Great Lent

The forty days of preparation for Pascha, which a hymn of the Triodion calls the springtime of the fast. It is approached over four Sundays, the Publican and the Pharisee, the Prodigal Son, the Last Judgement and Forgiveness Sunday, whose Vespers ends with everyone asking and giving forgiveness, one by one. Clean Monday follows, and in the first week the Great Canon of St Andrew is read in four parts at Great Compline. The Sundays keep the restoration of the icons, St Gregory Palamas, the Cross, St John Climacus and St Mary of Egypt. On weekdays there is no full Liturgy: on Wednesdays and Fridays the faithful receive the Presanctified Gifts in the evening, in the Greek use the Salutations of the Theotokos are sung on the Fridays, and the Prayer of St Ephraim is said at every service with prostrations. Its fast is the strictest of the year, kept with prayer and almsgiving. The forty days end on the Friday before Lazarus Saturday, and Holy Week begins.