Great Lent Archives - Saint Sophia

The Sixth Friday of Great Lent. The Raising of Four-Day Dead Saint Lazarus- A Symbol of the General Resurrection

04/03/2026

Hierodeacon Rafael Misiaoulis, Theologian Great Lent has been completed and ends with two splendid festal days. These are Lazarus Saturday, on which we commemorate the raising of Christ’s bosom friend, Lazarus; the other is Palm Sunday, when we celebrate Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem six days before he was betrayed and suffered death on the Cross. Today we see the raising of Lazarus, a miracle performed by the Lord before he entered the city of

The Sixth Thursday of Great Lent. The Cross and the Resurrection

04/02/2026

Protopresbyter Vasileios Kalliakmanis The Cross leads to the Resurrection, Great Friday bears fruit on the bright Sunday of Easter. Sorrow, listlessness and despair make way for the joy and peace of the Resurrection. Without the Cross, the Resurrection is inconceivable and without the Resurrection the Cross has no point. It might be better to say that the Resurrection is concealed within the Cross. This is why orthodox Easter is both the Cross and the Resurrection.

The Sixth Wednesday of Great Lent. Wednesday before Palm Sunday

04/01/2026

Protopresbyter Georgios Dorbarakis Having strengthened by the power of the cross my mind weakened by wicked attacks, direct me to your will, Lord. Raise me, Christ, who am sleeping on the bed of pleasures, slumbering in sloth, and show me to be a venerator of your Passion. Having burnished our souls with fasting, let us, now cleansed, hasten to Jerusalem to meet Christ, who is coming in the flesh. (Matins, ode 1 [3]). This first

The Sixth Tuesday of Great Lent. The Death of God, my Death and the Resurrection

03/31/2026

Sister Parakliti, Holy Skete of Saint Mary Magdalene, in Liti The grandeur of Great Friday and Great Saturday lies in the fact that human reason is incapable of comprehending that the Son of God died. In a war, for example, we can evaluate how tragic the situation is by the extent of the destruction. In some way, the same is true here. In order to stop the mighty catastrophe of human history, God died. So

The Fifth Friday of Great Lent. We Have You as an Example of Repentance, Mary the Egyptian

03/27/2026

Hierodeacon Rafael Misiaoulis, Theologian On the fifth Sunday in Lent, the Church brings to our attention an exceptional female ascetic: Saint Mary the Egyptian. She’s someone for us to imitate and has a great deal to teach us. Her Life was preserved for us by Saint Zosimas and written down by Saint Sofronios, Patriarch of Jerusalem (commemorated on 11 March). Saint Mary lived at the time of the Emperor Justinian, in the sixth century, in

The Fifth Thursday of Great Lent. The Great Canon of St Andrew of Crete

03/26/2026

One of the most sacred and inspiring theological works of the Orthodox Church is the Great Canon of St Andrew of Crete. It is exclusively sung during two periods of Great Lent. The first week of Great Lent, it is divided into four parts, each part chanted at Great Compline in the evenings from Monday to Thursday. It is the longest canon the Church has with 250 verses. Each of the four parts of the

The Fifth Wednesday of Great Lent. The Annunciation of our Most Holy Lady, the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary

03/25/2026

Commemorated on March 25 The Feast of the Annunciation is one of the earliest Christian feasts, and was already being celebrated in the fourth century. There is a painting of the Annunciation in the catacomb of Priscilla in Rome dating from the second century. The Council of Toledo in 656 mentions the Feast, and the Council in Trullo in 692 says that the Annunciation was celebrated during Great Lent. The Greek and Slavonic names for

The Fifth Tuesday of Great Lent. Him, Jesus Christ

03/24/2026

~By Saint John Chrysostom Jesus Christ was called human, he was called the son of man, he was called the way, he was called a rock… Why was he called the way? To teach you that we ascend to the Father by him. Why was he called a rock? To teach you the value and stability of faith. Why was he called the foundation? To teach you that he supports all things. Why was he

The Fifth Monday of Great Lent. The Ascetic Life (St. John of the Ladder)

03/23/2026

Bishop Agathangelos of Fanari For the secular people of today, focusing on an ascetic saint represents a problem. How can the ascetic figure of Saint John, the author of the Ladder, speak to us, when he acquired and preserved the Grace of God through tears, prayers, and spiritual asceticism? In Orthodox teaching, the ascetic life is nothing other than the transcendence of selfishness, the attempt, in Grace, to apply God’s commandments, to live the life

The Fourth Friday of Great Lent. The Ladder of Divine Ascent and Moral Improvement

03/20/2026

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 11, 2016 The Fourth Sunday of Great Lent in the Orthodox Church, is dedicated to St. John Climacus, the author of the ancient work, The Ladder of Divine Ascent. It is a classic work describing “steps” within the life of the struggling ascetic. There is an icon associated with this work, picturing monastics climbing the rungs of a ladder to heaven, battling demons who are trying to pull them off. However,

Archive

The Sixth Friday of Great Lent. The Raising of Four-Day Dead Saint Lazarus- A Symbol of the General Resurrection

The Sixth Thursday of Great Lent. The Cross and the Resurrection

The Sixth Wednesday of Great Lent. Wednesday before Palm Sunday

The Sixth Tuesday of Great Lent. The Death of God, my Death and the Resurrection

The Fifth Friday of Great Lent. We Have You as an Example of Repentance, Mary the Egyptian

The Fifth Thursday of Great Lent. The Great Canon of St Andrew of Crete

The Fifth Wednesday of Great Lent. The Annunciation of our Most Holy Lady, the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary

The Fifth Tuesday of Great Lent. Him, Jesus Christ

The Fifth Monday of Great Lent. The Ascetic Life (St. John of the Ladder)

The Fourth Friday of Great Lent. The Ladder of Divine Ascent and Moral Improvement

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