Garbo Sunday – The Sunday of the Leper: St. Luke 5:12-16; 4:40-41 “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” (Luke 5:12) We have arrived at the second Sunday of the Great Lent. For six days we have been walking into the fast. We entered the wilderness with Christ and faced temptation. We…
Day 6 of the Great Lent — Romans 12:10–21
Love of the Stranger
“Paul says to associate with the humble. Let yourself be pulled toward the lowly, the overlooked, the unimpressive. This is the opposite of social climbing. It is social descending — choosing the company of those who cannot advance your career, improve your reputation, or increase your influence.”
It is choosing the company Christ chose: fishermen, tax collectors, lepers, sinners, the poor.
Three practices for today:
— Feed an enemy
— Seek out the overlooked
— Trust God with the outcome
Day 5 of the Great Lent – James 3:13–4:5 – The War Within
For four days we have been moving deeper into the fast. Now James takes us past behaviour, past obedience, past the outward disciplines – into the hidden interior where our choices are born.
Two wisdoms at war. One is pure, peaceable, full of mercy. The other wears spiritual clothing while serving the self.
Three practices for today:
– Name the war. What desire is really driving your conflict?
– Purify the asking. Let the Spirit search your motives before you pray.
– Choose gentleness in one difficult relationship.
New reflection on the blog
Day 4 of the Great Lent — St. Matthew 7:13–27
“Christ is not interested in what we believe about the narrow road. He wants to know whether we are walking on it.”
Three images. Three tests. One storm that spares nothing.
The narrow gate asks: Will you be made small?
The tree asks: What fruit are you bearing?
The house asks: What is your foundation?
New Lenten reflection on the blog
St. John Chrysostom says the altar God most desires is not the one in the sanctuary — it is the poor person walking past it.
On Day 3 of the Great Lent, the Apostle James strips religion down to two things: mercy toward the suffering, and inner purity. Everything else is decoration.
“Be doers of the word, and not hearers only.”
Read the full reflection on Seeking Theosis.
📖 Great Lent — Day 2
Ephesians 4:32–5:21
If Day 1 was about combat, Day 2 is about communion.
If the wilderness strips away what is false, today’s reading tells us what is to be built in its place.
Three practices for today: Forgive. Give thanks. Sing a psalm.
Full reflection at Seeking Theosis.
Temptation of Christ in the Wilderness – St. Matthew 4:1–11 “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” v.1 As we step across the threshold of the Great Lent, the Church places before us the account of our Lord’s forty days of fasting and His threefold…
On the Service of Reconciliation and why forgiveness is the first step of the Great Lent Every year, on the first Monday of the Great Lent, the Indian Orthodox Church does something remarkable. Before a single day of fasting has been completed, before the long weeks of prayer and abstinence have even begun, the Church…
