Today’s Resurrection reminder comes from last night’s Vespers service.
Today is the first Sunday of Great Lent. Each Sunday of Lent has a theme and today’s theme is the Sunday of Orthodoxy because it commemorates the restoration of the Holy Icons and the triumph of the Orthodox Faith against the terrible heresy of the Iconoclasts, i.e. those heretics who refused to honor the Holy Icons. For more than a hundred years the Church was disturbed by the evil doctrine of iconoclasm. The first Emperor to persecute the Church was Leo the Isaurian, and the last was Theophilos, the spouse of Saint Theodora (February 11), who reigned after her husband’s death and re-established Orthodoxy in the time of Patriarch Methodios (June 14). Empress Theodora proclaimed publicly that we do not kiss the Icons as a sign of worship, nor do we honor them as “gods,” but as images of their prototypes.
I like that little description above that I found on the OCA website. Follow the link & read a little bit more on this Sunday’s theme.
Even though we have these themes on the Sunday’s of Great Lent, we still focus most of our attention on the Resurrection. We do sing some for the theme of the Sunday but the vast majority of our hymns our focused on the Resurrection.
Our former priest, Fr. John Strickland, used to say all the time (& still does I am sure), that if you only come to church on Sunday’s during Great Lent you will hardly be able to tell that it is Great Lent because Sundays are always, even during lent, set aside for the commemoration of the Resurrection. We sing of His resurrection and honor & glorify His arising on the third day.
Have a wonderful week ahead! Keep your eyes on Him Who has risen on the third day!
Kindler of Joy! 