Be Not Overcome with Despair: Sunday of St. Mary of Egypt, Lazarus Saturday, and Palm Sunday

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 April of 2025.

by Brendan

My soul, O my soul, rise up! Why art thou sleeping? The end draws near and soon thou shalt be troubled. Watch then, that Christ thy God may spare thee, for He is everywhere present and fills all things. — Canon of St. Andrew of Crete, Kontakion, Ode 6

Sunday of St. Mary of Egypt

This final Sunday of Lent brings to our attention a life that models the humility and selfless love that is borne out of accepting Christ’s forgiveness and salvation. Remembered in the Sunday Liturgy and often read aloud during a weekday service, the 5th century Life of St. Mary of Egypt has long encapsulated the themes of all humanity. Hers is a timeless tale of deep repentance from mindless passion and a life transformed by the presence of God. As the story goes, she attempted to enter a Jerusalem church unconfessed of sin and was stopped by an invisible force. Recognizing the depth of her sinful life for the first time, she prayed to an icon of Theotokos and Christ. Her heartfelt prayer,

Virgin Lady, I know, O how well I know, that it is no honor to thee when one so depraved as I look up to thy icon. But I have heard that God who was born of thee became man on purpose to call sinners to repentance. Then help me, for I have no other help… . I will renounce the world and its temptations, and go wherever thou wilt lead me, (1)

continues to speak to us today. Her subsequent repentance, vocation of ascesis in the Syrian desert, and brief but enlightening meetings with Fr. Zosimas give us pause on this final Sunday of Lent.

The time of preparation is nearly at an end. The holy disciplines of fasting, almsgiving, and charity have had their opportunity to bear fruit in us. Now, the focus of the whole Lenten Season–that of meeting Christ face-to-face–is nearly here. Fr. Gilet notes this shift toward the coming brightness that is prefigured and evident in elements of the Sunday’s chants and readings.

Already the evening of this last Sunday of Lent allows a glimmer of Holy Week, the following Sunday, to shine in… . The Church, as if somehow impatient to enter the very holy days which begin the following week, urges us, on this last Sunday of Lent, to anticipate the feast which we will celebrate in seven days:

Let us sing a hymn in preparation for the Feast of Palms, to the Lord who comes with glory to Jerusalem in the power of the Godhead that He may slay death… . Let us prepare the branches of victory, crying: Hosanna to the Creator of all! (2)

Lazarus Saturday

Lazarus Saturday is, in a way, the feast of all the dead. It gives us the opportunity to confirm and give precision to our faith in the resurrection… . Jesus indicates that the resurrection is a fact which is already actual, because he himself is… (3)

In Lazarus Christ is already destroying thee, O death, and where, O Hell is thy victory…?  – Hymn for Lazarus Saturday

Lazarus Saturday, along with Palm Sunday, marks the transition between Great Lent and Holy Week. Holy Church has set aside this weekend as a brief celebration of Christ revealing His power over His people’s enemies. While it foreshadows the events of Christ’s Passion of the next week, it also reveals His intimate work with people as individuals.

In the glorious passage from the Gospel of John, chapter 11, we read of the love that Jesus gives his fearful disciples and the mourning sisters, Mary and Martha. From the distance of time and space, we watch Jesus make his way to the tomb, weeping, and calling to His Father. However, we are not to remain mere bystanders but to accompany Him closely on this road to Bethany and ultimately, up to Jerusalem. Fr. Gillet speaks to this invitation:

This is what we shall learn if, on this Saturday, we go to Bethany, to Lazarus’ tomb. We want to meet Jesus at Bethany and to start Holy Week with him, close to him. Jesus invites us to be there, and waits for us… . The Master calls me. He wants me to stay with him, not to leave him throughout the days of his Passion. (4)

In this final week before Pascha, we have the opportunity to ever more closely walk with our Lord and our God.

Palm Sunday

Time itself comes, as it were, to an end. It is measured now not by our usual preoccupations and cares, but by what happens on the way to Bethany, and beyond to Jerusalem… . “Reality” is that which is going on in the Church, in that celebration which day after day makes us realize what it means to expect, and why Christianity is above everything else expectation and preparation. – Fr. Alexander Schmemann (5)

The second day of this transition between Lent and Holy Week, Palm Sunday stands within the Church Calendar as a very unique Sunday. It anticipates the intensity and depth of what is about to take place in the Upper Room, the Mount of Olives, and Golgotha. It also prepares for the joyous expectation that intensifies on Holy Saturday. It is the epitome of “bright sadness” as we know that the empty tomb can only be reached through the Cross.

Adding our own alleluias to those of the gathered crowds outside Jerusalem, we chant

Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! (John 12:12)

This is a foretaste of what will occur in exactly one week– one week of struggle left to cap our journey through Lent. At this point, we can look back and examine and reflect on our journey through both Lent and even the Church Year. What have we learned about ourselves? About the Church? Most importantly, about Christ? Fr. Thomas Hopko of blessed memory addressed these and other thoughts at this point through the following reflection:

Whatever happens during the forty days of Great Lent, whether we think, according to our limited understanding, that we have done well, or whether we learn once more the bitter but most beloved lesson of our incapacity to accomplish even the smallest of our good intentions, the result—if we are yet the least bit alive—will be the same every year; we go up to Jerusalem with Jesus, like His very first disciples, amazed and afraid! We are filled with wonder and awe at what the Lord brings to pass for the sake of our salvation. (6) 

We leave Divine Liturgy today ready to take the first step into Holy Week.

(1) First Fruits of Prayer: A Forty-Day Journey through the Canon of St. Andrew, Frederica Mathewes-Green (Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, 2006) 188.

(2) The Year of Grace of the Lord, Father Lev Gillet (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Press, 1971) 127.

(3) Ibid, 136-137.

(4) Ibid, 137-138.

(5) Great Lent, Father Alexander Schmemann (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Press, 1969) 84-85.

(6) The Lenten Spring, Fr. Thomas Hopko (Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Press, 1983) 159-160.

All Scripture references taken from the Orthodox Study Bible (Thomas Nelson, 2008).