This is a saying that some monks used to hear long ago at the start of every fast… One of the monastery’s fathers would go round the cells holding a tambourine, beating it and repeating this sentence aloud so that all the monks could hear it in their cells on the morning of the first day of Great Lent. The aim was to warn the monks that with the start of the fast, the devil’s attacks would increase.
This warning is not only for monks but for everyone who begins any fast, and especially the most beautiful fast of the year, Great Lent, which leads us to the feast of feasts and the season of seasons. †† Fasting, in its simplest definition, is a sacrifice of love offered to God. The holy forty-day fast is a journey in which we taste the sweetness of the Lord and enjoy his company through the various spiritual practices of these days.
So we pray to the Lord that the days of Great Lent may be days of blessing for the Church and the whole world. Let us all fast with one heart and pray with one soul, so that the Lord may hear us and lift every hardship from us. Let us pray for the good of our Church and for persecuted souls; let us pray that peace may reign in the holy catholic (universal) Church and in the whole world. Let us pray that all may know Christ, the true God, that the Lord may reveal his light to them and lift the darkness from their hearts. Let us pray that the Lord may defend, strengthen and steady the steps of his Church on the path of truth, and especially our father and patriarch John X, the holy synod, the clergy and all the people.
Fr. Boutros Zein
