The Church has established the feasts throughout the year as landmarks for the renewal of grace and the regeneration of the life of her members. The greatest landmarks of renewal for the faithful are, on the one hand, the period of the Triodion, which brings forth the grace of entering into the living Presence of the Risen Lord, and, on the other hand, the period of the Pentecostarion, which leads to the fulfilment of the promise of the Father in the gift of the Paraclete. The asceticism of Great Lent could be described as ‘negative’ or ‘apophatic,’ as it aims at stripping away the old self of the passions so that the ascetic of godliness, being free, may be able to run ‘the way of the divine commandments’ (Ps. 119:32) and follow Christ ‘whithersoever He may go’ (Rev. 14:4). From the night of Pascha, another kind of asceticism begins—not ‘negative,’ but ‘positive’ or ‘cataphatic’—which trains man in the expectation of the promise of the Father and fervent thirst for the grace of the Holy Spirit.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Prologue
Journeying after Christ in the Church
Exercises of Great Lent
Fasting
Antechamber of the Triodion
The Sunday of the Ten Lepers
The grace of gratitude
The Sunday of the Canaanite Woman
Surrender to the will of Christ, and the grace of adoption
The Sunday of Zacchaeus
The desire for the Countenance of Christ that overcomes the shame of our Fall and acquires the power of salvation
The Beginning of the Triodion
The Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee
An example of repentance
The Sunday of the Prodigal Son
The attraction of the Father’s love heals our alienation from God
The Sunday of Judgment
The self-condemnation of repentance pre-empts God’s Judgment and justifies the sinner
Forgiveness Sunday
Forgiveness opens the heart and grants man bowels of mercies so that he may imitate God
Great Lent, a Period of Spiritual Renewal
The Sunday of Orthodoxy
The dynamic increase into which Orthodoxy leads the faithful
The Sunday of Gregory Palamas
Life in the presence of God by invoking His Name
The Sunday of the Veneration of the Precious Cross
The Cross: The ladder by which God descended to earth and man ascends to Heaven
The Sunday of Saint John of the Ladder
Holiness: Fruit of the crucified life
The Great Canon and the Akathist Hymn
The Sunday of Saint Mary of Egypt
The great miracle of repentance
Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday
The Passion Week
The Kenosis of Christ
Holy Week and the Resurrection
From the Joy of the Resurrection to the Gift of Holy Pentecost
Thomas Sunday
A new relationship with the Lord Jesus
The Sunday of the Myrrh-bearers
The expectation of eternity begets the boldness to seek after it
The Sunday of the Paralytic
The grace of the Holy Spirit heals the paralysis of the Fall
Mid-Pentecost
Thirst for life eternal
The Sunday of the Samaritan Woman
Humility makes man a true worshipper of God
The Sunday of the Man Born Blind
Christ, the Light of life
Ascension
The fulfilment of the divine Dispensation and Christ’s return to His glory
Sunday of the Holy Fathers
The God of our Fathers
Pentecost
The quickening of the image of God in man
The Sunday of All Saints
The fruit of Pentecost
The Mystery of Pentecost
Index of Scriptural References
