Thank you everyone who contributed and participate in last week’s Souper Bowl - Chili/Chowder Challenge. This year we had eight entries, and raised $421 for the International Orthodox Christian Charities. You also contributed over 170 items of food stuff for the Shoreline Kitchen Pantry. This year, the winner was Susan Egan, who successfully bought the vote for her chowder. She gets the honor of having her name engraved in “traveling” trophy, and she also wins the “soup spoon” award.
3-week Preparation for the Great Fast
We have now entered the Pre-Lenten Period. For the next three weeks, we will be preparing our bodies, minds, and hearts for the Great Fast.
We prepare our mind and body by slowly reintegrating into the discipline of fasting. This is especially important for those who don’t keep the normal weekly fasts on Wednesday and Friday throughout the year. We have one week with no fasting, one week of “normal” fasting, with a strict fast on Wednesday and Friday, a week without meat, and then we begin the Great Fast. If you have questions about fasting guidelines, please see Fr. Steven.
We also prepare our heart and soul for even more important fasting: fasting from our sins and passions. We will be given three examples and lessons to ponder as we come closer and closer to Great Lent, beginning this week with a lesson from the Gospel according to St Luke: the Publican and the Pharisee.
We are reminded that the Great Fast is not given for us to punish ourselves. Nor is it given for us to have the chance to be “pharisaical” in our fast, looking down on others and priding ourselves on what we abstained from or what we have done. Instead, it is a time of repentance and renewal.
It is also a time to remember the importance of authentic prayer, without which our fast becomes: “the fast of demons,” for they neither eat nor pray. Obviously they receive no spiritual benefit from such a regimen. Neither will we. If you would like assistance in developing a plan for increasing (or starting!) your daily rule of prayer during Lent, please see Fr. Steven.
Increased attendance at the services, or enhanced prayer life, strictness in fasting, spiritual reading, generosity in almsgiving, and charitable acts are all perfectly healthy and highly encouraged spiritual disciplines during Great Lent. There is something to be said for “going through the motions,” inasmuch as you can never become proficient, much less accustomed, to performing any exercise or discipline without frequent practice. Start now: make a habit of prayer, of reading Scripture, of fasting, and other spiritual disciplines. Make it a part of your daily & weekly routine.