Making the Paths Straight: Early Lent and The Feast of the Annunciation
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
In her wisdom, Holy Church never expects us to travel alone. Through Scripture and Holy Tradition, she gives stories of the lives of faithful men and women, “a great cloud of witnesses,” whose steps we are called to follow. She reminds us of how pivotal events in Scripture and Church history are signposts of the faithfulness and love that Christ has for each individual part of His Body, you and me.
This series of Lenten Sundays, as well as the weekdays that follow, offer ways of knowing and practicing more deeply the love that Christ gives and that these saints live out. With that in mind, we journey together on the road that leads to the Cross.
Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas
To those who live in the darkness of sin, Thou hast brought light, O Christ, at this time of abstinence. Show us therefore the glorious day of Thy Passion, so that we may cry to Thee: Arise, O God and have pity on us. – Matins, Second Sunday of Lent
The second Sunday commemorates the life and work of the 14th century St. Gregory Palamas. A renowned saint in the East, he is responsible for defending the Church’s historical doctrine regarding connecting personally with God. Drawing a distinction between God the Father’s essence and energies, he pointed to the Church’s ancient way of seeking communion with God through ascetic prayer and love. He encouraged others in his own day to not be swayed by the growing rationalism and materialism of culture and to instead sink deep roots in Apostolic Faith.
One might question: why this saint for one of the seven Sundays of Lent? Among the reasons is his constant call to connect with God as Light of the World, revealed in John 1:1-18, but going all the way back to the first action of Creation itself. This Sunday reminds us, many who are still in the Northern Hemisphere’s winter, that Light is coming and our Dayspring has conquered all darkness.
Sunday of the Adoration of the Cross
Am I ready to follow Jesus, bearing my cross? (Not the cross that I may choose, but the one he himself places on my shoulders.) Am I ready to accept all the trials or sufferings which may come to me, as sharing in the Cross of the Saviour? — Fr. Lev Gillet (2)
While other feasts associated with the Holy Cross are connected with historical events, this Third Sunday is about contemplation, repentance, and choice. This Sunday deepens the intensity of the Lenten liturgy by pointing us to the centrality of Christ’s Cross.
The service gives many things to consider over subsequent days, but among the most essential is one’s relationship with the Living Christ. In looking upon His cross, knowing that Holy Week is less than a month away, now is the time to consider where one’s treasure truly is. If Lent is primarily about repentance, humility, and illumination, the goal is certainly life with Christ, here and later. “Oh, that this may be my own destiny,” writes Fr. Gillet, “and that before I die, the Kingdom of Jesus will have taken possession of my soul.” (3)
Feast of the Annunciation
Each year in the midst of the Lenten cycle, this Great Feast is celebrated. Falling exactly nine months before Nativity, it is a reminder of the ongoing nature of time in God’s economy. We still have five months left in this Church Year, but we are already anticipating the next one.
Commemorating the memorable passages in St. Luke’s Gospel, chapter 1, the encounter between the Archangel Gabriel and the Theotokos is read. Her obedient response,
Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word. (1:38)
provides a counterpoint, a reversal of Eve and Adam’s rebellion in the Garden. Many icons demonstrate the immediate conception of Christ in her blessed womb at her response. Fr. Gilllet notes how this feast both invites us to remember the mystery of the Theotokos’ receiving of Christ’s Incarnation as well as to consider how each of us also can receive His Presence.
In the life of every Christian there will be divine annunciations, moments when God lets us know his will and his intention concerning us. But all these annunciations must unite to become the one essential Annunciation: the Annunciation that Jesus can be born in us, can be born through us… . (4)
Sunday of St. John Climacus
This fourth Sunday commemorates St. John Climacus, the 7th century ascetic. Author of one of the most important books of the Church (and a classic reading for Lent), The Ladder of Divine Ascent, he combines practical and mystical theology. One by one, he examines the steps one must take to become like Christ. Holy Church has always considered the words and lives of saints like St. John Climacus to complement the truths and traditions of Holy Scripture, showing how Christ’s words can be lived out in the desert, the urban family household, or anywhere in between.
One renowned passage, particularly applicable to our journey through Lent, is his passage on askesis (spiritual struggle) from his chapter on the Fourth Step, “On Obedience.” Here, he imagines the Christian turning his back on sin “as some disgraceful garment” and entering “the practice arena.” Commending reining in the passions and meditating on the death that awaits us all, he commends the following practice:
Hold back your mind, so busy with its own concerns, so ready to turn to the reckless criticism and condemnation of your brother. Show instead every love and sympathy for your neighbor… . all men will come to know that we are disciples of Christ if, as we live together, we have love for one another. (5)
The Gospel reading from Mark 9:16-30 records the healing of the boy with the mute spirit, following Christ’s Transfiguration on Mt. Tabor. We cry out with the father of the possessed boy, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” As He takes pity on the father, Christ will undoubtedly respond with love to each repentant person who turns to him. However, this will require much more than lip service; action must follow faith for the faith to be valid. Connecting the disciplines of Lent (prayer and fasting) with Christ’s victory over evil, Fr. Gillet writes,
Prayer and fasting, in the deepest sense, mean a radical renunciation of self, a concentration of one’s soul in an attitude of trust and humility which leaves all to the mercy of God, the submission of our will to the will of our Lord, placing our whole being in the hands of the Father. (6)
These disciplines, along with almsgiving to those in need of help, remain the change agents used by God’s grace to turn a sinner into a saint.
This call for total submission of one’s whole being presents a turning point, a fork in the road, for any of us. Do I choose to merely show up, play along, and watch the proceedings as an observer? Or do I lean in, consider deeply where I have lost my way and grope toward the Light of Christ that illuminates the world?
As we walk through these weeks, in this journey through the Church Year, may each of us meet our God and “lay hold of the hope set before us.” (Hebrews 6:18)
(1) Great Lent, Father Alexander Schmemann (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Press, 1969) 76.
(2) The Year of Grace of the Lord, Father Lev Gillet (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Press, 1971) 124.
(3) Ibid, 124.
(4) Ibid, 128
(5) The Ladder of Divine Ascent, St. John Climacus (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1982) 104.
(6) Gillet, 125.
All Scripture references taken from the Orthodox Study Bible (Thomas Nelson, 2008).