Four Evangelists Orthodox Church, Bel Air, Maryland

You are here: Home / Archives for Great Lent

Great Lent

Weekly Happenings – House Blessings; Great Fast; Baptism; Panikhida; Prodigal Son

at

Glory to Jesus Christ!

House blessings continue through the beginning of Great Lent. Please see Fr. Gregory to schedule a time if you would like to have your house blessed.

In preparation to enter into the Great Fast, please note that this week is fast free! The weekly Wednesday/Friday fast will resume next week, Meatfare week, and then no meat will be consumed in Cheesefare week, followed by the beginning of Lent. This gradual entrance into the Fast is very practical and beneficial, as opposed to a sudden deep-dive into the Fast!

While Orthodoxy has a defined tradition of fasting, it should be noted that there are exceptions to the rule (e.g., small children, the sick, the very old, pregnant and nursing mothers, travelers, etc.) and that practical pastoral wisdom might be called for (e.g., it might not be beneficial for someone who has never fasted to take on a strict fast) when fasting. Everyone’s situation in life is different.

If anyone has questions regarding the Orthodox practice of fasting, please see Fr. Gregory.

“True fasting is being a stranger to vice, controlling the tongue, abstaining from anger, distancing oneself from lust, evil speech, lying, perjury. The absence of these vices makes fasting true, and so shunning these vices makes fasting good.
— On Fasting and Feasts, St. Basil the Great

Saturday Vespers, 15 February 2025, will begin at the normally scheduled time of 6pm. Please join us!

This coming Sunday, 16 February 2025, at 8:30am, the Hillman family will be baptized and received into the Orthodox Church. Please join us on this joyous occasion! And please continue to keep the Hillman’s in your daily prayers.

The Divine Liturgy will begin at approximately 9:30am.

Following the Divine Liturgy on Sunday, we will pray a Panikhida (memorial service) for +David Mukai, on the 2 year anniversary of his passing. Memory eternal!

Sunday, 16 February 2025, is also the Sunday of the Prodigal Son, one of the pre-Lenten Sundays. The readings for the Divine Liturgy are:

1 Corinthians 6.12-20 (Epistle)
Luke 15.11-32 (Gospel)

I have recklessly forgotten Your glory, O Father; / and among sinners I have scattered the riches which You had given me. / Therefore, I cry to You like the Prodigal: / “I have sinned before You, O compassionate Father; / receive me a penitent and make me as one of Your hired servants.
— Kontakion for the Sunday of the Progigal Son

Prodigal Son
Icon of the Prodigal Son

Sunday of Forgiveness

at

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Please join us on Sunday, 17 March 2024, for the Divine Liturgy followed by the Rite of Forgiveness, after which we will enter into the Great Fast (Great Lent).

All are welcome!

About the Rite of Forgiveness:

“… on the very threshold of the Great Fast, at Vespers on the Sunday of Forgiveness, there is a special ceremony of mutual reconciliation: for without love towards others there can be no genuine fast. And this love for others should not be limited to formal gestures or to sentimental feelings, but should issue in specific acts of almsgiving. … It is to give not only our money but our time, not only what we have but what we are; it is to give a part of ourselves”. — from The Meaning of the Great Fast, The Lenten Triodion. Mother Mary and Archimandrite Kallistos Timothy Ware (St. Tikhon’s Seminary Press, 2002).

1st Sunday of Lent: The Triumph of Orthodoxy

at

Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

Sunday, 05 March 2023, is the first Sunday of Lent and the Triumph of Orthodoxy, so-called as it commemorates the 9th century restoration of icons and their veneration (i.e., Orthodoxy) against the iconoclasts. The “triumph of Orthodoxy” does not -and should never- imply a modern arrogance or spirit of triumphalism.

Following the Divine Liturgy we will conclude our worship with a procession with icons and the Rite of Orthodoxy. Everyone is encouraged to bring their favorite icon for the procession.

The Epistle and Gospel readings for Sunday are:

⁜ Hebrews 11:24-26, 32-12:2 (Epistle)
⁜ John 1:43-51 (Gospel)

About this Sunday we read from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese website: “The theme of the victory of the icons, by its emphasis on the incarnation, points us to the basic Christian truth that the one whose death and resurrection we celebrate at Easter was none other than the Word of God who became human in Jesus Christ…. | continue reading at the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese website.

Triumph of Orthodoxy

Forgiveness Sunday: The Expulsion of Adam from Paradise

at

Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

This coming Sunday, 26 February 2023, is Forgiveness Sunday. Following the Divine Liturgy we will serve the Rite of Forgiveness, the communal act of mutual forgiveness before entering into the Great Fast.

This Sunday is also Cheesefare, the last day for those fasting to consume dairy products before Lent. (But yet again, to loosely paraphrase St. Basil the Great: don’t forsake your cheese and milk only to consume your brother with anger!)

The Epistle and Gospel readings for Sunday are:

⁜ Romans 13:11-14:4 (Epistle)
⁜ Matthew 6:14-21 (Gospel)

About this Sunday we read from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese website: “… The Sunday of Forgiveness, the last of the preparatory Sundays before Great Lent, has two themes: it commemorates Adam’s expulsion from Paradise, and it accentuates our need for forgiveness. There are obvious reasons why these two things should be brought to our attention as we stand on the threshold of Great Lent. One of the primary images in the Triodion is that of the return to Paradise. Lent is a time when we weep with Adam and Eve before the closed gate of Eden, repenting with them for the sins that have deprived us of our free communion with God. But Lent is also a time when we are preparing to celebrate the saving event of Christ’s death and rising, which has reopened Paradise to us once more (Luke 23:43). So sorrow for our exile in sin is tempered by hope of our re-entry into Paradise… | continue reading at the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese website.

Expulsion of Adam from Paradise
The Expulsion of Adam from Paradise