In a prior State of Formation post, Chris Hughes’s experience of Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent resonated with me. As a former Southern Baptist, his experience was much like my own. The Orthodox Christian tradition approaches Lent with a bit different take than our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters. If you will indulge me, I’d like to share our traditions and beliefs about this most important preparatory season.
First, we refer to this time of preparation before Pascha (Easter) as Great Lent. We have three other seasons of lenten fasting – the 15 days prior to the commemoration of the Dormition (falling asleep) of the Theotokos (Greek meaning “the Birthgiver of God”, referring to the Virgin Mary); the period between the Sunday of All Saints and the commemoration of Ss. Peter and Paul; and finally the 40 days prior to the Nativity of the Lord (Christmas).
In the strictest tradition, there is nothing to distinguish between the four lenten seasons. In reality, particularly before the Nativity of the Lord, there are some accommodations in the fasting regimen. The basic discipline remains, however. No meat, no dairy, no alcohol, no olive oil. Reduced portions are the norm, and the focus is on ease of preparation. In effect, it is a true vegan plan, recalling that in Paradise humanity ate from the fruit of the trees and not of the products of animals.
These fasting seasons are not in isolation, either. Each week, on Wednesday and Friday, we abstain according to the same discipline. There are certain fast-free periods that immediately follow both the Nativity of the Lord and Pascha. In sum total, however, an Orthodox Christian will typically spend as many days fasting as not.
The season of fasting for the Great Lent begins not with Ash Wednesday, because our Great Lent is 40 weekdays leading up to Palm Sunday, and an additional week of fasting for the Holy Week before Pascha. Our season will begin (in 2012) on Sunday, February 26, with the Vespers of Forgiveness. Each parish community will gather and celebrate the Vespers service, followed by each person asking every other person for forgiveness.
One will note that the Orthodox Christians do not establish their own discipline for lent. Of course, accommodations are made for those with illnesses, those who are young or elderly, and others similarly situated. We fast as we are able.
Like Chris, I also wondered about the purposes of Lent, and the purposes of fasting. I was actively seeking a discipline and structure, along with a more liturgical worship, without leaving the Christian community. The Orthodox disciplines are designed to bring the body and its “passions” or desires under our command. “Passions” is a technical term in Orthodoxy and doesn’t exactly translate to desires, but neither does it have the romantic connotation that the term holds in popular English.
These passions find their origin in the Paradise of Genesis. When our ancestors are described as eating the prohibited fruit, that is in essence ignoring God’s command to abstain, or fast. Several saints of the Church teach that our ancestors fell not only through disobedience, but in finding pleasure for pleasure’s sake. Pleasure, in their teaching, was designed to draw us closer to our Creator, and to facilitate our enjoyment of communion with our Creator, and for our thanksgiving to our Creator.
The Paschal tradition of bringing baskets of food are intimately tied to the fasting tradition. Our Easter Baskets are full of those fasting items that we abstained from during the Great Fast. Meat and cheese are frequent finds in the baskets, and the Church has developed prayers for their blessing.
The last aspect of Lenten discipline and fasting I would comment on is that Lenten discipline is not for God’s benefit, but for us. It is in that sense that fasting is medicinal for our souls. A doctor may prescribe it, but it is our individual decision to embrace the prescription that determines our ability to heal and become well again.
As St. John Chrysostom (d. 407 CE) reminds us in his Paschal Homily, read at Paschal Matins each year:
“If any man be devout and love God, let him enjoy this fair and radiant triumphal feast. If any man be a wise servant, let him rejoicing enter into the joy of his Lord. If any have labored long in fasting, let him now receive his recompense. If any have wrought from the first hour, let him today receive his just reward. If any have come at the third hour, let him with thankfulness keep the feast. If any have arrived at the sixth hour, let him have no misgivings; because he shall in nowise be deprived therefor. If any have delayed until the ninth hour, let him draw near, fearing nothing. If any have tarried even until the eleventh hour, let him, also, be not alarmed at his tardiness; for the Lord, who is jealous of his honor, will accept the last even as the first; he gives rest unto him who comes at the eleventh hour, even as unto him who has wrought from the first hour.”
May this season of lent be a time of forgiveness, repentance, and joy for all.