Ukrainian Orthodoxy		Orthodoxie ukrainienne

The Number of Days in Lent

Question:

Is Lent supposed to be 40 days?

Roman Catholics start their Lent on Ash Wednesday & 40 days follow to Easter (they do not count Sundays in their 40 day calculation).

We start Lent on a Monday. This year, I counted. Its 48 days (counting all days) until our Easter.

My aunt claims our Lent is not 40 days, but in fact, 7 weeks (hence the 49 days). The Encyclopedia Britannica indicates that Eastern Orthodox believers celebrate 8 weeks of Lent, but do not count Saturdays and Sundays (that would equal 40 days)!

Its all confusing & I was told not to ask questions, but there has to be a viable answer.

Answer:

Dr. Alexander Roman alex.roman@unicorne.org

The Christian West has always had a more "pragmatic" approach based on its natural predisposition toward rationalism than the Orthodox East and this explains for more than one difference in terms of tradition and spiritual approach.

For example, the West's liturgical prayer life is based on worship offered to the one God, while the East adores the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

This liturgical difference is based on the fact that the one Divine Nature can be attained through the use of human reason, as philosophers have done and so the West is inclined toward this form of prayer.

The Trinity, however, is something that could only have been revealed and so the Orthodox East bows down before this revealed Mystery. In compiling its lives of the Saints, even here we see the characteristic differences between East and West.

Western calendars are very organized and precise in describing the lives and dates of their Saints. In some ancient martyrologies, even the name of the street in ancient Rome where a saint was martyred is given!

With respect to the calculation of Lent, the West has always scrupulously observed the 40 days, as you have indicated.

The East is less scrupulous about the exact number "40" since this is not really an exact number at all, but a number that signifies a period of long fasting and prayer.

The same can be said about the number "7" that indicates "fullness" in the first instance.

Although the West has always insisted on exactly seven sacraments, the East has had, throughout its history, up to twelve, including the Rite of consecrating Emperors and of tonsuring Monks!

While not counting Saturdays and Days of the Resurrection ("Sundays"), the East does not count Holy Week as part of the Great Fast and so the Orthodox Great Fast ends on Friday evening before Lazarus' Saturday that precedes Palm Sunday.

In addition, the four weeks of preparation leading up to the beginning of the Great Fast are also a part of the services of the Great Fast and these are included in the Lenten Triodion.

The East has a marvellous sense of the time needed to prepare for the celebration of important spiritual events. This is why the Orthodox Church prescribes the long prayers before Confession and Communion (Canon of St Andrew of Crete and other prayers etc.).

Thus the weeks preceding the Great Fast are an important way to prepare ourselves for a good participation in it.

The exactitude that characterizes the West seems to me to smack of  "spiritual accountancy" within a relationship with God that says, "I'll do this, if You will do that . . ."

In fact, we cannot put time limits on our prayer and repentance or ever feel that we've "done enough already" in our service to God and toward the goal of our salvation!

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