Great Lent

Dear brothers and sisters,

The Great Lent begins on Clean Monday, 14 March 2016. It lasts forty days up to the Lazarus Saturday and is also known as the Great Forty Days Fast. Following the Palm Sunday which introduces the Passion Week, we enter the miraculous Feast of Pascha, the feast of all feasts, the ultimate goal of our Lenten pilgrimage.

As we eat fasting food, mainly fruit and vegetables in the forthcoming weeks, we are invited to direct our body and soul towards the Kingdom of God. The Great Lent arouses our hidden spiritual powers showing a victory over matter and reveals the true meaning of life, lived in God. Christ's words to the vile tempter, 'it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God' (Matthew-4-4), become our Lenten motto.

The words of God and the Holy Scriptures are in fact our true food, whereas the fruits of the earth only help our bodies get strong - here self-indulgence is not wanted.

Very early on, as per the commandment of the Lord Himself and His Church, the Christians devoted this part of year to the remembrance of Christ's sufferings and used it as a period of spiritual preparation for Pascha.

Following their example, we ask you, our spiritual children, to forgive each other all transgressions so as to be forgiven by our Heavenly Father – repentance brings us back to His arms and gives us peace. We ask you to fast throughout the whole period and come often for confession and Holy Communion. In this way you will meet our Saviour Jesus Christ with joy and gladness and be able to perceive that the biggest happiness of our lives is reflected in the light of this wonderful feast.

If you have any questions or concerns about this period of abstinence, you are welcome to ask your priests in the church or via e-mail given on www.spclondon.org.

Father Goran Spaic