Lent is coming "like a freight train", my husband always likes to say. For us Orthodox Christians, it begins tomorrow night with Vespers and the annual Rite of Forgiveness, in which every member of the church asks every other member, face-to-face, for forgiveness for any past offense or injury. Last year we had 100 attend, and our deacon calculated that forgiveness was asked and received 20,000 times. Forgiveness Vespers must be the second-most painful time of the year for the Devil (Pascha would come first).
This year Western and Eastern Christians will have Easter / Pascha on the same date, April 8. So we begin Lent together--Orthodox on Sunday night and Western Christians a few days later on "Ash Wednesday," Feb 21. Let me recommend for your Lenten reading my most recent book, "First Fruits of Prayer." It presents the "Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete," a long, penitential hymn written about AD 720. In this hymn, St. Andrew goes through the Old Testament in close detail, and the New Testament more briskly, casting light on his own soul. He examines the people and events of the Bible and asks himself "How am I like this?" and "Do I do this?" It combines a fierce commitment to raw honesty with abounding gratitude for God's unmerited love. It's a work that offers no false consolation, but which goes to the heart, and treats sin as a self-inflicted wound that the Only Lover of Mankind came to heal. (If you'd like to hear this work in the context of worship, many Orthodox churches will offer it during Lent; a common practice is to divide it into 4 sections for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of this coming week, and then repeat the hymn in entirety during the 5th week of Lent. But variations abound, so "check local listings.") I divided the Great Canon into 40 readings, and for each day I supply the Scriptures cited (hundreds of them; St. Andrew had an amazing knowledge of Scripture) and a brief meditation. It's an ideal companion for Lenten reflection. You can find it here on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/First-Fruits-Prayer-Forty-Day-Journey/dp/1557254699/sr=8 -1/qid=1171735409/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-8527848-6830546?ie=UTF8&s=books and we also offer autographed copies through my church's website: http://www.holycrossonline.org/our_parish/bookstore/ You can also get there a glimpse of my forthcoming book, "The Lost Gospel of Mary: The Mother of Jesus in Three Ancient Texts." This one will be published March 25. On my website there is a bit more info about this book, and an excerpt from it. But I'll send out that info later--trying to do things one at a time! Please forgive me, brothers and sisters, for any way I have offended you. ******** Frederica Mathewes-Green www.frederica.com
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