The Holy and Great Lent is a unique and most exalted period in the course of the year, a time when we are renewed both spiritually and physically, so that we may welcome the Feast of Feasts more prepared and worthy. Since it is difficult for the modern person to undergo inner transformation through repentance, the Church, as a caring mother, has established preparatory weeks which, through their services and penitential themes, gently lead us into the lofty season of the Holy and Great Lent.
During these preparatory weeks, the Church gradually readies us for fasting through measured restraint: after the week of general dispensation, we return to fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays, and then a higher degree of preparation begins — abstinence from meat is observed. In the liturgical life of these weeks, the Church recalls the creation of the world and of humankind, the blessed state of our foreparents and their fall, and the coming of the Son of God into the world for the salvation of humanity, guiding the faithful toward fasting, repentance, and spiritual struggle.
Reprinted with permission from:
https://kinonija.rs/
