Sermons & Homilies
The end is near! At the end of this coming week Great Lent will be over. But now, I would like to take a moment to look back at the beginning of Great Lent, and even the preparation for Great Lent. Every year at our monastery during the First Week of Lent, we read in our trapeza these words from the great instructor of the spiritual life, Abba Dorotheos:
Today we commemorate St. Mary of Egypt, who is the third Saint whom the Church has brought to our attention during this period of Great Lent; the first two being St. Gregory Palamas and St. John Climacus. Last Sunday we commemorated St. John Climacus as the model of ascetics and today we commemorate St. Mary of Egypt, who is for us the model of repentance as we sang in the exapostilarion for the saint last evening, “Thee we have as a pattern of repentance, all-holy Mary.” From her life, let us see how this is so.
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Today is the 5th Sunday of Great Lent, when we commemorate our holy mother, St. Mary of Egypt. Before speaking about her, let me begin with something a little different that will illustrate the difference between Simon the Pharisee and the sinful woman that we heard about in today’s Gospel.