Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Congratulations with the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord as well as the final preparatory Sunday before Great Lent – Forgiveness Sunday!

Without a doubt, today is a special day for believers. You can feel in the air that we are on the doorstep of a new spiritual struggle. Most likely all of us are trying to gather our thoughts and concentrate on the coming day. Each of us is thinking about the fast, about our prayer rule, about the church services, about keeping silent, about how we will help those around us, about spiritual reading, about prostrations, about our own sins, about how it will be necessary to at least try to forgive those who have offended us, to try to understand them, or at the very least to try not to hate them.

For some, this is a welcome struggle, but for others, there is perhaps more trepidation than excitement about what is to begin tomorrow. For those for whom it is difficult to cross the threshold of Lent, the Apostle Paul, through his exceptionally beautiful introductory words from today’s Epistle reading, offers encouragement. Tomorrow is not a difficult, dark, and gloomy day akin to night, but a light-filled and bright day, writes the Apostle. Night is what was earlier, i. e., the worldly cares about comfort, tasty food, etc. All of this we put aside today and tomorrow we begin a spiritual day, that is, a life not for the sake of transitory things, but for things eternal. Therefore, it behooves us to put on Christ Jesus, which means to act in all things as Christ would act. St. Theophan the Recluse says that when people look at us and at our actions, they should acknowledge to themselves: “This is an imitator of Christ – a true follower of Christ!” Accompanied by such thoughts of the Apostle Paul and the explanations of St. Theophan, even those for whom it is difficult to begin the fast should be emboldened to bravely enter into the forty days of Great Lent. Without a doubt, day is better than night, and to bear the likeness of the Lord is a wonderful thing!

May our Lord help us acquire His likeness in these coming bright days of Great Lent, so that we may worthily meet Him and be joined to Him on the day of His radiant Resurrection!

priest Alexis