Probably, the absolute majority of people associate the word "Shrovetide" with delicious hot pancakes, farewell to winter and the welcome of spring at cheerful folk festivals. This holiday has a long history dating back to the times of paganism, when the Slavs worshiped the sun god - Yaril. But according to the later traditions of the Orthodox Church, Maslenitsa (more precisely, meat-eating week) is a preparatory period for Great Lent, when meat products are excluded from the diet, the Divine Liturgy is not performed on Wednesday and Friday and the prayer of repentance is read. Ephraim the Syrian. How can Christians spend this week correctly so that the holiday does not become a time of gastronomic excesses and pagan revelry?
For many pagan peoples, the transition from winter to spring was accompanied by certain religious rituals and celebrations. In Russia, the transition from hibernation to spring revival was marked by a holiday called the Komoeditsa or Shrovetide.
After the baptism of Russia, the church tried to abolish pagan traditions and holidays, or bring them closer to Orthodox culture, because completely prohibitive measures are usually ineffective. The church replaced pagan holidays with Christian ones, and, as it were, churched folk customs, giving them a completely different meaning. So it was with radon, and with the custom of caroling, and with the same carnival. The Church timed Shrovetide to the Cheese Prep Week before Lent, removing the pagan meaning and replacing it with a new Christian content.
But speaking about cheese, or meat-eating week, we must remember: initially there were two fundamentally different traditions of spending this special time of the year, which can be conventionally designated as “purely churchly” and “purely secular”.
Those who followed the church tradition perceived the last week before Lent as the most important stage of preparation for it. The believers understood: if they spend these days in unnecessary pleasures and amusements, Lent would be thwarted for them. In the bosom of the holy Church, the liturgical practice of preparing for Cheese Week in prayer and repentance has taken shape.
People who did not have a deep religious feeling and did not even belong to Orthodoxy at all celebrated Shrovetide differently: with violent revelry, drunkenness and other atrocities.
But even the church is not forbidden to sit at a friendly table and eat pancakes this week! The special meaning of Shrovetide in very recent times, when there were no phones or e-mail, was that people during the week preceding Forgiveness Sunday and Great Lent had time to go and visit their close and distant friends and relatives, ask each other has forgiveness. And having reconciled, asking for forgiveness, how not to sit down to a feast? After all, not long ago everyone heard the Gospel reading about Zacchaeus in the church, who, having repented, wholeheartedly arranged a meal for the Savior and for his friends. Or the parable about the prodigal son, about the happiness of reconciliation and forgiveness: “... bring the fattened calf, and kill; let's eat and have fun! for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found. And they began to be merry ”(Luke 15:23). But instead of a calf, we have pancakes at meat-eating week.
One well-known Moscow priest once said that at Shrovetide one should eat so many pancakes so that later the very sight of the pancake would be disgusting. This is probably something like "mortification of the flesh", about which a lot has been written in ascetic literature. At the same time, Shrovetide is not a reason to overeat to the limit, so that you don't want to until Easter. That won't work anyway. The Charter of the Shrovetide meal is a consolation for those who pray, attend services and seriously prepare for Lent.
This week, the last one before Great Lent, it would be good to remember the advice of St. Sergius of Radonezh: "Keep abstaining." The beginning of fasting is unthinkable without bodily preparation, which the Orthodox Church offers us. Monday of the 1st week of Great Lent is called Clean Monday: clean conscience, clean soul - because it was Forgiveness Sunday. You also need to be clean and in bodily composition, if a person is God's, therefore, there must be abstinence. According to the holy fathers, Great Lent is the spring of the spirit, because when we limit ourselves bodily, our spirit flourishes. Those who have tasted this joy of Great Lent already cherish these days and are waiting for them. Only an incontinent soul, a person who pleases his flesh, perceives fasting as something painful.
When a person adheres to the church charter, is imbued with the spirit of worship, prepares himself for entry into the Forty Day, then those restrictions associated with the Lenten period are organically perceived by him.
On Forgiveness Sunday, the biblical story about the expulsion of the forefather Adam from Paradise is recalled. The Bible tells us that the first commandment that God gave to man was unquestioning obedience. Obedience is a simple and clear precept. All other virtues are born from obedience and humility, but from thinking all sinful thoughts. Man did not need to know anything or reason, since obedience is the main duty of an intelligent soul that recognizes its Creator. After all, man was created according to the word of God to reflect the nature of God. It has the original value of creation. But due to the Fall, the inner primordial nature given to man was lost by him.
Adam's exile ... This is the starting point of our earthly journey in search of the lost Fatherland - the Kingdom of God. The reason for the expulsion of Adam is the sin committed by the ancestor. Sin is the cause of suffering, sickness, sorrow and death itself. Therefore, the struggle with sin is the main feat on the path to God. The last Sunday before the beginning of Great Lent is called the Church Cheese Week (since it is today that the consumption of dairy products ends), or Forgiveness Sunday. On this day, after the evening service in churches, a special rite of forgiveness is performed, when the clergy and parishioners mutually ask for forgiveness from each other in order to enter Great Lent with a pure soul, reconciled with all their neighbors.
On the eve of Great Lent, people in Russia performed the rite of the highest humility. The elder and imperious asked forgiveness from the last and insignificant. With the setting of the sun, but before the evening dawn went out, the Orthodox walked from house to house, with bowed heads, in a low voice begging for forgiveness, especially from those who more often than others were hurt and grieved this year, obediently bowed at their feet and humbly waited forgiveness with a kiss on the mouth, and on the word "Forgive me", they answered "God will forgive, forgive me." The essence of the custom to ask for forgiveness at the end of Shrovetide is spiritual and moral cleansing through reconciliation, through mutual forgiveness of sins.
Unfortunately, in our widespread ideas about Shrovetide, and especially in modern attempts to reproduce some of its elements, only the entertaining part of Shrovetide week is taken into account. It is very interesting and rich as a vivid manifestation of folk festive culture. But just after the stormy fun of the last week before Lent, during which they seemed to say goodbye to the abundant table and other worldly joys, the custom of asking for forgiveness made you feel a transition to spiritual tasks, to the strict seven weeks that lasted until Easter, to an increase in moral requirements for oneself ...
This Sunday at the Liturgy, the biblical story is read about Adam and Eve, who abused the gift of free will and violated the divine commandment of obedience. The blissful infancy of mankind has ended. “Eyes were opened,” as the Bible says, but the heart was blinded. Sin entered the world, and through it death came. Having lost the primordial freedom, man gave himself up into slavery. Bondage to sin, which has become a measure of distance from God, increasing in our days, when the very concept of the norm is trampled on.
Salvation from this slavery was brought by Christ - the God-man. This fulfilled the promise of God about the coming into the world of the One who will be the victor over evil, sin and death. He reconciled man with God. And, having finished His feat, he left a new promise to man, concluded with him a New Testament about His second coming into the world “to judge the living and the dead, His Kingdom will have no end”. That's what the post is for. In order to constantly prepare for a worthy ascent into this Kingdom.
Today, the Gospel story is read, in which the Lord Jesus Christ explains the content of the prayer "Our Father": "If you do not forgive people their sins, then your Father will not forgive you your sins." Forgive and ask for forgiveness. These are the two greatest qualities that belong to man. Both require a strain of faith and will. Both require a feat of love. And both include "light of reason", clarity of mind, vigilance of wisdom.
On Forgiveness Sunday, the Church gives instructions to believers regarding correct behavior during Great Lent and calls on parishioners to repent to each other for all offenses and sins, to make peace and forgive everything that has accumulated. At the same time, the priests themselves set a good example and are the first to ask their flock for forgiveness. It is supposed on this day to visit the graves of relatives and friends, in order to once again ask for a petition from them. From that moment on, believers must strictly observe physical and mental purity and henceforth not condemn anyone.
Lent in 2020 begins on March 2, but is preceded by several preparatory weeks. What is the meaning of their names? What are the features of divine services and fasting instructions on these days?
V the great fast is preceded by preparatory Weeks (sundays) and Weeks... (The word “week” in the liturgical language means Sunday, while the week in our today's understanding is called “week”).
The order of the services of the preparatory weeks and of Great Lent itself is set forth in the Lenten Triodion. It starts with Weeks of the Publican and the Pharisee and ends on Holy Saturday, covering 70 day period.
Preceding Great Lent - the Holy Forty-day:
- The week of the publican and the Pharisee,
-A week and the week of the prodigal son,
- Meat week and week,
-Cheese week and week(Maslenitsa ).
During the preparatory weeks, the Church prepares believers for fasting by gradually introducing abstinence *:
After a continuous week (the week of the publican and the Pharisee) fasts are restored Wednesday and friday (on the Week of the Prodigal Son);
Then follows the highest degree of preparatory abstinence - prohibition to eat meat (Cheese week or Maslenitsa).
(* All fasting instructions relate primarily to monastic life; in parish practice they are not always applicable and require the blessing of a confessor.)
In preparatory services, the Church disposes believers to fasting, repentance, and spiritual achievement.
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The meaning of the name
Preparing for fasting and repentance, the Church in the first week by the example of a publican and a 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 self-made shell. An excerpt is read at the Liturgy OK. 18: 10-14, in which the publican personifies a sincerely repentant sinner, and the Pharisee personifies outwardly pious, but does not see his sins and thinks himself righteous. Humility, as the path to spiritual exaltation, was shown by God Himself the Word, humbled to the weakest state of human nature - "To the sight of a slave"(Phil. 2: 7).
Liturgical features
Chants from the Lenten Triodion, a collection of Lenten hymns and prayers, are gradually interwoven into the usual order of services. In the hymns of the Week about the publican and the Pharisee, the Church calls to reject - "Reject" highly praiseworthy pride, fierce, destructive exaltation, "Laudable boast" and "Haze (arrogance) is disgusting." To awaken feelings of repentance and contrition for sins, the Church on Sunday Matins begins to sing stichera(tropari) "Open the doors of repentance."
It is based on the parable of the publican: comparisons are taken from it to depict a repentant feeling.
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Any type of fasting is canceled.
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The meaning of the name
In the Week of the Prodigal Son, the Church sets an example of God's inexhaustible mercy for all sinners who turn to God with sincere repentance. No sin can shake God's love for mankind. For a soul that has repented and turned from sin, imbued with hope in God, God's grace comes to the meeting, kisses it, adorns and triumphs with reconciliation with it, no matter how sinful it was before, until its repentance.The Church teaches that the fullness and joy of life consists in a grace-filled union with God and in constant communion with Him, and withdrawal from this communion is a source of spiritual calamity.
An excerpt is read at the Liturgy OK. 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 the attitude of God towards fallen man.
Liturgical features
The Lenten Triode is used more actively, on Sunday morning it is sung for the first time 136th psalm "On the rivers of Babylon"
, which reminds a person that he is a prisoner of sin and that liberation from this bondage lies only through a decisive struggle with it.
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The meaning of the name
The Church prays for Christians who have departed into Eternity, and especially for people who died a violent death and did not receive the usual funeral service. The thought of the end of our life, while remembering those who have already passed away into eternity, has a sobering effect on everyone who forgets about eternity and clings with all his soul to the perishable and fleeting.
Liturgical features
A memorial service is performed only a few times a year. There is an abundance of memorial texts, but they are not dull, but joyful, filled with hope for a general resurrection.
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The meaning of the name
Meat Week (Sunday) is dedicated to the reminder of the second coming of Christ and the upcoming Last Judgment of the living and the dead. This reminder is necessary so that people who sin do not indulge in carelessness and carelessness about their salvation in the hope of the ineffable mercy of God. An excerpt is read at the Liturgy Mt. 25: 31-46
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Post orders
Plot for meat. The last day before Easter, when meat is allowed at the meal.
Liturgical features
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 Judgment of God. At matins, especially Lenten texts are sung from the Penitential Canon of Andrew of Crete - "Helper and Patron saint ...".
The preparation for the post is coming to an end. Worship is permeated with the idea of universal responsibility for all one's actions before God.
Reminding about the last Judgment of Christ, the Church at the same time points out the true meaning of the very hope in the mercy of God. God is merciful, but He is also a righteous Judge. In liturgical chants, the Lord Jesus Christ is called just, and his Judgment is called a righteous and incorruptible test (unwashed torture, unwashed judgment). Both inveterate and carelessly relying on the mercy of God sinners should therefore remember about the spiritual responsibility for their moral condition, and the Church, with all her worship of this Week, seeks to bring them to the realization of their sinfulness.
What deeds of repentance and correction of life are especially paid attention to? First and foremost, on acts of love and mercy, for the Lord will pronounce His Judgment primarily on the basis of deeds of mercy, and, moreover, possible for everyone, without mentioning other virtues that are not equally accessible to everyone. None of the people have the right to say that he could not help the hungry, give water to the thirsty, visit the sick. Substantial deeds of mercy have their value when they are a manifestation of love possessing the heart and are united with spiritual deeds of mercy, which the body is also. and the soul of others is relieved.
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The last week, preparatory to the Holy Forty-day, is called cheese, cheese, or Shrovetide. In this week, cheese food is consumed: milk, sour cream, cheese, butter, eggs
and a fish... The Church, condescending to our weakness and gradually leading us into the exploit of fasting, has established in the last week before the Forty-day to eat cheese food, "So that we, from meat and eating too many, are led to strict abstinence ... little by little we take the reins from pleasant dishes, that is, the feat of fasting." On cheese-free Wednesdays and Fridays, the fast is more strict (until the evening).
Liturgical features
Prayers from the Lenten Triodion are used every day. With the chants of the cheese week, the Church inspires us that this week is already the threshold of repentance, the forefeast of abstinence, the prepurification week. In these hymns, the Holy Church invites you to extreme abstinence, recalling the fall of the forefathers, which came from intemperance.
Liturgy is not celebrated on Wednesday and Friday , these days for the first time the prayer of Ephraim the Syrian is read "Lord and Master of my belly" , which is one of the most important prayers of fasting.
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The meaning of the name
The last Sunday before Great Lent has an inscription (name) in the Triodi: "On Cheeseweed Week, the Exile of Adam." On this day, the event of the expulsion of our ancestors from paradise is remembered. An excerpt is read at the Liturgy Mt. 6: 14-21, 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.
Post orders
Conjure on any food of animal origin.
Liturgical features
After Vespers (in parish practice, sometimes this rite is performed after the Liturgy) rite of forgiveness is performed
: like the ancient monks, people ask each other for forgiveness for all offenses in order to enter the fast with a peaceful soul. Psalm 136 is sung for the last time
... In the texts of the service, there is a clear reminder of the purpose of the upcoming fast - the meeting of Easter. At Vespers, priests wear black robes
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Cheese week
Cheese week, in which there is a "cheese release", that is, the cessation of eating cheese, immediately before the onset of Great Lent, is dedicated to the memory of "The Expulsion of Adam". In the chants of this week, the fall of our first parents Adam and Eve is recalled and this clarifies the necessity of the Lenten feat. Adam and Eve fell through intemperance and disobedience, and now through the voluntarily assumed podvig of abstinence and obedience to the Church, we can rise again and regain the heavenly bliss they had lost. At the liturgy, the Gospel is read, inspiring us to forgive our neighbors' offenses and fast not only for show, like the Pharisees, but unhypocritically, for God's sake (17 credits from Matthew).
Entering into Great Lent, believers, according to the ancient Christian custom, remembering the Lord's admonition about this in the Gospel, mutually ask each other for forgiveness. This rite of forgiveness is performed at the end of Vespers. This Vespers has a number of characteristics. The first half of it, before the evening entrance, has a festive character and is performed in light festive vestments. The stichera on "Lord I have cried" is 10: 4 of them are "repentant" - two from the Octoichus of the ordinary voice on the verse, and 2 morning stichera on the verse, then 3 stichera of the Triodi and 3 stichera of the Menaion, Glory and now, theotokos in the same voice of the Menaion. After the evening entrance and "Quiet Light", the Great Prokeimenon is sung in a particularly touching tune 4 and a half times: Turn not Thy face away from Thy servant, as I grieve, soon hear me: take my soul and deliver... After singing the prokimna, the royal gates are immediately closed, it reads: “ Grant, Lord, this evening", The priest puts on his festive vestments, puts on a black epitrachelion and goes out to the pulpit to pronounce the Supplication Litany:" Let's fulfill our Lord's evening prayer. " Further service is already of a Lenten period. The troparia are sung with great bows after "Now Letting Go": " Virgin Mary», « Baptist of Christ" and " Pray for us". Instead of augmented litany: “ Have mercy on us, God"Read 40 times" Lord, have mercy ", after the priest's exclamation:" Siy blessed"A prayer is read:" Heavenly King”And then the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian: " Lord and Master of my belly"With three bows to the ground. After that, immediately release. Instead of the usual dismissal, it is customary to read the prayer: "Master of many mercy", as is usually read throughout Great Lent at the end of Great Compline, "we who are thrown to the ground" prostrate. After this prayer, a word befitting of the day is usually pronounced about the forgiveness of offenses, the serving priest, and in cathedrals the bishop, prostrating himself, asks the believers for forgiveness, and then everyone, kissing the icons and the cross held by the priest, approaches him with an earthly bow, asking for his forgiveness, then they all stand in a row and ask with bows to the ground for forgiveness from each other. “Forgiven day, what a great heavenly day of God,” says St. Theophan the Recluse, “if we all used it as we should, then this day would make heavenly societies out of Christian societies, and the earth would merge with heaven ...” (“Thoughts for every day of the year ").
This day was especially touching and touching in ancient monasteries. In the Holy Land, many ascetics, after that, left for the entire Great Lent in the wilderness and returned to their monastery only on Lazarus Sabbath. Many did not live to see their return. And for such people it was especially accepted during this touching rite of mutual forgiveness to sing the stichera of Easter: "May God rise again" and "Holy Easter will appear to us this day ..." This singing was accepted in many monasteries and in our time. It encourages human weakness, as if dreading the long days of strict fasting, putting us on the brink of the bright triumph of the feast of the Resurrection of Christ.
69. Week Cheese. Forgiveness Sunday The last Sunday before Great Lent, the Holy Church devotes to the remembrance of Adam's exile from Paradise. The Bible tells us about this event: and the Lord God sent Adam out of the Garden of Eden to cultivate the earth, from
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Meat-empty week Troparion: the voice of Kondak is resurrected, ch. 1When you come, O God, to earth with glory, and every one trembles: the river of fire draws before judgment, the books are unbent, and the secret appears: then deliver me from the unquenchable fire and make me worthy at your right hand, Judge
Cheese Saturday Memory of all who shone forth in fasting Troparion, ch. 4 God our father, do always with us according to Thy meekness, do not leave Thy mercy from us, but rule our belly in the world with their prayers. 8 As godliness are preachers, and wickedness are restraints, God-bearing
Cheeseweed week Troparion: the voice of Kondak is resurrected, ch. 6Wisdom is a mentor, meaning to the Giver, the unwise to the Punisher and the poor to the Protector, confirm, give me understanding, my heart, Master: You give me a word, Father's Word, I will not forbid my mouth, I call You: Merciful, have mercy
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Cheese week. Gospel about fasting Matthew, 17 credits, 6: 14-21. Not surrendering to the enemy is the basic rule of a fighting warrior. The commander warns in advance any warrior about the threat of enemy traps, so that he is not deceived and taken prisoner. Left alone
Cheese week The cheese week, in which there is a "cheese release", that is, the cessation of eating cheese, immediately before the onset of Great Lent, is dedicated to the remembrance of "The Expulsion of Adam". This week's chants recall the fall of our
Week of the Blind Tomorrow Sunday is called the Week of the Blind according to the Gospel reading about the healing of the man born blind. In the kontakion of the service that we sang now, there are the following words:
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Week 4 after Pentecost "When Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion (a military leader who has a hundred soldiers at his disposal) approached Him and asked Him: Lord, my servant lies at home in relaxation and suffers severely. Jesus says to him: I will come. and I will heal him. " And the centurion answers:
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WEEK 4. FLESH AND SPIRIT. I know that many of you read the Holy Scriptures at home, I also know that you mainly read the Gospel, but the Epistles of the Apostles and the Acts of the Apostles read little. Why do you read little? Because, first of all, you don't know how much high wisdom
In 2019, Lent will run from March 11 to April 27. Every truly believing Orthodox person needs to know all the nuances of preparing for this difficult test, which brings with it many restrictions. Cheese week (Maslenitsa or Cheese week) will be one of such stages, namely, the final one, before the onset of Great Lent. It will take place from 4 to 9 March. And, on March 10, there will be Cheese Week (Forgiveness Sunday).
During the period of its existence, the church has formed the rules of preparation for the entry of believers into Great Lent and recognized their effectiveness. Entry into Great Lent is four Sundays and three weeks (22 days), which very smoothly help to move into the period of abstinence and prayer.
This period begins on Sunday, then the Gospel of the publican and the Pharisee is read. It is then that a person begins to prepare for the fact that he needs to go to the temple. After all, the publican and the Pharisee both came to the temple and both prayed. Only one did it sincerely, and the other, exalting himself. The one who uttered the prayer from the heart came out of the temple justified. This is the main point, you need to go to church, pray, but not think of yourself better than you really are. During this period, the fast is removed, which the Orthodox have all year round on Wednesdays and Fridays. This is called a continuous week. It is allowed to eat any food so that a person can feel all his weaknesses.
Then comes the second Sunday, which is dedicated to the reading of the Gospel about the return of the prodigal son. By this, the church shows that every person in his life commits such acts as the prodigal son. He left his home and acted as he pleased, but realizing the full depth of his fall, he returned to his father, bringing his repentance. This is the meaning that the doors of the temple are always open to any person. You need to get up and go to church - to repent, to correct your way of life, your thoughts and actions.
The third week comes, during which you can eat meat, except Wednesday and Friday, until Sunday about the Last Judgment. The peculiarities of this week are that for the Lord God, there are no dead people, for him they are all alive. And it is very important for living Christians to remember them. On Saturday (Ecumenical Saturday), all the dead are remembered. That is, having prayed for all previously living people, before entering Great Lent, a person begins to take care of his spiritual growth and development.
On Sunday of the third week, March 3, 2019 (Meat Week), the consumption of meat is stopped, that is, they are completely hooked on it. This Sunday is dedicated to the Gospel reading of the Last Judgment. The main idea is that the Lord will judge people not because they just did evil deeds, but because they did not do good deeds.
The fourth week Cheese, you can't eat meat, but dairy products and eggs are allowed. The people called this period Maslenitsa. The bottom line is to prepare for the subsequent rejection of these products too. Ends with the day, which is mentioned in the Gospel, as the expulsion of Adam from paradise. It says that through Adam sin entered this world and human life. Along with this, diseases came as companions of the end of life, that is, human death. Originally, man was not created to die, but to praise God. But, sin brought in a lot of trouble. The Earth and humanity as a whole are punished for sin.
In ancient times, people celebrated this holiday on the day of the vernal equinox. These were their first attempts to get closer to God. Over time, the Orthodox kings added a spiritual meaning to him, which is to prepare for the passage of Great Lent. It provides an opportunity to tune in to fellowship with God, repent and earn forgiveness.
Forgiveness Sunday, on this day people ask each other for forgiveness. The custom came from ancient times. At that time, the monks went to the desert for 40 days and were there, all alone. There was a possibility that they might not return. The point was to say goodbye to your neighbors, to ask them for forgiveness. Because this could be their last chance.
The main traditional attributes of the Maslenitsa celebration is a scarecrow symbolizing the holiday, festivities, roller coasters and baking pancakes with various fillings.
Cheese week rules:
receive guests if the house is a mess;
Fasting is what enables a person to adjust himself for communication with God. Therefore, fasting should be pleasant, it is spring for the soul. Therefore, each person needs to force himself to work hard in order to return to the Kingdom of Heaven, through the meeting of the risen Christ the Savior.
