wfn.org | Catechetical Homily On the Commencement of Holy and Great Lent

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> February 14, 2010

> ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE

Catechetical Homily On the Commencement of Holy and Great Lent

> ?  BARTHOLOMEW

> By God?s Mercy

Archbishop of Constantinople the New Rome, and Ecumenical Patriarch

> To the Plenitude of the Church

Grace and Peace be to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

Together with our Prayer, Blessing, and Forgiveness

Beloved brothers and sisters, children in the Lord,

Tomorrow, we enter the period of Holy and Great Lent. In the Lenten
vespers of Forgiveness chanted this evening, we shall hear the sacred
hymnographer urging us to ?begin the time of fasting with joy,
submitting ourselves to spiritual struggle? in preparing to welcome
the great Passion and joyful Resurrection of our divine-human Lord.

Therefore, what is demanded is a joyful disposition in order to
embrace fervently the spiritual struggle of this period of contrition
in purification and prayerfulness. Fasting, abstinence, frugality,
restriction of personal desires, intense prayer, confession, and
similar ascetic elements are essential to the period of Great Lent and
should not be considered burdensome obligations or unbearable duties
that result in despondency or dejection. When doctors recommend diet
or exercise as necessary prerequisites for psychosomatic health and
vigor, the first advice they offer by way of a mandatory condition of
success is a pleasant mental disposition, which includes smiling and
positive thinking. The same also applies to the spiritual period of
fasting that opens before us. Great Lent should be regarded as an
invaluable divine gift. It is a sacred time of divine grace, which
seeks to detach us from things material, lowly and corrupt in order to
attract us toward things superior, wholesome and spiritual. It is a
unique opportunity to remove from the soul every passion, to rid the
body of everything superfluous, harmful and mortal. Accordingly, then,
it is a time of immense rejoicing and gladness. A genuine feast and
exhilaration!

Nevertheless, my beloved children, the fasting expected of us by the
Church, as well as the abstinence, frugality, restriction of personal
desires and unnecessary pleasures or expenses, literally constitute a
prescription for salvation. This is especially true this year, when
our world has experienced a global economic crisis, filled with
imminent danger of bankruptcy not only for individuals and companies,
but also for entire nations throughout the planet, with destructive
consequences in skyrocketing unemployment, the creation of entire
hosts of people plagued by poverty, depression, social turmoil,
increase in crime, and other such tragedies. Great Lent instructs us
to journey daily with a little less, without the arrogance of
extravagance, waste and display. It encourages us to surrender all
forms of greed and ignore the challenges of commercial advertising,
which constantly promotes new and false necessities. It incites us to
limit ourselves to what is absolutely essential and necessary in an
attitude of dignified, deliberate simplicity. We are not to be a
consuming or compulsive herd of thoughtless and heartless individuals,
but a society of sensitive and caring persons, sharing with and
supporting our ?neighbor? that is in poverty or recession. Finally,
Great Lent informs us about patience and tolerance in moments of
smaller or larger deprivation, while simultaneously emphasizing the
need to seek God?s assistance and mercy, placing our complete trust in
His affectionate providence. That is how Christ envisions Great Lent.
That is how the Saints lived Great Lent. That is how the Church
Fathers undertook the struggle of Great Lent. That is how our faith
has traditionally understood Great Lent. That is how the Church of
Constantinople, in its wide experience and unceasing vigilance, has
always projected and proclaimed Great Lent, and particularly in the
current global circumstances.

In sharing these pastoral thoughts and words from the historical and
holy Phanar, we extend to all of you our paternal prayer and spiritual
blessing for a fruitful journey through the period of Great Lent.

> Holy and Great Lent 2010
> ? Bartholomew
> Fervent supplicant before God