I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe.
Ephesians 1:16-19
Today is the first day of Great Lent, also known as Clean Monday. You might ask, why doesn’t our Lent start on a Wednesday, and the reason is we add Holy Week to our Lenten journey, so our journey is not forty days, but forty-eight. Holy Week begins on Saturday of Lazarus, and thus the forty days of Lent ends on that Friday before Saturday of Lazarus. Back up forty days and that brings us to a Monday, which this year is today, Monday, March 3.
Clean Monday is a day to begin to cleanse ourselves from sin. In many churches, the sacrament of Holy Unction is offered. We do not wear ashes on our heads in the Orthodox Church, but rather we receive prayer and anointing, for forgiveness and for strength in the journey ahead.
Yesterday and today are marked by seeking out forgiveness from those we have wronged. It bothers me greatly when my sinfulness affects a relationship in an adverse way. On days like yesterday and today, I think about people I have offended over the years with things I’ve said, things I’ve written and things I’ve done. In many instances, there has been forgiveness and restoration. I’m thankful for these. In many instances there has been forgiveness without restoration. And in some instances there hasn’t been forgiveness or restoration. In some instances, I have also struggled to forgive. These last three examples are hard to reconcile the older I get. It is hard to reconcile the awesomeness of Christ with the depth of personal sin, and to continue to stand before the Holy Altar and touch the Divine God when I am intertwined in sin, and in some cases have severed relationships as a result of my sin. I humbly ask for your forgiveness and also pray for the mercy of God.
Today also marks another special day, it is the ten year anniversary of the Prayer Team. The first Prayer Team message was on Clean Monday of 2015, which was actually February 23. In early 2015, a parishioner had a conversation with me about a Max Lucado book, in which he talked about how he established a Prayer Team to pray for him during a particularly difficult time in his ministry. This person suggested I try the same thing. I didn’t want to just ask for prayer without offering something in return. I decided that for the period of Great Lent in 2015, I would write a brief reflection on prayer for each day of Lent, Holy Week and Bright Week. The parishioner who had suggested the prayer team and I got together and looked up verses of Scripture on prayer, printed them out, cut them in strips and put them on a large table in the office. We put them in some coherent order and I began writing reflections. I had hoped for thirty people to sign up and the initial list which I still have was sixty-two. By the end of Lent it was 150. People asked if I would be willing to continue writing once Great Lent ended, and after giving it some thought I decided that yes, I would continue writing.
Ten years later, 3,652 reflections (with a much different format than the first one), 9 books (with a 10th on the way this coming fall), and nearly 5,000 members on the Prayer Team, I couldn’t have imagined any of this ten years ago when this all started. So thank you, thank you to the person who put this idea in my head, to the original 62 members, and to the thousands who have joined along the way. Thank you for your prayers, for your patience, for your encouragement. I thank God for the continued ideas He puts in my mind. And I pray that there will be many more years of this ministry. I found the original Prayer Team message from February 23, 2015 (Clean Monday) that I would like to share with you, to remember how it started.
Clean Monday
February 23, 2015
Will you be my prayer partners? For the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake and because of your love for me—given to you by the Holy Spirit—pray much with me for my work. Romans 15:30 (TLB)
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells His disciples “For where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am also, in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20) In Galatians 6:2, St. Paul write to his followers “Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.” We are encouraged, in our Christianity, not to walk alone but to be in “communion” with other people. This communion is shown in a corporate context in the sacrament of Holy Communion, distributed during the Divine Liturgy. But communion is not only confined to a sacrament. Anytime there is unity, there is fellowship (Koinonia in Greek) or communion.
Lots of burdens are carried in our church. I carry some as a priest. Every parishioner carries burdens. The burdens are lightened when we offer them up to the Lord in prayer. They are made even lighter when many of us share the burdens through our prayers. And this is what the prayer team is all about—pray for me, pray for Charlie, pray for our families, pray for the ministries of the church, and pray for the people of this church.
As we say in Greek at the beginning of Great Lent, Kali Sarakosti, to wish you a blessed Lent, an edifying and spiritually beneficial period of the 40 days of the Great Lent. And to that I add, welcome to the prayer team. May this journey be one that is beneficial to you, to our parishioners and to our parish. God bless you as we start this journey and this prayer team together.
Lord, thank You for the blessing to write the Prayer Team these last ten years. Thank You for the inspiration that came from a book, through a parishioner, to me, ten years ago. Thank You for every person who has been and who is part of this Prayer Team. Have in remembrance in Your heavenly Kingdom, those who have passed away. Thank You for every prayer and every encouraging message I have received as a result of this. Remember each person on the Prayer Team, their specific needs and challenges. Bless this ministry. As it is Your will, allow it to continue in the years to come. May it bring others to You, and You to others. Amen.
Kali Sarakosti! A blessed Lent! And thank you for the past ten years!
With profound gratitude and love,
+Fr. Stavros
