The Great Lent will begin on March 3rd. The Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America has published a book authored by His Eminence Archbishop Hovnan Derderian in time for the Lenten spiritual journey. Containing daily messages by the Primate, the bilingual book, titled "The Lenten Journey...A Walk with God" serves as a guide for the faithful throughout the spiritual journey leading up to the Victorious Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
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Primate's Lenten Video Message
Beloved faithful,
The Great Lent will begin on March 3rd. The Western
Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America has published a book authored
by His Eminence Archbishop Hovnan Derderian in time for the Lenten spiritual
journey.
Containing daily messages by the Primate, the bilingual
book, titled "The Lenten Journey...A Walk with God" serves as a guide
for the faithful throughout the spiritual journey leading up to the Victorious
Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
“Walk with God, fill your spirit with prayer and you will
bear witness to the depth of your spiritual life and to the power of your
Christian faith.”
Archbishop Hovnan Derderian
Great Lent (Medz Bak) is also called Karasnork in
Armenian, since it lasts forty days. Great Lent is the longest of the fasts
prescribed in the liturgical calendar and it begins on the Monday following
Poon Paregentan and lasts for forty days up until the Friday prior to Lazarus
Saturday. Great Lent is therefore the preparatory spiritual journey with its
destination of Easter, “The Feast of Feasts.”
The Liturgical Structure of Lent
Lent originated in the very earliest days of the Church
as a preparatory time for Easter, when the faithful rededicated themselves and
when catechumens were instructed in the faith and prepared for baptism. By
observing the forty days of Lent, the individual Christian imitates Jesus’
withdrawal into the wilderness for forty days and rededicated himself to the
church through prayer, fasting and learning.
The Lenten worship is thus a school of repentance. It
teaches us what repentance is and how to acquire the spirit of repentance. It
prepares us for and leads us to spiritual regeneration, without which
“absolution” remains meaningless. Both teach about repentance and the way of
repentance. And, since there can be no real Christian life without repentance,
without this constant “re-evaluation” of life; the Lenten worship is an
essential part of the liturgical tradition of the Church.
Posture of the Church
During Lent, the Church maintains a penitential posture
that is physically displayed by the closing of the altar curtain on the eve of
Poon Paregentan as a symbolic representation of the expulsion of Adam and Eve,
the first human beings, from the Garden of Eden. The faithful are thus ushered
into the Lenten period as penitents seeking to return to their Creator through
prayer, forgiveness and instruction. Also during Lent, it has become the
practice of the church to not offer Holy Communion during Divine Liturgy, but
is available to those who personally approach the celebrant.
Fasting during Lent
A special word must be said about fasting during lent.
Generally speaking, fasting is an essential element of the Christian Life.
Christ fasted and taught men to fast. Fasting is done in secret. It has as its
goal the purification of our lives, the liberation of our souls and bodies from
sin, the strengthening of our human powers of love for God and man, the enlightening
of our entire being for communion with the Blessed Trinity.
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