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By Metropolitan Panteleimon of Antinoes
Today is Cheesefare
Sunday, which sees the closing of the period of the Triodion. Tomorrow, with
God’s blessing and help, we embark upon the forty day fast of Great
Lent.
Great Lent is a time of spiritual
struggle for Orthodox Christians. The aim of this struggle is our
spiritual ascent. The practice of fasting was established by God
Himself, when He first created man. ”And the Lord God commanded the man
saying, 'Yου may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that
you eat of it, you shall die'” (Gen. 2:l6-l7). Βy this commandment God
wished to test the virtue of the first couple. This is not the only
example in the Old Testament of God’s commandment to fast. There are
many others, one being the forty day fast imposed upon the Israelites
prior to the Ten Commandments being given to Moses (Ex. 19:1-20, 26).
