Today we mark the completion of the Forty Day Fast that has prepared us for our Lord’s Passion and Resurrection. Whether we have made good use of this time, or whether we have squandered it in distractions and sinful passions, we now come to the greatest and holiest week of the year.
May Christ, who came to Bethany to raise his friend Lazarus from the dead as a sign of his coming victory over death itself, bless us as we enter into the Passion Week.
The following hymn, sung at the Presanctified Liturgy assigned for today (though sadly not served by us this year), reminds us of what lies behind us and before us at this moment.
We have completed the forty days that profit our souls. Let us sing: “Rejoice, city of Bethany, home of Lazarus! Rejoice, Mary and Martha, his sisters! Tomorrow Christ will come and raise your dead brother to life. Bitter and unsatisfied, hell will hear His voice. Shaking and groaning, it will release bound Lazarus. The assembly of Hebrews will be amazed. They will greet Him with palms and branches. Though their priests and elders look on Him with envy and malice, the children shall praise Him in song: ‘Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord,// the King of Israel!’”
If anyone would like to listen to the full Presanctified, we recorded it last year and that recording appears below.