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April 26, 2021

Reflection for Holy and Great Monday (St. Theophan the Recluse)


By St. Theophan the Recluse 
 
The Lord goes to a voluntary passion. We must accompany Him. This is the duty of anyone who confesses that by the power of Christ’s passion he has become who he is now, and of anyone who hopes to receive something which is so great and glorious, that it could not even enter one’s mind. How must one accompany Him? Through reflection and sympathy. Follow the suffering Lord in thought; and in your reflection extract such impressions as could strike your heart and bring it to feel the sufferings which were borne by the Lord. In order to better accomplish this, you must make yourself suffer through perceptible lessening of food and sleep, and an increase in the labor of standing and kneeling. Fulfill all that the Holy Church does, and you will be a good fellow-traveller of the Lord to His sufferings.