OCA Chancery
Syosset, New York
To the Venerable Hierarchs, Reverend Clergy, Monastics, and Faithful of the Orthodox Church in America
Dearly beloved,
Great Lent is now upon us. It calls us to repentance. It beckons us to enter the school of asceticism—the school which enables us to draw near and enter the Lord’s Great and Holy Pascha.
Great Lent is a time for change. Yet change can be reduced to a superficial fulfillment of dietary rules coupled with liturgical and philanthropic obligations. With this reduction comes the idea that the ascetical school of the Church is no more than a way to moral self-improvement. It is this reduction that has no connection to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Neither the fulfillment of rules nor the moral improvement of the person is the basis and goal of Great Lent. And though fasting, prayer and love of neighbor form an integral part of the ascetical effort, their integrity rests on the desire to flee an existence immersed in its own mortality. Therefore, unless Great Lent is a return to the one who is Truth and Life, our ascetical effort will result in a temporary change in behavior and not an ongoing transfiguration of mind and heart, soul and body.
When the ascetical effort is a manifestation of our love for God—when our life is an expression of Divine Life—then our fasting will affirm Christ as the Bread of Life, our prayer will proclaim His Kingdom in our midst, and our love for the neighbor will manifest mutual forgiveness and freedom from the loneliness of self-love.
Beloved in the Lord, the time for renewal has arrived. As the Church we have been entrusted to show the world the dawning of God’s Kingdom arising from the crucified and resurrected Son of God. Let us put off the life of morality and clothe ourselves with the wedding garment of uncreated light. It is this light which dispels the darkness of sin and death. It is this light which guides the world into the embrace of its Savior.
As we prepare to enter the great school of repentance, I humbly ask for your continued prayers and forgiveness. May God grant each of us a most fruitful Lenten season.
With love in Christ,
+ THEODOSIUS
Archbishop of Washington
Metropolitan of All America and Canada