The Triodion period in the Orthodox Christian Church, which includes the four pre-Lenten Sundays, Great Lent, and Holy Week, provides for the faithful an excellent annual psychosomatic preparation for the Feast of Feasts: Pascha, our Lord’s glorious and life-giving Resurrection. God becomes Man, taking on our FULL human nature in order to fully save us. It stands therefore to reason that for us to “psychically” or “soulfully” experience (for psychi means “soul” in Greek) the Resurrection, we must also physically or bodily prepare for it. Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are key elements of this annual Lenten preparation. At their core is repentance, a change of heart or attitude, a reorientation of our life.
What better example of repentance could we have than St. Mary of Egypt (sixth century), who is commemorated on the fifth Sunday of Great Lent. A woman of ill-repute who, after spending 17 years as a harlot, at the Feast of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem was invisibly unable to enter the church. This barrier opened her heart to the reality of her sinful life, which in turn opened her to the sweet love of our Lord through His Mother Mary. The Theotokos led her to the wilderness across the Jordan River where she spent the next 47 years in prayer and ascetic discipline. This extraordinary change, from one extreme to another, may be difficult for us to imagine. However, it provides hope that the love of God, with a willingness from us, can overcome all obstacles.
After serving on our local IOCC Metropolitan Committee for 25 years, I am so grateful for the loving, caring, compassionate, and dedicated work of IOCC. I refer to the organization with Godly pride in our pan-Orthodox reality internationally, nationally, and locally. I refer to the staff and volunteers with personal gratefulness at those levels as well. And finally, I refer to the thousands or tens of thousands that have been assisted or touched by the philanthropic and philoxenic love of IOCC, without whom we would be nothing. Hope that the love of God, with willingness from us, can overcome all obstacles.
Fr. Louis J. Christopulos, Chancellor
Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Denver
Denver, CO
Read or download all of this year’s reflections.
Icon courtesy of Fr. Matthew Garrett (holy-icons.com).
