by Msgr. Charles Pope

A brief observation of the first two days in Lent reveals militaristic, even violent imagery in the battle against sin and the unruly passions of the flesh. The opening prayer of Ash Wednesday provides an image of troops mustering for battle:

Grant, O Lord, that we may begin with holy fasting
this campaign of Christian service,
so that, as we take up battle against spiritual evils,
we may be armed with weapons of self-restraint.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

"Battle," "weapons," and "armed" all clearly have military connotations, but so does the phrase "campaign of Christian service" if we look at the Latin text: praesidia miltiae Christianae. The service or action (praesidia) is one of Christian battle or militancy (militiae). This refers to the Church Militant, waging war against sin and the kingdom of darkness.

Thus the opening prayer on Ash Wednesday announced and summoned us to a battle that is engaged by the Church with special intensity during Lent.

The Gospel for Thursday after Ash Wednesday also has a battle theme. Jesus says,

If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself
and take up his cross daily and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
(Luke 9:23-25).

The battle theme is particularly apparent if one looks at the Greek text. The word translated as "lose" in English does not capture the vigor of the Greek word ἀπόλλυμι (apollumi). Apollumi means more literally, I kill, destroy, I lose, I am perishing. It is from the Greek apó, meaning away from, with the intensifier ollymi, "to destroy." Thus apollumi means to fully destroy, cutting off entirely. It implies permanent or absolute destruction.

So when Jesus says we must "lose" our life, it is really far stronger than the English translation captures. Losing our life involves a kind of violent overthrow of our worldly notions and the deep drives of sin. We must lose, that is, see utterly destroyed and cut off, all things worldly, fleshly, and of the devil. This is war, and it is going to involve more than a mumbled, half-hearted prayer on our part. Scripture says, In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood (Heb 12:4).

So behold the militaristic imagery as Lent begins. To arms!

The idea of such a battle might overwhelm us if we thought it must all be done in a day. Jesus says that we should take up our cross daily. Our daily cross is vital to our success. It’s not our weekly cross, or our monthly cross, or our yearly cross. We ought to do each day what we should do. If we put off or postpone the daily cross, the problem pile up. A monthly cross can seem overwhelming, and a yearly cross might seem impossible. Everyday discipline is crucial. Soon enough, the daily discipline becomes virtue; it becomes a good habit that one accomplishes fairly easily. To take up our cross daily is to endure short-term pain for long-term gain.

The battle is engaged! Fight it daily. Fight it with the Lord. Understand that it is battle, but in Jesus (and only in Jesus) the victory is won. Stay on the winning side and fight daily to the end.

by Fr. Paul Scalia

Gospel: Mk. 1:12-15

It is one of the most basic commands in the Gospel: Repent. Metanoeite in Greek. It is the first command of Christ (cf. Mk 1:15) and likewise of His vicar (cf. Acts 2:38). So fundamental is this command to Christianity that the word metanoia has become somewhat familiar. And yet for all its importance and familiarity, there has been no shortage of controversy over its meaning. Most still render it — accurately — as "repent." But since as far back as Tertullian in the 3rd century, others have contended that the word actually gets at something much deeper, more profound: an interior conversion, a complete change of mind and heart.

Thus, one translation focuses on external behavior and the other on interior renewal. So, which is it? Not only does this seem to be one of those happy (and rare) occasions when both are right, but it is also an opportunity to see the relation of the two. That is, how action and thought are connected; how change of behavior and change of mind must go together.

First, "repent." This conveys a basic Gospel requirement: that we stop doing what we ought not and begin doing what we ought. Of course, this may seem superficial or legalistic. On its own it becomes a moral scolding: "Stop it." And the Gospel requires much more of us than mere external reform. But neither should we think it unimportant to cease and desist.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen once observed, "If you do not behave as you believe, you will end by believing as you behave." We know that bad thoughts lead to bad actions. But his line brings out how actions influence thoughts. Most intellectual problems, in fact, proceed from moral problems. We typically do not think up a bad philosophy that leads us to bad behavior. It is, rather, the reverse. We do what we feel like and then construct a way of thinking to justify our bad behavior. As such, the reason many of us refuse to change our hearts is that we do not want to change our behavior. It has grown too pleasurable, comfortable or at least familiar.

By analogy, there may be hundreds of reasons that a man becomes an alcoholic. Please God, some day he will address them in recovery. But before he gets to that point, one thing is for certain: He must stop drinking. As long as that behavior continues, he cannot see the underlying problems. So also we need to change our prideful way of thinking. But before we can get to that point, we must do one simple (not easy) thing: Stop sinning. Repent.

If we end there, then we reduce the Gospel to mere moralizing. We must go further, to the deeper meaning of metanoeite: the call for a change of heart and mind, indeed, an entire rethinking of reality. Without this, external repentance neither counts for much nor lasts very long. Sin aggravates in us a warped view of reality. It prompts us to see all things through the prism of our pride, with us at the center and God at the margins. Everything is distorted, misshaped and out of proportion.

Metanoeite is the command to change our thinking entirely. This primordial Gospel imperative requires us to set aside our vain, covetous, rapacious view of reality and to put on the mind of Christ (cf. Rom 12:2; Phil 2:5). We are to leave behind not only sinful behavior but also the corrosive thoughts it has produced. Most of all, it means to conform our thinking to God's: to see all creation, every person, all our relationships and our very selves as they are, not as we would have them be. Repentance means seeing things from His perspective — the only true one.

Coming as it does on the first Sunday of Lent, the command sets the tone for the season. Lent is a time of correcting our vision. Our acts of repentance should not remain external actions that fall away once Easter comes. They should, rather, produce an interior renewal of mind that brings about a greater likeness to Christ at His Resurrection.

Fr. Scalia is Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde's delegate for clergy.

The disciples of John approached Jesus and said, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do not fast?" Jesus answered them, "Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast."

Introductory Prayer: Lord, you know how much I need you and depend on you for everything. You know my weakness and my faults. I put all my confidence in your love and mercy. I wish to trust in your power, your promise, and your grace every day. Today I intend, with your help, to follow you along the way of the cross with love and generosity so as to draw close to you.

Petition: Lord, let me learn to embrace sacrifice as the way of reparation and purification.

1. These Are the Days:

Jesus said the time would come when his disciples would fast. Now that the Lord has returned in glory to the Father, it is up to us to continue the work of salvation, "what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church" (Colossians 1:24), as St. Paul says. We join our sacrifice to that of Jesus in order to imitate him and bring grace to ourselves and to others. Every Christian life must incorporate a healthy spirit of sacrifice and self-denial.

2. Feel the Hunger:

The hunger we experience when we fast is a symbol of the deeper spiritual hunger we should feel for God and for heaven. This world often makes us all too comfortable, and we easily forget that this is not our true home. We are pilgrims traveling through a foreign land, far from our final resting place. Fasting reminds us of the longing a traveler has to reach his destination safely and finally to rejoice in being home for good. The true Christian looks forward with hope toward heaven, where he will rest with God forever in true happiness. He knows that all the good things this world offers are only shadows of the wonderful things God has planned for those who love him (cf. Romans 8:28).

3. Hunger for Souls:

From the cross, Jesus said, "I thirst." That thirst was for all people to be reconciled to the Father. It was a thirst for souls to return to the love of God and find their way to the heavenly Kingdom. Voluntary sacrifice and self-denial, if we offer it for the conversion of the hearts of others, brings them the grace they need to change and turn back to God. No one can convert himself, and no one in serious sin can merit his way to the grace of God. We need to intercede by means of our personal prayer and sacrifice to gain others the supernatural grace they need to overcome their obstacles. The greatest act of charity we can perform and the greatest joy we can experience is to bring a soul back to the Lord. How many souls are waiting for our prayer and sacrifice?

Conversation with Christ: Lord, make me generous and joyful in sacrifice, knowing that sacrifice unites me closer to you and wins the grace of conversion for so many souls you love and for whom you died.

Resolution: I will choose one person I know who needs God’s grace and offer all my sacrifices today for them.

by Vladimir Rozanskij

Only 2% is willing to engage in ascetic practices of the 40 days. 30% try to limit alcohol consumption; 15% are willing to stop sexual relations; 19% to give up social media and online entertainment. Orthodox Lent requires a strict vegan diet: complete abstinence from all animal food. Belonging to Orthodoxy is seen as of socio-cultural and religious value.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - Three-quarters of Russians (73%) intend to continue with the usual diet during Lent without fasting and abstinence. According to the calendar of the Orthodox Church, Lent began on Monday, February 27th.

This year the Orthodox celebrate Easter on the same date as Catholics (16 April), as happens every four to five years. The differences of the two calendars, the Julian and Gregorian, usually have a 13 day difference (December 25, Christmas Day, falls on January 7 for Russians), but Easter is calculated differently, because of even older divisions.

According to a survey of one of the leading Russian statistics institutes, "Levada Center", 18% of respondents are willing to make some small sacrifice (give up part of meat or wine); only 4% is determined to follow the strict requirements of the Orthodox Lent, which requires the faithful to follow monastic rules of complete abstinence from all animal food, so a strict vegan diet, and they intend to do this only in Holy Week; just 2% is willing to commit to following it for all forty days.

It must be said that the Lenten fast has a particularly significant bond with Orthodox identity, which attributes these ascetic practices (with many periods of fasting during the year, not just during Lent), a much higher value than Western tradition. The Lenten sacrifice is not just about food, but a person’s entire lifestyle. In the survey, only 30% of Russians will try to limit alcohol; 15% are willing to stop sexual relations; 19% to give up social media and online entertainment (a new frontier in ecclesiastical fasting).

These statistics reveal that since the "religious revival" of the nineties, following the collapse of the atheist regime, instead of increasing, religious practice is decisively declining. Similar surveys in the West focus on attendance at religious services on Sundays and festive occasions, but in the Orthodox tradition, which also considers attendance important that, the most important indicators specifically concern ascetic practices such as Lent and fasting, proposed to the faithful as the true sign of 'belonging to the Church itself.

In fact, the Russian Orthodox Church has never before had such an imposing presence in the life of the country. From 6,800 churches open in 1986, at the end of the communist period, it currently has 30 thousand in 250 dioceses and more than 800 monasteries, served by almost 30 thousand priests. It is said that the Russian clergy has now reached the size of the Italian, that even 50 years ago exceeded 50 thousand units. Overall, the Russian Church has not only recovered the structural dimensions of before the revolution, but today it is a much greater power, more widespread than ever before in its history; and this in the face of an almost only nominal participation of the population, as indeed confirmed by the latest statistics.

Thus, this "religious revival" seems somewhat ambiguous, representing more of a socio-cultural identity phenomenon that a real mass conversion: Russians often express themselves as "unorthodox believers", or at least "non-practicing" similar to many Western Christians. Russia is actually one of the countries with the lowest participation in religious practices, including those of Europe and America. Moreover, Lent began with the "Sunday of Forgiveness," in which each one people are called upon to seek forgiveness from their neighbor for their sins: Conversion, then, is always possible.