This Holy Period
This Holy Period
During the Great Lent, we enter into a holy spiritual period for which we ought to prepare.
The days of the Great Lent are among the holiest days of the year; whoever is unable to strengthen his spiritual life during them has lost the deepest days of the year, and this يدل on hardness of heart and عدم استجابة to the work of God.
Let us then contemplate this holy period…
This holy period
Holy days for the Lord:
Indeed, every day in our life is a holy day…
And we pray the Thanksgiving Prayer every day saying: “Grant us to complete this holy day, and all the days of our life, in all peace with Your fear.” Truly, our whole life is holy to the Lord, for we are not our own, but belong to the Lord who created us and saved us…
Yet the Lord—despite all this—has sanctified certain days:
He gave them a special value, deeper than the rest of the days…
The first of these days is “the Day of the Lord,” the seventh day.
The Scripture says: “Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it” (Gen 2:3). And the Lord says in the Ten Commandments: “Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Deut 5:12). No doubt this Day of the Lord has a distinction over the rest of the days.
Sanctification, linguistically and in the Old Testament, carries the meaning of تخصيص (dedication):
Thus, the phrase “sanctify the Day of the Lord” means “dedicate this day to the Lord.” Therefore He said afterward, “you shall not do any work in it.” It is a day in which you rest from the concerns of the world, and the Lord rests in you…
There are also other holy days for the Lord: His feasts, seasons, and fasts.
About this, the Scripture says: “These are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times” (Lev 23:4…). And after mentioning these days, and how “no customary work” is to be done in them, He said about them: to offer an offering made by fire to the Lord—a burnt offering, a grain offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings… besides the Sabbaths of the Lord, besides your gifts, all your vows, and all your freewill offerings (Lev 23:37–38).
Among these holy days are the days of fasting: holy and dedicated to the Lord. They have their spiritual activity, their deep connection with God, and within them are a life of repentance and a life of contrition. They are a period for ضبط النفس (self-discipline) and training it.
They hold a status above other days in their holy memories, their prayers and meditations, in subduing the body, and in their asceticism and detachment. Therefore, they require spiritual preparation fitting their holiness…
Whoever sins during fasting days, his sin becomes more defiled,
because he did not care for the holiness of the fast nor its spiritual nature. As the Scripture says: “If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” If the days of asceticism are like this, then what about the rest of the days?!
The Church has considered the Great Lent among the holiest days of the year, and called it “great,” for it is the greatest of fasts in its duration, holiness, and memories.
It is a Lordly fast, for the Lord fasted the forty holy days. The Church filled it with sermons and meditations. Many of the writings of Saints Augustine and John Chrysostom were sermons during the Great Lent.
In it, the Church, through preaching, prepared new believers for baptism. Perhaps from this came the historical origin of Baptism Sunday…
Many monks used to withdraw during the Great Lent, leaving the monastery to the wilderness, to be alone with the Lord…
Let us therefore enter into this period with strong determination and firm resolve toward repentance and purity. Let us enter it with a good conscience, to live a special life…
Do not say: we are approaching a fast, but rather holy days. Let this expression be linked in your minds and rooted in your intentions: that these fasting days are not ordinary days, but ideal ones…
Just as you consider the day of Communion a holy and extraordinary day, so also the days of fasting—though with difference—are not ordinary days… They have, like Communion days, a special consideration, special preparation, and special holiness.
The days of fasting must have a special spiritual method. They are days of harvest: “Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy” (Ps 125). Do not let them pass as ordinary days, or you will lose their spiritual benefit.
For this reason, the Church preceded the forty holy days with a preparatory week,
as compensation for the Saturdays without abstinence, or as preparation for that deep period in its life, which may need gradual progression…
Also, before the Great Lent by two weeks, the Church placed the Fast of Jonah, resembling the Great Lent in its hymns, rites, and contrition—as another preparation…
The Great Lent has its holy memories: in it we remember the Lord’s fasting for us, and at its end we remember the Lord’s Passion during the Holy Pascha Week.
If we cannot fast the days as Christ did, at least let us practice fasting with the greatest possible asceticism… And if we cannot defeat Satan completely as the Lord did, at least let us prepare for spiritual warfare and resist “even to blood, striving against sin” (Heb 12:4).
Whoever trains himself—for 55 days—in ascetic life, fasting, worship, meditation, self-control, and all spiritual practices, will undoubtedly come out of this holy period having left spiritual marks upon his soul.
Let us enter the fast with determination to benefit…
Let us not consider fasting as pressure, but as an irreplaceable spiritual benefit…
It is not pressure in the type of food or in spiritual practices, but a holy period offered by the Church—with special rites, hymns, selected readings, and liturgies with their abstinence and blessings—all for our benefit, so that our souls may find a unique joy unlike any other.
Those who benefit from fasting long for it when it ends, especially during the Pentecost period when there is no abstinence or prostrations!
Whoever realizes the benefit of fasting sees that the greatest pressure is in breaking the fast, not in keeping it.
In the fifty days, confessors grow weary from الإفطار (breaking fast) and the lack of permission to fast…
Spiritual people rejoice in fasting days, seeing them as the deepest period in which grace works, and they say: “Would that the whole year were a Great Lent.”
Fasting days are a period of war with Satan and a period of victory over him.
It is the time when Satan suffers the most, as believers prepare against him with all spiritual weapons, remaining very vigilant against his attacks, and deeply concerned for the salvation of their souls: “All of them hold swords, being expert in war. Every man has his sword on his thigh because of fear in the night” (Song 3:8).
If Satan prayed, he would cry out to God from his depths: “Save me, O Lord, from the days of the Great Lent!”
Did not the Lord say: “This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting”? Imagine the whole Church, with one heart, one spirit, one determination, one grace, praying during the Great Lent—what then can Satan do?!
Perhaps the chief of demons has now gathered his demons to instruct them on how to face this difficult period—the period of prayer and fasting…
Enter the fasting days with all your hearts, feeling that it is a period of fullness, grace, and spiritual struggle—a period in which you taste the spirituality of fasting with its deep, moving hymns… And God willing, I will hold a liturgy for you every Friday afternoon…
Fasting is a suitable period for solving problems: if a person fasts two or three days to solve a problem, what if he fasts 55 days?!
What a great blessing—days in which we reconcile with God, withdraw with Him, and sanctify them for Him. But the important thing is to know how to fast properly, so that it becomes a true fast in every sense of the word.
Let us not be merely vegetarians during this period, but truly fasting…
We fast in the spiritual sense: a period of abstinence, humbling the body, meditation, solitude with God, dedication to Him with love, contrition, and return to God—with depth of heart, intention, and repentance—as the people of Nineveh fasted and prayed, and the Lord had mercy on them and forgave them.
The Church cared for this fast by assigning it a special lectionary, readings, rites, and hymns. Let us also assign it a special spiritual program, and respond to the Church with contrition and repentance.
Prepare for this period, and do not come out of it as you entered, with the same habits and mistakes. Let it be a period of change and knowledge of the Lord.
Sit with yourselves and see what you lack… Sit with your fathers of confession and reveal what is hidden in your hearts. Sit with God and struggle with Him, so that He may grant you a holy fast with a heart filled with grace…
I fear that the Feast of the Resurrection may come, and you find yourselves unchanged, having received nothing of grace—because you did not sow in tears, you did not reap in joy. I fear you may practice fasting only in its physical sense!
Be assured that through fasting and prayer you can influence the life of the entire Church.
If the Lord said to our father Abraham concerning Sodom, “If I find ten righteous within it, I will not destroy the city for the sake of the ten,” how much more these thousands before me, if their hearts are purified before God…
We do not rely at all on our human arm—neither in our personal life nor in our general life—but we rely on God’s intervention through prayer and fasting. Let these be blessed days for you and for all.
Article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – Al-Keraza Magazine – Year Eight (Issue Seven) – 18/2/1977
For better translation support, please contact the center.
