GREAT LENT IS COMING!
This is truly developing into an interesting discussion. Fr. Schmemann’s book is a classic – which deeply influenced me in my journey toward Christ and the Holy Priesthood. You cannot read this book too many times because, each time you open it you are a different person who is confronted with novel challenges in life. I look forward to participating in this journey with all of you – and to hopefully attracting new participants to this forum. Please do your part and help spread the word!
Advertisement
Explore posts in the same categories: Father Anastasios' Blog, Great Lent, Journey to Pascha
March 2, 2011 at 6:02 pm
Sorry this is late in posting’ I was waiting to see if it was acceptable as I turned it in a week or so ago? If not just delete this’ Thanks Rick’
Unless I See On Line Bible Study
Book readings for February: “Great Lent, Journey To Pascha”
Written By: Alexander Schmemann
Discussion Questions Submitted By: Judith Burns
February 13-19
Lent: The Journey to Pascha pp. 11-15
Preparation for Lent pp. 17-30
1. What is the gift of Lent?
Quoting from the “Great Lent”, It is “the new life which almost two thousand years ago shone forth from the grave, has been given to us, to all those who believe in Christ. And it was given to us on the day of our Baptism, in which, as St. Paul says, we “were buried with Christ…unto death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead we also may walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4). Thus on Easter we celebrate Christ’s Resurrection as something that happened and still happens to us. For each one of us received the gift of that new life and the power to accept it and to live by it. It is a gift which radically alters our attitude toward everything in this world, including death. It makes it possible for us joyfully to affirm: “Death is no more’” Oh, death is till there, be sure and we still face it and someday it will come and take us. But it is our whole faith that by His own death, made it a passage – a “passover,” a “Pascha” – into the Kingdom of God, transforming the tragedy of tragedies into the ultimate victory. “Trampling down death by death,” He made us partakers of His Resurrection. This is why at the end of the Paschal Matins we say: “Christ is risen and life reigneth’ Christ is risen and not one dead remains in the grave’ ” The gift is Christ, Christ’s victory over the grave, over death both spiritual and physical’
2. How is Pascha both beginning and end?
Quoting from the “Great Lent”, The entire worship of the Church is organized around Easter, and therefore the liturgical year, i.e., the sequence of seasons and feasts, becomes a journey, a pilgrimage towards Pascha, the End, which at the same time is the Beginning: the end of all that which is “old”; the beginning of the new life, a constant “passage” from “this world” into the Kingdom already revealed in Christ.” It ends with the death of Christ on the cross and it
begins anew with the Resurrection of Christ’ It ends with our old self in the
grave with Him and our new life, into the life of the Kingdom’with Him’
Our “Journey to Pascha”.
3. Why is there a need for a preparatory time before Lent?
In the early Church it was to prepare the catechumens for baptism which was performed during the Paschal liturgy. For us it is, quoting from the “Great Lent” “our return every year to our own Baptism, whereas Lent is our preparation for that return—the slow and sustained effort to perform, at the end our own “passage” or “pascha” into the new life in Christ.” It is a time for us of
rediscovery and recovery of what “we were made through our own baptismal death
and resurrection.” in Christ’ It is a time for us to see ourselves as we really
are, to repent of that, and find the new life of the Kingdom. It is a time for
us to to reflame our love for Christ and to begin to worship Him through the
fellowship of believers, through communion, and through the liturgy.
4. How would you define repentance?
The Greek understanding of “repent” was a complete change of one’s direction in life. To acknowledge and condemn one’s own sins with a turning back towards the love of God with a heart of sorrow and a determination to sin no more.
Quote, ” Repentance is often simply identified as a cool and “objective” enumeration of sins and transgressions, as the act of “pleading guilty” to a legal indictment.” What then is it to truly “Repent”? What is it
that I must do before God that Christ asks of me” “Repent’?” (Matt. 4:17)
Is it just confession? “seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness…
Be ye perfect’ ” We forget God, we fail God, we’re to busy for God, we push God
slowly out of our lives? We, quoting “Great Lent” ” live as if He never came.
This is the only real sin, the sin of all sins, the bottomless sadness and
tragedy of our nominal Chistianity.”
“Repentance begins as the rediscovery of the deep nature of all desire:
the desire for God and His righteousness, for the true life…Reptenance is
a return to the genuine order of things, the restoration of the right vision
of God…Repentance is…not only in particular sins: the deviation of my love
from God, preferring the “far country” to the beautiful home of the Father
…I stand before God, before the glory and the beauty of His Kingdom.
I realize that I belong to it, that I have no other home, no other joy,
no other goal; I also realize that I am exiled from it into the darkness and
sadness of sin, ‘for I am afflicted’. And finally, I realize that only God
can help in that affliction, that only He can “attend to my soul. Repentance is,
above everythin/g else, a desperate call for that divine help.”
It is to honestly openly bare one self before God in all of our failures, our
short comings, all of what we truly are in and of our selves, all that alienates
us from Him, to prostrate humbly before the Creator. And then, to realize that
not even this is enough, only Christ is enough’ To put it simply, it is to speak
with God and tell Him all of what we are and what we are not, to be completely
honest with Him with a contrite heart’
5. How do desire, humility, return, jusdgment, and forgiveness relate to repentance and preparation for Lent?
Desire:
Quote, “He is the first symbol of repentance, for repentance begins as the rediscovery of the deep nature of all desire: the desire for God and His righteousness, for the true life.”
Humility:
Quote, “For lenten season begins then by a quest, a prayer for humility which is the beginning of true repentance. For repentance, above everything else, is a return to the genuine order of things, the restoration of the right vision.”
Return:
Quite, “Yet this, and only this, is repentance, and therefore it is also a deep desire to return, to go back, to recover that lost home.”
Judgment:
Quote, “When Christ comes to judge us, what will be the criterion of His judgment? …love-not a mere humanitarian concern for abstract justice and the anonymous “poor,” but concrete and personal love for the human person, any human person, that God makes me encounter in my life.”…”the only lasting adnd transforming victories are those of love. To remind man of this personal love and vocation, to fill the sinful world with this love-this is the true mission of the Church.’…And, finally, we know that however narrow and limited the framework of our personal existence, each one of us has been made responsible for a tiny part of the Kingdom of God, made responsible by that very gift of Christ’s love. Thus, on whether or not we have accepted this responsibility, on whether we have loved or refused to love, shall we be judged. For “inasmuch as you have done it unto one the least of these My brethren, you have done it unto Me….”
Forgiveness:
Quote, “To forgive is to put between me and my “enemy” the radiant forgiveness of God Himself. To forgive is to reject the hopeless “dead-ends” of human relations and to refer them to Christ. Forgiveness is truly a “breakthrough” of the Kingdom into this sinful and fallen world.”
6. How is praying for the dead an essential expression of God’s love?
Quote, “Praying for the dead is an essential expression of the Church as love. We ask God to remember those whom we remember and we remember them because we love them. Praying for them we meet them in Christ who is love and who, because He is Love, overcomes death which is the ultimate victory of separation and lovelessness. In Christ there is no difference between living and dead because all are alive in Him. He is the life and that Life is the light of man. Loving Christ, we love all those who are in Him; loving those who are in Him, we love Christ: this is the law of the Church and the obvious rationale for her of prayer for the dead. It is truly our love in Christ that keeps them alive because it keeps them “in Christ.”
7. Why are fasting and forgiveness the necessary conditions for liberation from sin?
Quotes:
“The first one is fasting – the refusal to accept the desires and urges of our fallen nature as normal, the effort to free ourselves from the dictatorship of flesh and matter over the spirit. ….
The second condition is forgiveness – “If you forgive men their tresspasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you.” The triumph of sin, the main signs of its rule over the world, is division, opposition, separation, hatred. Therefore, the first break through this fortress of sin is forgiveness: the return to unity, solidarity, love. To forgive is to put between me and my “enemy” the radiant forgiveness of God Himself. To forgive is to reject the hopeless “dead-ends” of human relations and to refer them to Christ. Forgiveness is truly a “breakthrough” of the Kingdom into this sinful and fallen world.”