March 6, 2006

• CLEAN MONDAY (Kathara Deftera)

  
  

  Today is Clean Monday and the beginning of  Great Lent in the Orthodox Church.

  
  

  This first day of Great Lent is called “Clean Monday” because Orthodox Christians are required to begin a spiritual and moral purification through fasting, prayer, meditation, repentance, attending Lenten services and partaking of the Sacraments of Confession and Communion.

  
  

  Because Clean Monday is also considered the first day of spring in Greece,  Greeks  celebrate it has a  day that families gather with their children and friends to fly kites and eat traditional Lenten dishes. Greeks usually eat particular types of seafood on Clean Monday, such as octopus, squid, mussels and shrimp; an array of pickled vegetables, especially pickled small green peppers, carrots and cauliflower, olives, and dips that  The dips are Lenten, such as taramosalata (made with fish roe).

  
  

  His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios, spiritual leader of the Greek Orthodox Church in America, acknowledging the spiritual significance of the Lenten period, states in his Lenten encyclical to the faithful:
  
  “As we embark upon this most sacred season of our Holy Orthodox Church, I pray that we may all look toward Holy Lent as an opportunity for renewed spiritual growth in Christ. Through increased opportunities for prayer and worship, increased opportunities to receive the grace of God through the Holy Sacraments, and intensified efforts at spiritual askesis and almsgiving, we embark upon a journey for our building of faith and our nourishing of love for one another. May God provide you with strength during this journey of Holy Lent, so that each and every day along it you may “grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. “ (2 Peter 3:18)

  
  

   

  • 1:29 am
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