The Lord Jesus Christ said to His disciples,Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven (Mt. 18:18). And in another place, He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained (Jn. 20:21-23). Fulfilling the Lord’s will, the apostles in turn gave this authority to their successors—the pastors of Christ’s Church, and to this day, all the right-believing Christians who sincerely confess their sins before an Orthodox priest can receive through him the prayer of absolution, forgiveness, and complete remission of sins.

WEDNESDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK OF GREAT LENT

Without Me you can do nothing

Jn. 15:5

On Wednesdays and Fridays (and on certain feast days) throughout the entire period of Great Lent, the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is celebrated.

On the first week of Great Lent, according to tradition, most Orthodox Christians approach the Holy Mysteries of Christ after an especially concentrated preparation for confession and Communion, usually on Saturday or Sunday. Communing at the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts during the first week of Great Lent are those who due to illness or some other reasonable cause are not able to fast strictly during the five days of this especially important Lenten week. During the other weeks of Lent, anyone who wishes may receive Communion at the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts; this does not include infants, who may be communed only at the full Liturgy.

TUESDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK OF GREAT LENT

Fasting sends our prayer to heaven, giving it as if wings.

—St. Basil the Great

King and Prophet David the Psalmist.Miniature, British Library.“I have humbled my soul with fasting”, says David the Psalmist. The goal of every Christian is to prepare his soul for eternity, for life with the Lord; because we should be trying to humble our souls, to calm the passions, but the passions can only be extinguished with fasting and prayer. Humility is the most important element for the salvation of the soul. Everything else—ascetic labors, fasting, prayer, prostrations—these are the means, the way by which the soul approaches humility.

Canon of St. Andrew of Crete

Monday of the First Week

Ode 1

A Helper and a Protector has become salvation to me.
This is my God, Whom I will glorify.
God of my fathers
I will exalt Him for in glory was He glorified.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.

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: ADVICE FROM PASTORS

The first week of Great Lent is a time of special prayer and strict abstinence. During the first four days—from Monday to Thursday—the Great Canon of Repentance of St. Andrew of Crete is read in nearly every Orthodox Church.

Lenten service in Sretensky Monastery. Photo by M. Rodionov, Pravoslavie.ruMany Orthodox Christians live in cities, have jobs with long hours, long commutes, and many other things to do. All this leaves its mark on our spiritual life. Some simply do not have the time or strength to participate in all the Lenten Church services. Pravoslavie.ru asked a number of pastors of the Russian Orthodox Church to say a few words about what they see as the most important thing that a Christian should do during the Forty Days Fast, to suggest something from their own experience, and to help those caught up in daily cares to determine a spiritual program—the maximum and the minimum—for these days. OrthoChristian.com has selected a few of these answers to present in English translation.

THE BEGINNING OF GREAT LENT

St. John of Shanghai

St. John of ShanghaiThe doors of repentance are opening, Great Lent is beginning. Every year Great Lent is repeated, and each time it brings us great benefit if we spend it as we should. It is a preparation for the life to come and, more immediately, a preparation for the Bright Resurrection.

Just as a stairway is built into a tall building in order to enable one, by climbing the steps, to easily reach the top, so too, the various days in the year serve as steps for our spiritual ascent.

THE GREAT CANON OF ST ANDREW OF CRETE

Fr. Seraphim Holland

The Great Canon of St Andrew, Bishop of Crete, is the longest canon in all of our services, and is associated with Great Lent, since the only times it is appointed to be read in church are the first four nights of Great Lent (Clean Monday through Clean Thursday, at Great Compline, when it is serialized) and at Matins for Thursday of the fifth week of Great Lent, when it is read in its entirety (in this latter service, the entire life of St Mary of Egypt is also read).

Your Joy Will Be Full

Brother, you know that God is Love, and that He so loved you that He sent His Son for your salvation, and that His Son died on the Cross for you. Know also that God is leading you not to the restoration of the former Paradise that our first parents lost, but to something altogether new and infinitely greater and more wondrous. Do not turn back to gaze upon that which Adam lost for you, but look ahead to that which God has promised you, where our Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit are leading you. Yes, together with Adam we lost a great deal: Paradise, joy, and the possibility of immortality: great and wondrous things. But know that in your salvation you will receive immeasurably greater and more wondrous things. Because Paradise, which our first parents enjoyed, and the Kingdom of Heaven are not one and the same. The former was earthly, but the latter is heavenly. Adam lost a beautiful garden, planted by God and called “paradise,” but you are called to live in the Heavenly New Jerusalem, which is not yet built but which is already prepared and able to come into being, whose grandeur is revealed to us in part by the divine Saint John the Theologian (Rev. ch. 21, 22) …

ABOUT LONELINESS AND HOPE IN GOD

Metropolitan of Limassol Athanasios

Here's the question: what is better for the young man who was disappointed in the people - to move away from everyone and no one to meet, look inward for fear of trouble or is it a new set social networks, to relate to people and not be afraid of new disappointments?

And one more: a sense of emotional loneliness and separation from loved ones do not become a stimulus for closer communion with God? Such that the young man decides to enter the monastic path. Do you think it will be the right decision?