Great Lent began March 2 - Pascha is April 19 
18/3/20, 06:00 PM


Please note that Great Lent began this year on March 2. The week previous to this is a week where all foods are allowed except for meat. During Great Lent we abstain from meat and dairy products including fish (although fish is allowed on Annunciation, April 7 and Palm Sunday, April 12). Let us recall that fasting is a tool given to us by God to aid us spiritually. For some it is easy to fast, for others it is difficult. However, what is most important is that we make a sincere effort to follow the fast. Why? Simply because the fast helps us to see our sins by helping us to focus spiritually. Eating “light” foods, or perhaps rather, abstaining from “heavy” foods such as meats and cheeses, allows us to be less focused on our stomachs and more focused on our souls, and of course, in this season when we undergo our journey to the Resurrection of our Lord we dearly wish to improve ourselves spiritually that we might meet the risen Christ better than we were when we began Great Lent. St. John Chrysostom writes that we abstain from meats that we might abstain from our sins. This nicely sums up the reason the Holy Church, as a loving mother, gives us the gift of fasting. Pascha is April 19 – may God grant us all a spiritually profitable Great Lent!

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