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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