A Bright Sadness: Forgiveness Sunday and the Beginning of Lent
This post comes from an email in the "Walk Through the Church Year" series which goes out to folks who sign up to receive two emails per month about major feasts and selected commemorations in the liturgical calendar. To receive these emails in your inbox, sign up here.
The original email was sent out in March of 2025.
by Brendan
The Holy Spirit never stops knocking at the door of our hearts. Lent is a time which is particularly well suited to hearing, to listening to, the voice of God. — Fr. Lev Gillet (1)
Forgiveness Sunday
Following the three Sundays of the Triodion, we reach the very edge of Lent with Forgiveness Sunday. Also known in the East as Cheesefare Sunday, we bid farewell to dairy products, among other foods, for the next seven weeks. More importantly, it marks the last service before Lent formally begins.
“Lent is the liberation of our enslavement to sin,” Fr. Schmemann writes in Great Lent, “from the prison of ‘this world’” (2). He notes that this transformation does not primarily occur through mere belief or good intentions but through action, namely, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Schmemann notes the timeliness of all of this in the service of Forgiveness Vespers that follows the liturgy, the very edge of Lent:
All preparation has now come to an end. I stand before God, before the glory and the beauty of His kingdom. I realize that I belong to it, that I have no other home, no other joy, no other goal; I also realize that I am exiled from it into the darkness and sadness of sin, “for I am afflicted!” I recognize that only God can help in that affliction, that only He can “attend to my soul.” Repentance is, above everything else, a desperate call for that divine help. (3)
Near the end of the Vespers service, the Prayer of St. Ephrem is recited, with prostrations, for the first time this year.
O Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth, despair, lust of power, and idle talk.
But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to Thy servant.
Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own transgressions, and not to judge my brother, for blessed art Thou, unto ages of ages. Amen.
We will be invited to repeat it many more times over the coming weeks, having the opportunity to truly make this Prayer our own. “This prayer sums up all that is essential in spiritual life,” writes Fr. Gillet. “A Christian who used it constantly, who nourished himself from it during Lent, would be at the simplest and best school.” (4)
As the Vesper service ends, lights are turned off (or blown out), the tone of the chanting changes and more somber vestments are worn and displayed. Lent has begun. What happens next is perhaps the most distinctive part of Forgiveness Vespers. Each person gathered in the church’s temple requests forgiveness of every other person, saying, “Forgive me, a sinner.” In response we proclaim with joy one of the greatest truths of our faith, “God forgives,” doing likewise ourselves in imitation of Him. (Matthew 6:14-15) Young and old, priest and parishioner, everyone shares in this act of love and humility. In these first few moments of Lent, Holy Church desires us to remember why we are going into this season again by remembering how our fallen state is changed through repentance and forgiveness.
The themes of repentance, humility, and illumination will continue to mark all services for the next seven weeks. The chants of mid-week services, including the readings of the Canon of St. Andrew and the Presanctified Liturgies, all demonstrate the need to return to our true Home, Christ. It will be, as Father Alexander Schmemann has called it,
A journey, a pilgrimage! Yet, as we begin it, as we make the first step into the “bright sadness of Lent, we see–far, far away– the destination. It is the joy of Easter, it is the entrance into the glory of the Kingdom… The night may be dark and long, but all along the way a mysterious and radiant dawn seems to shine on the horizon. “Do not deprive us of our expectation, O Lover of man!” (5)
Forty is a significant number in the Scriptures, connecting to the stories of Noah, Moses, and even Christ Himself in times of preparation. For the next 40 days, we will be encouraged to strive with the help of others and the Holy Spirit. The three ancient practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving (charity) are the means given us to receive the change that Christ desires to work inside each of us. As we begin Lent together, we are called to become more fully like Christ through imitating His example. This goal is worth every aspect of curbing an appetite, giving of one’s self, and seeking after God. As Fr. Gillet notes,
The more serious our Lenten preparation has been, the deeper we shall enter into the mystery of Easter and gather its fruits. (6)
Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy
For this first Sunday of Lent, it is the age-old practice of the Church – One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic – to commemorate the Triumph of Orthodoxy against the heresies it has faced in each generation. Moreover, it is a celebration of the Church’s constant dedication of living out a true relationship with Christ as handed down by the Apostles and Patristic Fathers.
Most essential to this faithful practice and belief is the nature, person, and essence of Christ. During every generation, faithful clergy and laity have lost their reputations, position, and even life for their holding fast to the fidelity of the Gospel of Christ. Protecting the flock from erroneous belief and practice, the faithful shepherds of the Church are particularly remembered this Sunday for their brave stand for the faith handed down by the Apostles and passing on the ‘right worship’ of Orthodoxy to each generation.
Historically, Lent has been the time of preparation specifically for any catechumens awaiting baptism. For all, it is important as it points us ahead to the culmination of the entire year, and even to one’s existence. Fr. Schmemann writes,
When a man leaves on a journey, he must know where he is going. Thus with Lent. Above all, Lent is a spiritual journey and its destination is Easter, “the Feast of Feasts.” It is the preparation for the “fulfillment of Pascha, the true Revelation.” (7)
With this goal in mind, we begin the next seven weeks of preparation. May we receive the grace to humbly walk with each other and our God.
(1) The Year of Grace of the Lord, Father Lev Gillet (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Press, 1971) 109.
(2) Great Lent, Father Alexander Schmemann (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Press, 1969) 28.
(3) Ibid, 29.
(4) Gillet, 120.
(5) Schmemann, 15.
(6) Gillet, 110.
(7) Schmemann, 11.
All Scripture references taken from the Orthodox Study Bible (Thomas Nelson, 2008).