Lenten Breakfast Recipes
Easy Overnight Oats (6 Varieties)
Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie Pancakes
Granola Bars with Apricots, Oats, and Almonds
Lenten Lunch & Dinner Recipes
Mediterranean Cauliflower Salad
Instant Pot Coconut Rice Recipe
Sweet Potato and Black Bean Tacos
Chickpea Curry with Brown Rice
Chickpea Puttanesca with Orecchiette
Chickpeas and Tomato Lemon Vinaigrette
Slow Cooker Pumpkin, Chickpea, & Red Lentil Curry
7 Minute Pressure Cooker Risotto
Lenten Dessert Recipes
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Egg Substitutes for Baking Recipes & How to Use Them
Many vegetarian recipes can be modified to be Lenten friendly with basic ingredient swaps, avocado oil instead of olive oil for example. The above recipes have been shared by those in the parish as some of their family favorites.
If you have Lenten friendly recipes you would like to share please let our webmaster know.
Lenten Reading and Resources
Journey to Pascha 2024 Printable
Learning the Lenten Vocabulary
Five Lessons the Orthodox Church Has Taught Me about Fasting
Fasting, the Door to Spiritual Treasure
Reading the Lives of the Saints as a Spiritual Practice
The 55 Maxims of Fr. Thomas Hopko (podcast)
Great Lent (8 episode podcast series)
Preparing for Lent: Guide for Orthodox Families
The Lenten Prayer of St. Ephraim (podcasts)
Faithtree: The Encounter (smartphone app with daily readings & prayers)
Today's Readings & Fasting Guidelines in the Antiochian Archdiocese
We pray you find these resources fruitful on your journey through Great Lent.
Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee February 25th, 2024
The Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee begins the Lenten Triodion, the liturgical book used in the services of Great Lent. It is the Sunday after the Sunday of Zacchaeus and Sunday before Sunday of the Prodigal Son. This is the pre-Lenten start of the Paschal cycle of worship in the Orthodox Church. On this Sunday in the preparation for Great Lent, Orthodox Christians are to see that they have not the religious piety of the Pharisee, but the repentance of the publican. They are called to think about themselves in the light of Christ's teaching as they really are, and to beg for mercy. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and everyone who humbles himself will be exalted. (Luke 18:14)
Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee
A Reflection on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee
Humility (Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee)
Podcast: The Danger of False Teachers (Parable of the Publican and Pharisee)
Children's Activities for the Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee
Sunday of the Last Judgment (Meatfare) March 10, 2024
The trumpets shall blow, and the graves shall be empty, and all mankind shall rise trembling. They who have done good shall rejoice with joy, expecting their reward; and those who have done evil shall tremble greatly, moaning and shaking, as they are sent to suffering, separated from the elect. Wherefore, O Lord of glory, be compassionate toward us, and make us worthy to be of those who love thee; for thou art good.
+ from Vespers, Tone 6
Meatfare Sunday is the last day on which, in the fasting schedule, meat and poultry are eaten before Pascha.
The Sunday of the Last Judgment (podcast)
Serving Christ in the Poor: Sunday of the Last Judgment (Meat Fare Sunday) in the Orthodox Church
Sunday of the Prodigal Son March 3rd, 2024
When I disobeyed in ignorance thy fatherly glory, I wasted in iniquities the riches that thou gavest me. Wherefore, I cry to thee with the voice of the prodigal son, saying, I have sinned before thee, O compassionate Father, receive me repentant, and make me as one of thy hired servants.
+ Kontakion, Tone 3
I have been entrusted with a verdant and faultless region, but I planted evil in its soil and reaped its cares with the scythe of laziness. And I gathered my deeds into sheaves but placed them not on the threshing-floor of repentance. Wherefore, I ask thee, O divine Husbandman, to winnow the straw of my deeds with the breeze of thy compassionate love; and fill my soul with the wheat of forgiveness. Store me in thy heavenly garners and save me.
+ from Vespers, Tone 1
A Reflection on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son
The Prodigal Son, the Elder Brother, the Merciful Father (podcast)
Forgiveness Sunday (Cheesefare) March 17th, 2024
According to the Lenten Fast, Cheese-Fare Sunday is the last day on which eggs and dairy are eaten before Pascha.
On Cheese-Fare Sunday, we also commemorate the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise, entering into the Lenten fast in remembrance of mankind's separation from God through disobeying his commandment to fast from the fruit of the tree.
Forgiveness Sunday (Cheesefare)
Return to Paradise: The How and Why of Fasting
The Casting out of Adam and Forgiveness Sunday
Forgiveness Sunday - The Expulsion of Adam from Paradise (podcast)
Sunday of Orthodoxy (First Sunday of Lent) March 24th, 2024
On the first Sunday in Lent, we commemorate -- once and for all -- the upholding the use of holy icons in Orthodox worship in 843. We also commemorate today the unity of Orthodox belief and the oneness of our Faith -- across languages, continents, and centuries.
No Graven Image about the Orthodox Theology of Icons
The Triumph of Orthodoxy (podcast)
All about Icons (Lesson for Children)
As the prophets beheld, as the Apostles have taught... as the Church has received... as the teachers have dogmatized... as the Universe has agreed... as Grace has shown forth... as Truth has revealed... as falsehood has been dissolved... as Wisdom has presented... as Christ awarded... thus we declare... thus we assert... thus we preach Christ our true God, and honor as Saints in words, in writings, in thoughts, in sacrifices, in churches, in Holy Icons; on the one hand worshipping and reverencing Christ as God and Lord; and on the other hand honoring as true servants of the same Lord of all and accordingly offering them veneration. This is the Faith of the Apostles, this is the Faith of the Fathers, this is the Faith of the Orthodox, this is the Faith which has established the Universe.
+ Confession of faith of the Sunday of Orthodoxy
St. Gregorgy Palamas Sunday (Second Sunday of Lent) March 31st, 2024
On the second Sunday of Lent, we celebrate the teachings of St. Gregory Palamas, who upheld the Orthodox doctrine that humans can know God not only through the intellect but through experience of His uncreated energies.
Second Sunday of Lent: St. Gregory Palamas (Podcast)
The Approach to God: The East versus the West
Reflection on St. Gregory Palamas
Prayer and St. Gregory Palamas (children's lesson & activites)
St. Gregory Palamas and the Healing of our Paralysis
Planting the doctrines of Orthodoxy, uprooting the thistles of wicked opinion, O blessed one, and growing well the plant of faith with the rain of thy sayings, thou didst offer to God, like a good farmer, ears a hundred fold.
+ Orthros of the Feast, Tone 1
Veneration of the Holy Cross (Third Sunday in Lent) April 7th, 2024
"We also adore the likeness of the honorable and life giving Cross, even though it is made of another material. We do not honor the material, but the likeness as a symbol of Christ. We preach Christ crucified. Therefore, the sign of Christ in the Cross is to be adored, for wherever the sign may be, there He will be too. If the form of the cross should happen to be destroyed however, the material from which the cross was composed is not to be adored, even if it was of gold or precious stones. We honor the material as a sign of Christ, for wherever the sign is, Christ is there. We also trace this sign upon our bodies and thereby bless ourselves. Thus we adore everything that has reference to God, although it is to Him that we direct the worship."
Love: A Cross and Resurrection
A Hope to Carry Us: Reflections on the Holy Cross
Veneration of the Cross (Children's lesson & activities)
Rejoice, O life-bearing Cross, O bright paradise of the Church, O Tree of incorruption, thou who didst bring forth for us the enjoyment of glory everlasting, through whom the hosts of devils are driven out, the ranks of angels rejoice together, and the congregations of believers celebrate, O unconquerable weapon and impregnable foundation, the triumph of kings and the pride of Priests, grant us to apprehend the Passion of Christ and his Resurrection.
+Vespers of the Feast
St. John of the Ladder (Fourth Sunday in Lent) April 14th, 2024
On the fourth Sunday in Lent we commemorate St. John Climacus, the great seventh-century ascetic and author of The Ladder of Divine Ascent. As we continue the Lenten fast, we recall St. John's account of the labors necessary to approach God, and we take comfort in the Lord's words: "he who endures to the end will be saved" (Mt 24:13).
4th Sunday of Lent - St. John of the Ladder
St. John Climacus - The Rungs of His Ladder of Divine Ascent
4th Sunday of Lent - St. John of the Ladder (podcast)
Lord, I Believe; Help My Unbelief: Fourth Sunday of Lent in the Orthodox Church
St. John Climacus and the Virtues (children's lesson & activities)
Let us honor John, that pride of ascetics, that angel on earth, that man of God in heaven, that adornment of the world, and that bliss of virtues and good deeds; for, planted in the house of God, he flourished with justice; and, like a cedar tree in the wilderness, he caused the flock of Christ to grow, those sheep endowed with speech, in righteousness and justice.
-Vespers of the Feast
St. Mary of Egypt Sunday (Fifth Sunday in Great Lent) April 21st, 2024
On the fifth Sunday of Lent, we commemorate St. Mary of Egypt. By her example, we are reminded of the extraordinary power of repentance and God's mercy, by which even the greatest sinner may be transformed and sanctified.
The Life of Our Holy Mother Mary of Egypt
An Exceptional Example of True Freedom
St. Mary of Egypt and the Holy Hermits (children's lesson & activities)
Thou didst sever with the sword of abstinence the snares of the soul and the passion of the body, O righteous one. And by the silence of asceticism thou didst choke the sins of thought. And by the stream of thy tears thou didst water the whole wilderness, bringing forth for us the fruits of repentance. Wherefore, we celebrate thy memory.
+ Vespers of the Feast
Palm Sunday April 28th, 2024
O Christ God, when before thy voluntary sufferings Thou didst explain to all the confirmation of universal resurrection; Thou didst raise Lazarus in Bethany by thine exalted might, after he had been dead for four days. And to the blind Thou didst give sight; for Thou art the Giver of light, O Savior. Thou didst also enter the city with thy Disciples, sitting on an ass, fulfilling the preaching of the Prophets, as though riding upon the cherubim, and the Hebrew youths received Thee with palms and branches. Wherefore, we also carry olive branches and palms, crying out to Thee in gratitude, Hosanna in the highest, blessed is he that cometh In the Name of the Lord. - Orthros of the Feast
Holy Week April 28th-May 4th, 2024
Great Lent and Holy Week are two separate fasts and two separate celebrations. Great Lent ends on Friday of the sixth week, the day before Lazarus Saturday. A special weekend after that marks the Orthodox Church's transition to Holy Week.
Holy Week: Teaching Resources & Activities for Children
Great and Holy Pascha May 5th, 2024
In our Church, the feast of Christ's resurrection is commonly referred to as "Pascha" (PAS-ka), the Greek term for "Passover." Jesus' rising from the dead is the point of reference for all Orthodox Christian thought and life. Every Sunday is dedicated to the resurrection of Christ, so that we never lose sight of the centrality of Christ's victory over death. Yet in the Feast of Feasts--after a period of fasting and spiritual preparation called Great Lent that lasts almost two months--the Orthodox faithful celebrate the greatest of all holy days, Pascha. "Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life!" we sing.
Four Icons for Pascha (children's lesson & activities for Pascha)
Easter Sunday: The Holy Pascha
Keeping the Empty Tomb in our Hearts
The Paschal Homily of St. John Chrysostom
Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!
Lazarus is in the tomb two days, seeing the dead of all ages, beholding strange sights of terror, a great crowd held by the bonds of Hades. His relatives grieve bitterly, looking at his tomb. But Christ is coming to bring His friend to life. - From the Presanctified Liturgy of the Sixth Wednesday of Great Lent
New Testament readings with a short commentary at the end just for kids Usually around five minutes long, it is a fantastic way to get our children into the Bible.
A Journey Together Reading Through the Bible in One Year - Fr. Alexis Kouri helps lead listeners through a reading of the entire Bible in one year.
"Sometimes called the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Orthodox Church is the first Christian Church, the Church founded by the Lord Jesus Christ and described in the pages of the New Testament. Her history can be traced in unbroken continuity all the way back to Christ and His Twelve Apostles. For twenty centuries, she has continued in her undiminished and unaltered faith and practice. Today her apostolic doctrine, worship, and structure remain intact. The Orthodox Church maintains that the Church is the living Body of Jesus Christ."
Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America.