The Great Fast

This afternoon after the service of Forgiveness Vespers the Holy and Great Fast (Lent) starts! Glory to God. I wish everyone a fruitful Lent and that God will shine forth, during this season of fasting and repentance, allowing us to see his glorious Resurrection on Pascha (Eastern). Below I have posted a part of the letter of Patriarch Gregorios III of Antioch (Melkite) for  Lent that I found really edifying.  

“Indeed, if the cross, with all that it represents, with all that it signifies, symbolises and indicates, of sufferings, sicknesses, disasters, various afflictions, catastrophes, pains and injuries to which all people are subject, if the cross is a constituent reality of all human life, there is an obligation for all people, like Jesus, to carry the cross together, in order to disburden the one charged with it and together to bear it with love and solidarity.  In this letter, I am urging my faithful sons and daughters of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church in the Arab world and throughout the world to be in solidarity with each other and stand shoulder to shoulder with their brethren, friends, neighbours and fellow-citizens to bear the cross together on the way of the cross, especially during these days of Great Lent on our common spiritual Lenten way towards the Feast and the joy of the glorious Resurrection.”