Eternity in an hour

Calendar of religious ceremonies in Jer. [i.e., Jerusalem] Easter period, 1941. Procession nearing Sepulchre

Yesterday we were shopping at the grocery store. 'We' being three: my two kids and me. Augustine, 8, found a promotional brochure for canned fish boldly titled, 'Meal Ideas for Lent'.

"What is Lent?" She asked. "It is пост (post)," I translated into Russian, hoping it was just the English word she was unfamiliar with. I waited for her to say, 'but we don't eat fish during Lent.' 
But we do, during the Nativity Fast and the Apostles Fast, just not Great Lent before Pascha. And then again, I have never before been particularly rigid with fasting rules. Do my kids even understand what it means to fast? I haven't given them any manner of consistency. This year, I am giving it a red hot go; no TV, veganism for weeks (save for seafood, not fish on weekends), a concerted effort to read to them from the Bible and Lives of Saints. All of this effort so that Lent defines itself as a distinct, special period. They'll know: this is who I am, this is what my faith is, this is what we do. 

"Oh," Augustine responded, "but what does 'Lent' mean?"
"Slow," I translated with my knowledge of conversational Spanish. (That is actually on my resume: Conversational Spanish).
"Slow? But we fast during Lent!" Augustine proceeded to laugh outrageously at the irony.

It's so comforting to find that brochure at my supermarket. Even if one of their lenten meals includes chorizo and sardines. We're somehow not alone. Other people are on this ship too. Us Orthodox, are admittedly, on the scale of ascetic when it comes to Lent. There are people who give up tea (on top of going full-out vegan). Or don't eat for the whole first week. Others don't use oil in their cooking on certain days. 

Fasting since I was a toddler, I naturally took to the Autoimmune Paleo diet last year which somehow made me look 10 years younger as well as granting me a few months of a symptom-free existence from a range of autoimmune conditions. I realised, while purchasing a $27 canister of bone collagen and other extras, that we treat food as if it is our privilege to use and abuse it. 

When I think of what Lent means, I think back to the word, slow, to simplify, to obsess less about our bodies and the food we consume. Let me get to the Slavic word, post in a bit. Food don't maketh a good Lent. It's the whole lot; the prayer, the biting of the tongue, the tempering of the will. The food I can do, no problem. Even my kids have adjusted. Lent is a time to get educated and to better our relationships with each other and to open the door ever wider to Christ. With the TV off, our family gets up in the half-dark to say the Prayer of Saint Ephrem, prostrating three times:

"O Lord and Master of my life, grant me not a spirit of sloth, despondency, love of power, and idle talk.

But give to me, your servant, a spirit of sober-mindedness, humility, patience, and love.

Yes, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own faults and not to judge my brother, since you are blessed to the ages of ages. Amen."

In Australia, which is the only land I know well, we head into Autumn and nature seems to take a cue and actively slow down. In the golden light, everything is tinged with nostalgia. I could be back in the Holy Land,  just-out-of-my-teens, on a procession through Jerusalem for the Dormition of the Holy Theotokos. The narrow cobbled streets are crowded with the faithful, boughs of olives or laurel hang above, rose water is sprinkled on us. Two thousand years of history, of prayer contract, and I am not in chronos, in chronological time, this is forever time with Christ, this is existence. Everything else; me sitting at my desk here, is me fading in chronological time. 

What does post mean? First I looked up the word in Russian and its etymology pointed to the word obligation, an assigned station. As the faithful, it's our obligation, our duty, to diligently take up this call, to prepare our body and soul for the coming feast of the Resurrection. In Bulgarian, the country of origin of Church Slavonic, post means temperance. 

Great Lent is a special liturgical period, there are no less than four Sundays and three weeks of preparation before we even get started on Great Lent. Actually, the first sign is Zacchaeus Sunday, five weeks before the beginning of Great Lent. 
The Sunday just passed, Forgiveness Sunday, we recall Adam and Eve's exile from Paradise– being cut off from the source of beauty and delight of original creation, we mourn our corruption and sin. The Lord teaches us how to fast. But we don't give in to despondency, or wear sad faces like the Pharisees, so that everyone might know that we are fasting: 

But thou, when thou fastest, anoint

thine head, and wash thy face;

(Mt 6:17)

While the first week of Lent is extremely sombre, it's earth-shatteringly beautiful in its quiet devotion, in its darkness, in its steadfastness. Make the most of this time, this eternal time.