Preparing for the Great Lent (This Holy Season)
The lecture emphasizes that the Great Lent is the holiest spiritual period of the year. Therefore, the believer should prepare for it before it begins with a repentant heart and sincere determination, so that he may gain its spiritual fruits and not let its days pass like ordinary days.
Main Idea
The Great Lent is not merely abstaining from food, but a holy period dedicated to God, during which a person is called to repentance, prayer, self-control, and returning to God with all the heart.
Spiritual and Educational Dimension
- His Holiness Pope Shenouda III calls believers to regard the fast as a blessing and grace, not as a burden or deprivation.
- He emphasizes that the Church prepares the faithful for these holy days through preparatory prayers and fasts so that they may enter the fast with complete spiritual readiness.
- He explains that true fasting includes repentance of the heart, contrition, confession, and spiritual struggle, not merely a vegetarian diet.
- He stresses that fasting is an opportunity to change one’s character and get rid of sins and bad habits, not merely to lose weight or change the type of food.
- He highlights that this period is a time of fullness of grace, spiritual warfare against Satan, and victory through prayer and fasting.
- He encourages believers to establish a clear spiritual program that includes prayer, spiritual reading, meditation, confession, and struggle against personal weaknesses.
- He explains that the Church has assigned to the Great Lent special rites, readings, and hymns that affirm the holiness of these days and distinguish them from the rest of the year.
- He concludes by affirming that whoever enters the fast with a prepared heart and living faith will come out spiritually transformed, having received the blessings and fruits of the fast in his life.
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