“This is the spring of repentance, this is the time of correction. This is an acceptable time, this is the day of salvation, this is the time of repentance
Approved for distribution by the Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church.
“Behold, the Time of Repentance” is a collection of selected teachings by Schema-Archimandrite Abraham for the Sundays and feast days of Great Lent.
The circle of Lenten Gospel readings has been wisely determined by the Church so that the souls of those listening are filled with true repentant feelings: contrition of spirit, hope in the mercy of God and gratitude to the Savior who redeemed us. The author of the book encourages the reader to look at familiar gospel events and parables as if for the first time and helps him deeply experience their meaning.
A special section in the book consists of interpretations of the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete. Simple, accessible and at the same time full of spiritual experience explanations from Father Abraham make this canon alive and close to every soul thirsting for repentance.
PREPARATION WEEKS FOR GREAT LENT
About the need to rise above oneself through humility. Week of Zacchaeus
Repentance is the highest virtue. The Week of the Publican and the Pharisee
About God's love for man. Week of the Prodigal Son
On the importance of commemorating the dead. Ecumenical parental (meat-free) Saturday
About the need to live according to the Gospel. Meat Week about the Last Judgment
On the secret practice of virtues. Raw Week, a memory of Adam's exile
THE GREAT CANON OF ST. ANDREW OF CRETE
Hymn of repentance. About the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete
That the saints sincerely considered themselves the worst of all
How to acquire the spirit of repentance
About original sin and repentance
About the fact that we are also involved in Adam’s sin
The depth of theology in the Great Canon. About the dogma of the Holy Trinity
About the virtue of sobriety
How can we imitate the feat of the righteous Abraham and Isaac
Saving Ark Church
About repentant crying
About our madness and flight from sin
Sacrifice to God - a broken spirit
“And I see You intelligently, Sveta Eternal...”
LENT
About the veneration of holy icons. A week 1st Great Lent, Triumph of Orthodoxy
About relaxing our mind. A week 2nd Great Lent, St. Gregory Palamas
About self-denial and firmness in faith. A week 3rd Great Lent, Worship of the Cross
How to overcome passion? A week 4th , Venerable John Climacus
About the correct reading of spiritual books
About when the Most Holy Theotokos helps us. Praise Holy Mother of God(Saturday Akathist)
That repentance works great miracles. A week 5th Great Lent, Venerable Mary of Egypt
The incomprehensible miracle of the Savior. Lazarev Saturday. The Resurrection of Righteous Lazarus
About the perception of gospel events with the heart. A week 6th Great Lent, Vaiy. Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem
PASSIONATE WEEK
About spiritual and physical service to God. Great Wednesday
About worthy and unworthy communion. Maundy Four
What is impossible for man is possible for God
About accepting the Sacrifice of the Cross. Great heel
About Divine humility. Holy Saturday
“Behold, the time of repentance” is a collection of selected teachings from Schema-Mandrit Abraham for the Sundays and feast days of Great Lent.
The circle of Lenten Gospel readings has been wisely determined by the Church so that the souls of those listening are filled with true repentant feelings: contrition of spirit, hope in the mercy of God and gratitude to the Savior who redeemed us. The author of the book encourages the reader to look at familiar gospel events and parables as if for the first time and helps him deeply experience their meaning.
A special section in the book consists of interpretations of the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete. Simple, accessible and at the same time full of spiritual experience explanations from Father Abraham make this canon alive and close to every soul thirsting for repentance.
PREPARATION WEEKS FOR GREAT LENT
About the need to rise above oneself through humility
Week of Zacchaeus
Repentance is the highest virtue.
The Week of the Publican and the Pharisee
About God's love for man.
Week of the Prodigal Son
On the importance of commemorating the dead.
Ecumenical parental (meat-free) Saturday
About the need to live according to the Gospel.
Meat Week about the Last Judgment
On the secret practice of virtues.
Raw Week, a memory of Adam's exile
THE GREAT CANON OF ST. ANDREW OF CRETE
Hymn of repentance.
About the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete
That the saints sincerely considered themselves the worst of all
How to acquire the spirit of repentance
About original sin and repentance
About the fact that we are also involved in Adam’s sin
The depth of theology in the Great Canon.
on the dogma of the Holy Trinity
About the virtue of sobriety
How can we imitate the feat of the righteous Abraham and Isaac
Saving Ark Church
About repentant crying
About our madness and flight from sin
Sacrifice to God - a broken spirit
“And I see You intelligently, Sveta Eternal...”
LENT
About the veneration of holy icons.
1st Sunday of Lent, Triumph of Orthodoxy
About relaxing our mind.
2nd Sunday of Great Lent, St. Gregory Palamas
About self-denial and firmness in faith.
3rd Sunday of Lent, Worship of the Cross
How to overcome passion?
Week 4, St. John Climacus
About the correct reading of spiritual books
About when the Most Holy Theotokos helps us.
Praise of the Most Holy Theotokos (Saturday Akathist)
That repentance works great miracles.
5th Sunday of Great Lent, Venerable Mary of Egypt
The incomprehensible miracle of the Savior.
Lazarev Saturday. The Resurrection of Righteous Lazarus
About the perception of gospel events with the heart.
6th week of Lent, Vaiy. Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem
PASSIONATE WEEK
About spiritual and physical service to God.
Great Wednesday
About worthy and unworthy communion.
Maundy Four
What is impossible for man is possible for God
About accepting the Sacrifice of the Cross.
Great heel
About Divine humility.
Holy Saturday
“We will begin the Lenten time brightly,” the Holy Church cries at the onset of Great Lent and in a whole series of touching hymns calls us to rejoice in the fact that “fasting has come, the mother of chastity, the accuser of sins, the preacher of repentance, the residence of angels and the salvation of men” (stichera in 1- 1st day of fasting), for “blessed is the grace of all-honorable fasting” (sedalen on Tuesday).
At the same time, the Holy Church reminds us that true fasting does not consist in bodily abstinence alone: fasting, “pleasant and pleasing to the Lord,” is “the alienation of the evil, the abstinence of the tongue, the putting aside of rage, the excommunication of lusts, speaking, lying and perjury” ( verse on Monday of the 1st week of Lent).
Just before the onset of Lent - on the Week of Cheese Fat - St. The Church reminds us of the fall of our ancestors Adam and Eve and their expulsion from paradise, that is, their loss of that heavenly bliss for which they were created. This mournful memory explains to us why fasting is needed.
We have inherited from our first parents a nature damaged by sin, and therefore we ourselves sin – we sin just like them, by disobedience to God and intemperance, being carried away by all kinds of passions and vices, mental and physical. We are not healthy, but sick, and what sick person would not want to get well? Here is St. The Church is meeting us halfway, offering us a “course of treatment” - holy fasting. Through the voluntary feat of fasting, the feat of obedience and abstinence, we can rise again and regain the lost heavenly bliss. Everyone can experience the benefits of fasting as a powerful means of liberation from the sinfulness that oppresses us.
The Old Testament gives us many examples of Lenten feats. The New Testament similarly affirms the importance and necessity of fasting. The Great Faster was the Forerunner of the Lord, St. John the Baptist. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself, before going out into public service to the human race, retired into the desert and spent forty days and nights in fasting. During His Sermon on the Mount, He gave instructions on how to fast: not for human praise, but for God (Matthew 6:17-18). Explaining to His disciples why they could not cast out the demon from the youth brought to them, the Lord pointed to fasting as a necessary means in the fight against dark demonic power: “this generation does not proceed only by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:21).
The holy apostles, church fathers and all the great ascetics of Christian piety fasted. They left us many wonderful instructions about the benefits, importance and necessity of fasting, which is of great importance in the matter of pleasing God and our spiritual success.
Saint Basil the Great taught about fasting: “Keep the commandment of fasting, honor the gray hairs of fasting, for it is as old as the human race.”
Saying of St. John Chrysostom: “He who fasts is light, deeply attentive, prays soberly, extinguishes evil desires, appeases God and humbles a proud soul.”
“Fasting is a chariot that ascends to heaven,” taught St. Ephraim the Syrian, - fasting is a good protection for the soul, a reliable companion for the body. Fasting is a weapon for the valiant, a school for ascetics. Fasting is the path to repentance.”
Countless numbers of such patristic testimonies can be cited.
The feat of fasting does not represent anything gloomy, as some may think. On the contrary, fasting, carried out correctly according to the statutes of the Church, gives extraordinary spiritual lightness and incomparable joy to anything on earth. It gives health to the soul and body. It is no coincidence that at the onset of Great Lent the Holy Church rejoices and rejoices, showing us in it the glorious field of struggle against sin until the final victory over it. And everyone who understands this cannot help but rejoice at the onset of fasting, for fasting, according to the figurative expression of our church hymns, is like spring for our souls. Great Lent is a time of spiritual consolation for all repentant sinners, for all true Christians who have hated the Pharisees’ “proud voice” and are zealous for the publican’s “compassionate prayer”: “God, be merciful to me a sinner!”
Let's not just externally“serve” the fast, let us not forget that it consists not only in refusing modest food: “As we fast, brethren, physically, let us also fast spiritually... so that we may receive great mercy from Christ God” (stichera on Wednesday of the 1st week). And just as the Great Lent that we spend annually leads us to the bright joy of Christ’s Resurrection, so the life of each of us, if we voluntarily and willingly liken it to the Lenten feat, will lead us in due time to the glorious resurrection from the dead, to justification at the Last Judgment of God and to eternal endless joy in the blissful chambers of heaven.
Sermon by Archimandrite Alexy (Polikarpov), abbot of the St. Danilov Monastery in Moscow.
“In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
On this blessed evening we stand on the threshold of the Holy Pentecost of Great and Glorious Lent - a time of action, a time of soul salvation.
Today we enter this great field with trepidation and timidity. The Lord does not desire the death of the sinner, but “as soon as he is converted... and he will live” (Ezek. 18:23), he also gives us time for correction, time to improve our lives. “This is the spring of repentance, this is the time of correction,” - this is how the Holy Orthodox Church calls to our hearts, calling us these days to salvation, so that we, having repented, will correct ourselves.
In order for us to go through this race, so that we have a spiritual field for correcting our hard hearts and we can have the spiritual fruits of holy fasting, we must acquire the grace of God, God's power through repentance, through the correction of our sins. And, above all, we must make peace with our neighbors. The Lord, in the Gospel that was read today at the Liturgy, says: “If you forgive people their sins, then your Heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive people their sins, then your Father will not forgive you your sins” (Matthew 6:14–15). Just as we want our sins to be forgiven, so we must forgive our neighbors.
And our neighbor is every person with whom we communicate. A neighbor is someone who may be offended by us, someone who has suffered injustice from us. And when we, making a bow, ask for forgiveness and say: “Forgive for Christ’s sake,” there is not always a sincere and warm heart behind this. We often say words, but there is no sincere movement in us towards God and our neighbor. We can talk and not do. We can offend our neighbor not only by deed, we can offend by word, movement, look. This is also an insult, and for this we must ask for forgiveness.
We ask each other for forgiveness and, it seems, have no evil, but we remember the insults inflicted on us. If we rejoice when our offender is dishonored and slandered, this indicates that we remember the evil, that we have not forgiven the offense. Even if we do not rejoice in his troubles and sympathize when he suffers insults, but we do not rejoice with him in his successes, this is also the fruit of rancor, as the Holy Fathers say. But we must forgive everything, forgive sincerely, from the bottom of our hearts.
To forgive means to forget, not to remember, not to cause harm to one’s neighbor, not to have any evil movement in the heart or not to think evil about him. But the highest measure is to rejoice in the joy of your neighbor. Then we can say that all our unclean, all sinful feelings have been eradicated.
True love and true forgiveness extend even to death. We have many examples of Christian attitudes towards enemies. Here is an example from the history of the Church: one military leader was mortally wounded by his heretic servant. On his deathbed, already dying, the military leader called his servant to him and said: “Give me your hand, which inflicted a mortal wound on me, and I will give you mine; as a sign of love and forgiveness, I give you freedom and life. Just tell me,” the dying man turned to the servant, “why did you kill me?” I always loved you and tried to do only good deeds.” The shocked servant replied, “I thought that by killing you I would benefit my religion.” The dying Christian exclaimed: “What is your religion that makes you kill your neighbor?!” And what is our faith, which commands us to love our enemies! Our faith, our Lord Savior, commands us: “Love your enemies”” (Matthew 5:44; Luke 6:27,35).
We all belong to this true faith. We all call ourselves Orthodox Christians. This means that we must forgive each other, not remember grievances, and only then, with God’s help and with the grace that the Lord gives us, enter this great field of the saving fast of Lent and achieve the Bright Resurrection of Christ. Everyone knows his own weakness, his own weakness - he trembles and asks for God's help.
Let us here this evening sincerely ask each other for forgiveness and apply our words to deeds that will testify to our correction.
I, as a weak and sinful person, ask forgiveness from the brethren of the holy monastery, from you, brothers and sisters, if I have offended, condemned, seduced anyone with my unworthy behavior, offended by deed, word, thought and all my feelings. I ask for forgiveness and holy prayers. With His grace, may God forgive and have mercy on all of us. Amen."