Ash Wednesday

[Apotheoun]

[quote name='MichaelFilo' date='Feb 14 2005, 10:14 PM']Apotheun, expand on the view of lent of the Eastern Church to me, and the rest of the Phatmassers.  . . .

God bless,
Mikey[/quote]
In the Eastern Churches the season of Great Fast (Lent) takes place on the forty days prior to Great and Holy Week. Great Fast begins on the Monday following Cheesefare Sunday, and this day is normally called Pure (or Clean) Monday. Pure Monday is a day of strict abstinence from meat, dairy products, and eggs (strict abstinence is also observed on Great and Holy Friday). Additionally, all Wednesdays and Fridays of Great Fast are days of abstinence from meat (it should be noted that Fridays throughout the year remain days of abstinence from meat in the Eastern Churches).

The Pre-Sanctified Liturgy (Solemn Vespers with the reception of Holy Communion) takes place every Wednesday and Friday throughout Great Lent. The whole of the Lenten season is a time of ascetical abstinence in preparation for the coming of the Lord's Paschal Mystery. This period of fasting commemorates Christ's forty days of fasting recounted in the Gospel narratives, while also commemorating the forty years of wandering by the people of Israel recounted in the Pentateuch, and the period of abstinence imposed upon Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, when they were forbidden to eat of the Tree of Knowledge.

Throughout the season of the Great Fast the "Alleluia" is still sung in the Eastern Churches, because although the season is one of penitence and ascetical abstinence, it remains a season of joy. We sing "Alleluia" in anticipation of the Lord's Resurrection and the forgiveness that that brings, for it is by His Resurrection and Ascension that we receive the gift of [i]theosis[/i] (divinization). Thus, although we are fasting throughout Great Lent, we do so as a people who have experienced and who continue to experience the Resurrection to newness of life!

The First Sunday of Great Lent commemorates the triumph of the Orthodox Faith over the errors of the iconoclastic heretics, and so this Sunday is normally called the Sunday of Holy Icons (or Images). The Second Sunday of Great Fast (Lent) is set aside to commemorate St. Gregory Palamas, the great defender of the Holy Hesychasts and of the truth that God's grace (energy) is uncreated, while the Third Sunday of Great Fast (Lent) commemorates the Cross of our Lord, and is called the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross.

During the season of Great Fast three Saturdays (the second, third, and fourth Saturdays) are set aside as days for the commemoration of the dead. These Saturdays are called "All Souls Saturdays," and they are observed as days on which one should commemorate the members of his family who have died, and all those who have died professing the orthodox faith.

Now, as I already indicated above, Great Lent begins on Pure Monday (which was February 7th this year) and goes for forty days until the sixth Friday of Great Lent (which falls on March 18th this year) and which occurs just before the Saturday of Lazarus. The Saturday of Lazarus is a prelude to the season of Great and Holy Week, which has its own regulations for fasting.

One of the reasons that Lent in the Eastern Churches is called "Great Lent" or "Great Fast," is to distinguish it from the other "lents" or "fasts" of the liturgical year. There are three other major periods of fasting in the Eastern rites: (1) the Fast of the Apostles, which begins on All Saints Sunday (the first Sunday after Pentecost Sunday), and ends on the Feast of the Apostles, Saints Peter and Paul; (2) the Fast of the Theotokos, which runs from August 1st until August 14th; and (3) Christmas Lent which runs from November 15th to Christmas Eve. There are additional small fast and abstinence periods that are peculiar to the different Eastern Churches [i]sui juris[/i]. Moreover, what I have described to this point applies only to those Eastern Churches within the Byzantine Rite. Some Eastern Churches are not Byzantine, and they of course have their own liturgical and ritual customs.

That being said, the Saturday of Lazarus, as indicated above, is a prelude to the celebration of Great and Holy Week, and it commemorates Christ's raising of Lazarus from the dead. In this action of our Lord, which is recorded in the Gospel of John, we are all given a foretaste of the resurrection that is to come at the end of time; for on that great and awesome day, Christ, the just judge, Who has trampled death by death, will open all the graves, and in doing so He will give life to all those who have been united to Him in His Mystical Body.

Lazarus Saturday is an anticipation of the events of Palm (or Willow) Sunday, because by raising Lazarus from the dead Christ anticipated the glory of His own resurrection. The awesome power of God over death will be manifested fully in the events of Great and Holy Week as our Lord suffers in His glorious passion, dies upon the cross, and rises from the dead to newness of life on Easter Sunday. The Paschal Mystery of Christ is the ultimate revelation of the Lord's power, for by His suffering He has healed our wounded humanity, and in His Resurrection He has given us a participation in the uncreated life and glory of the Almighty Triune God.

After the celebration of Lazarus Saturday, the Eastern Churches commemorate Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Willow Sunday (willow branches are used in the Slavic countries because palm trees don't grow in the Slavic homelands). The three weekdays following Willow or Palm Sunday (the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of Great and Holy Week) are days upon which the liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is celebrated. These days are called the "days of the Bridegroom," because the Tropar on these days says: "Behold! the Bridegroom comes at midnight, and blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching; and again, unworthy is the servant whom He shall find heedless. Beware, therefore, O my soul: do not be weighed down with sleep, lest you be given up to death, and lest you be shut out of the Kingdom; but rouse yourself, crying: Holy! Holy! Holy! art Thou, O our God. Through the Theotokos, have mercy on us!"

In some of the Byzantine Churches (those most influenced by the Greeks) Wednesday evening of Great and Holy Week is set aside for services of anointing. This custom arose mainly in those areas under Islamic rule, because being a Christian and celebrating the Paschal Mystery of Christ in the lands of the Mohammadans, often brought persecution upon the members of the Church. This anointing was done in preparation for death, which could befall the Christian at the hands of the infidel at any time during this holy season. The Muslim infidels would often persecute the Church during her most solemn commemoration of the Lord's sacrifice in order to mock His gift of new life at the Pascha.


But this post has already gone on a bit too long, and so I will end it here. Perhaps at some point in the next few weeks I will try to relate more fully the services surrounding the climax of Great and Holy Week, i.e., Great Thursday, Great and Holy Friday, Holy Saturday, and the Pascha (Easter) itself.

God bless,
Todd

[Apotheoun]

[quote name='MichaelFilo' date='Feb 14 2005, 10:14 PM'] [. . .] I also was curious to if we have to hold the same Lenten regulations as I have always picked more strenuous regulats for my fasting, but that didn't follow in the Church's declration of one main meal and two smaller meals. Due to the Lenten dietary changes I chose, it'd be hardly plausible to do follow in the dictates of The Church's mandate on how to fast for Lent. So I was wondering, as Eastern Rite Catholics, are we mandated to follow the decree on how to fast?

God bless,
Mikey [/quote]
If your fast is more stringent than that required by the Church (like say eating only one meal a day, or only eating bread and water on specific days, etc.), you don't need to get permission from your pastor to do this. But as I understand it, one is not free to make the Lenten fast easier, and so, an Eastern Catholic is to follow the regulations for fast and abstinence issued by his Eparch or Metropolitan ArchEparch. If a person has a valid reason to seek a dispensation from the canonical regulations for fast and abstinence, he must approach his pastor, because the pastor has the authority to dispense from the norms. Moreover, if the priest dispenses the person from the assigned regulations for the Great Fast, he is supposed to give some kind of penance in the place of the rules issued by the Eparch. If you are uncertain about following a particular practice you should talk to your pastor just to be safe, because the different [i]sui juris[/i] Churches of the East have different regulations in this area. I am Ruthenian Catholic and so I only know what is required within my own [i]sui juris[/i] Church. I'm sorry that I can't be of more help.

God bless,
Todd

[Apotheoun]

[quote name='MichaelFilo' date='Feb 14 2005, 10:14 PM'] [. . .] I relaize as an Eastern Catholic we don't celebrate Ash Wednesday, but are there any reasons? [. . .]

God bless,
Mikey [/quote]
The origins of Ash Wednesday in the Roman Rite are centered on the Latin Churches practices surrounding Lent and how the days of Lent used to be counted. In the Roman Church the Sundays of Lent (according to the older rite) were not counted, and so in order to make Lent last for forty days they added four additional days to the Lenten season, i.e., Ash Wednesday and the days following it until the first Sunday of Lent. The Eastern Churches enumerated the forty days of Great Lent differently. The East has always counted the Sundays of Lent, and has always excluded the whole of Great and Holy Week from Lent. Thus, the Latin tradition and the Byzantine tradition simply differ over how to count the days of Lent, while also differing on the issue of when Lent should start and when it should end.

God bless,
Todd

[cmotherofpirl]

Can you take your last three posts and combine them and put them in the Apologetics section for reference?

[Guest JeffCR07]

can you give me your brain?

[franciscanheart]

hey Jeff I'll split it with you... and give you tacos, so very tasty and good for you,.

[kateri05]

hey i want in on those tacos, so very tasty and good for you,

[Mrvoll]

I go to a public high school I missed out last year but his year, I got a ride with my priest up to the mission church for ashes