For the Eastern Orthodox Church, Great Lent is the seven week period before Pascha (Easter) during which the faithful fast from certain foods and, more importantly, from sin. In order to enter more fully into the Passion and Resurrection of our Lord, we repent through the traditional disciplines of prayer and fasting. Over the next several weeks, I will be posting articles in this series entitled “The Lenten Journey” in which I share resources, ideas, and meditations to help us all make ready for Christ’s resurrection–and our own.
Great Lent is almost here. This Sunday we observe Forgiveness Sunday, and then Monday starts the Fast in earnest. I always approach the Fast with a feeling of both joy and trepidation.
Joy because I know that my soul, my heart, and my body are longing for a time of deliberate quiet, of a slowed life, of meditation and repentance. Trepidation because I know that repentance, humility and brokenness are often painful and tearful. This is why the Church refers to Great Lent as the Bright Sadness. It is a joyful mourning, a happy repentance that leads from the Cross to the Empty Tomb. There can be no victory of the Resurrection without the utter devastation of the Cross. No celebration of Pascha without the repentance of Lent.
And so we approach Great Lent with joy and trepidation.
Each year I pause before Great Lent to consider how I can help my family and myself have a more intentional, meaningful journey to Pascha. My husband and I pray and discuss it, and we make a plan of sorts. We think of ways that we can help our children (and ourselves) experience the fasting, prayer, almsgiving, spiritual study, and repentance that are central to Lent.
This year I would like to share that plan with you. But, first I want to give three important caveats:
-This plan is unique to our family and our situation. Our children are young; I work full-time; my husband is in the frantic-finishing-stage of his dissertation. All of these things play a part in our decisions as to what things we included or did not include in our plan. Your family’s Lent may look vastly different as your situation is different than ours.
-This is not the “ideal” or “perfect” plan. I am an ordinary, busy mom who struggles with maintaining my patience with my children while trying to live out my faith in an imperfect way. This is by no means the definitive way to observe Lent.
-As always, speak with your spiritual father. I am also (obviously!) not a priest. Be sure to speak with your spiritual father as you think through your family’s plan for Great Lent.
Our Family’s Plan for Great Lent
Fasting
My husband and I will fully participate in the church’s prescribed fast. In the Orthodox faith, this means that we will abstain from meat, dairy, wine, and oil from Clean Monday (March 14) until Pascha (May 1). I will research new fasting recipes (many of which I hope to share here!) to try. I will also pull out family favorites such as Vegan Split Pea Soup, Potato Tacos, and Cilantro Black Bean Salad.
Our children will observe a modified fast. Because of our children’s young ages (2, 3, and 6), they will still eat some dairy. They will have milk at breakfast and supper, and I will put yogurt into their lunchboxes. However, they will, by default, not eat meat. They are still at the age where they love eating a peanut butter sandwich for lunch each day, so we will continue that. Each supper will be a fasting supper–often with beans, lentils, peas, etc.–so they will still have plenty of protein in their diets.
Prayer
We will pray the Morning Prayers and Evening Prayers as a family each day. For our family this typically means praying the Trisagion prayers and personal prayers. Our youngest children ask the Lord to have mercy on various people. Our oldest prays the Jesus prayer and then does the same.
During Lent we will also add the Prayer of St. Ephraim and its accompanying prostrations to our routine. (Look for a post on this beautiful Lenten prayer soon!) I was amazed a few years ago when our oldest son, then 4, learned the entire prayer through our frequent repetition of it. In addition, we will sing appropriate hymns throughout Lent–for example, “Your Cross We Adore” and “Having Suffered the Passion for Us.”
Almsgiving
Another key element of Great Lent is almsgiving. During this time of fasting we are called upon to consider the poor and suffering around us. As we have simple meals, we should use the money saved to help those in need.
Our family will collect and donate canned good items to our church’s Lenten collection–which goes out to our local community. This year I plan to give my oldest a gift card for our local grocery store and let him pick out what he would like to donate. This will be a good lesson in both giving and budgeting. If you are looking for other ways that your family can serve, take a look at 10 Ways Your Children Can Serve Others.
Spiritual Study
During Lent Orthodox Christians also try to tame outside distractions and focus on the realities of our faith. This means we limit television and other media and read spiritual books and the Scriptures.
Books for the Children:
-We will read Lent! Wonderful Lent! many times at home and take it to church with us.
-Read The Story of Mary, the Mother of God for the Feast of the Annunciation
-Read Pictures of God: A Child’s Guide to Understanding Icons for the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy
-Read Catherine’s Pascha during Holy Week and Bright Week
-Read our Children’s Bible for each of the days of Holy Week
-Listen to the Gospel Retold for Younger Children from Ancient Faith Radio before Liturgy each Sunday so that our children are familiar with that day’s Gospel reading.
-My oldest son and I will also read a chapter from The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe each night (followed by Prince Caspian)
My Reading Plan:
-Continue reading through the Old Testament
-Reread The Way of a Pilgrim, a classic of Orthodox spirituality and The Jesus Prayer
-Read Bread & Water, Wine & Oil: An Orthodox Christian Experience of God by Father Meletios Webber
For more recommendations of spiritual reading, take a look at Best Children’s Books for Lent and Holy Week and Spiritual Readings for Great Lent.
Services
During Lent, Orthodox Christians attend various services more frequently. In addition to Sunday Divine Liturgy, the Church also offers a Presanctified Liturgy mid-week as a means of strengthening believers. Also, many churches offer an Akathist Hymn during the week, some Saturdays are called Soul Saturdays and have a Liturgy for the Departed, and regular Vespers (Saturday evening services) continue.
This schedule can be a bit overwhelming for those with children–our family included. We also live 45 minutes away from our parish, and evening services wreak havoc on bedtimes. Therefore, we modify it a bit for our circumstances.
-We all attend Sunday Divine Liturgy
-My husband and I alternate weeks for Presanctified Liturgy. He frequently serves, and I chant.
-My oldest son will attend 1-2 Presanctified Liturgies
-We will all attend Vespers at least twice a month.
We hope and pray that as the children grow older (and if we move to a town with a parish in closer proximity) that we will be able to attend more services together as a family.
Repentance
Finally, repentance is a major theme of Great Lent. We repent of our sins, ask God to forgive us, ask others to forgive us, and seek to live a righteous life. While primarily an inward discipline, there are a few things that we want to do as a family:
-We will all attend Forgiveness Vespers this coming Sunday in order to ask forgiveness from and offer forgiveness to each member of our parish.
-Both my husband and I will make confession at least once during Great Lent, as is prescribed by our priest and spiritual father.
-My oldest son will come with one of us to confession in order to see what happens during the sacrament.
-We will have conversations with our oldest son about sin, confession, and forgiveness.
I pray that you have a blessed Fast and that our family’s imperfect plan for Lent may encourage and help you. Great Lent is almost here. Let us draw near with joy and trepidation. Let us fully enter into the Bright Sadness.
What will your family be doing for Great Lent? I would love to hear your ideas! Please share in the comments below.
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Firstly, I’m completely ignorant about the Christian orthodox faith, and I don’t intend to insult.
Do you go through more than one type of Lent and therefore need to distinguish one Lenten time from the Great Lent? What is a Bright Sadness? The Passion is a Great sadness followed by profound Joy in Catholicism? What is the “Jesus Prayer?”
Then a favor to you and your readers, you might want to state the names of the authors of the books you cited for quicker retrieval; it’s also more polite to the authors to be mentioned by their works.
What would your “spiritual director” recommend for a curious Catholic to learn more about your faith — so I sound less ignorant?
Thank you for your patience with me.
Blessings to you and your family.
Peace be with you.
Anne
Hello, Anne! Welcome! I really appreciate your questions and your interest. I’ll try to answer your questions as best as I can, but you are more than welcome to ask more or get clarification. First, we refer to Lent as Great Lent for a couple of reasons: out of respect for its serious spiritual nature and because we have several other periods of fasting throughout the year. Orthodox Christians fast for 40 days before Nativity, for a period of time before the Feasts of Sts. Peter and Paul (called the Apostle’s Fast) and for two weeks before the Dormition of the Theotokos (Falling Asleep of the Virgin Mary–the fast is called the Dormition Fast). So, at some point in Church History people began referring to actual Lent as Great Lent in order to distinguish it from the other fasting periods.
Secondly, Lent is often called a “bright sadness.” This isn’t any official Church doctrine, as far as I know, but a phrase that many priests, theologians, etc. have used. We call it this because we experience both joy and sadness during our preparation for Holy Week. We experience the sadness and pain of repentance, of facing our sins squarely and asking for forgiveness and trying to lead a righteous life. We also experience joy in receiving Christ’s forgiveness and the strength to walk with Him. Sadness because we are called to take up our own crosses and follow Christ, but joy because we are allowed to imitate our Savior.
Third, the Jesus Prayer is an ancient Christian prayer based on the prayer of the Publican (in the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican). The prayer is: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner. Orthodox Christians strive to pray this prayer so that it becomes so internalized it is part of our very hearts and souls. A wonderful book on the subject is “The Way of a Pilgrim” by an unknown author.
Next, thank you for your suggestion about authors. I have included links in the text which will take you directly to Amazon so you can read more about the books and see the authors. I’ve also talked a bit more in depth about each book and its author in my posts “Spiritual Readings for Great Lent” and “Books for Children for Lent and Holy Week” that I reference in that paragraph.
Finally, I am very honored that you would like to read a book about Eastern Orthodoxy. My spiritual father would likely recommend either The Orthodox Church by Timothy Ware (Bishop Kallistos Ware). Bishop Kallistos writes a very thorough, but readable, account of the early Church history, the distinctives of Orthodoxy Christian theology and spirituality, and a bit about contemporary church life and structure.
I hope that you have a wonderful day!