To understand the various
liturgical particularities of the Lenten period, we must remember that they
express and convey to us the spiritual meaning of Lent and are related to the
central idea of Lent, to its function in the liturgical life of the Church. It
is the idea of repentance. In the teaching of the Orthodox Church
however, repentance means much more than a mere enumeration of sins and
transgressions to the priest. Confession and absolution are but the result, the
fruit, the "climax" of true repentance. And, before this result can be reached,
become truly valid and meaningful, one must make a spiritual effort, go through
a long period of preparation and purification. Repentance, in the Orthodox
acceptance of this word, means a deep, radical reevaluation of our whole
life, of all our ideas, judgments, worries, mutual relations, etc. It applies
not only to some "bad actions," but to the whole of life, and is a Christian
judgment passed on it, on its basic presuppositions. At every moment of our
life, but especially during Lent, the Church invites us to concentrate our
attention on the ultimate values and goals, to measure ourselves by the criteria
of Christian teaching, to contemplate our existence in its relation to God. This
is repentance and it consists therefore, before everything else, in the
acquisition of the Spirit of repentance, i.e., of a special state of
mind, a special disposition of our conscience and spiritual vision.
The Lenten
worship is thus a school of repentance. It teaches us
what is repentance and how to acquire the spirit of
repentance. It prepares us for and leads us to the spiritual
regeneration, without which "absolution" remains
meaningless. It is, in short, both teaching about repentance and
the way of repentance. And, since there can be no real Christian
life without repentance, without this constant "reevaluation" of
life, the Lenten worship is an essential part of the liturgical
tradition of the Church. The neglect of it, its reduction to a
few purely formal obligations and customs, the deformation of
its basic rules constitute one of the major deficiencies of our
Church life today. The aim of this article is to outline at
least the most important structures of Lenten worship, and thus
to help Orthodox Christians to recover a more Orthodox idea of
Lent.
(1)
Sundays of Preparation
Three weeks
before Lent proper begins we enter into a period of
preparation. It is a constant feature of our tradition of
worship that every major liturgical event – Christmas, Easter,
Lent, etc., is announced and prepared long in advance. Knowing
our lack of concentration, the "worldliness" of our life, the
Church calls our attention to the seriousness of the approaching
event, invites us to meditate on its various "dimensions"; thus,
before we can practice Lent, we are given its basic
theology.
Pre-lenten
preparation includes four consecutive Sundays preceding Lent.
1. Sunday
of the Publican and Pharisee
On the eve of
this day, i.e., at the Saturday Vigil Service, the liturgical
book of the Lenten season – the Triodion makes its first
appearance and texts from it are added to the usual liturgical
material of the Resurrection service. They develop the first
major theme of the season: that of humility; the Gospel
lesson of the day (Lk. 18, 10-14) teaches that humility is the
condition of repentance. No one can acquire the spirit of
repentance without rejecting the attitude of the Pharisee. Here
is a man who is always pleased with himself and thinks that he
complies with all the requirements of religion. Yet, he has
reduced religion to purely formal rules and measures it by the
amount of his financial contribution to the temple. Religion for
him is a source of pride and self-satisfaction. The Publican is
humble and humility justifies him before God.
(2) Sunday
of the Prodigal Son
The Gospel
reading of this day (Lk. 15, 11-32) gives the second theme of
Lent: that of a return to God. It is not enough to
acknowledge sins and to confess them. Repentance remains
fruitless without the desire and the decision to change
life, to go back to God. The true repentance has as its source
the spiritual beauty and purity which man has lost. "…I shall
return to the compassionate Father crying with tears, receive me
as one of Thy servants." At Matins of this day to the usual
psalms of the Polyeleos "Praise ye the name of the Lord" (Ps.
135), the Psalm 137 is added, "By the rivers of Babylon, there
we sat down, yea we wept, when we remembered Zion... If I forget
thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning..." The
Christian remembers and knows that what he lost:
the communion with God, the peace and joy of His Kingdom. He was
baptized, introduced into the Body of Christ. Repentance,
therefore, is the renewal of baptism, a movement of love, which
brings him back to God.
(3) Sunday
of the Last Judgment
(Meat
Fare)
On Saturday,
preceding this Sunday (Meat Fare Saturday) the Typikon
prescribes the universal commemoration of all the departed
members of the Church. In the Church we all depend on each
other, belong to each other, are united by the love of Christ.
(Therefore no service in the Church can be "private".) Our
repentance would not be complete without this act of love
towards all those, who have preceded us in death, for what is
repentance if not also the recovery of the spirit of love, which
is the spirit of the Church. Liturgically this commemoration
includes Friday Vespers, Matins and Divine Liturgy on Saturday.
The Sunday
Gospel (Mt. 25, 31-46) reminds us of the third theme of
repentance: preparation for the last judgment. A Christian lives
under Christ’s judgment. He will judge us on how seriously we
took His presence in the world, His identification with every
man, His gift of love. "I was in prison, I was
naked..." All our actions, attitudes, judgments and especially
relations with other people must be referred to Christ, and to
call ourselves "Christians" means that we accept life as
service and ministry. The parable of the Last
Judgment gives us "terms of reference" for our self-evaluation.
On the week
following this Sunday a limited fasting is prescribed. We
must prepare and train ourselves for the great effort of Lent.
Wednesday and Friday are non-liturgical days with Lenten
services (cf. infra). On Saturday of this week
(Cheesefare Saturday) the Church commemorates all men and women
who were "illumined through fasting" i.e., the Holy Ascetics or
Fasters. They are the patterns we must follow, our guides in the
difficult "art" of fasting and repentance.
(4) Sunday
of Forgiveness
(Cheese
Fare)
This is the
last day before Lent. Its liturgy develops three themes: (a) the
"expulsion of Adam from the Paradise of Bliss." Man was created
for paradise, i.e., for communion with God, for life with Him.
He has lost this life and his existence on earth is an exile.
Christ has opened to every one the doors of Paradise and the
Church guides us to our heavenly fatherland. (b) Our fast must
not be hypocritical, a show off. We must "appear not unto men to
fast, but unto our Father who is in secret" (cf. Sunday
Gospel, Mt. 6, 14-21), and (c) its condition is that we
forgive each other as God has forgiven us – "If ye forgive
men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive
you."
The evening
of that day, at Vespers, Lent is inaugurated by the Great
Prokimenon: "Turn not away Thy face from Thy servant, for I am
in trouble; hear me speedily. Attend to my soul and deliver it."
After the service the rite of forgiveness takes place and
the Church begins its pilgrimage towards the glorious day of
Easter.
(1) The
Canon of St. Andrew of Crete
The Great
Canon of St. Andrew of Crete.
On the first four days of Lent – Monday through Thursday – the
Typikon prescribes the reading at Great Compline (i.e., after
Vespers) of the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete, divided in
four parts. This canon is entirely devoted to repentance
and constitutes, so to say, the "inauguration of Lent." It is
repeated in its complete form at Matins on Thursday of the fifth
week of Lent.
(2)
Weekdays of Lent – The Daily Cycle
Lent consists
of six weeks or forty days. It begins on Monday after the Cheese
Fare Sunday and ends on Friday evening before Psalm Sunday. The
Saturday of Lazarus’ resurrection, the Palm Sunday and the Holy
Week form a special liturgical cycle not analyzed in this
article. The Lenten weekdays – Monday through Friday – have a
liturgical structure very different from that of Saturdays and
Sundays. We will deal with these two days in a special
paragraph.
The Lenten
weekday cycle, although it consists of the same services, as
prescribed for the whole year (Vespers, Compline, Midnight,
Matins, Hours) has nevertheless some important particularities:
(a) It has
its own liturgical book – the Triodion. Throughout the
year the changing elements of the daily services – troparia,
stichira, canons – are taken from the Octoechos (the book
of the week) and the Menaion (the book of the month,
giving the office of the Saint of the day). The basic rule of
Lent is that the Octoechos is not used on weekdays but replaced
by the Triodion, which supplies each day with,
— at Vespers
– a set of stichiras (3 for "Lord, I have cried" and 3
for the "Aposticha") and 2 readings or "parimias" from the Old
Testament.
— at Matins –
2 groups of "cathismata" ("Sedalny," short hymns sung after the
reading of the Psalter), a canon of three odes (or "Triodion"
which gave its name to the whole book) and 3 stichiras at the
"Praises," i.e., sung at the end of the regular morning psalms
148, 149, 150 – at the Sixth Hour – a "parimia" from the Book of
Isaiah.
The
commemoration of the Saint of the day ("Menaion") is not
omitted, but combined with the texts of the Triodion. The latter
are mainly, if not exclusively penitential in their
content. Especially deep and beautiful are the "idiornela" ("Samoglasni")
stichira of each day (1 at Vespers and 1 at Matins). And it is a
sad fact that so little of the Triodion has been translated into
English.
(b) The use
of Psalter is doubled. Normally the Psalter, divided in
20 cathismata is read once every week: (1 cathisma. at Vespers,
2 at Matins). During Lent it is read twice (1 at Vespers,
3 at Matins, 1 at the Hours 3, 6 and 9). This is done of course
mainly in monasteries, yet to know that the Church considers the
psalms to be an essential "spiritual food" for the Lenten season
is important.
(c) The
Lenten rubrics put an emphasis on prostrations. They are
prescribed at the end of each service with the Lenten prayer of
St. Ephrem the Syrian, "O Lord and Master of my life," and also
after each of the special Lenten troparia at Vespers. They
express the spirit of repentance as "breaking down" our pride
and selfsatisfaction. They also make our body partake of the
effort of prayer.
(d) The
Spirit of Lent is also expressed in the liturgical music.
Special Lenten "tones" or melodies are used for the responses at
litanies and the "Alleluias" which replace at Matins the solemn
singing of the "God is the Lord and has revealed Himself unto
us."
(e) A
characteristic feature of Lenten services is the use of the Old
Testament, normally absent from the daily cycle. Three books are
read daily throughout Lent: Genesis with Parables
at Vespers. Isaiah at the Sixth Hour. Genesis tells us
the story of Creation, Fall and the beginnings of the history of
salvation. Parables is the book of Wisdom, which leads us to God
and to His precepts. Isaiah is the prophet of redemption,
salvation and the Messianic Kingdom.
(f) The
liturgical vestments to be used on weekdays of Lent are dark,
theoretically purple.
The order for
the weekday Lenten services is to be found in the Triodion
("Monday of the first week of Lent"). Of special importance are
the regulations concerning the singing of the Canon. Lent is the
only season of the liturgical year that has preserved the use of
the nine biblical odes, which formed the original framework of
the Canon.
(3)
Non-Liturgical Days
The
Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts
On weekdays
of Lent (Monday through Friday) the celebration of the Divine
Liturgy is strictly forbidden. They are non-liturgical days,
with one possible exception – the Feast of Annunciation (then
the Liturgy of St. Chrysostom is prescribed after Vespers). The
reason for this rule is that the Eucharist is by its very nature
a festal celebration, the joyful commemoration of Christ’s
Resurrection and presence among His disciples. (For further
elaboration of this point cf. my note "Eucharist and
Communion" in St. Vladimir’s Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 2,
April 1957, pp. 31-33.) But twice a week, on Wednesdays and
Fridays, the Church prescribes the celebration after Vespers,
i.e., in the evening of the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts (cf.
the order of this service in I. Hapgood, The Service Book,
pp. 127-146.) It consists of solemn Great Vespers and communion
with the Holy Gifts consecrated on the previous Sunday. These
days being days of strict fasting (theoretically:
complete abstinence) are "crowned" with the partaking of the
Bread of Life, the ultimate fulfillment of all our efforts.
One must
acknowledge the tragical neglect of these rules in many American
parishes. The celebration of the so called "requiem liturgies"
on non-liturgical days constitutes a flagrant violation of the
universal tradition of Orthodoxy and cannot be justified from
either theological or pastoral points of view. They are remnants
of "uniatism" in our Church and are in contradiction with both –
the Orthodox doctrine of the commemoration of the dead and the
Orthodox doctrine of Eucharist and its function in the Church.
Everything must be done in order to restore the real liturgical
principles of Lent.
(4)
Saturdays of Lent
Lenten
Saturdays, with the exception of the first – dedicated to the
memory of the Holy Martyr Theodore Tyron, and the fifth – the
Saturday of the Acathistos, are days of commemoration of the
departed. And, instead of multiplying the "private requiem
liturgies" on days when they are forbidden, it would be good to
restore this practice of one weekly universal commemoration of
all Orthodox Christians departed this life, of their integration
in the Eucharist, which is always offered "on behalf of all and
for all."
The
Acathistos Saturday is the annual commemoration of the
deliverance of Constantinople in 620. The "Acathist," a
beautiful hymn to the Mother of God, is sung at Matins.
(5)
Sundays of Lent
Each Sunday
in Lent, although it keeps its character of the weekly feast of
Resurrection, has its specific theme, Triodion is combined with
Octoechos.
1st Sunday —
"Triumph of Orthodoxy" — commemorates the victory of the Church
over the last great heresy – Iconoclasm (842).
2nd Sunday —
is dedicated to the memory of St. Gregory Palamas, a
great Byzantine theologian, canonized in 1366.
3rd Sunday —
"of the Veneration of the Holy Cross"– At Matins the Cross is
brought in a solemn procession from the sanctuary and put in the
center of the Church where it will remain for the whole week.
This ceremony announces the approaching of the Holy Week and the
commemoration of Christ’s passion. At the end of each service
takes place a special veneration of the Cross.
4th Sunday —St.
John the Ladder, one of the greatest Ascetics, who in his
"Spiritual Ladder" described the basic principles of Christian
spirituality.
5th Sunday —
St. Mary of Egypt, the most wonderful example of
repentance.
On Saturdays
and Sundays – days of Eucharistic celebration – the dark
vestments are replaced by light ones, the Lenten melodies are
not used, and the prayer of St. Ephrem with prostrations
omitted. The order of the services is not of the Lenten type,
yet fasting remains a rule and cannot be broken (cf. my
article "Fast and Liturgy," in St. Vladimir’s Quarterly,
Vol. III, No. 1, Winter 1959). Each Sunday night, Great Vespers
with a special Great Prokimenon is prescribed.
At the
conclusion of this brief description of the liturgical structure
of Lent, let me emphasize once more that Lenten worship
constitutes one of the deepest, the most beautiful and the most
essential elements of our Orthodox liturgical tradition. Its
restoration in the life of the Church, its understanding by
Orthodox Christions, constitute one of the urgent tasks of our
time.
Source:
The Russian Orthodox Journal,
March, 1959, pp. 6-8
