What are the preparatory weeks before Lent?
Every significant undertaking begins with preliminary preparation: a great sports victory means years of training, a scientific discovery means months of experimentation, opening a company means the work of many people. Compliance with moral and physical restrictions during Lent is also a “feat” for some. Special days before Lent help prepare for the coming month.
Lent is necessary for cleansing your body, thoughts and soul before Easter. This is painstaking work on yourself, the most difficult, because realizing your mistakes and sins and further abstaining from them is a lot of work. Getting in the right frame of mind, understanding the meaning of the upcoming trials and the depth of spiritual improvement and repentance - this is the main goal of the preparatory weeks. The body also needs to get used to the menu before Easter, so fast days alternate with regular ones, gradually changing the diet to a lean one.
You immediately need to decide on the concepts and rules of the future period. “Week” in Church Slavonic speech means the last day of the week, Sunday, when people are not busy with daily affairs and can devote the whole day to thoughts about the Lord, communication with him and self-improvement. And the usual “week” in our speech, a time period of seven days, is called “week”.
So, preparation for Lent lasts 22 days - three “weeks” and four “weeks” (Sundays). Each Sunday has its own name, and the following week reminds the Christian of this or that sin; certain stichera are performed in the church and various restrictions on food are introduced.
How to prepare and enter into fasting as planned
- It is better to start preparing for fasting a couple of weeks in advance. It is necessary to gradually reduce the content of animal products in the diet and increase the amount of plant foods.
- In the last week before fasting, it is necessary to create a protein depot so that the body does not experience shortages. Nutritionists recommend eating an egg and 150-200 grams of fish daily. It is better to exclude animal meat, as it is less easily absorbed by the body.
- It is necessary to accustom the body to fiber. The main diet of lean food is vegetables and fruits, which contain large quantities of fiber. Add fresh salads and snacks of vegetables and fruits to your diet every day. Oil week can help with this if you add bran or wholemeal flour to the dough for baking pancakes.
- Restore intestinal microflora. In order not to experience discomfort after changing your diet, you need to take care of your intestines - populating it with beneficial bacteria. To do this, a week before fasting, it is recommended to consume fermented milk products every day: yogurt, kefir, yogurt. These products can be prepared independently using a starter made from bifidobacteria.
- In the first days of fasting, it is recommended to increase portions and the number of meals. Lenten dishes are lower in calories. This will prevent you from feeling hungry.
- Snack on vegetables and fruits to keep you full throughout the day.
The Week of the Publican and the Pharisee
The first preparatory Sunday is called “About the Publican and the Pharisee”; at the liturgy on this day the corresponding parable is read. This is a short story about how two people of different classes prayed in church - a Pharisee and a tax collector. The appeals to God of these two people were different: the Pharisee asked the Lord for gratitude for his humility, he gives tithes, fasts and does not take what belongs to others, unlike others; The publican asked for forgiveness without raising his eyes, he repented of his misdeeds and wanted mercy.
The first week sets the tone for the entire fast - everyone should be humble. It is not comparing our positive actions with the mistakes of others that gives us mercy, but only identifying our own mistakes and true repentance for them will help us improve for the better. Pride in one's achievements interferes with spiritual purification and growth, and true repentance is the ability to coolly evaluate one's actions, looking at them from the outside.
The next seven days are “omnivorous”; you can eat everything without fasting.
Week of the Prodigal Son
The following Sunday, at the service, the story of the prodigal son is remembered and “On the rivers of Babylon” is added to the usual psalms.
The main parable of the week is about a father of two sons who divided his property equally. One of the descendants, having taken his half, began to live dissolutely. Of course, he soon experienced need and tried to earn money, but he realized that no one would pay him more worthy than his own father. And he himself is not worthy to be called his son now. Returning to his father's house, he admitted his mistake. The father organized a big celebration in honor of his return, dressing the prodigal son in the best clothes and rings.
The idea of this parable is that whenever the awareness of one’s sin comes, the father (Lord) will always accept the Christian and will be glad of his repentance (return). There is always someone who will accept a person with all his flaws, give a hand and help in any difficult situation. You just need to step over pride and fear, gather your courage and come to church.
For the next seven days, fasting days are introduced - Wednesday and Friday, and the week is called Variegated Week due to the alternation of ordinary and fasting days. Saturday falling on these seven days is considered a parent's day. They remember relatives who have passed on to another world, and the rite of the Ecumenical Memorial Service takes place in the church.
Orthodox Life
The great time has come. We are already preparing for Great Lent - the Holy Pentecost.
And beyond the horizon of this mortal, material, bustling world, the desert prepared for us by God is already opening. There we will meet with Him, like the holy prophet Moses, we will meet with Jehovah - the Existing, Living God - in the holy desert of Great Lent.
Five preparatory weeks before the Holy of Holies of the year - Great Lent. Five weeks during which a gentle angelic bell begins to sound in the heart, somewhere deep down, calling us to stop and think about God, to begin moving towards Him.
And the first of these weeks, when at the Sunday Liturgy the Gospel beginning (Luke, 94 ch., 19, 1-10) about Zacchaeus is read. Why?
Jericho. The Savior walks through the streets, surrounded by a crowd of people. He is almost invisible. And so Zacchaeus climbs a tree in order to certainly see Christ and so that the Lord will CULTURALLY see Him. And the miracle of communication between God and man occurs. The deification, sanctification and salvation of man by God takes place.
With this Gospel story, the Church invites us to inwardly, heartily disconnect from this hurrying and bustling world and climb out onto a tree, that is, begin to move upward. And the tree here, of course, is a symbol of the Church, which is for us the door and stairway to Heaven. And it is no coincidence that this year, immediately after this week, on Monday, the great twelfth feast of the Presentation of the Lord was celebrated. The saints righteous Simeon and the prophetess Anna met God in the temple. Let's hurry up and get there too. To the temple. To meet the Lord.
Then next Sunday. It is called the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee. Because at the Liturgy the Gospel parable of the publican and the Pharisee is read (Luke, 89 ch., 18, 10-14), where two ways of prayer are shown - the correct one (for the tax collector) and the incorrect one (for the Pharisee). Namely, after you have stopped, pulled out your consciousness, your mind, your heart from the vale of the earth, begin to pray, that is, talk with God. But start praying correctly. From the awareness of one’s sinfulness, of being sick with sin, which needs a doctor and does not find it anywhere except in God. And this is where true humility is born.
That is why at the morning of the service of the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee they begin to sing troparions on their knees:
“Open the doors of repentance, O Life-Giver, for my spirit will rise to Thy holy temple, the temple of my body is completely desecrated; but as you are generous, cleanse me with Your gracious mercy.
Instruct me in the path of salvation, O Mother of God, for my soul has been frozen with cold sins and my whole life has been spent in laziness; but through Your prayers deliver me from all uncleanness.
Thinking of the many evil things I have done, O wretched one, I tremble at the terrible day of judgment, but hoping for the mercy of Thy compassion, as David cries out to Thee: have mercy on me, O God, according to Thy great mercy.”
These troparia are the tuning fork of the soul, the mood for repentance. They soften it so that contrition for sins becomes the road to the Kingdom of Heaven.
And even though after this week there is a continuous week, in which there is no fasting on Wednesday and Friday, the soul begins to approach fasting through the Church, which the body will soon need to enter.
Next Sunday is called the Sunday of the Prodigal Son. Because at the Sunday Divine Liturgy the Gospel parable of the prodigal son is read (Luke 79, 15:11-32). And here we are already shown that a repentant and humble person, like a prodigal son returning home, is awaited by a loving and merciful God the Father, who opens His saving arms to the lost but returning son.
At Sunday morning, during polyeleos, the 136th psalm “On the Rivers of Babylon” begins to be sung, which also incites the soul to repentance, inviting one to see oneself sitting in sins and in the shadow of death and crying out to God for mercy. This is how the Jews did it in captivity in Babylon, and this is how we, who are in captivity of our sins and passions, need to do it.
Seven days later, on Sunday, we celebrate Meat Week. Because this week is the last time meat is eaten. Before Easter, an Orthodox Christian can no longer eat it from the Monday following the Meat Week. This week is also called the Week of the Last Judgment, because at the Sunday Liturgy the Gospel passage is read (Matthew, 106, 25:31-46), in which the Lord tells us about the main criterion for God to pardon a person: if we love other people , our neighbors and do good deeds for them, then the Almighty will forgive us our sins and show us mercy - he will lead us into paradise. Thus, the Church calls us during Great Lent, in addition to, strictly speaking, fasting and prayer, to delve into the creation of good deeds of mercy towards our neighbors as one of the main guarantees of both ours and their salvation.
The Saturday before the Meat Week, about the Last Judgment, is called the Ecumenical Parental (Meat) Saturday. Because at the services of this day (vespers and matins, on the eve of Friday, as well as the Liturgy and requiem on Saturday itself), all Orthodox Christians who have died from time immemorial in the hope of resurrection (except for the unbaptized and suicides) are strictly remembered. We - the entirety of the Church - pray for them, so that the Lord will be merciful to them at the Last Judgment and grant them entry into heaven.
On the Monday after Meat Week, the continuous Cheese Week begins. It is also called Maslenitsa. Because with God’s help we are beginning to prepare physically for Lent. And although there is no fasting on Wednesday and Friday during this week, meat is excluded from food. That is, all other foods can be eaten, but meat cannot.
It is noteworthy that on Wednesday and Friday during this week there are no Liturgies, and services are held according to the Lenten rite. With the kneeling prayers of St. Ephraim the Syrian, for example. Man is prepared both liturgically and liturgically by the Church for the Holy Pentecost.
On Cheese Saturday we remember all the reverend fathers who shone in the feat, thereby asking these great prayer books and fasters for blessings for fasting, so that we, like them, could, with God’s help, achieve reverence - the maximum in our abilities - conformity in the image and likeness of God and enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
And the very next Sunday has three names: Raw Food Week (because the last time before Lent is to eat raw foods); Remembering Adam's Exile and Forgiveness Sunday.
On this Sunday, all Orthodox humanity moves itself, following its holy ancestor Adam, from paradise to the desert of the world, where we must repent of our sins, groan at the closed gates of paradise and, in such a state of contrition for our many sins, await the Resurrection of Christ.
And, of course, in order to enter the holy desert of Great Lent, we must ask forgiveness from all people and forgive them from the bottom of our hearts, fulfilling the great law of Divine love inscribed in the prayer “Our Father”: “and forgive us our debts, just as we we leave our debtor”...
Let us, dear brothers and sisters, wait with trepidation and great joy for Great Lent - this spring of the soul, this joyful and beneficial time when the Church turns into a Hospital, where we all receive saving healing from God.
Priest Andrey Chizhenko
Week of the Last Judgment
The third preparatory Sunday is called the “week of the Last Judgment.” The temple mentions a parable about the day when everyone will be rewarded according to their deserts. During the service, the emphasis is placed on the fact that you will have to answer for all your actions and you do not need to rely only on the Lord, but now begin to analyze your life, correcting it in the right direction. Repentance is good, but it is not enough; there must be actions that can be used to support your defense at the Last Judgment.
This is the last Sunday before Lent when you can eat meat; it is also called meat week. For the next seven days, you can eat dairy products and fish, but meat dishes are already prohibited. Church liturgies are already becoming longer and more solemn, in anticipation of spiritual labors.
Maslenitsa week
Week after the week of the Last Judgment, Maslenitsa, each day has its own characteristics and holiday traditions. Already on Monday they begin to bake pancakes in preparation for the upcoming festivities; the very first pancake was given to a beggar so that he could “remember” his deceased relatives.
On Tuesday, festivities, snowball fights, horse sleigh rides and slides begin. Wednesday is pancake day at the mother-in-law's place; fasting is canceled on this day, as is Friday, when the mother-in-law comes for a return visit. Fathers-in-law came to visit not only to visit the young people, but also to give them worldly advice, sharing with them their wisdom and experience in running a household.
Thursday is the “official” opening day for entertainment events. The revelry began in the morning and everyone wanted to take part in sports events, dancing and snow fights. On Saturday, Maslenitsa fun continued, in addition, the young wife invited her sister-in-law to visit for tea and homemade cakes.
Signs for the Continuous Week preceding Lent
There are many signs associated with Solid Week (Maslenitsa Week):
- it became sharply cold, the frost hit - the summer will not be dry;
- cold, frosty, rainy A continuous week promises a warm spring with good weather;
- if the pancake turns out to have torn edges, you need to take a closer look at the groom;
- if the pancake turns out to have smooth edges, the chosen one will become a good husband;
- on Solid Week they burn all old things to get rid of problems;
- there are a lot of icicles hanging from the roofs - the harvest will be good and rich throughout the year;
- It’s raining all through the Whole Week - there will be a lot of mushrooms;
- an unmarried girl baked the first pancake beautifully, and it easily turned over in the frying pan - she will have a wedding soon;
- if the pancake stuck to the frying pan and generally came out lumpy, then remain unmarried for the next three years;
- rosy pancakes - there will be good health;
- white pancakes - frequent illnesses will begin to overcome;
- thin pancakes promise an easy life;
- beautiful smooth pancakes - well-being, prosperity.
Sunday before Lent
The last day of the preparatory days is the week of Cheese Fat or Forgiveness Sunday. After long celebrations, people gather in church. During the service, they remember the expulsion of Eve and Adam from Paradise, as if reminding that even though man has departed from God, everyone always has their own unique opportunity to return to the Father, reconsidering their actions, words and thoughts.
At the end of the liturgy, the clergyman asks for forgiveness. Following his example, all Christians ask each other for forgiveness. In response, you need to forgive and let go of all the grievances that haunt your head. Forgiveness is an important step towards relieving the soul from difficult thoughts; you need to enter into fasting without all the offenses.
This is the last day when you can eat butter and fish; Lent begins tomorrow.
