The Great Lenten Fast

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Maria
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The Great Lenten Fast

Post by Maria »

Concerning the Great Lent Fast which is imminent, I found this passage very interesting:

Fasting, above all, is a regimen that restores our spiritual health. it is not "giving up something," but it is a way of gaining back the image of God within us through obedience to the rules of that regiment. It is not something dark and negative. It is light and renewing. It is meant to restore us in soul and in body. Just as so-called "Passion Week," a very Westernized idea, during the last week of Great Lent at (properly called "Great and Holy Week") tells us of Divine sacrifice and suffering that are constantly brightened by the Light of the coming Resurrection, so the sometimes arduous discipline of the Great Lent must be constantly viewed through the prism of our spiritual (and, indeed, physical) renewal, which is brought about by our engagement with spiritual contemplation. We thereby quell the stormy state of the outer self, anchored as it is in sin, the ego, selfishness, nastiness, pride, and an abhorrent disdain for others. This dislike rises, above all, from our alienation, inwardly, from God and our inner selves, which we should seek to perfect in Christ by the disciplines and Mysteries of the Church

http://www.dep.church/downloads/Bp.Auxentios.pdf
page 1 last paragraph

Please feel free to discuss.

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner.

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