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Week of Great Lent Á-? Wednesday
"Joyful celebration of the fast"
Á-°As we continue in the joyful celebration of the fast, we cry aloud: keep
us all in peace, O Lord, deliver us from every snare of the enemy, and in
Thy surpassing love count us worthy to venerate with love Thy precious
cross, through which thou grantest to the inhabited world Thy mercy, O
Thou who alone art most merciful.Á-?
Great Lent, the Third Week, Wednesday, The Sixth Hour,
Sessional Hymn, Tone Two (by Theodore)
The services are enthusiastic! I love to hear their enthusiasm about the living of the
spiritual life, and their frequent enraptured meditation on the truths and dogmas of our
faith. I hope you do too.
This hymn is one of many during the Great Fast that count this Á-°titheÁ-?
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of the year as
great blessing, and joy.
This attitude is a different perspective for some of us. For some, Great Lent is a time to
Á-°give upÁ-? things, and deal with inconvenience and difficulty in planning meals.
The reason for these feelings is a serious misunderstanding of the Fast, and also the main
reason for the Fast, the following of the commandments.
The Fast is not IMPOSED upon us, nor are any of the sweet commandments of the Lord
imposed upon us. We follow the commandments because they are the only way of life,
and because we will be changed and perfected.
Does anybody want to stay the same way they are right now? Do you still want to have
bouts of laziness, depression, shame because of your behavior, intrusive thoughts that
make you feel dark and cold? If you like this state, you may have it forever, and you
need not do anything to achieve it!
If a person wants to change, the Fast is a joyful time, because it facilitates change. We
will not always be in our current, wretched condition; we will be changed.
The joyful faster always has that Á-°blessed hopeÁ-?
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within him when he fasts. The fast
may truly have great difficulties and sorrows for us, but the Christian is joyful, even in