Lent It is considered the most stringent and longest of the year - not everyone can pass such a test of spirit and body. That is why believers prepare for fasting in advance - to be more precise, preparation begins a month before it begins.

In church language, the word “week” means only one day - Sunday. A calendar week consisting of seven days is called a week. Preparatory “Sundays” before the Great Later started back in January. At the time of writing our article, there are only a few of them left, because in 2018 Easter is celebrated early, on April 8, and Lent, accordingly, begins on February 19.

The first "special" Sunday was January 28, 2018. This week is called "The Week of the Publican and the Pharisee." The name of the week is taken from the Gospel parable of the same name, which says that it is sinful for a person to boast and admire his deeds. Pride is the main obstacle on the path to repentance and spiritual cleansing. Truth is only that faith that does not carry narcissism and exaltation.

From January 28 and the entire week (that is, until February 3 inclusive), believers did not need to fast. Regular one-day fasts on Wednesdays and Fridays were also skipped - it was possible to eat fast food without restrictions.

The second preparatory week took place on February 4. Sunday is called the “Sunday of the Prodigal Son.” On this day, a parable is told in which a son, having inherited his father’s wealth, abandoned him in an idle life. Realizing his sin, the son came to his father to ask for repentance and alms. The father, seeing his child regain his sight, rejoiced and forgave the careless child. The parable teaches believers kindness, awareness of their sinful acts, repentance before the Lord, as well as the ability to forgive and have mercy. Thus, the prodigal son is a conventional image of everyone who has fallen behind the Faith and is mired in sinfulness. The parable shows that realizing in time that the chosen path is wrong and coming to God with repentance is the only true path leading to the salvation of the soul.

Starting Monday, February 5, believers are again preparing to fast on Wednesdays and Fridays, the website has learned. These days you should not eat fast foods, and in general you should limit the amount of food you consume. By the way, according to church traditions, Motley Week, which is the name of the week from February 15 to 11, is considered unlucky for marriage and wedding ceremonies.

The Motley Week ends with two important holidays. Thus, on February 10, 2018, believers celebrate Ecumenical Parents' Saturday - the day when they remember the dead. On Ecumenical Saturday, in particular, those who died a violent death are remembered.

On the week of February 11, believers eat meat for the last time before fasting - it is called the Week of the Last Judgment. During the service, they remember the parable of the Last Judgment of the living and the dead, so that a person does not trust in the Lord that all his sins will be forgiven after repentance. Hoping for the mercy of the Lord, people indulge in carelessness and stop worrying about the fact that they will have to answer for their sinful acts during the Judgment.

The following week, from February 12 to 17, is called Cheese Week, and is popularly called Maslenitsa. This last days before the start of Lent, therefore believers try to eat plenty of light foods. Meat remains prohibited, but dairy products, fish, eggs can be eaten in any quantity. People bake pancakes and treat each other. Time for general fun, cheerful street celebrations, meetings with family, and a festive feast.

Sunday February 19 is called Forgiveness, and on church calendar called Cheese week. On this day, already after lunch, the ban on food of animal origin begins to apply, because from Monday believers begin to observe strict Lent.

On Forgiveness Sunday, a special service is held in the church, at which the priest is the first to ask for forgiveness from his parishioners. Afterwards, everyone asks each other for forgiveness, because it is worth entering into fasting with a heart clean of grievances and regrets.

On Forgiveness Sunday, people also celebrate the last day of Maslenitsa - effigies are burned in squares in honor of saying goodbye to winter and welcoming spring.

On this day, you need to finish all the cooked pancakes and clear the house of all fasting food in order to enter into fasting without temptations and without any special regrets.

In the evening, you need to bathe in order to be clean not only in soul, but also in body - when going to bed, you need to pray and ask for your main forgiveness from God for all previously committed sins and for all actions that cause you to doubt their righteousness.

The Great Lent is preceded by the Holy Pentecost - the week about the publican and the Pharisee, the week and week about the Prodigal Son, the week and week of the meat-free season (meat-holiday), the week and week of the raw-holiday (raw-holiday, cheese, Shrovetide).

During the preparatory weeks, the Church prepares believers for fasting by gradually introducing abstinence: after the continuous week, the fasts of Wednesday and Friday are restored; then follows highest degree preparatory abstinence - prohibition from eating meat foods. In the preparatory services, the Church, recalling the first days of the world and man, the blissful state of the first parents and their fall, the coming of the Son of God to earth for the salvation of man, encourages believers to fast, repentance and spiritual achievement.

The synaxarion of Cheese Saturday says that just as “leaders, before a militia army already standing in the ranks, talk about the exploits of ancient men and thereby encourage the soldiers, so the holy fathers who enter into fasting point to the holy men who have shone in fasting and teach “that fasting consists not only in the abstinence of food, but also in curbing the tongue, heart and eyes.”

Such preparation for the fast of Pentecost is an ancient institution of the Church. Thus, already famous preachers of the 4th century, Saints Basil the Great, John Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, in their conversations and words, spoke about abstinence in the Weeks preceding Lent. In the 8th century, the Monks Theodore and Joseph the Studites compiled services for the Week of the Prodigal Son, meat and cheese services; in the 9th century, George, Metropolitan of Nicomedia, compiled a canon for the Week about the publican and the Pharisee.

Preparing for fasting and repentance, the Church in the first Week, through the example of the publican and the Pharisee, reminds of humility as the true beginning and foundation of repentance and all virtue, and of pride as the main source of sins, which defiles a person, alienates him from people, makes him an apostate, imprisoning yourself into a sinful selfish shell.

Humility as a path to spiritual exaltation was shown by God the Word Himself, who humbled himself to the point of weakness human nature- “until the sight of a servant” (Phil. 2:7).

In the hymns of the Week about the publican and the Pharisee, the Church calls to reject - to “reject” highly praised pride, fierce, destructive exaltation, “highly praised arrogance” and “vile arrogance.”

To awaken feelings of repentance and contrition for sins, the Church sings at Sunday matins during the preparatory Weeks, starting with the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee and ending with the fifth Sunday of Lent, after the Gospel, singing “Having seen the Resurrection of Christ” and reading the 50th Psalm, before the canon, touching stichera (troparia) “Open the doors of repentance, O Life-Giver,” “Instruct me in the path of salvation. Mother of God”, “Thinking about the many cruel things I have done, O wretched one, I tremble.” Bringing together the 70-day period of the Triodion with the 70-year stay of Israel in Babylonian captivity, the Church in some preparatory Weeks mourns the spiritual captivity of the new Israel by singing Psalm 136 “On the rivers of Babylon.”

The first stichera - “Open the doors of repentance” - is based on the parable of the publican: comparisons are taken from it to depict the feeling of repentance. The second song, “On the Path to Salvation,” is based on the parable of the prodigal son. At the heart of the third – “Many evil things I have done” – is the Savior’s prediction of the Last Judgment.

On the Sunday of the Prodigal Son gospel parable(Luke 15, 11 – 32), from which the Week itself received its name, the Church shows an example of God’s inexhaustible mercy towards all sinners who turn to God with sincere repentance. No sin can shake God’s love for mankind. A soul that has repented and turned from sin, imbued with hope in God, God's grace comes to the meeting, kisses her, adorns her and triumphs in reconciliation with her, no matter how sinful she was before, until her repentance.

The Church instructs that the fullness and joy of life lie in a grace-filled union with God and in constant communion with Him, and removal from this communion is a source of spiritual disasters.

Having shown the true beginning of repentance on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee, the Church reveals its full power: with true humility and repentance, forgiveness of sins is possible. Therefore, no sinner should despair of the gracious help of the Heavenly Father.

The Meat Week is also called the Week of the Last Judgment, since the Gospel is read about it at the liturgy (Matthew 25. 31 - 46).

On Saturday the Meat Shabbat, which is also called Ecumenical parent's Saturday, the Church commemorates “from the ages of the dead all those who lived by faith in piety and died piously, either in the desert, or in cities, or in the sea, or on earth, or in any place... from Adam even to this day, who served God purely, the fathers and our brethren, friends together and relatives, every person who has served faithfully in life, and who has come to God in many ways and in many ways.” The Church diligently asks “to give (them) in the hour of judgment a good answer to God and to receive His presence in joy, among the righteous, and among the saints, a bright lot, and worthy of being His Kingdom.”

According to an inscrutable Providence, people have different demise. “It is appropriate to know,” says the synaxarion, “that not all who fall into the abyss, and into fire, and into the sea, and the verbal destruction, and cold (cold) and famine, suffer this by the direct command of God: this is the essence of God’s fate , some of them happen by (God’s) good will, others (to others) by permission, others for the sake of knowledge and rebuke (warning), and the chastity of others.”

On Meat Saturday, the Church, out of its love for mankind, especially prays for those dead who did not receive a church funeral service or at all church prayer: “I have not received legalized psalms and hymns of memory.” The Church prays “for some of the righteous to do”, “even though the water was covered, the battle was reaped, the coward (earthquake) was embraced, and the murderers were killed, and the fire fell.” Prayers are offered for those who, in ignorance and not in their own minds, ended their lives, for those whom the Lord, knowing everything useful, allowed to die by sudden death - “from the sadness and joy that preceded it unreliably (unexpectedly)” and for those who died in sea ​​or on land, on rivers, springs, lakes, which became the prey of animals and birds, killed with a sword, burned by lightning, frozen in the cold and snow, buried under an earthen collapse or walls, killed by poisoning, strangulation and hanging from neighbors, died from any other type of unexpected and violent death.

The thought of the end of our life while remembering those who have already passed into eternity has a sobering effect on everyone who forgets about eternity and clings with all his soul to the corruptible and fleeting.

Meat Eating Week (Sunday) is dedicated to a reminder of the general final and Last Judgment of the living and the dead (Matthew 25, 31 - 46). This reminder is necessary so that people who sin do not indulge in carelessness and carelessness about their salvation in the hope of God’s ineffable mercy. The Church, in the stichera and troparions of the service of this Week, depicts the consequences of a lawless life, when the sinner will appear before the impartial Court of God.

Recalling the last Judgment of Christ, the Church at the same time points out the true meaning of the very hope in God’s mercy. God is merciful, but He is also a righteous Judge. In liturgical hymns, the Lord Jesus Christ is called just, and His Judgment is called a righteous and incorruptible test (unwashed torture, unwashed judgment). Both inveterate sinners and those carelessly relying on God’s mercy must therefore remember the spiritual responsibility for their moral state, and the Church, with all its services of this Week, strives to bring them to the awareness of their sinfulness.

What works of repentance and correction of life are especially emphasized? First of all and mainly, on acts of love and mercy, for the Lord will pronounce His Judgment primarily on works of mercy, and, moreover, possible for everyone, without mentioning other virtues that are not equally accessible to everyone. No one has the right to say that he could not help the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, or visit the sick. Material works of mercy have their value when they are a manifestation of love that rules the heart and are connected with spiritual works of mercy, which include the body. and the souls of our neighbors are relieved.

The last week of preparation for the Holy Pentecost is called cheese week, cheese week, Maslenitsa, Maslenitsa. During this week, cheese foods are consumed: milk, cheese, butter, eggs.

The Church, forbearing to our weakness and gradually leading us into the feat of fasting, established the consumption of cheese food in the last week before Pentecost, “so that we, from meat and overeating, would be led to strict abstinence... little by little we would take the reins from pleasant foods, that is, the feat of fasting " On raw Wednesday and Friday, a stricter fast is required (until the evening).

Through the chants of Cheese Week, the Church inspires us that this week is already the threshold of repentance, the forefeast of abstinence, the week of pre-purification. In these hymns, the Holy Church invites us to deep abstinence, recalling the fall of our ancestors, which resulted from intemperance.

On Cheese Saturday, the remembrance of holy men and women is celebrated, who shone in the feat of fasting. By the example of holy ascetics, the Church strengthens us for spiritual feats, “as if we look at their original, kindly lives, we do manifold and varied virtues, just as there is strength for everyone,” remembering that the holy ascetics and ascetics glorified by the Church were people clothed with infirmities flesh like us.

The last Sunday before Great Lent has the inscription (name) in the Triodion: “On the Week of Cheese, the expulsion of Adam.” On this day, the event of the expulsion of our first parents from paradise is remembered.

Tags: Religion, Orthodoxy

Lent in 2018 begins on February 19, but it is preceded by several preparatory weeks*. What is the meaning of their names? What are the features of divine services and fasting regulations** these days?

January 28 - Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee

Meaning of the name

At the Liturgy, the passage Luke 18:10-14 is read, in which the tax collector personifies a sincerely repentant sinner, and the Pharisee is an outwardly pious man, but does not see his sins and considers himself righteous.

Liturgical features

Chants from the Lenten Triodion, a collection of Lenten hymns and prayers, are gradually woven into the usual order of services. For example, at Sunday morning the stichera “Open the doors of repentance” are sung.

All types of fasting are cancelled.

February 4 - Sunday of the Prodigal Son

Meaning of the name

The Liturgy reads the passage Luke 15:11-32 about the prodigal son who left his father’s house, but then repented and returned. The parable reminds us of our own weakness and the great mercy of God, as it allegorically describes God’s attitude towards fallen man.

Liturgical features

The Lenten Triodion is used more actively; on Sunday morning the 136th Psalm “On the Rivers of Babylon” is sung for the first time, which reminds a person that he is a captive of sin and that liberation from this slavery lies only through a decisive struggle with it.

The Church prays for Christians who have passed into Eternity, and especially for people who died a violent death and did not receive the usual funeral service.

Liturgical features

Funeral services are held only a few times a year. There is an abundance of funeral texts, but they are not sad, but joyful, filled with hope for a general resurrection.

February 11 - Week of the Last Judgment, Meat Eating

Meaning of the name

At the Liturgy the passage Matthew 25:31-46 is read. Believers are reminded of the second coming of Christ and the upcoming Last Judgment.

Liturgical features

At Matins, purely Lenten texts from the Penitential Canon of Andrew of Crete are sung - “Helper and Patron...”. Preparations for fasting are coming to an end. Worship is permeated with the idea of ​​universal accountability for all one’s actions before God.

Post orders

Meat plot. The last day before Easter when meat is allowed at meals.

Prayers from the Lenten Triodion are used every day. On Wednesday and Friday the Liturgy is not celebrated; on these days the prayer of Ephraim the Syrian “Lord and Master of my life” is read for the first time, which is one of the most important prayers of Lent.

Post orders

There are no food restrictions on eating eggs, fish, as well as dairy products - cheese, butter, sour cream, and fish. Hence the name.

February 18 - Cheesecake Week, Forgiveness Sunday. Memory of Adam's exile

Meaning of the name

At the Liturgy, the passage Matthew 6:14-21 is read, in which Christ speaks of the need to forgive everyone. The key idea is the longing for paradise, which was lost by people after the fall of Adam.

Liturgical features

After Vespers (in parish practice, this rite is sometimes performed after the Liturgy), the rite of forgiveness is performed: like the ancient monks, people ask each other for forgiveness for all offenses in order to enter into fasting with a peaceful soul. The 136th Psalm is sung for the last time. The texts of the service clearly remind us of the purpose of the upcoming Lent—the celebration of Easter. At Vespers, priests dress in black robes.

Post orders

Prescription for any food of animal origin.

* The word “week” in liturgical language means Sunday, while the week in our today’s understanding is called “week” (ed.).

** All postal orders apply primarily to monastic life; in parish practice they are not always applicable and require the blessing of the confessor.

Preparation for the Holy Pentecost begins shortly after the feast of the Epiphany, in accordance with the fact that the Lord, soon after His Baptism, withdrew into the desert for fasting, in memory of which the Pentecost was established. The Lent Day itself is preceded by four preparatory Weeks: the Week (without the week) of the Publican and the Pharisee; Weeks and Weeks: about the prodigal son, meat and cheese ("cheese").

During the preparatory weeks, he accustoms Christians to the feat of fasting by gradually increasing abstinence. After the Solid Week, fasts are restored on Wednesday and Friday, then it is forbidden to eat meat food, but it is allowed to eat dairy food on Wednesday and Friday.

Such special preparation for the fast of Pentecost is an ancient institution of the Church. The 4th century saints Basil the Great, John Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria and other Church Fathers left conversations and words spoken by them on the eve of a fast that has not yet come, but is only expected.

The canons and many other chants, which reveal the meaning of the preparatory weeks, were compiled in the 8th century. The Venerable Theodore and Joseph the Studites compiled services for the Week of the Prodigal Son, meat and cheese services, and in the 9th century, George, Metropolitan of Nicomedia wrote a canon for the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee.

CONTENT OF THE SERVICES OF THE PREPARATORY WEEKS OF THE HOLY QUARTECAST

Preparing the faithful for the Holy Pentecost, in his services he acts like a military leader, encouraging soldiers with wise and timely words for battle. Therefore, in the preparatory services, the Church says what can dispose believers to fasting, repentance and spiritual struggle. In her sacred memoirs, she goes back to the first days of the existence of the world and man, to the blissful state of the first parents and their fall, in order to show the beginning of sin and turn us to God. To awaken a feeling of repentance and contrition for sins during the days of the preparatory weeks, touching penitential stichera are sung at matins before the canon: “Open the doors of repentance... Instruct me in the paths of salvation, Mother of God... The many cruel things I have done...”.

For the same purpose, bringing the seventy-day period of the Lenten Triodion closer to Israel’s seventy-year stay in captivity in Babylon, in some preparatory weeks he mourns the spiritual captivity of the new Israel by singing Psalm 136, “On the rivers of Babylon, there is a sad man and a mourner.”

THE WEEK ABOUT THE COLLECTOR AND THE PHARISEE

This preparatory Week received its name because during the Liturgy on this day the Gospel parable of the publican and the Pharisee is read ().

Preparing people for fasting and repentance, the example of the tax collector and the Pharisee points to the true beginning and basis of repentance and all virtue - humility, and to the main source of sin and an obstacle to repentance and virtue - pride. “We conquer the Pharisee with vanity, and we bow down the publican with repentance, approaching You, the only Master: but one (but one) boasted, having lost his good things, but (the other) having spoken nothing, was awarded gifts."

Pride breaks a person’s communication with God, the communication of love, and thereby isolates him from people, for there cannot be without love for God and love for neighbor. A person becomes an apostate, locked in his sinful, selfish will. This is stated in the chants of the service: “Every good thing is defecated (emptied) from heaving, but every evil thing is consumed from humility.” “Vanity wastes (causes a loss) the wealth of truth, but humility wastes (disperses) the multitude of passions.” “From the rot of passions the humble is exalted, but from the height of virtues everyone who is high-hearted falls fiercely.”

God the Word, Himself humbled to the weakest state of human nature (to the “form of a servant”), showed humility as an excellent path to glorification (“exaltation”), and everyone who imitates Him, humbling himself, is glorified. Therefore, “to be humble in wisdom, be His disciple, even though the Tsar, chastising (teaching, teaching) everyone to be jealous of the publican’s sighing and humility.”

PECULIARITIES OF THE SERVICE OF THE WEEK OF THE COLLECTOR AND THE PHARISEE

Beginning with the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee and during all subsequent preparatory Weeks of Great Lent, stichera and the canon from the Lenten Triodion are added to the hymns of the Octoechos. At Matins, starting with the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee and ending with the 5th Week of Great Lent, after the Gospel, the singing of “Having seen the Resurrection of Christ” and the reading of Psalm 50, repentant troparia are sung, in which the repentant feeling is expressed with particular strength and depth. On “Glory”: “Open the doors of repentance for me” (instead of: “Through the prayers of the apostles”). “And now”: “On the path of salvation” (instead of “Prayers of the Mother of God”). Then - “Have mercy on me, O God” and “Many evil things I have done.”

The first song, “Open the doors of repentance,” is based on the parable of the publican and the Pharisee, from which all comparisons are borrowed to depict the feeling of repentance. The second song, “On the Path to Salvation,” is based on the parable of the Prodigal Son, and the third, “The many cruel things I have done,” is based on the Savior’s prediction of the Last Judgment. These penitential troparia are closely related to the Gospels, which are read on the preparatory Sundays for Lent: About the Publican and the Pharisee, About the Prodigal Son and About the Last Judgment.

Starting from the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee until the Sunday of All Saints, the Gospel stichera is sung before the 1st hour (on “Glory and Now”), since on the praises on “Glory” the Triodion stichera is sung instead of the Gospel stichera. At the Liturgy - the Gospel of the Publican and the Pharisee.

Thus, on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee, four main features of the service can be noted:

1. Singing at Matins after the polyeleos and the Gospel of special penitential troparions.

2. Adding to the hymns of the Octoechos the hymns (including the canon) of the Lenten Triodion.

3. Reading at the Liturgy the Gospel parable of the publican and the Pharisee.

4. Permission to fast on Wednesday and Friday after the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee - a “continuous” week, or “omnivorous”, in order to expose the proud fasting of the Pharisee.

5. From the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee to the Sunday of All Saints inclusive, Sunday kontakia are not read, but are replaced at the hours, at Compline, at the Midnight Office and at the Liturgy (after entry) by “kontakia of the Triodion, and sometimes by kontakia of the Menaion, if the forefeast occurs on Sunday or an after-feast, or the memory of a great saint, or a temple saint (with the exception of the 5th and 6th Weeks).

In the 4th and 5th Sunday of Pentecost, when there is a kontakion of the Triodion to the saint (Rev. John Climacus and St. Mary of Egypt), it is not sung with “And Now”: at the Liturgy after entering it must be sung with “Glory”, and with “And Now” kontakion to the temple (if the temple of the Savior or the Virgin Mary) or kontakion “Shameless representation of Christians” (if the temple of a saint).

On Saturdays, starting from the Saturday following the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee, and until the Sunday of All Saints (after Pentecost), it is necessary to read the Gospel at the Liturgy in this order: ordinary Saturday, then the saint (Typikon, following the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee) .

From the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee to the Week of Vaiy, according to existing practice, the chorus “Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me” is added to the troparions of the canon of the Lenten Triodion on Sundays, and only on the Week of Orthodoxy and the Sunday of the Cross - the chorus “Glory to Thee, our God, glory to You." There is no specific indication in the Charter and the Triodi on this matter.

THE WEEK AND THE WEEK OF THE PRODIGAL SON

On this Week, the Gospel parable (), from which the Week itself received its name, shows us an example of God’s inexhaustible mercy towards all sinners who turn to God with sincere repentance, and indicates that no sin can defeat God’s love for mankind. Grace itself comes to meet a soul that has repented and turned from sin, imbued with hope in God; she kisses the soul, triumphs in reconciliation with it, no matter how sinful the soul may be. “Let us know, brethren, the power of the sacraments, for from sin the prodigal son who has risen (has come again) to his father’s house, the Most Good Father will kiss him, and again give the knowledge of His glory (distinctions): and the mysterious things will bring joy to the highest (powers), slaying the well-fed calf, so that we We will live together worthily (we will dwell together), to the philanthropic Father who sacrificed, and to the glorious Savior of our souls.”

The Church inspires that the true fullness and joy of a person’s life lies in his grace-filled union with God and in constant communion with Him (“may we coexist worthily”). Removal from this communication serves, on the contrary, as a source of all kinds of disasters and humiliations. “Oh, how many blessings the damned one has deprived himself of! Oh, what a kingdom the passionate I have fallen away from! Having exhausted (wasted) wealth, I have received and transgressed the commandment. Alas for me, passionate soul! You will be condemned to the eternal fire for the rest (later). In the same way, before the end, cry out to Christ God: like the prodigal son, accept me, O God, and have mercy on me.”

“The wealth that you gave me, grace, the accursed departed, indecently wickedly. Savior, having lived fornication, the demon flatteringly (having deceived the Father) squandered”, “and the accursed one obeyed (them), “and having become poor, were filled with cold<...>: Same<...>turn to the cry of the generous Father: those who have sinned in heaven and before You.”

SERVICE OF THE SEEK ABOUT THE PRODIGAL SON

At Matins on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son and then on the Sunday of Meat and Cheese, after the singing of the polyelean psalms (134 and 135) “Praise the Name of the Lord” and “Confess the Lord”, Psalm 136 “On the rivers of Babylon” is also sung, with “red alleluia”. After this, the Sunday troparia “Cathedral of Angels” are sung.

By this psalm, a sinful person is encouraged to realize his miserable state in the captivity of sin and the devil, like the Jews who realized their bitter situation in the captivity of Babylon and repented.

At Matins (after Psalm 50), the penitential troparia “Open the doors of repentance” are sung.

At the Liturgy the Gospel parable of the prodigal son is read.

The week (Sunday) about the Prodigal Son includes a week (under the same name), which, as we have already indicated, is a continuous week (permission to fast on Wednesday and Friday).

WEEK AND MEAT WEEK

The Week after the Week of the Prodigal Son and the Week that concludes it are called Meat Weeks for the reason that they end the period of eating meat. Sunday itself is also called “meat empty” (Greek: release of meat, deprivation, cessation of eating meat). The Meat Week is also called the Week of the Last Judgment, for the corresponding Gospel is read at the Liturgy ().

On Meat Saturday, before the remembrance of the Last Judgment of Christ, at which all the living and the dead will appear, he commemorates everyone from Adam to the present day who has fallen asleep in piety and right faith.

The Church commemorates “from the ages the dead, all who lived piously by faith, and those who died piously, either in deserts, or in cities, or in the sea, or on earth, or in any place from even to this day, who served God purely, our fathers and brethren, friends together and relatives of every person who has served faithfully in his life and has come to God in many ways and in many ways.” He diligently asks “to give (them) in the hour of judgment a good answer to God and to receive the right hand of His presence in joy, in the part of the righteous, and in the holy lot of light, and worthy of being His Kingdom.”

According to His inscrutable providence, God predetermined different demise for people. “It is appropriate to know,” says the Synaxarion, “that not everyone who falls into the abyss and into fire, and into the sea, and the verbal destruction, and cold (cold) and famine, suffers from this by the direct command of God: this is more (for such are) the essence of God’s destinies, their ova (when some deaths) happen by the good will (of God), the ova (others) by permission, the other (deaths) for the sake of knowledge and rebuke (terrible warning), and the chastity of others.” “By the depth of Your destinies, O Christ, You, the All-Wise One, have predetermined the end of life, the limit and the image.”

The thought of the end of our life while remembering those who have already passed into eternity has a sobering effect on everyone who has forgotten about eternity and has clinged with all their soul only to the perishable and fleeting. “Come before the end, all brethren, we have seen our dust, and we have seen our weak nature, and we will see our thinness and the end, and the organs of a fleshy (fleshly) vessel, and like dust is a man, eaten by worms and corruption, like our dry bones are not at all (at all) having breath. Let us delve into the graves: where is the glory, where is the kindness (beauty) of the eye? Where is the gracious (eloquent) tongue? Where are the eyebrows, or where is the eye? all dust and canopy. Likewise, Savior, have mercy on all of us.” “Why is a man deceived when he boasts? Why is he embarrassed in vain? the clay itself (will become) smaller (soon). Why does not dust, like dust, think of mixing, and the deposition of pus and decay (form)? If we are men who are slaughtered, why should we cling to the earth? And if we are akin to Christ, why not be related to Him? And we have all rejected the temporary and current life, the incorruptible life that follows, which is Christ, the Enlightenment of our souls.”

According to my research, the service on Meat Saturday is the same as on the Saturday before Pentecost, with the difference that on Meat Saturday, together with the hymns of the Lenten Triodion, the hymns of the Octoechos of the ordinary voice are sung, and on the Saturday before Pentecost, the hymns of the Colored Triodion are combined with the hymns of Saturday Octoechos certainly has 6 voices.

FEATURES OF THE MEAT SATURDAY SERVICE

At Vespers, instead of the prokeme, “Alleluia” is sung with funeral verses.

At Matins, instead of “God is the Lord,” there is “Alleluia” with funeral verses and troparia: “With the depth of wisdom, build everything humanely” and “Imams are a wall and refuge for you.”

After the ordinary 16th kathisma, small litany and sedalna Octoechos, the Immaculates are sung: 17th kathisma (divided into 2 articles). According to usual practice, when singing the Immaculate, the priest and deacon go through the royal doors to the middle of the temple to the funeral table - the tetrapod (i.e. to the “eve”).

The first article begins with the singing of “Blessedness of the Immaculate” (the first 2 verses are sung). The priest reads psalm verses; at this time, the choir quietly sings the chorus for each verse: “Blessed art thou, O Lord, teach me by thy justification” (singing “Alleluia” is not allowed). After verse 91, the choir sings verses 92–93: “For if it were not for Thy law, my teaching would have perished in my humility. I will never forget Your justifications (laws, commandments), for You have revived me in them.” After this there is a small funeral litany and the exclamation “God of spirits.”

The second article begins with the singing “I am yours, save me” (the first 2 verses are sung). The choir sings the chorus to the read verses of Article 2: “Save, save me.” The last verses of kathisma 175 and 176 are sung by the choir: “My soul will live and praise Thee, and Thy destinies will help me. I have gone astray, like a lost sheep: seek Thy servant, for I have not forgotten Thy commandments.” After this, troparia for the Immaculates are immediately sung: “Thou shalt find the holy faces the source of life” with the refrain “Blessed art thou, O Lord, teach me by thy justification.” Then the small funeral litany is pronounced and the sedalion is sung: “Rest, our Savior.” Psalm 50 is canon. The canon of the temple (i.e., the main patronal feast) is read first, and then the canon of the Triodion. After 3 songs - the usual litany. 6 songs each - funeral litany (the clergy remain in the middle of the temple). Kontakion: “Rest with the saints” and ikos: “Thou art One, the Immortal One” (the deacon censes the tetrapods, the iconostasis, the clergy and the people). After which the clergy, having read all the memorials, go to the altar, and the royal doors are closed. Next is the usual sequence of daily (Saturday) matins.

At the Liturgy - funeral troparia, prokeimenon, Apostle, Gospel and sacramental verse (see Lenten Triodion).

If the feast of the Three Saints (January 30/February 12) or the Finding of the Head of John the Baptist (February 24/March 9) occurs on Meat Saturday, then the services of these holidays are transferred to Meat Friday, and a funeral service is performed on Saturday.

If a temple holiday or the Presentation of the Lord (February 2/15) occurs on Meat Saturday, then the service for the dead is moved to the previous Saturday or Meat Thursday. In the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, the service for the Temple Chapter is performed in the same way on the Feast of the Three Hierarchs (in this case, the funeral service is postponed).

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MEAT WEEK AND THE FEATURES OF ITS SERVICES

Meat Eating Week, as stated above, is dedicated to the remembrance of the general, final and terrible Judgment of the living and the dead (), so that sinners, due to the coarseness of their spiritual nature, in the hope of God’s ineffable mercy, do not remain careless and careless about their salvation. The Orthodox Church, in numerous stichera and troparia for the service of this Week, depicts the terrible consequences of a lawless life, for sinners will appear before the impartial (“unwashed”) Judgment of God”: “Oh, what an hour then and a terrible day, when the Judge sits on the terrible Throne!<...>then the trumpet will make a great noise,<...>the heavens will perish, the stars will fall, and the whole earth will shake<...>The dead from the graves will rise, and they will all be of one age... Books are unbent, and deeds are exposed, and the secret of darkness is revealed, Angels flow around, gathering all tongues. Come, hear kings and princes, slaves and free women, sinners and righteous women, rich and poor: for the Judge is coming, who will judge the whole universe. And who will endure before His Face when the Angels appear denouncing deeds, thoughts and thoughts, even in the night and in the days? Oh, what an hour it is then!” .

Recalling the last and terrible Judgment of Christ, the Church at the same time shows the true meaning of the very hope in God’s mercy. God is merciful, but He is also a righteous Judge. In liturgical hymns, the Lord, who has to come to judge the world, is called just, and His judgment is called a righteous and incorruptible test (“unwashed torture”, “unwashed judgment”). Everyone will be equal before the righteous Court of God: “In their rank, monk and hierarch, old and young, slave and ruler will be punished (will be questioned), widows and virgins will be corrected (will be tested), and woe to all then who did not have an innocent life!” . “There is no help there, God is the Judge, neither diligence, nor intrigues, nor glory, nor friendship,” “neither a father can help, nor a mother who helps, nor a brother who delivers (from) condemnation.” “The Lord is coming, and who can endure the fear of Him?”

Through the entire service of this Week, we strive to bring sinners, who carelessly rely on God’s mercy, to the realization of their sinfulness. “The unquenchable fire of Gehenna, the bitter worm, the gnashing of teeth terrifies me and frightens me.<...>. I cry and sob, when I take in the eternal fire, utter darkness, and tartar, the fierce worm, the gnashing of teeth and incessant; I have the disease of having sinned beyond measure and having angered (God) with an evil disposition. Alas for me, gloomy soul, how long do you not renounce the evil? Why don't you all tremble at the Terrible Judgment of Spasov? What is your answer? Or will you deny (object)? Turn, soul, repent."

What works of repentance and correction of life are especially emphasized? To those indicated in the Gospel reading: works of love and mercy. For the Lord will pronounce His Judgment primarily on works of mercy, and on works that are possible for everyone, without mentioning other, higher virtues that are unequally accessible to everyone. None of the people will object that he could not feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, visit the sick and prisoner, and perform other acts of mercy. Corporal works of mercy have their value only when they are a manifestation of love that rules the heart and are combined with spiritual works of mercy, which lighten both the body and soul of a neighbor. “Having understood the Lord’s commandments, let us live in this way: we will give food to the hungry, we will give drink to the thirsty, we will clothe the naked, we will bring in strangers, we will visit those who are sick and those in prison: let him who will judge the whole earth also say to us: Come, blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you.”

The features of the service of Meat Week and Week are basically the same as those of the Week and Week of the Prodigal Son.

On Saturday the remembrance of the dead is celebrated (“parental” Saturday).

On the Week at Matins: Psalm 136 “On the Rivers of Babylon” is sung and the repentant chants “Open the doors of repentance.”

At the Sunday Liturgy the Gospel about the coming Last Judgment of Christ is read.

WEEK AND WEEK (SUNDAY) CHEESE

The last preparatory week (week) for the Holy Pentecost is called cheese (cheese day), and in common parlance - butter (Maslenitsa), from the consumption of cheese food (cheese, butter and eggs, etc.) during this week and because this week (on Cheese Sunday), before the beginning of Lent, the eating of cheese food ends.

Starting from the Monday of Cheese Week (it follows the Meat Week), stichera, tripongs and entire canons are already placed in the Triodion for each day, connected with the services to Saint Menaion and Octoechos.

With the chants of Cheese Week, which is the threshold of fasting, it prepares us and introduces us to the feat of fasting, establishing “the beginning of tenderness and repentance, the alienation of evil, and abstinence from passions and cutting off evil deeds.” Through the service on Cheese Week, he instills in us that this week is already “the threshold of repentance, the forefeast of abstinence, the week of pre-purification.”

The Church, forbearing to our weakness and gradually leading us into the feats of fasting, decreed for Orthodox Christians in the last week before Pentecost (cheese week) to eat cheese food, “so that we, driven from meats and overeating to strict abstinence, would not be sad, but little little by little, from pleasant dishes, they took the reins (i.e., the feat) of fasting.” On cheesecake Wednesday and Friday, a more strict fast is required (strict fasting until late in the evening). With his divine service both this week and throughout Great Lent, he draws our attention to the need, mainly, for “abstinence (from) passions” and true repentance.

“Today, having renounced, through sweat and sins it is worthy to repent.” “We have created meat and other wastes as if we were to remove it, so we will also flee from all enmity towards our neighbors, fornication and lies, and all evil.” “Kindly people kiss the fast: the beginning of spiritual exploits has arrived.” “Vozsia (to us) is a Lenten spring, the color of repentance.” “It is fitting for us to fast, not in enmity and warfare (quarrel), not in envy and zeal (strife), not in vanity and hidden flattery, but like Christ, in humility.”

Preparing believers for the Holy Pentecost, preparing their souls and bodies for the feats of fasting, he does not perform the sacrament of marriage on Cheese Week. The sacrament of marriage is not performed during the entire Great Lent and Holy Week(until Fomin Sunday).

CHEESE WEEK SERVICE

In the hymns of this entire week, the Saint calls us to special abstinence, reminding us of the fall of our ancestors, which resulted from intemperance.

On all days of Cheese Week, the chants of the Octoechos and Menaion are joined by chants from the Lenten Triodion.

On Wednesday and Friday of Cheese Week, there is no Liturgy due to fasting, except for those cases when the Presentation of the Lord or a temple holiday occurs on these days. On Wednesday and Cheese Friday, a service similar to Lenten is held, but with some differences.

On Tuesday and Thursday of Cheese Week in the evening, the first half of Vespers is performed according to the usual Rules of daily Vespers, that is, without reading kathisma (as happens during Great Lent), without special prokeimnes and paremias. But after “Now You Let Go” and the Trisagion, the end of Vespers is the same as during Great Lent: the singing of the troparions “Theotokos, Virgin, Rejoice”, “Baptist of Christ” - and the rest. At the end of Vespers, after the prayer “Heavenly King,” the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian is said with bows “Lord and Master of my life” (3 earthly, 12 waist, 1 earthly). According to “Our Father” - “Lord, have mercy” (12 times); then the priest: “Glory to Thee, Christ God,” and so on, then - dismissal.

After Vespers (on Tuesday and Thursday evenings), Great Compline with prostrations is immediately served.

The features of Great Compline, in comparison with Lenten ones, are the following: after the canon, “It is worthy to eat,” the Trisagion and “Our Father,” we do not sing the troparia “Lord of hosts, be with us,” but the troparions of the day and the temple are sung or read, then “O God our father”, “Throughout the whole world”, “Glory”: “Rest with the saints”, “And now”: “Through the prayers, O Lord, of all the saints” and further according to the Book of Hours. Small release (the prayer “Master is Most Merciful” is not read).

On Wednesday and Friday at Matins, instead of “God the Lord”, “Alleluia” is sung in the ordinary voice from the Octoechos and the Trinity voices (see at the end of the Triodion and Irmology). The canons of Octoechos and Menaion are joined from the Lenten Triodion by the full canon and the three-canon. The peculiarity of combining the canons is that in those songs where there are three songs of the Triodion (on Wednesday - 3, 8 and 9, and on Friday - 5, 8 and 9 songs), the singing of the Octoechos and Menaion is left, and the irmos, troparia and katavasia are taken from Triodion; on the other days of the week, in this case, only the singing of the Octoechos is left. In the remaining songs, the canon of Octoechos with the irmos comes first, and then the canons of the Menaion and Triodion without the irmos. According to existing practice, the chorus to the troparia of the Triodiion: “Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.”

For clarity, we present a diagram of the connection of the morning canons of Octoechos, Menaion and Triodion on the days of Cheese Week.

9 hymns and litanies are sung in the luminary trinitarian voices, as during Great Lent. And then - the end of Lenten Matins.

The hours on Cheese Wednesday and Friday are Lenten with bows, but with the only difference that they are not supposed to be sung with kathismas. Troparion of the 1st hour: “In the morning hear my voice” and similar troparions at other hours are not sung, but read. After 9 o’clock, the rite of the Iconic is immediately performed: the “depictive” psalms 102 and 145 are read (during Great Lent they are omitted), and “quickly” the “Blessed” are read (not sung). At the end - the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian (16 bows) and immediately - Vespers (Psalm 33 - not read), relating to the next day.

Vespers after hours (on Wednesday and Friday are cheese days) is performed as usual, every day, but has the following features. After “Quiet Light” the prokeimenon is sung, the paremia is read and the second prokeimenon is sung. “Now you let us go” is read and according to “Our Father” the troparion to the saint from the Menaion is sung; “Glory, even now” - Theotokos according to the voice of the saint’s troparion. Instead of “Lord, have mercy” (40), the priest proclaims a special litany: “Have mercy on us, O God”; after the exclamation - the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian (3 bows), and the reader reads the prayer “To the All-Holy Trinity, Consubstantial Power.” Choir: “Be the Name of the Lord.” Reader: Psalm 33 (“I will bless the Lord”). The priest on the pulpit exclaims: “Wisdom.” Chorus: “It is worthy to eat” (before the words “Most honorable Cherub...”). Priest: “Most Holy Theotokos, save us.” Chorus: “The most honorable Cherub.” Priest: “Glory to Thee, O Christ God.” Choir: “Glory, even now. “Lord, have mercy” (3). “Bless.” Let go.

On cheese Wednesday and Friday evenings, Little Compline is celebrated.

If the Feast of the Three Saints (January 30/February 12) or the Finding of the Head of John the Baptist (February 24/March 9) occurs on Wednesday and Friday, then the services of these holidays are celebrated on Tuesday or Cheese Thursday; the feasts of the Temple or Presentation that fall on these days are not postponed, but at the end of Vespers, Matins and each hour, three great bows are performed with the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian. The Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is served in due time (vespers is not served in the evening).

In the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, the Feast of the Three Hierarchs, which occurs on Cheese Wednesday or Friday, is not postponed, but is served according to the temple chapter.

On Cheese Saturday, the remembrance of all the reverend fathers who shone in the feat of fasting is celebrated. The Synaxarion of Cheese Saturday says that “just as the leaders before the militia army and those already standing in the ranks speak about the exploits of the ancient men and thereby encourage the soldiers, so the holy fathers, entering into fasting, point to the holy men who shone in fasting and teach, that fasting consists not only in the abstinence of food, but in curbing the tongue, heart and eyes.” The Church strengthens us before spiritual exploits by the example of the holy ascetics, “as if to the original, kindly looking life (of them), we do manifold and varied virtues, as for everyone there is strength,” remembering that the holy ascetics and ascetics glorified were people endowed with the infirmities of the flesh and those who are like us by nature. “Who will speak from the earth-born about your wonderful lives, fathers of the world? What tongue utters your sacred deeds and sweats? The suffering of virtues, the exhaustion of the flesh, the struggle of passions, in vigils, in prayers and tears? You have truly appeared in the world like angels, you yourself have completely subverted the demonic powers, having created wonderful and wondrous signs.” “Rejoice, faithful Egypt, Rejoice, venerable Libya, Rejoice, chosen Thebaid. Rejoice, every place and city and country, who have raised citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, and who have grown them in abstinence and illness, and who have shown God the desires of perfect men. These luminaries of our souls have appeared: they themselves will dawn miracles and deeds with banners, shining mentally to the fullest extent.”

A special feature of the Cheese Saturday service: Matins occurs with great doxology.

On Cheese Week, having already approached the gates of Pentecost, it reminds us of “Adam’s fall from food” - the expulsion of our first parents from paradise for disobedience and intemperance: “Adam was quickly expelled from paradise by disobedience, and was cast out of sweets, having been seduced by food.”

The loss of the first people, and together with the forefathers and Eve and us, of the innocent and blissful state of communion with God and abiding in the love of God, is depicted in the hymns as worthy of tears and repentance. “Having seen my enemy of old, a misanthrope who has a prosperous life in paradise, in a vision the serpent seduced me, and the ever-present glory is strange (deprived) of showing me.” “Alas for me, my passionate soul, why did you not know the charms? Why didn’t you feel the glamor and envy of the enemy? But you have darkened your mind, and you have transgressed the commandment of your Creator,” “you have distanced yourself from God,<...>You were deprived of heavenly pleasure, you were separated from the angels, you were brought into aphids (into corruption): O fall!”

“Adam will be driven away from paradise, having partaken of food, like a disobedient person,” but we, “the inhabitants of paradise, having become thirsty, will change from unhealthy food, and desire to see God, we fast the Moses quartet of tens, with prayer and supplication, purely patient: we will quench (heal) spiritual passions, Let us drive away carnal pleasures (voluptuousness), let us go lightly to the heavenly procession.”

During the Raw Fat Week and Week there are the following features of the divine service.

On Wednesday and Friday of Cheese Week there is no Liturgy, and the divine service is performed with some features inherent in the divine service of Great Lent (Great Compline, hours, fine and vespers).

On Cheese Saturday, the remembrance of all the reverend fathers, who shone through the feat of fasting, takes place.

On Cheese Sunday, as on the previous two Sundays, Psalm 136 “On the Rivers of Babylon” is sung (cheese Sunday ends its singing) and repentant songs - “Open the doors of repentance” (sung until the 5th Sunday of Great Lent inclusive).

On Cheese Sunday, the expulsion of the ancestors from paradise is remembered, to which, basically, all the hymns of the evening and morning services are dedicated.

At the Liturgy on Sunday, the Gospel is read, preaching about what we need in order to have our sins forgiven, and how we should fast (). Forgiving our neighbors who have sinned against us is, according to the Gospel, the main condition for the Lord’s forgiveness of our sins.

The Apostle () indicates that fasting is the most convenient time for doing good deeds.

During the preparatory weeks, the Church prepares believers for fasting by gradually introducing abstinence: after the continuous week, the fasts of Wednesday and Friday are restored; then follows the highest degree of preparatory abstinence - the prohibition of eating meat food.

The Church begins preparations for Lent three weeks in advance. Four Sunday days before the start of the Holy Pentecost are devoted to preparation for the feats of fasting, repentance and fervent prayer. And before earthly battles, warriors begin to prepare in advance. So the holy fathers, before a special feat of spiritual warfare, before Great Lent, established preparatory days.

The first of the Sundays, from which the Lenten Triodion (the liturgical book containing the services of Great Lent) begins, is called the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee. On this day, at the Liturgy, the Gospel parable of the publican and the Pharisee is read. The basis of all exploits is humility, without which all our virtues and efforts are in vain. And pride, the opinion of our righteousness with humiliation of our neighbors, hinders our repentance and our salvation. Therefore, it is with this parable that preparation for Lent begins.

The Week of the Publican and the Pharisee

Each of the three weeks (i.e., weeks) and each of the four Weeks (i.e., Sundays) before Lent has its own name and meaning. Three weeks before Lent, the Orthodox Church recalls the Gospel parable of the publican and the Pharisee, set out in the Gospel of Luke (18:9-14), and speaks of humility.

The parable, which, according to the Gospel story, Jesus told “to some who were confident in themselves that they were righteous and humiliated others,” tells how a Pharisee and a tax collector prayed in the temple.

The Pharisees (from ancient Hebrew - “separated”) are followers of a religious and social movement who lived in Ancient Judea. The Pharisees claimed to possess unique knowledge, supposedly transmitted to them by Moses, and carefully performed external rituals. Therefore, many considered them wise and pious, that is, “separated” from other people. And publicans, collectors of royal taxes, who often abused their powers, were universally hated and despised.

The Pharisee prayed like this: “I thank You that I am not like other people, robbers, offenders, dissolute people, or like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I sacrifice a tenth of everything I acquire.”

The publican, out of shame before God for his unrighteous life, “did not even dare to raise his eyes to heaven” and only begged Him for the forgiveness of sins: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner” (Church Glav. - “God, be merciful me a sinner"). These words are highlighted in a separate “Prayer of the Publican”, which is accepted Orthodox Church as commonly used.

The parable ends with Jesus' statement that "the tax collector went into his house justified than the Pharisee. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."

On this day, the church calls Christians to reflect on true and ostentatious repentance, when he who condemns himself (the tax collector) will be justified by God, and the one who exalts himself (the Pharisee) will be condemned. “Let us avoid the high-mindedness of the Pharisee (pompous verbosity),” it is said on this day, “let us learn the height of the humble words of the tax collector...”, because without humility there is no real repentance.

There is no fasting during the First Week, which is why it is called “continuous.” On Wednesday and Friday, Christians are allowed to eat modest food (prohibited for consumption on most other days of fasting and preparatory weeks) food as a sign of denouncing the proud fast of the Pharisee.

On the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee, the Divine Liturgy is celebrated in churches, which has the following features: 1) singing at Matins after the Gospel of special penitential troparions (prayer chants); 2) joining the hymns of the Lenten Triodion to the hymns of the Octoechos; 3) reading the parable of the publican and the Pharisee; 4) replacing Sunday kontakia with kontakia Triodion, sometimes Menaion.

The next Sunday is called the Sunday of the Prodigal Son. So that a person does not fall into despair, realizing the abyss of his sins, realizing how he offended the Lord with them, the Holy Church reminds us of the Gospel parable of the Prodigal Son, which is read on this day at the Liturgy. This parable tells us about the great mercy of the Heavenly Father, about His Fatherly Love for us and readiness to accept, forgive, and restore to us our lost filial dignity, if only we fall to Christ with repentance and humility.

At the All-Night Vigil on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son, the singing of the psalm “On the Rivers of Babylon” is added to the singing of the polyeleos psalms. This psalm speaks of the severity of the state of the soul, which is in the Babylonian captivity of passions, and speaks of repentance, contrition and the determination to fight sin. This psalm depicts all the feats of fasting, with what disposition we should enter this field of repentance. The Israelites in captivity could not sing joyful songs. Thus, every Christian must turn to repentance, having recognized his captivity by passions, the sinfulness of the soul, and the weakness of the flesh. “The accursed daughters of Babylon...”, the psalm tells us that we need to hate sin and passion. And we must stop passions at their very beginning, cut off sinful thoughts with prayer and trust in the Lord, “breaking babies” - sinful thoughts - “against the stone” of faith and prayer.

Weeks about the Prodigal Son and the Last Judgment

On the Week of the Prodigal Son with the Gospel parable (Luke 15:11-32), from which the Week itself received its name, the Church shows an example of God’s inexhaustible mercy towards all sinners who turn to God with sincere repentance. No sin can shake God’s love for mankind. To a soul that has repented and turned from sin, imbued with hope in God, God's grace comes to meet it, kisses it, adorns it and triumphs reconciliation with it, no matter how sinful it was before, before its repentance.

The Church instructs that the fullness and joy of life lie in a grace-filled union with God and in constant communion with Him, and removal from this communion is a source of spiritual disasters.

The week of the Prodigal Son is followed by the week of the Last Judgment. In another way, it is called meat-eating, since from this week the eating of meat stops. On Sunday, which begins the meat-free week, meat food is eaten for the last time before Lent - a fasting for meat occurs, which does not at all imply bingeing.

This week's title also relates to the theme of Sunday's Gospel reading. On this day, during the Divine Liturgy, the Savior’s parable about the Last Judgment is read (Matthew 25:31-46).

It is no coincidence that this parable is brought to our attention after the parable of the publican and the Pharisee and the parable of the prodigal son. For those who were not touched by the image of the publican’s humility or the calamity of the prodigal son, the Church considered it necessary to present a menacing picture of the Last Judgment in order to encourage repentance and contrition. This week’s hymns contain everything majestic and touching that can awaken a person from carelessness and instill the fear of God.

Before the remembrance of the Last Judgment, the Holy Church calls us to prayer for the departed, awaiting the Judgment of God. Therefore, she decided to perform the funeral service on the Saturday before the week of the Last Judgment. That is why meat-free week is always preceded by the Ecumenical Parental (meat-free) Saturday, when all deceased Orthodox Christians are commemorated.

Meat week or the week of the Last Judgment is also called cheese week. These days, the Church Charter prohibits eating meat. Dairy foods, eggs and cheese are blessed during the meal.

Through the chants of Cheese Week, the Church inspires us that this week is already the threshold of repentance, the forefeast of abstinence, the week of pre-purification.
In these hymns, the Holy Church invites us to deep abstinence, recalling the fall of our ancestors, which resulted from intemperance.

On Cheese Saturday, the remembrance of holy men and women is celebrated, who shone in the feat of fasting.
By the example of holy ascetics, the Church strengthens us for spiritual feats, “as if we look at their original, kindly lives, we do manifold and varied virtues, just as there is strength for everyone,” remembering that the holy ascetics and ascetics glorified by the Church were people clothed with infirmities flesh like us.

The last Sunday before Great Lent has the inscription (name) in the Triodion: “On the Week of Cheese, the expulsion of Adam.”
On this day, the event of the expulsion of our first parents from paradise is remembered.

The thought of the end of our life while remembering those who have already passed into eternity has a sobering effect on everyone who forgets about eternity and clings with all his soul to the corruptible and fleeting.

Recalling the last Judgment of Christ, the Church at the same time points out the true meaning of the very hope in God’s mercy. God is merciful, but He is also a righteous Judge. In liturgical hymns, the Lord Jesus Christ is called just, and His Judgment is called a righteous and incorruptible test (unwashed torture, unwashed judgment). Both inveterate sinners and those carelessly relying on God’s mercy must therefore remember the spiritual responsibility for their moral state, and the Church, with all its services of this Week, strives to bring them to the awareness of their sinfulness.

What works of repentance and correction of life are especially emphasized?

First of all and mainly, on acts of love and mercy, for the Lord will pronounce His Judgment primarily on works of mercy, and, moreover, possible for everyone, without mentioning other virtues that are not equally accessible to everyone. No one has the right to say that he could not help the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, or visit the sick. Material works of mercy have their value when they are a manifestation of love that rules the heart and are connected with spiritual works of mercy, which include the body. and the souls of our neighbors are relieved.