www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Three weeks to the start of Great and Holy Lent

January 25, 2009
Sunday of Zacchaeus
yeah, YES! YES! YES!

PASCHA IS APRIL 12

February 15 Sunday of the Second Coming of Christ (Meat-Fare)
February 22 Forgiveness Sunday (Cheese-Fare)
February 23 Beginning of the Holy Forty Days Fast
https://www.byzcath.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2394&Itemid=116

Great Lent begins on Clean Monday

Clean Monday is the first day of Great Lent.

The first day of Great Lent is called Clean Monday because we need to begin this holy season with clean hearts and good intentions, and because Great Lent is in a way a time of cleaning up or cleaning out in our spiritual lives. Clean Monday is a day of strict fasting--no food from midnight to noon, and no meat. Additionally, we should devote extra time especially on this day to prayer and reading of the Holy Bible--in fact, the whole time of Great Lent should be a time of increased prayer and reading the Bible. The Church especially recommends reading the Book of Genesis, the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, and the Book of Proverbs during Great Lent. The Psalms are always good spiritual reading, of course. In addition to fasting and prayer, we also should concentrate on doing good works of charity during Great Lent. As the Lord reminded us in the Gospel last Sunday, whenever we help someone who is needy or sick or suffering, we are helping Christ-God Himself.
Day of Strict Fasting

Clean Monday is a day of making a new or clean beginning in our spiritual lives. Because of this, even under the relaxed discipline of Great Lent, it is a day of strict fasting.

In strictest adherence, "fasting" includes two items "fasting" and "abstinence".

*

"Fasting" means not eating from midnight to noon, Monday to Friday.
The reverse is: we eat from noon to midnight, Monday to Friday. One meal is permitted each day, Monday to Friday. No food is eaten in between meals, Monday to Friday. Fasting is not done on Saturday and Sunday (EXCEPT GREAT AND HOLY SATURDAY) All the time, we drink water.
*

"Abstinence" means not eating certain foods from midnight to midnight.
The foods and beverages are:
o Meat from a vertebrate, which is an animal with a spine / backbone (mammals, birds, fish, etc.), and shellfish - Then, we are "vegaterian".
Eating fish on Saturday and Sunday (EXCEPT GREAT AND HOLY SATURDAY), Great Feast of the Annunciation (25 March), and Palm Sunday- Shaneeneh (One Sunday before Feast of Feasts Holy and Glorious Pascha) is permitted.
o Products from a vertebrate, which is an animal with a spine / backbone (mammals, birds, fish, etc.), such as milk, eggs, butter, cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese, etc. (these items are often called dairy products in the United States) - Then, we are "vegan".
o Olive oil.
Eating olive oil on Saturday and Sunday (EXCEPT GREAT AND HOLY SATURDAY), Great Feast of the Annunciation, and Palm Sunday - Shaneeneh is permitted
o Wine.
Drinking wine on Saturday and Sunday (EXCEPT GREAT AND HOLY SATURDAY), Great Feast of the Annunciation, and Palm Sunday - Shaneeneh is permitted
o Alcoholic beverages.

The reverse is: from noon to midnight, we eat plants (fruits, grains, legumes (beans), vegetables, nuts, and fruits, etc.) and invertebrates, which creatures without a spine /backbone (sponges, hydroids, anemones, jellyfish, gorgonains, sea pen, sea fan, worms, squid, cuttlefish, octopus, sea lily, etc.) We drink water and juices.

The reverse is: from noon to midnight, we eat plants (fruits, grains, legumes (beans) vegetables, nuts, and fruits) and invertebrates, which creatures without a spine /backbone , such as sponges, hydroids, anemones, jellyfish, gorgonains, sea pen, sea fan, worms, squid, cuttlefish, octopus, sea lily, etc. We drink water and juices.
Apostolos

First Cor. 3:18-23
Gospel

Lk. 21:8-36
Fast

Clean Monday is a strict fast day.
Pascha Cycle

Clean Monday is within the Pascha Cycle. Clean Monday is between the Fourth Sunday of the Triodion: Sunday of Cheese fare - Forgiveness and First Sunday of Lent: The Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy. Great Monday is the day after the Fourth Sunday of the Triodion: Sunday of Cheese fare - Forgiveness. Clean Monday is the first Day of Great Lent. Great Lent begins at the beginning of the Vespers of Clean Monday on the evening of the Sunday of Cheese fare / Forgiveness.

http://www.mliles.com/melkite/greatlentcleanmonday.shtml

I didn't realize it was coming up so fast ! Thank you, Pani Rose !

Also, is Pascha for the Orthodox on 19 April this year?

Well it isn't coming quite that fast for many of us. Almost, but not quite.

Fr David Straut

Must hurry and shop for chocolate.

Agreed Charles

I found some nice stuff the other day - with Apricot bits in it - very nice it was too

OHH, OLS this will work, someone at church dipped the apricots in dark chocolate They were good!

Choccie is a GREAT help at these times - and adding some form of fruit makes it even nicer

I've always found it interesting to read the discussions of what is and is not permitted during Great Lent.

When I was a child, my Latin family observed Lent by abstaining from all desserts. Nothing sweet was served, whether baked--pies, cakes, puddings, etc.--or confections like chocolate or any other candy.

I dont' know if this was a requirement or something that was traditional from the parts of Germany where they came from.

Does anyone know?

In Christ,

BOB

Dear Bob,

I will say that such abstention sounds very much in the spirit of Lent...and sounds like a very good fast--I think that it is actually quite difficult to do and is a constant reminder of the penitential aspect of the season.


In Christ,
Alice

P.S. to Pani Rose, With all due love and respect, dear sister in Christ, many of us are just recuperating from the 40 day Christmas fast...so we are not in such a hurry for Great Lent to start!!

ALICE:

This no-dessert thing was in addition to the presecribed fast and abstinence that was, at that time, something that ran throughout the forty days. Today we have only two required days--Ash Wednesday and Good Friday--but at that time we had restrictions on how meals were to be and what could and could not be eaten too.

As I said, this may have been a carryover from earlier family experience. The Latin discipline was progressively lightened over the course of the 20th century and that of the United States was even lighter than some other places due to requests for it to be lightened and Rome's permission given to the Latin bishops of this country. For example, in published regulations from prior to 1920, one was allowed an egg per day but it had to be a three-ounce egg, not four. In the time I grew up there was no restriction at all on egg use during Lent.

So I wondered if anyone else had had this as part of what they remembered of practices prior to 1960 or if it were something particular to my own family.

BOB

Alice,

I have no idea of why, but I have been excited about Lent ever since Christmas day. Must just be me

I think I know why--it is because you are such an angel!

I will admit that it is a very special and spiritual time; especially if your parish offers alot more spiritual 'food' during that time.

As for real 'food', that is another matter and it is the one aspect of Lent that I can wait for!

My husband was asking me the other day about how long we had to the 'Great Fast'...and I couldn't help but laugh because he looked so upset when asking. He actually loses weight (that isn't his usual tendency) during the Lenten fast because he just stops eating all that much...I asked him why, and his answer was that the fasting food (no dairy, no eggs, no meat, no fish) becomes so unappealing (despite our all out efforts to keep it palatable) that after a few weeks it depresses him, so he just doesn't want to eat!

How often I have heard him say 'if I see another bean'...yet-- there is always another bean to be seen in a couple of months time!! The ecclesiastical calender definitely keeps us on our toes!

ON a positive note--it forces us to abstain from foods that are detrimental to our health like meat, and to consume foods which are beneficial, such as legumes, soy, nuts, and more vegetable dishes.

Alice

Alice, I understand that perfectly. Fr. Frank is also one that looses a great bit of weight during Lent. Boy, you can tell he has seriously fasted too. By the night of Pascha, he is really WOUND up, Praise God! So very powerful in his words and actions.

It is always a challnge for us, as deacon is diabetic and with end stage renal failure, that even limits his diet more. I mean they argue over if dialylsis patients can eat 'beets' or not. Can you imagine So sometimes it is you gotta do what you gotta do. Like you said it is the increase in prayer with the CHurch family.

I love the special times like when we read the life of St. Mary of Egypt. Afterwards, we share in a huge bowl of dried fruits, always the best figs.

Presanctified is my favorite Liturgy. It somehow seems to take me back, to ancient days. I remember my first visit to the Melkite Mission in Steubenville - eions ago, when it was there - it was a tiny room in their house, it was like stepping back into what it must have been like in Europe ages ago. The first time we walked in the monk - now Fr. Philaret - was standing there - I actually thought he was a statue. Our son's godfather is a priest in the Diocese of Steubenville, is BiRitual, that was our introduction to the Melkite Church. Little did we know some years later, Fr. Deacon Stan would be serving in one as a deacon no less.

To me it is just a awesome time with our Lord and I thank him so much for that!

As for me being an angel - rofl - boy have I got you fooled. Just ask my husband, he is the one that has to put up with me. Thanks for the complement anyway

Do Orthodox also stop fasting on the weekend? If we skip weekends how is it still 40 days? Not to say I'm begging to fast weekends too!

Every year before Lent begins, the thought crosses my mind that I could be so happy as a Methodist. Nice, peaceful people, filled with warmth, no fast, etc. Then I have some chocolate and the urge to leave goes away.