2026-02-18

ASH MITTWOCH

ashen mittwoch

Ash Wednesday, ash Mittwoch. Hoy es miércoles de ceniza. Memento, homo quia pulvis est et in pulverem reverteris. Mercredi aux cendres. Vanidad de vanidades y todo vanidad. El hombre no es más que humo

Nothing we are but cenders and we grow old, we grow old and we wear the top of our trousers rolled. T.S Elliot poems have come to me as memories of the London Lents when I was younger and poorer and sat on empty and cold digs putting shillings on the gas meter. I froze on the streets of Hull, in the perverse Februarian cold winds of the North Sea but there was tea and toast and a bolided egg. My diet consisted on mrmelade and porridge.
I was waiting for love and peace. But love came not nor peace. I was in rags and the sheer picture of derecliction.
That will build you up boy but I never managed to keep warm and they nicked my bycicle on the garden of 441 Beverley old. I fasted necessarily on my students allotment while I was at the funeral of my landaly mrs. Rose.
I learnt English and I loved England the hard way. What happened to those past Lents? I grow old... I grow old and I wore the top of my trousers rolled, so the big poem goes by the great bard of our 68 generation.
The spondeous verses of the angloamerican poet travel with me and we went together to visit the Waste Land. Elliot not only was a poet but a prophet of the building sites waiting for allotement and I received the ash in Westminster and York and listened to the sermon of the preachers. There was a sort of retraint in the quaresmal sermon of the Anglican priests. I remember the speech of a deacon manifesting that there are two ways of approach to God; one is through prayer, the other one by fasting. Prayer is hope and cleans the soul and mind and fasting purifies the body. Then went to Holy Communion and the celebrant imposed the cender on the top my head (in the occipital bone where was the mark Eastern and Catholic clerks bear the tonsure as signal of consecration to God) respecting the holy orders I once received. I grew old and I wore the top of my troiusers rolled.
Then I knew what religious tolerance is and learned to mistrust Popery and high priests. The Anglican Christ showed me His wounds and his compassions at the other side of the fence of anathemas and rules. The York archibishop offered me a chaplency if I changed allegiance and decided to be ordainewd presbyter. My reply was: your lordships I will convert if you open up the Ladys Chapel of your cathedral wich is closed since the Reformation days and restablish the cult to the Virging. Catholicism was my commitment.
The good archibishop went silent and sad and nothing said to my proposal, so the See of York lost a good parson. But since then I never forgot with gratitude his offer. That church treated me as a mother. Unfortunately that cannot be said of my spiritual bethrem. Rome treats their legitimated sons as a stepmother. Truth and Love-such a thought is always in the back of my mind since that bizarre episode during one of my English Lents- are not indivisible but shared.
In the beginning was my end. Men put the ash on the top of their heads and women in the forhead. At the beginning was my end. England made me and made me holy in a way. One Ash wednesday I sat the whole day in my cold room having cups of tea passing the beads of my rosary and meditating on the sense of life. The liturgical texts of Lent abound in the thought of the last days of men, the universal judgement, what Luther called Jungstes Geright when all the humans reunite in Josaphat Valley at the last call of trumpets by the angels of Apocalipsis in the second coming of Christ and then He will separete sheep from buck the blessed and damned in two separated rows.
That shall be the day of avengance and the strophes of the Dies Irae will reseound over all the corners of Earth. Lord, have mercy:quid sum miser tunc dicturus, quem patronem rogaturus. What shall I say to the Big Judge? Whom would I ask to defend my cause or be my sponsor? In the big day of attonement everything that now is concealed then it will be open and patent:quidquid latet apparebit, nihil inultum fremanebit. That final scene of the end of the story is perfectly represented in the Porticus Gloriae in Santiago. There we see Jesus represented in all his glory sourrounded by an escort of angels and prophets by the apostles and the Virgin Mary. The Christ we see is the Pantocrator, the all powerful, has nothing tgo do with the humble penniless infant born in Bethlem, or the suffering Nazaren of the bitter hours in Getsemani. Now he comes as the ruler of time when there is time no more, the creator of a world destroyed. He looms as the great magistgrate of History, he will ask for his dues and every man shall be called to the bar to give account for what he did or undid.
The earth and heavens no longer exists. Only hell and paradise. He will pass sentence. Venite ad me, benedicti, or discedite maledicti. Because when I was hungry you fed me, when I was thirsty you brought me something to drink, when I was naked you clothed me or in prison and you visited me. Oh Lord, when did we do that, shall ask the chosen ones and also the condemned to the eternal fite. And the great Christ triumphant will say when you did that to your neighbour feeding clothing consoling him when behind bars you did it to me. According to this, the command, the pattern, the rule of law in the universal trial will be reduced to one thing and in the last day we will be examined from love. That is the great consistency of Lent. Ubi charitas et amor deus ibi est. A beautiful utopia, nevertheless.

10/02/2010

hoy empieza la gran cuaresma rusa (VELIKI POST)

MONDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK OF GREAT LENT

True fasting is putting away evil deeds
St. Basil the Great

The meaning of fasting consists not simply in refusing meat and dairy products, but most importantly in profound self-knowledge, repentance, and the struggle with the passions. “Let us tear every unrighteous union,” the Church hymns call to us on these days. “If we refrain from meat but devour our neighbors, this is a mockery of the fast,” says patristic wisdom. The true meaning of the fast is clearly revealed in one of the stichera: “Let us abandon bodily passions, and grow the gifts of the soul…” “The Springtime of repentance” is what people in the Church call the time of Great Lent.

The first week of Great Lent is the strictest. Thus, according to the rule, food is taken only after the Liturgy on Wednesday. Of course, this requirement is relaxed for the sick, infirm, aged, and pregnant or nursing mothers, with the blessing of their spiritual fathers. Nevertheless, even the strictest bodily abstinence without prayer, like a plowed but unsown field, will bring forth nothing but weeds.

During the Great Lenten services we recall the history of mankind’s fall and salvation. Bringing to life before the eyes of the mind the woeful scenes of mankind’s wandering “in a foreign land”, along the “paths of destruction”, the Church allows us to feel more sharply the bitter fruits of sins. In the evenings of the first four days of Great Lent, the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete is read in Orthodox churches. This is an inspired work, poured from the depths of the contrite heart of a holy man. Listening to the words of the Canon, the Christian as if once again lives through the life of the whole world, and relates it to his own life. From the depths of the soul, from the depths of the fall, rises the repentant, tearful voice: “Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me!” Orthodox Christians always try not to miss these services that have such an amazingly powerful effect on the soul.

Hymns in the first week of Great Lent

“Let us observe a fast acceptable and pleasing to the Lord. True fasting is to put away all evil, to control the tongue, to forbear from anger, to abstain from lust, slander, falsehood and perjury. If we renounce these things, then is our fasting true and acceptable to God.”

“Come eagerly, all ye faithful, and taking as shield the strong armor of the Fast, let us repel every delusion of the enemy. Let us not be led astray by the lusts of passion, let us not flinch before the fire of temptation; and Christ in His love will reward us with crowns for our patient endurance. Offering, then, our prayers with boldness, we fall down and cry aloud, asking for peace and His great mercy on our souls.”

Stichera for Monday of the First Week of Great Lent

“Where shall I begin to weep for the actions of my wretched life? What first-fruit shall I offer, O Christ, in this my lamentation? But in Thy compassion grant me forgiveness of sins.”

“Come, wretched soul, with thy flesh to the Creator of all. Make Confession to Him, and abstain henceforth from thy past brutishness; and offer to God tears of repentance.”

From the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete

On fasting

Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.

Matthew 6:16-18

True fasting is putting away evil deeds. Forgive your neighbor his offences, forgive him his debts. “Do not fast in judgments and fights.” You may not eat meat, but you devour your brother. You may not drink wine, but you do not refrain from offence. You may wait till evening to take food, but you spend the day in places of judgment.

St. Basil the Great

You are fasting? Feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, visit the sick, and do not forget the imprisoned. Console the sorrowing and weeping; be merciful, meek, kind, gentle, long-suffering, not remembering wrongs, reverent, truthful, and pious, so that God would accept your fast and grant you abundant fruits of repentance.

St. John Chrysostom

In these days of the holy Fast, put yourself in order; make peace with people and with God. Weep and have compunction over your unworthiness and peril, and then you will receive forgiveness, and find hope of salvation. A heart that is broken and humbled, God will not despise; and without this, no sacrifices or alms will help you.

From the Letters of Igumen Nikon (Vorobev)

On repentance

If we look deeper into ourselves, then each one will say the words of the prayer: “God, cleanse me a sinner, for I have never done anything good in Thy sight.” These are the words of St. Macarius of Egypt, one of the greatest saints. How can we, wretched sinners, judge and condemn others and in so doing place ourselves higher than them, as their judges? How can we consider those to be on the right path who do not recognized themselves (recognize, and not only in words) to be the greatest sinners of all?

All the work of salvation boils down to the awareness of our own sins, our own unworthiness of the Kingdom of God, and as a result of this, the need to constantly pray to the Lord: “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” That is how the Lord taught us to pray in the parable of the publican. We are all publicans according to our sins, but we haven’t the publican’s repentance.

Forgetting all our good deeds, we should, like the publican, cry out from our whole heart: “God, be merciful to us, sinners!” And if the publican was justified of all his sins by this prayer alone, then clearly the Lord will have mercy on us also, if we pray from our whole heart and hope in God’s mercy.

With all diligence ask the Lord for the greatest and most needed gift of all gifts—to see your sins and weep over them. Whoever has this gift, has everything.

Make an effort to say the words of the prayer with attention. If you get distracted reproach yourself, open yourself to God, and again force yourself to say the prayer with attention. Then the heart will gradually soften, and at least sometimes will respond with contrition, and maybe even tears.

miercoles de ceniza memnto, homo quia pulvis et in pulverem reverteris. FRecuerda que eres polvo y en polvo te convertirás

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2026-02-18

ASH MITTWOCH

ashen mittwoch

hoy empieza la gran cuaresma rusa (VELIKI POST)

MONDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK OF GREAT LENT

miercoles de ceniza memnto, homo quia pulvis et in pulverem reverteris. FRecuerda que eres polvo y en polvo te convertirás

FOTOS DE MIS NIETOS UNA NAVIDAD MARIO LAURI SOFIA CARLA PELAYOI NO HABÍA NACIDO AUN

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