LENT

LENT. There are technically four “lents,” or fasting seasons, during the liturgical year of the Orthodox Church: the Great Lent consisting of “forty days” preceding Holy Week and Easter, the Apostles’ Fast preceding the Feast of SS. Peter and Paul (June 29th), two weeks preceding the Dormition of the Theotokos (August 15th), and the forty days in preparation for the Nativity of Christ (December 25th).

It is Great Lent, however, that enjoys both chronological and liturgical primacy, and was the model for the others. A fasting period of up to a week preceding the paschal vigil appears as early as the 3rd c. Believers, according to the Apostolic Tradition (q.v.), were expected to share in the catechumens’ preparation for their Baptism (q.v.) during the Easter Vigil. The 4th c. expansion of Christianity saw this period extended to essentially its present dimensions, as is evident in the account Egeria (q.v.) gives of Lent in late 4th c. Jerusalem. As presently observed, the Orthodox Lent includes six weeks of fasting, less the Saturday of Lazarus and Palm Sunday, which begin the Holy Week commemorating Christ’s suffering. For four Sundays prior to the fast, reckoned as beginning on a Monday, the themes that are to predominate during the forty days are brought to the believers’ attention through the reading of the Gospel lessons of the Pharisee and Publican (humility), Prodigal Son (repentance), the Last Judgment (righteous deeds and the memory of death), and forgiveness.

Each of the lenten Sundays is also devoted to a particular theme. The first commemorates the final victory over iconoclasm (q.v.) in 843, the second remembers Gregory Palamas (q.v.), the champion of asceticism, the third the Holy Cross, the fourth Joh n Climacus (q.v.), and the fifth the great image of repentance, Mary of Egypt. Church services during this period reflect the themes of repentance (q.v.), godly sorrow, and entrance into the Church. They are longer, make greater use of Old Testament readings (reflecting also Lent’s origins as a preparation for Baptism), and in Russian employ melodies in the minor key and vestments of somber hue.

Perhaps the characteristic service par excellence of Great Lent is the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. Since the Byzantine Church forbade the celebration of the Eucharist (q.v.) during the weekdays of the fast, communion was-and is-provided the faithful through an evening service, essentially Vespers, on Wednesdays and Fridays. The communion is taken from a eucharistic host consecrated the preceding Sunday, hence the “presanctified” in the service’s title.