Quiz: Great Lent

The Old Testament describes two instances of people abstaining from food and drink for 40 days, these were the prophets Moses and Elijah.

And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. (Ex.34:28)

" And the angel of the LORD came back the second time, and touched him, and said, «Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.» (1Ki.19:7)So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God. (1Ki.19:8)

The main book from which the services of Great Lent are read is called the Lenten Triodion. Its name is explained by the fact that an abbreviated canon of three songs is read at Lenten Matins.

Liturgy is not celebrated on the following days during the year:

1. Wednesday and Friday of Cheese Week.
2. On Monday, Tuesday and Thursday of the Weeks of Great Lent.
3. On Great Pentecost, if this day does not coincide with the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary on 25 March (7 April A.D.), when the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is to be celebrated.
4. On the Friday before the feasts of the Nativity of Christ and the Epiphany of the Lord, if the feast days are on Sundays or Mondays.

The Prayer of Saint Ephrem the Syrian is read twice at the end of each Great Lenten service from Monday to Friday.

The reading of the Prayer of St Ephrem the Syrian stops on Friday evening and resumes on Sunday evening.

The requiem service on Meatfare Saturday (Parastasis) provides a standard for all other services of commemoration of the dead and is still performed on the second, third, and fourth Saturdays of Great Lent.

The Old Testament during the services of Great Lent is read in two ways: first, the reading of the Psalter twice, and second, the "lectio continua," that is, the complete reading of the three books of the Old Testament: Genesis, the prophet Isaiah, and the Proverbs of Solomon.

The verses from these three books are read daily during Great Lent from Monday to Friday inclusive; the books of Genesis and Proverbs at the Vespers, the prophecies of Isaiah at the Sixth Hour.

...among the different kinds of holiness, we appeal only to the martyrs, at every Great Lenten service, they only are eulogised in the special verses dedicated to them. Because just the martyrs who chose Christ over everything else in the world, including life itself; they rejoiced in Christ so much that they could say, together with St Ignatius of Antioch, when dying, "Now we begin to live".... They are witnesses of the Kingdom of God, because only those who have seen and tasted Its sweetness are capable of such highest self-forgetfulness. They are our companions, our inspirers during Great Lent, which is the time of the struggle for the restoration of the Divine, heavenly and eternal nature in our souls.

Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann

No marriages are performed during any continuous period of Lent throughout the year. After Lent, weddings may be performed from the second week after Easter.

Fasting and bodily labour are done by man to curb unholy passions, and bodily sickness is higher and stronger than fasting, feats and bodily labour, therefore fasting and bodily labour will not be demanded from the infirm one; he only has to thank God continually and pray to Him to give him patience.

Unknown elder, from the " Otecnik".

There is no bodily fasting for the sick, infirm and old people, and it is often harmful for those (who are sick, infirm and old). It is necessary to emphasise mental fasting: abstinence of sight, hearing, tongue, thoughts and so on. This will be a true fast, useful for everyone and always.

Hegumen Nikon (Vorobyev).

The complaint of the faithful of the sick people that they pray badly and do not hold the feat was solved by Saint Tikhon, saying: "to the sick, what prayer is there? Thanksgiving and sighing. This is the substitute for every feat. Be of good cheer.

Priest Sergius Filimonov

Holy Thursday is dedicated to these events. All Christians try to come for receiving Communion on this day.

The Liturgy of St Basil the Great is served on Sundays of Great Lent.

In the service of the Fourth Week (Sunday) the Church offers a high example of the fast life in the person of the sixth-century ascetic, Rev. John Clumacus, who asceticised on Mount Sinai from 17 to 80 years of age and in his work "The Ladder of Paradise" he represented the path of man's gradual ascent to spiritual perfection along the ladder of the soul, ascending from earth to eternally lasting glory. There are 30 such degrees in the "Ladder", according to the number of years of the Saviour's earthly life before His entering into public service to the human race.

At Matins on Thursday of the Fifth Week the whole Great Canon of St Andrew of Crete and the Life of the Venerable Mary of Egypt (5th-6th centuries), who ascended by repentance from the depths of sin to the height of perfection and holiness. This divine service is therefore called otherwise Mary's (or more rarely: Andrew's) Standing. Practically, it is celebrated on Wednesday evening.

On Saturday of the Fifth Week (in church practice, Friday evening), the Akathist to the Blessed Virgin Mary ("To the Victorious Leader...") is read, - the only (!) Akathist prescribed by the Church's Statutes.

The Saturday of the Fifth Week is called the Saturday of the Akathist, and the service itself is called "Praise of the Most Holy Theotokos".

The raising of Lazarus is the last great miracle of Christ, the last glimpse of His Glory before the Passion Night. The Evangelist John describes this event as an eyewitness, with remarkable, almost palpable authenticity. You see literally every detail: the timidity of the disciples, their hesitation, and finally their determination to face the danger. Jesus, with eyes full of tears, at the tomb; the sisters, overwhelmed by grief; Martha's confusion, the stone rolled away and the imperious call heard in the beyond: "Come out, Lazarus!". A silent figure in a shroud on the threshold of the crypt... He Who would soon have to pass through the gates of death Himself declares Himself its victor.

Archpriest Alexander Men

The Feast of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem is celebrated a week before Easter, on the 6th Sunday of Great Lent.

The Holy (Palm) week is dedicated to the remembrance of the Lord's solemn Entry into Jerusalem, where He went to suffer and die on the Cross. This event is described by all the Evangelists: Mt. 21, 1 - 11; Mk. 11, 1 - 11; Lk. 19, 29 - 44; Jn. 12, 12 - 19.

This feast is called the Week of willows (branches), Flower-bearing Week, and in Russian also Willow Sunday because of the custom of consecrating palm branches on this day, which are replaced in Russia by willows.

The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary does not always coincide with Great Lent.

The fast of Holy Forty Days ends on Friday of Palm Week. On this day one of the sticheras is chanted: "Having fulfilled Forty Days, we ask to see the Holy Week of Thy Passion, O Man-loving One". Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday serve as a transition from the Holy Forty Days to Holy Week.

This prayer is read in the church during the Hours on Wednesday and Friday of Cheese Week and during the whole of Holy Forty Days, except Saturdays and Sundays; on the first three days of Holy Week, too.

On Holy Wednesday, at the end of the liturgy at the point "Blessed be name of the Lord...", the prayer of St Ephrem the Syrian with three earthly bows is read for the last time and "the bows that are used in the church are completely abolished". This ends completely everything that is characteristic for the Great Lenten divine service. The special Passion-tide services begin.

On Saturday and Sunday days of Great Lent, if no major feasts are observed on these days, the colour of the vestments is purple. On the other days (weekdays) of Great Lent, if there are no feasts, the colour is black.

The Prayer of Ephrem the Syrian is a prayer, accompanied by earthly bows, which is read during the weekly services of Great Lent, and according to the Church Statutes should also be read during the service with the "Alleluia" on the weekdays of the minor fasts. See Typikon, ch. 9.

Meatfare Week is the penultimate sunday before Great Lent (the third of the four preparatory sundays). It is the last day before the Great Lent, when the Church Charter allows to eat meat food. In the following week dairy products are still allowed.

Note: "week" in the Church Slavonic language is sunday, and the modern word "week" corresponds to the name " seven days week".

Weeks of Great Lent:

- Week 1 of Great Lent. Triumph of Orthodoxy.

- Week 2 of Great Lent. St Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica (Thessaloniki) (†1359).

- Week 3 of Great Lent. Adoration of Cross (Mk.8:34–9:1).

- Week 4 of Great Lent. St. John Clumacus (6th century).

- Week 5 of Great Lent. St. Mary of Egypt (6th century).

- Week 6, Palm Week, otherwise known as Flower-bearing Week, the Palm Sunday (John 12:1–18), the Entrance of the Lord into Jerusalem.

No, this is not true. Firstly, Great Lent, like the one-day fasts on Wednesdays and Fridays, is the oldest Church rule: its beginnings can be found as far back as in the 1st century. In ancient Russia the fast came through Byzantium from the ancient Christian Church, from apostolic times, it was also known in the times of the Old Testament (Exod.34:28; Dan.10:2-3; Ezd.8:21-23; 2 Sam.12:16-20; Ion.3:5-10; Joel.1:14, 2:12-15; Zech. 8:19). In the New Testament fasting is sanctified by Jesus Christ - by his personal example of strict 40-day fasting in the wilderness before going out for public ministry and by the commandment about fasting to his disciples (Mt.6:16,18; Mt.17:21). Christ's disciples also fasted (Acts 13:2-3). Therefore, when we assert the "naturalness" of fasting during the period when the peasants had nothing to eat, we forget that there are four fasts in the annual cycle. Besides, although peasants who had cattle and poultry did not eat meat the whole year, a good cow could be milked all the year round, chickens could lay eggs the most part of the year, so that if they wanted, the peasants could eat milk, meat and eggs in spring.  At the same time, the duration of Great Lent is connected not with the lack of food supplies of peasants, but with the imitation of the forty-day fast of the Saviour in the desert (Lk.4:2), and also it was a standard time of fasting for those who wanted to be baptised: in the ancient Church people were baptised on Easter, and those who were baptised would have prepared for this event for 40 days, praying in the temple, learning the basics of faith and fasting.

The Council of Constantinople in 843 was gathered by the widow of the last Byzantine iconoclastic emperor Theophilus, Empress Theodora, to restore icon veneration in the Orthodox Church of the East.

At the Second Ecumenical Council of 381, the Creed was finally formulated. At the Council of Chalcedon in 451 the oros on the two natures of Christ was adopted, refuting the heresies of the Monophysites and Nestorians. At the Seventh Ecumenical Council of 787, in response to the iconoclasts, the theological grounding of iconoclasm was approved.

The monk Barlaam of Calabria believed that the Tabor Light was a creation of God, while St Gregory Palamas argued that it was an action of Divine energy in the created world. The doctrine defended by the saint is important for Orthodoxy, because from it it is obvious that God-communion and God-knowledge are possible for man through the reception of Divine energy. He proved that by means of fasting and prayer isychast monks, can reach the same state, in which the Apostles were, and can see the Uncreated Divine Light. The teachings of St Gregory are commemorated in Great Lent as a reminder of the importance of spiritual and fasting feats in the life of a Christian.

This ancient rite is served only on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross on the 27th of September. In the week of the Exaltation of the Cross the Cross is being worshipped: the Cross is brought to the middle of the church, and three earthly bows are made before it. The rite of worship of the Cross is also celebrated on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, and also on the Feast of the The Origin Precious Wood honest and life-giving Cross of the Lord, on the 14th of August.

"The Ladder" of St John Climacus begins with a virtue of denying of worldly life. However, this does not mean that the saint urges all readers seeking salvation in monasteries - he writes that for the laity this feat consists in keeping the commandments.

Yes, we know from the hagiography that the Venerable Mary received communion before going into the desert after repentance, and then, after spending many years in the desert, received communion from the elder Zosima shortly before her death.  Venerable Mary was a repentant prostitute - that is why we remember Mary of Egypt during Lent - because she showed an example of how much transformation and spiritual feats a sincerely repentant person is capable of. The hagiography describes that the ascetic crossed the Jordan, treading water to receive communion from the elder Zosima.

On Friday before Lazarus Saturday, according to the church statutes, the forty-day Lent is completed, as indicated by the verse, "Having fulfilled Forty Days, we ask to see the Holy Week of Thy Passion...". Coming days are Lazarus Saturday and Palm Week, the feasts between the Forty Days and Holy Week, and then a special time - Holy Week.

Bows while reading the Great Canon of St Andrew of Crete are mentioned in the Church Charter: "Let us make on each troparion three throws, saying this refrain: "Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me".