Seven Secrets for a Successful Lent 6

The first few days of our Lenten observance have now passed. Hopefully you are spending time concentrating on deepening your relationship with God rather than obsessing about the actual practice of fasting. But it is important to fast. When we say that the essential substance of such a season as this is to turn from sin, and to avoid all those opportunities to fall away from God in what we say, and do, and think, it does not mean that actually changing our diet and learning to exercise self-discipline is of no consequence, it only means that it is not the goal or the objective of our effort.

However much we have found grace to put into practice whatever rule we have been given, it is a matter of universal experience that we will face the temptation to give up. And so the sixth secret is this - Hang on in there!

Seven Secrets for a Successful Lent 5

I hope that the first day of fasting was filled with that blessing which comes from seeking first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness. When we are able to give ourselves wholeheartedly to God then we can be sure that we have already received the gift of grace needed for such an act and state of self-forgetfulness.

The fifth secret for a successful Lent is this - do something different!

Seven Secrets of a Successful Lent 4

Today is the first day of Great Lent. May the Lord bless and strengthen each soul who is embarking on this spiritual journey today. Immerse yourself in prayer before all else, and especially before you begin to think about what you will eat today.

The fourth secret of a successful Lent is that we must not allow ourselves to play games. I mean that it is very easy indeed for us to start inventing loopholes in our observance which enable us to pretend that we are keeping the fast while actually we are making every allowance to satisfy our appetites.

Seven Secrets of a Successful Lent -3

We have seen that Lent is not all about us, it is meant to be a time in which we concentrate on God in prayer and service. We have also seen that we are not as strong as we think we are and must begin and end our observance of this season by seeking the grace of God even to be able to find the desire to fast and pray in accordance with God's will.

The third secret I would like to suggest is that we must take things slower than we would like. I mean that the experience of fasting is as much a matter of continuing practice and learning as anything else in our human condition. Someone might have an ambition to be an Olympic athlete, but they will not be instructed to begin their training with the same intensity that they might achieve after many years of hard work and effort.

Orthodox Mission in the UK - 21st February

Many positive and fruitful developments have taken place over the last year. There have been doors opening for service in many places without that frantic effort that sometimes we use to force God’s hand. On the contrary, those new activities which have begun and those future ones now being planned seem to be entirely the fruit of God’s providential action, giving confidence that they are in accordance with his will.

It would be fair to say that as the fifth anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood of the Orthodox Church approaches I am more convinced than ever that the British Orthodox Church within the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria, under the leadership and wise guidance of our Metropolitan Seraphim of Glastonbury, is being used by God, and will be used by God, to share the treasures of our Orthodox Faith with the ordinary people of Britain. Those who simply desire to know and be known by God.

Seven Secrets of a Successful Lent 2

As I posted yesterday, the first secret is that it is not all about you, but is all about God. Stop thinking about yourself and ask for the grace to be occupied heart and mind with God. If we are occupied with ourselves during the season of Lent then we have entirely missed the point. 

Let's get straight into the second secret! It is this. You are not as strong as you think you are.

In fact there is no strength in you at all, and the more you think you can rely on your own strength of will to manifest the Christian life the further away from Christ you really are. The spiritual life in Christ must begin and end with grace and can only be experienced as the continuing gift of grace.

Seven Secrets of a Successful Lent 1

Great Lent will soon be upon us. It begins for those of us in the British and Coptic Orthodox Churches on Monday, 24th February. Over the next weeks I hope to produce a daily reflection based on the Scripture readings set for each day. But I also want to consider the meaning and practice of our fasting. If we do not know why we are fasting then we will be just like an athlete who has no idea why his coach is urging him to make efforts in training in the wind and rain and so is not easily able to persevere. Or we will become proud at our success in going round and round the track and forget that all of our training is for a different race altogether.

I don't usually use alliteration but on this occasion I will begin to consider Seven Secrets of a Successful Lent.