Great Lent Begins Monday, February 20.The Armenian Church calendar designates Monday, February 20, as the first day of Great Lent: the season when Christians consciously turn away from worldly matters and make the effort—through prayer, fasting, study, and introspection—to prepare for the spiritual drama of Holy Week and Easter Sunday.
The Scriptural basis for Lent resides in the 40-day period Christ spent in the wilderness following his baptism. In the words of St. Matthew’s Gospel (4:12): “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And he fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was hungry.”
During Lent we are called to follow the Holy Spirit to confront our own “inner wilderness”—the realm of spiritual emptiness engendered by sin, laziness, and vanity. Through prayer, fasting, Bible-reading, and self-examination, we are given an opportunity to renew our commitment to God, and gain the strength to work at being more loving, humble, and gentle. Click here to learn more about the Armenian Church traditions concerning Great Lent.
Every year the Diocese’s Christian Education staff produces a Lenten family resource for distribution to families in our Diocesan Sunday School programs. In past years, these resources have included calendars, bookmarks, and Bible memorization charts.
This year’s resource is a Family Lenten Calendar, which features prayer ideas, Bible verses, suggested daily activities, a Lenten glossary, and more. A limited number of these resources are still available, and may be requested by contacting Elise Antreassian, coordinator of Christian Education, at elisea@armeniandiocese.org.
Also this year, the Diocese will introduce a video series on Lent; check our homepage next week for the first video in the series.
Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America [publicrelations=armeniandiocese.org@mail348.us2.mcsv.net]
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