journey of the lent                                                  

  The First Sunday:

Surrender of life to the Heavenly Father: Matthew 6:24-34. The Gospel of the First Sunday of Lent calls for the surrender of life to the Father. "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat ... nor yet for the body, what ye shall put on ... Take no thought for the morrow." The reason for not worrying is that "your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things" [Mt. 6:32]. Practice. The Practice of this week is a call to a secure life in the care of the Father and the carrying out of what comes in the verse, "Take no thought for the morrow," physically, mentally, and spiritually. The Christian commandment is full of risks but its assurance is the care of the Father. The woman who gave the two mites was risking her meal, and during the fast, Satan rages his war by convincing us that we are risking the necessities of the body and causes us to worry about our health, and likewise in charity there is a risk of wealth. In this week we experience the complete surrender to the care of the Father and to His commandment.

  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  The Second Sunday: Why does God forget us if He is our Father? Matthew 4:1-10. The Gospel of the Second Sunday deals with the temptation of doubting God's paternity to us. "If you are the Son of God--why does he leave you hungry? Why does God allow the presence of disease, failure and the death of our beloved?" Practice. It is our duty this week to examine our faith in the love of the Father Who gave His Son for us. Our faith that fortifies us against the temptations and emotions; faith in the Father; a faith that fortifies us against the temptation of the Adversary, the hardships of this world and the sufferings and desires of the body.  
   
   
   
   
   
  The Third Sunday: Repentance in the Father's bosom: Luke 15:11-32. Repentance in Christianity is different from any other repentance; it is the return of the son to his Father and the Father falling on the neck of his son to embrace him and kiss him [Luke 15:2O]. This is the Gospel of the Third Sunday. The Father's paternity to us is not because of our righteousness, but because of His paternity to His children, especially the sinners. The Father's paternity for us challenges all our sins, our failures, our betrayal of His love and our mistreatment of His name. Practice: Brother and sister, do not permit this week to go by without a true repentance and resorting to the Father's embrace ... Examine this in your chamber and taste the Father's embrace and His kisses which are reserved only for those who repent. This is the week of repentance in the Father's bosom, the repentance of the whole Church--the communal repentance.  
   
   
   
   
   
       
       
    The Fourth Sunday:

Worship of the Father in Spirit and in Truth: John 4:1-42. The next step after repentance is worship of the Father Who accepted and loved me and cleansed me from my sins, and put me in his bosom. Contrition of the spirit and submission to the Father and the love of frequent prostrations in worship are the expressions of our love for Him Who opened His arms for us sinners and kissed us. This is the end of the road of repentance in the Father's bosom, and this is the sweetest fruit of the chamber and which the Father gives us in secret. The Church, inspired by the Spirit, stresses in the period of Lent the use of prostrations during private prayers and in the Divine Liturgy (at the "offering of Incense" after the readings of the prophets). Practice: The practice of this week is the worship of the Father in truth and in Spirit: "for the Father seeketh such to worship Him" [John 4:23].

    
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
    The Fifth Sunday:

Bethesda and Baptism: John 5:1-18. The Gospel of the Fifth Sunday talks about Bethesda, which symbolizes Baptism. We, the crowds of Christians, were beside it sick, lame, blind and paralyzed, suffering every spiritual sickness. The angel which moves the water symbolizes the Holy Spirit which comes down on the water of Baptism. This is our share in Christ: those who are baptized have everlasting hope in the Father, even if they have been sick for 38 years. Practice: The practice of this week is to hope and never to despair. Baptism has given us the grace of sonship and children are never disappointed in their hopes in the love of the Father.

   
       
       
       
       
       
   

The Sixth Sunday:

Sonship is a spiritual enlightenment: John 9:1-41. The last Sunday in Lent is the Sunday of Baptism, during which is read the Gospel of the man born blind. 1. "I was blind and now I see." This is our everlasting experience as children of the Heavenly Father. We were blind and He opened our sight so we beheld miracles of His laws and we saw what the prophets longed to see, and He gave us understanding of the Scriptures. 2. Baptism means washing (in the pool of Siloam), so we become pure. Repentance is a continuous washing, so we may see clearly. Repentance is a continuation of Baptism and it is the means through which we can see Christ clearly all our lives. Lasting repentance cleans our hearts, renews the intellect, protects the contrite soul in the obedience of the Father, and through repentance, we can discover all the graces and secrets of the Heavenly Father.