Day 8 – Week Two Here We Go!

One of the beauties of the Orthodox Christian Way of Life is flow of time through seasons. Right now we are in the holy season known as Great Lent, but even within Great Lent, there are visible changes, like the light and dark I wrote about last week in “How Does it Feel?” where I featured the color, light and fasting changes in the Church each week.

Today, having been refreshed by eased fasting over the weekend, and having been inspired by the celebration of the Sunday of Orthodoxy procession of the Holy Icons, we start week two of our Great Lenten Journey.

Last week, our readings in Genesis ended with the fall of humanity in the Garden. This week we will learn of the affects of the fall, and the sins of our ancestors. The Church reminds us of these, not to glorify the mistakes of our ancestors, but to reminds us of the reason for our struggle. We are living, whether we choose to accept it or not, in a fallen existence. Life is not how God originally desired it to be. Our increased fasting, our increased prayer, our increased service to others (almsgiving) are a journey of discipline meant to retrain our souls to live as God desires.

Yesterday we were reminded of the truth of Orthodoxy. Today I invited you to consider the struggle, and trust the life the Church has offered to us, for our salvation. God has been, as we will read this week in our Old Testament readings (you have been reading them, haven’t you?), patiently working with us ever since The Fall in the Garden, to save us and to unite us to Himself.

This week take time each day after you read the Scriptures for the day, to reflect on how God is working with YOU for your salvation. Are you working with Him?