During Great and Holy Lent, our Church is giving us the opportunity to start a different style of life, with a different focus. Our Church knows that changing our ways is difficult – it is a struggle. That is why we are given the tools of prayer, fasting, charity and repentance to enable us to build up a better relationship with God and with each other. As one of the hymns of our Church tells us: 

“The arena of virtues is open. Let all who are willing to compete enter, girding themselves.

For those who genuinely compete will be deservedly crowned.

Let us do battle with the enemy.

Let us take on the armor of the Cross, having Faith as an invincible rampart,

prayer as our breastplate, and charity as our helmet.” 

All this so that we can center our lives more closely on Christ, so that we can experience His love and mercy and enter into Paradise. Because disobedience to our Lord and His teachings distances us from the Body of Christ, the Church, as Adam and Eve were disobedient to God in the Garden of Eden.  

In our lives, we devote ourselves to “fight the good fight,” as St. Paul says. Of course, we all face difficulties and challenges, and even hard times and tragedy, yet through prayer and forgiveness, we can find the peace that passes all understanding. But I truly believe that part of salvation is the daily practice of love and forgiveness, because after all, if we say beautiful words about love and forgiveness but don’t live those virtues every day, especially with our families, what are we actually doing? When the time comes, what account will we give to the Lord? Will our story be from our own ego and self-centeredness, or will we be able to declare, as St. Paul says, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” 

In this holy season of Great Lent especially, we should be thinking about our relationships with others. Let us not end our Lenten journey to Holy Pascha and the glorious Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the same place that we began, with anger and resentment between brothers and sisters in Christ.  

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, clergy and laity, let us not fool ourselves for the time is upon us. If we use this time wisely, if we use the tools our Church provides, we will be able to find holy joy and blessings in this life while preparing for the next. As the hymnographer reminds us: 

“The time has come for the beginning of spiritual struggles, for victory against the demons, for the armor of abstinence, the comeliness of angels, and confidence before God.

For it was with this confidence that Moses communed with the Creator and heard the invisible  voice.

Deem us also worthy of this confidence, O Loving Lord, that we may worship Your Passion and Your Holy Resurrection.”

 As we journey through Lent to Holy Pascha, as I am praying for you, I ask you to remember me in your prayers also. May Great and Holy Lent be a time of prayer, humility and reflection that will allow us to be spiritually uplifted and renewed. May the light of Christ illumine our darkness and fill our hearts with hope and love. With my paternal blessings and love during this special time in our Ecclesiastical Year, I wish you

Καλή Τεσσαρακοστή!  Blessed Lent!