In the Spirit: Lent and the Orthodox

By The Rev. Constantine Newman

Next week, most of the world's Christians will celebrate Easter. But, unknown to many, a large number of Christians have, in fact just recently begun their observance of Lent. These are the Eastern Orthodox, who celebrate Pascha, as Easter is known in the Orthodox Church, according to a different reckoning. Like the West, the Orthodox use the formula of the First Council of Nicaea from the early 4th century: the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox. Orthodox tradition adds another requirement: Pascha must follow the Jewish Passover. This year Passover falls late in April, so Pascha falls the Sunday after, April 27.

For the Orthodox, Lent means fasting. The regulations are very stringent: on weekdays of Lent there is no meat from animals with backbones (red meat, chicken, and fish), no dairy products (milk, cheese, eggs), no olive oil or wine. On Saturdays and Sundays, oil and wine are allowed, and fish is allowed on the Feast of the Annunciation (March 25) and Palm Sunday. The individual must decide what part of these restrictions he or she can accomplish. Fasting is not an obligation, but a discipline. Like any discipline, such as exercise, it is the regularity which brings benefit.

And what are the benefits? There are the usual physical benefits recognized even in nonreligious contexts: a feeling of lightness and greater energy. But the hunger, even a small change in our usual eating routine, is meant to remind us of our hunger for God. Theologically, fasting is based on two biblical events. In the beginning, Adam sinned by breaking his fast and eating; he believed Satan's lie, that life comes from food and not from God. As a reversal of this, Christ was also tempted to eat when he was hungry in the wilderness. Unlike Adam, he understood that food, like all created things, is meant to be a means of communion with God. Through fasting, then, we struggle to restore a proper relation to food, to see food not as a source of life (since food in itself is only a reminder of our mortality), but as a means of opening our lives to God's presence. In this way, the fast is transformative.

Fasting by itself, however, is simply a diet. The Orthodox Christian is expected to join physical fasting with spiritual fasting from sin and distractions. There should also be an increase of time spent in prayer and reading of Scripture. Above all, there must be a greater awareness of the needs of others, and charitable help for the poor.

To give strength during this period of trial, the Orthodox Church provides a number of extra services.The season itself begins with the Vespers of Forgiveness, during which the whole congregation offers and receives mutual forgiveness. On Monday evenings, we celebrate Great Compline, a somber and penitential prayer of psalms and hymns. Wednesday evenings bring a Service of Evening Prayer (Vespers) combined with Holy Communion, to give strength in the heat of battle. Finally on Friday evenings the beautiful Salutations to the Mother of God are sung; this hymn was first sung in the 7th century to celebrate the protection of the city of Constantinople.

Lent for the Orthodox Christian is a time of intense discipline and inner examination, a time to put things back into the proper priorities, a time to withdraw into the "desert" of the heart. It is the sea, with all its tempests and squalls, across which we sail to reach the celebration of true life in the Resurrection of our Lord.

The Rev. Constantine Newman is pastor of the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Newburyport.