2024 Guide to Lenten Weekday Services

Great Compline - Απόδειπνο. Five consecutive Mondays starting Momday 18, at 6 pm

Great Compline is prayed in monasteries on a daily basis before one retires for sleep. It is prayed in our churches during Great Lent.  This 45 minute-long service consists mostly of Psalm readings and prayers and ends with the very powerful hymn, “Lord of the Powers, be with us” The service allows us an opportunity to pray and reflect, seek God’s mercy and forgiveness, and to acknowledge that all our hopes and salvation must be placed in God’s hands.

Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts - Λειτουργία των Προηγιασμέμων Δώρων. Five consecutive Wednesdays starting March 20 and alternating 9 am and 6 pm, every other week.

Since the Divine Liturgy is a festive and joyous celebration, it is not celebrated on weekdays during Lent, except on the Saturdays of the Souls and the Feast of the Annunciation. However, because Lent is a period of fasting, it should also be a period of more frequent reception of Holy Communion. There is no consecration of the Gifts at this Liturgy (hence the name Pre-sanctified). They have been consecrated on the preceding Sunday at a regular Divine Liturgy. It lasts just over an hour and contains the service of the Ninth Hour and the Vespers, with Holy Communion added at the end. Those who choose to keep the fast are encouraged to attend this service and to receive Holy Communion as a way of sustaining the fast by receiving the Body and Blood of Christ even more frequently during this period of spiritual discipline.

The Akathist Hymn to the Mother of God - Ο Ακάθιστος Υμνος εις την Υπεραγία Θεοτόκο. Five consecutive Fridays starting March 22, at 6 pm.

This service consists of hymns and prayers addressed to Christ and the Theotokos. It is a beautiful poem of praise and devotion to the Mother of our Lord. It was sung in the year 626 in the Church of the Theotokos in Constantinople on the occasion of the deliverance and freedom of the City from the barbarians. It is comprised of 24 stanzas, each beginning with a letter of the Greek alphabet from Alpha to Omega. It is divided into four parts, one part sung on each of the Fridays of Lent (Salutations), and on the fifth Friday, the Hymn is sung in its entirety. It is called "Akathist" (Gr. for standing) because the people, out of love and gratitude to the Theotokos, stood during the entire Hymn.

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