The Great Lent consists of six weeks or forty days. It begins on Monday
after Cheese Fare Sunday and ends on Friday evening before Palm Sunday.
The Saturday of Lazarus' Resurrection, Palm Sunday and the Holy Week
form a special liturgical cycle with which we shall deal in a special
pamphlet.[1]
The meaning and the spirit of the Great Lent find their first and most
important expression in worship. Not only individuals but the whole
Church acquires a penitential spirit, and the beautiful Lenten services
more than anything else help us to deepen our spiritual vision, to
reconsider our life in the light of the Orthodox teaching about man.
We shall briefly analyze the most important of the liturgical
particularities of Lent.