Fore-feast of the Annunciation of the Mother of God; Our Venerable Father Zachary; Our Holy Father Artemon, Bishop of Seleucia in Pisidia
Great Fast Day 38
Sixth Hour – Isaiah 58:1-11; Presanctified – Genesis 43:26-31; 45:1-16; Proverbs 21:23-22:4
Abstention from meat and foods that contain meat. According to liturgical prescriptions, the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated today.
Read Isaiah 58:1-11
As we come to the close of the Lenten season and begin Great and Holy Week we are given a word by Isaiah to reflect on how we can make one last concerted effort. Isaiah asks the question, ‘Why God has not taken notice of my fasting?’ God gives a response to why this fast was not pleasing to Him: ‘you seek your own pleasure’, ‘oppress all your workers’, ‘quarrel and fight’, ‘hit with wicked fist’.
The Lord desires that fasting periods would humble and move us to ‘loose the bonds of wickedness,’ to undo the heavy ‘yokes’ of our neighbour, to free ‘the oppressed’, to share ‘bread with the hungry,’ to welcome the ‘homeless’, to cover the ‘naked’. In other words, we are reminded again just as we were in the Gospel lesson at the pre-Lenten Sunday of Meatfare: humble, tangible works of charity, please God. Our physical fast ought to humble the heart into compassionate work. It’s the 11th hour of Great Lent, so let us use this remaining time, to strive to please the Lord with our compassionate service to those around us and to those who the Lord brings into our lives.