O taste and see that the Lord is good. (Ps. 33)
How do we motivate ourselves to make the efforts required by Great Lent: fasting, more and longer church services, the struggle to overcome our passions and to practice love? Sometimes, as Lent approaches, we feel eagerness and joy; sometimes, however, there is a sense of reluctance or even dread that the sacred time is at hand. How do we overcome this reluctance and enter joyfully into the “arena” of the Fast?
Of course, we all know that we must force ourselves to any good work: the grace of God comes to those who “do violence” to themselves, (“…the violent take it [the Kingdom of God] by force”), i.e., those who are merciless to their selfish desires. We cannot expect a time of greater spiritual efforts, like Great Lent, to be like floating on clouds and having delightful experiences. As a matter of fact, the Holy Fathers warn us against seeking “experiences,” for this opens us up to demonic delusion. We have to roll up our sleeves and do the good works expected of us, and when we have done them, to say, like good servants, that we are servants, and that we have done no more than our duty.
We are but weak flesh, after all, however, and this forcing and doing works and doing our duty gets discouraging sometimes. Does not Christ console us sometimes to encourage us to go on? Do we not sometimes get to experience the sweetness of His grace, not simply believe in it?
As a matter of fact, the hymns of the Triodion describe Great Lent precisely as a time of joy and gladness, which the faithful undertake with eagerness: Let us joyfully begin the all-hallowed season of abstinence (Monday Orthros, First Week of Lent); Brethren, let us enter with eagerness upon the second week of the light-giving Fast (Monday Orthros, Second Week of Lent). This joy and eagerness spring from a quiet and happy conviction deep in the soul of the presence of the grace of God, the indwelling of the Holy Trinity which forms the foundation of our life.
We become aware of this indwelling of grace in quiet and concentrated prayer. Man’s mind was made for knowing God and perceiving God’s presence. The varied activities of our outer life scatter the mind in a thousand directions, breaking it, as it were, into a thousand pieces, and this scattering creates both heaviness, a sense of the burden and futility of life, and of attraction to things that are not God, and thus we become addicted to passions and pleasures. To return the mind to God, we must first cleanse the conscience through self –examination and Confession, feed the mind through Holy Communion, and then concentrate the mind through daily prayer. This quiet time of prayer becomes our little Paradise, the time when we “walk with the Lord” in the Garden, as did our First Parents before the Fall.
The joy welling up from this Paradise of prayer helps us to overcome our reluctance to corporal and spiritual good works; it becomes the “fuel” that keeps us going on the path to Pascha, both the annual Pascha for which we prepare now in Lent, and the eternal Pascha, for which we prepare during the entire “Lent” of our life on earth. Come, let us enter into the joy of our Lord!
Concerning Continual Communion
by St. Makarios of Corinth and St. Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain
Holy Communion illumines, brightens, and sanctifies all the powers and senses of man’s soul and body, and strengthens the soul in doing the commandments of the Lord and every other virtuous act. It is the true food of the soul and of the body, as our Lord says, “My flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed” (John 6:55)
Before partaking of Holy Communion, it is necessary that we cleanse ourselves of every defilement, especially malice, by means of Confession. For just as love is the fullness and completion of the whole Law, so malice and hatred are the annulment and violation of the whole Law and of every virtue.
All Orthodox Christians are commanded to receive Holy Communion frequently, firstly by the injunction of our Lord Jesus Christ; secondly, by the acts and Canons of the holy Apostles and the holy Synods, and the statements of individual divine Fathers; thirdly, by the very words, order, and ritual of the sacred Liturgy; and fourthly, by Holy Communion itself.
My brother, if you are worthy to commune two or three times a year, you are worthy to commune more often, as the divine Chrysostom says, provided you keep the same preparation and worthiness.
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