This past week I decided to read the Introduction to the Lenten Triodion, a book used when we put together our services during the weeks leading up to and through Great Lent. It is where we get our hymnography for these special services, scripture reading assignments and more. I’ve used this book for years when helping put the choir books together but I’ve never read the Introduction. It is pretty incredible. As I’ve read I’ve found a deep joy in approaching the fast. Let me share some points from this Introduction that is titled, The True Nature of Fasting.

“We waited, and at last our expectations were fulfilled”, writes the Serbian Bishop Nikolai of Ochrid, describing the Easter service at Jerusalem. “When the Patriarch sang, ‘Christ is risen’, a heavy burden fell from our souls. We felt as if we also had been raised from the dead. All at once…