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Sunday of Forgiveness (Cheesefare)

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This coming Sunday, March 14, is the Sunday of Forgiveness. It is also the 4th of the pre-Lenten Sundays and perhaps more commonly known as Cheesefare Sunday or simply Cheesefare. This Sunday remembers the expulsion of Adam and Eve from paradise, as well as marking the last day of eating cheese or cheese products until the celebration of our Lord’s resurrection on Pascha.

After the Divine Liturgy we will be celebrating a portion of Forgiveness Vespers, followed by the Rite of Forgiveness. Covid-19 precautions will be followed.

The Gospel reading for the Sunday of Forgiveness is Matthew 6:14-21. Building on the themes of the previous Sunday’s (repentance and judgement), we are now – as always – prompted to orient ourselves toward forgiveness and reconciliation.

As Fr. Alexander Schmemman reminds us:

Now, forgiveness stands at the very center of Christian faith and of Christian life because Christianity itself is, above all, the religion of forgiveness. God forgives us, and His forgiveness is in Christ, His Son, Whom He sends to us, so that by sharing in His humanity we may share in His love and be truly reconciled with God. Indeed, Christianity has no other content but love. And it is primarily the renewal of that love, a return to it, a growth in it, that we seek in Great Lent, in fasting and prayer, in the entire spirit and the entire effort of that season. Thus, truly forgiveness is both the beginning of, and the proper condition for the Lenten season.
Forgiveness Sunday | Orthodox Church in America
Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise
Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise

Lenten Reading

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Looking for a good and meaningful book to read during this coming Lent? Look no further than our own parish library! Here are 5 books that can be checked out now:

  • First Fruits of Prayer
  • Defeating Sin
  • How to be a Sinner
  • Great Lent
  • Meditation

About these books:

How to Be a Sinner by Peter Bouteneff (SVS Press)

We call ourselves “sinners” in much of our church life. Yet the sinner identity—when done right—brings peace of mind, a clear conscience, and love for others. Addressing topics like guilt, shame, and self-care, this compassionate guide will help you reflect on your life in surrender to God’s mercy. Written by an internationally recognized professor of Orthodox theology, this book will speak to you wherever you find yourself.
How to Be a Sinner at SVS Press

The First Fruits of Prayer: A Forty-Day Journal through the Canon of St. Andrew by Frederica Mathewes-Green (Paraclete Press)

Join Frederica Mathewes-Green on a guided retreat through an ancient Orthodox text. Regardless of your denominational background, First Fruits of Prayer will bring to life the prayer experience of first millennium Christianity through immersion in this poetic hymn, an extraordinarily beautiful work that is still chanted by Christians around the world each Lent. It weaves together Old and New Testament Scriptures with prayers of hope and repentance and offers ancient ways of seeing Christ that still feel new today.
The First Fruits of Prayer at Paraclete Press

Defeating Sin: Overcoming Our Passions and Changing Forever by Fr. Joseph Huneycutt (SVS Press)

Defeating Sin will help readers better understand the disease that troubles the human soul. Fr Joseph David Huneycutt arms readers for spiritual warfare by giving them the tools to help them repent, to turn away from the passions and toward the virtues, and to make a thorough confession.
Defeating Sin: Overcoming Our Passions and Changing Forever at SVS Press

Great Lent by Fr. Alexander Schmemann (SVS Press)

This revised edition of Fr Alexander Schmemann’s Lenten classic examines the meaning of the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, the Prayer of St Ephraim the Syrian, the Canon of St Andrew of Crete, and other neglected or misunderstood treasures of Lenten worship. Schmemann draws on the Church’s sacramental and liturgical tradition to suggest the meaning of “Lent in our life.” The Lenten season is meant to kindle a “bright sadness” within our hearts. Its aim is precisely the remembrance of Christ, a longing for a relationship with God that has been lost. Lent offers the time and place for recovery of this relationship. The darkness of Lent allows the flame of the Holy Spirit to burn within our hearts until we are led to the brilliance of the Resurrection.
Great Lent at SVS Press

Meditations for Great Lent: Reflections on the Triodion by Archimandrite Vassilios Papavassiliou (Ancient Faith Publishing)

The Lenten Triodion exhorts us, “Let us observe a fast acceptable and pleasing to the Lord.” Using hymns from the Triodion and the Scripture readings appointed for the season, Meditations for Great Lent shows us how to make our fast acceptable: to fast not only from food but from sin; to fast with love and humility, as a means to an end and not an end in itself. Keep this gem of a book with you to inspire you for the Fast and to dip into for encouragement as you pursue your Lenten journey.
Meditations for Great Lent at Ancient Faith Publishing

Sunday of the Last Judgment (Meatfare)

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This coming Sunday, March 7, is the Sunday of the Last Judgment. It is also the 3rd of the pre-Lenten Sundays and perhaps more commonly known as Meatfare Sunday or simply Meatfare. This Sunday marks the last day of eating meat or meat products until the celebration of our Lord’s resurrection on Pascha.

The Gospel reading for the Sunday of the Last Judgement is Matthew 25:31-46. Building on the theme of repentance found in the previous two Sundays (Publican and the Pharisee, Prodigal Son), we are reminded that:

…while trusting in Christ’s love and mercy, we must not forget His righteous judgment when He comes again in glory. If our hearts remain hardened and unrepentant, we should not expect the Lord to overlook our transgressions simply because He is a good and loving God. Although He does not desire the death of a sinner, He also expects us to turn from our wickedness and live (Ezek. 33:11). 1
1 Orthodox Church in America, Sunday of the Last Judgement

See also the podcast on the Sunday of the Last Judgement by the late Fr. Thomas Hopko on Ancient Faith Radio.

An important note about Meatfare and fasting from the Lenten Triodion:

Let us observe a fast acceptable and pleasing to the Lord.
True fasting is to put away all evil,
To control the tongue, to forbear from anger,
To abstain from lust, slander, falsehood and perjury.
If we renounce these things, then is our fasting true and acceptable to God.2
2 Sung on Monday of the first week of Lent.

and

Let us keep the Fast not only by refraining from food,
But by becoming strangers to all the bodily passions.
That we who are enslaved to the tyranny of the flesh…3
3 Sung on Tuesday of the first week of Lent.

May God grant this!

The Last Judgement. Late 17th c. Kyiv. | via Flickr

Great Lent Epistle of the Permanent Conference of Ukrainian Orthodox Bishops Beyond the Borders of Ukraine

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Through prayer, repentance, fasting and simple daily kindness, we lead ourselves and our loved ones to a renewed faith in the power of God’s Love for us, a Love that is stronger than sin, death, and the devil.
Great Lent Epistle, 2021

As we prepare for the beginning of Great Lent and all of the benefits it affords us, please see the Lenten Epistle of the Permanent Conference of Ukrainian Orthodox Bishops Beyond the Borders of Ukraine which can be found here: uocofusa.org/files/Archpastoral/2021/Proclamation-EN.pdf

Click to access Proclamation-EN.pdf

Sunday of the Prodigal Son

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Tomorrow, February 28, is the Sunday of the Prodigal Son. This Sunday, the second of the pre-Lenten Sundays, highlights the love and mercy that God extends to those who repent. The Gospel reading (Luke 15:11-32) calls us to forgo the false home we’ve created and return to the Father. | Read more about the Sunday of the Prodigal Son here.

It also on this day that, during Matins, we begin to sing the sorrowful and poignant verses of Psalm 136, ‘By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept...’.

As Metropolitan Kallistos Ware writes in his introduction to The Lenten Triodion:

This Psalm of exile, sung by the children of Israel in their Babylonian captivity, has a special appropriateness on the Sunday of the Prodigal, when we call to mind our present exile in sin and make resolve to return home”.

The Meaning of the Great Fast