Sunday of the Last Judgment

Today is the Sunday of the Last Judgment, more popularly known as Meatfare Sunday, because it is also the last day to eat meat until Pascha. The hymnography for this week is about as fire and brimstone as we get in the Orthodox Church. For example:

When the thrones are set in place and the books are opened,
then God will take His place on the judgment seat.
Oh, what a fearful sight!
The Angels stand in awe, and the river of fire flows by.
What shall we do, who are already condemned by our many sins,
as we hear Christ call the righteous to His Father’s Kingdom,
and send the wicked to eternal damnation?
Who among us can bear that terrible verdict?
Hasten to us, O Lover of mankind and King of the universe;
grant us the grace of repentance before the end,
and have mercy on us! (Doxastikon at Lord, I Call)

Saturday of Souls

Today is the first Saturday of Souls of the year. Saturdays are always associated with the commemoration of the departed, per the weekly cycle, just as Mondays commemorate the Bodiless Powers, Tuesdays John the Baptist, and so on. But on these Soul Saturdays we remember our departed more fully: we serve additional services, we pray for the departed by name, we offer kollyva.

Last night at the seminary we served a general Panikhida, this morning we had Liturgy—and this afternoon we also happened to have a Baptism. There was something rather fitting about this scheduling coincidence. On the one hand, it’s always beautiful to see new life while also remembering those who have fallen asleep (in this case a baby was being baptized). But on deeper level, the message of the Baptism is the same as that of the Soul Saturday. In the Epistle reading for the Soul Saturday Liturgy we hear:

Sunday of the Prodigal Son: By the Waters of Babylon

As I noted in a previous post, last Sunday we opened the Lenten Triodion and so began the cycle of pre-Lenten Sundays that will lead us to Great Lent proper in a couple of weeks. Each week has a specific theme: last week’s was the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee, while today focused on the parable of the Prodigal Son—perhaps one of the best known passages of the New Testament. In addition to the hymnography specific to each week, there are some texts only sung at the Matins services of these pre-Lenten Sundays. Last week I discussed the special post-Gospel stichera “Open to me the doors of repentance, O Life-Giver…” We begin the other notable addition this Sunday. After the Polyeleos (Psalm 134/5 & 135/6) we sing Psalm 136/7:

Pre-Lent Begins: The Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee

Today, the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee, marks the real beginning of our long journey to Pascha, which this year falls relatively late, on April 28th. That’s over two months away. Great Lent itself doesn’t begin until March 11th. Several years back I remember trying to explain “pre-Lent”—the weeks of preparation leading up to Great Lent, which is itself a preparation for Holy Week and Pascha—to a Roman Catholic friend, who reacted with a fair degree of bemusement. My first year at seminary I had a similar conversation with my mom in the context of a larger discussion about Orthodox fasting practices (“Yes, chicken counts as meat,” and so on).

From an outside perspective, and perhaps even for many people within the Church, throwing a pre-Lent on top of the 40(ish) days of Lent can seem rather excessive. But I have come to deeply appreciate these “warm up” weeks in which the Church leads us to the Great Fast. They not only ease us into the more rigorous fasting expected during Lent, they also make it abundantly clear why we’re doing all of this, and what spirit we should seek to cultivate as Lent approaches.

The Parable of the Great Banquet

Note: I’m reposting here something I originally posted to Facebook on December 26, 2018. “Today’s Gospel reading” therefore refers to that Sunday. Despite the time delay, I still think it’s worth revisiting in this context. 

Today’s Gospel reading, for the Sunday of the Forefathers on the new calendar, is Luke 14:16-24, the parable of the great banquet. The kernel of the story, which also appears in a significantly different framing in Mat 22:1-14 as the parable of the marriage feast, is quite simple: a man invites people to a great banquet, but when the preparations are complete the original invitees refuse to come, so people off the street are invited in their place. A curious feature of Luke’s telling (notably absent in Matthew’s) is the excuses various guests give:

“But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it; I pray you, have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them; I pray you, have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’” (14:18-19).