In the Orthodox Church, the season of Great Lent is the time of preparation for the feast of the Resurrection of Christ.  In 2024, Clean Monday, the first day of Great Lent, occurred on March 18.  Great Lent is separate from and precedes Holy Week, the week leading to Pascha (Easter, celebrated May 5 this year in the Orthodox Church).  Great Lent is a time of renewed devotion: of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. It is a time of repentance, a real renewal of our minds, hearts and deeds in conformity with Christ and his teachings.  It is the time, most of all, of our return to the great commandments of loving God and our neighbors.  In the Orthodox Church, Great Lent is not a season of morbidity and gloominess. On the contrary, it is a time of joyfulness and purification. We are called to “anoint our faces” and to “cleanse our bodies as we cleanse our souls.”  Rather than applying ashes to the forehead, as is customary in Western Christianity, the Orthodox Church begins Great Lent with a service in which all members of the congregation forgive each other and begin the season in a spirit of reconciliation and joy.

Fasting is an essential aspect of Great Lent.  The Orthodox rules for Lenten fasting are the monastic rules. No meat, fish, eggs, or dairy products are allowed after Clean Monday.  Fasting has as its goal the purification of our lives, the liberation of our souls and bodies from sin, the strengthening of our human powers of love for God and man, the enlightening of our entire being for communion with the Blessed Trinity.  These rules exist not as a Pharisaic “burden too hard to bear” (Luke 11:46), but as an ideal to be striven for; not as an end in themselves, but as a means to spiritual perfection crowned in love.  (Excerpts from The Orthodox Faith, Father Thomas Hopko, Saint Vladimir’s Seminary Press)

The more ancient form of the liturgy, The Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great, is celebrated at 9:30 AM every Lenten Sunday (from March 24 to April 21 this year) at Holy Trinity Orthodox Church of East Meadow.  Each of the Sundays of Great Lent has its own special theme, which is reflected in the New Testament readings and hymns of that day, as well as the sermon.  A full explanation of these themes can be found here:  http://oca.org/orthodoxy/the-orthodox-faith/worship/the-church-year/sundays-of-lent.  The Divine Liturgy is followed by fellowship/coffee hour with Lenten foods. 

We welcome the Long Island community to worship and celebrate with us during this holy season.  All services are conducted in English.  The full schedule for Great Lent and Holy Week can be found on the parish website’s calendar at www.htocem.org.  Holy Trinity Orthodox Church is located at 369 Green Avenue in East Meadow.  Services are also streamed on https://www.facebook.com/htocem.  For more information, contact us at 516-483-3649 or [email protected].

About Holy Trinity Parish:

Holy Trinity Orthodox Church, founded in 1924, is the first Orthodox Christian parish in the Nassau/Suffolk area and centrally located in mid-island East Meadow. It is a parish of the autocephalous Orthodox Church in America.  The parish is a diverse community of Orthodox Christians who come from all walks of life and ethnicities, gathering in the oneness of Faith to worship God in the fullness of the Church’s liturgical life.  The parish also has a strong commitment to serving others through various charities.  We welcome all people seeking a community rooted in the oldest Christian Church with an emphasis on Holy Scripture, Holy Tradition, liturgical and prayer life, and traditional Christian values.

About the Orthodox Church:

For a deeper study of Orthodoxy, please click on the following link to “The Orthodox Faith”, an online multi-volume survey about the Church’s doctrine, worship, history, and spirituality:  https://www.oca.org/orthodoxy/the-orthodox-faith