Preparation for the Great Fast

Preparation for the Great Fast

The Church seldom starts us on a path without providing some preliminary orientation and preparation; and the Great Fast is no exception. The four weeks leading up to the Fast (five Sundays, and the weekdays in between) remind us of our need for a "Lenten springime", and of the spiritual pitfalls that can divert us from our goal of communion with God.

The pre-Fast preparations begin with the fifth Sunday before the start of the Fast, the Sunday of Zacchaeus. On this Sunday, we hear of the tax-collector Zacchaeus, his ardent desire to see Jesus, and how this desire was fulfilled beyond his expectations. 

The next Sunday is the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee. The Sunday Gospel reminds us of the dangers of hypocrisy and the need for true humility in order to come close to God. Penitential hymns (stichera) are added at Sunday Matins, and we sing these every Sunday from now till the end of the Fast. 

During the following week, there is no fasting or abstinence, even on the ordinary meatless days of Wednesday and Friday. (This is one of four such periods in the course of the year; the others are days from December 25 to January 5, and the weeks following the feasts of Pascha and Pentecost.) 

The following Sunday is the Sunday of the Prodigal Son, on which we are shown a story of repentence and acceptance. The Prodigal Son is an image of each of us, as we "remember ourselves" and resolve to break with our sins, return from exile, and start a new life. On this Sunday and the two Sundays that follow, we sing Psalm 137 ("By the waters of Babylon") at Matins. This song of the Israelite captivity expresses our situation as exiles in a foreign land. Unlike the Israelites - but like the prodigal son - we can choose to return home.

With the next Sunday, the Sunday of the Last Judgment, we are only eight days from the start of the Great Fast. At the Divine Liturgy, we hear the Gospel account of the second coming of the Lord in glory, and of the final judgment. To prepare us for the rigors of the Fast, the Church's traditional fasting rules call on the faithful to fast from flesh-meats for the final week before the Fast. That is why the Sunday of the Last Judgment is also called the Sunday of Meat-fare (that is, the Sunday of meat-eating). 

During the final week before the Fast, called Cheesefare Week, the traditional fasting rules continue to allow the eating of eggs and dairy products.

Finally, on Cheesefare Sunday, we have come to the very brink of the fast. At the Divine Liturgy, our Lord's words in the Gospel speak of forgiveness: "If you forgive men their trespasses, then your heavenly Father will forgive you." For this reason, the day is also called Forgiveness Sunday. The service of Vespers on this day is especially solemn, and also followed by a ceremony of mutual forgiveness between priest and people.

Source: https://mci.archpitt.org/liturgy/Great_Fast.html

Recommended Reading

• The Great Forty Days Fast (Great Lent) - A Traditional Custom of the Byzantine Rite. Byzantine Leaflet Series, No. 13. (Pittsburgh: Byzantine Seminary Press, 1979).
• Father Alexander Schmemann. Great Lent. (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1969.)
• Father Basil Shereghy. The Liturgical Year of the Byzantine-Slavonic Rite. (Pittsburgh, PA: Byzantine Seminary Press, 1968.) 
  
• A Monk of the Eastern Church (Father Lev Gilet). The Year of Grace of the Lord. (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2001.)

The four weeks leading up to the Fast remind us of our need for a "Lenten springtime" and the spiritual pitfalls that can divert us from our goal of communion with God.

The Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee reminds us of the dangers of hypocrisy and the need for true humility to come close to God.

Singing Psalm 137 expresses our situation as exiles in a foreign land, similar to the Israelite captivity.

The Sunday of the Last Judgment is also called the Sunday of Meat-fare because fasting from flesh-meats begins in the following week.

Cheesefare Sunday is also called Forgiveness Sunday because the Gospel reading speaks of forgiveness.