My Beloved the Benevolent                          March 2025

Grace and peace, wishing you all goodness and blessings!

I am pleased to congratulate you on the Great Lent, which began with the week of preparation on Monday, February 24^th, followed by the Holy Forty days, and ends with the last Friday of Lent, on April 11. The Holy Week follows the Holy Forty days which ends with our celebration of the Holy Resurrection on Sunday, April 20th. Wishing you all a blessed and holy period of fasting.

+ The Lenten period is a special time in which we grow spiritually through fasting, worship and reading the Holy Bible with a life of continuous repentance. During the Holy Lent, the Church offers us special readings in the Lenten liturgies that revolve around the readings of every Sunday of the Great Lent. Therefore, we need to deepen our understanding of these readings and extract lessons from them that will help us grow in our spiritual life.

+ On the third Sunday of the Great Lent, the Church presents to us the story of the Prodigal Son, which is a parable presented by Jesus Christ so that we can learn many things, including a special lesson about the danger of negative thoughts.

The actions of a person are dependent on his thoughts. Any action a person takes depends on an idea that he is convinced of. The younger son was overcome by the thought that his presence in his father’s house would not give him the freedom he sought. Therefore, he asked his father for more than just a sum of money, “And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ so he divided to them his livelihood.” Luke 15:12. That is, he asked for his inheritance, took the money, and traveled to a faraway country. That is, he wanted to sever all ties with his father and his father’s house. This younger son enjoyed the money, as he squandered his wealth in extravagant living; and he thought that he was enjoying the freedom that he wanted. He spent it all but did not return. A severe famine occurred in that country, and he still did not return; instead, he went and worked as a swineherd. While he was tending the swine, he noticed that the swine ate when they wanted to eat, “And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.” Luke 15:16.

 He realized that the freedom he sought outside his father’s house had led him to a type of bitter slavery that made him feel inferior to even the swine; he then “came to himself” Luke 15:17. He re-evaluated his idea of freedom and realized that true freedom is in his father’s house. Therefore, he confessed his mistake, repented, and returned to his father’s house who received him with great joy.

Now the older son was plagued with other thoughts, thoughts regarding the type of relationship he had with his father. He perceived it to be that of a servant to his master; a servant who wished that his master would give him a young goat to rejoice with his friends. He forgot that he was his father’s son and that everything his father had was his. He also forgot that his younger brother was his brother, so he was not happy about his return home, and was angry and did not want to enter. When his father came out to his brother, he accused his father of being unjust and said to him, this is your son, and did not refer to him as my brother. His father tried to correct his thinking and said to him, “Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.” Luke 15:31-32. The parable ended with these phrases and therefore does not mention to us if and how the oldest son responded. Did his thinking change? Did he enter with his father to rejoice in the return of his brother? We do not know. But we do know that one of the hardest things to do is to change the mind of someone – to change their thoughts and beliefs. When a negative idea controls a person, it makes him behave wrongfully. These mistakes can only be corrected by changing the mindset. True repentance means changing one’s mind. Saint Paul commands us, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Romans 12:2. The Great Lent is a period in which we review our thoughts and principles and seek to receive enlightened thoughts renewed by the work of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of wisdom and enlightenment.

May the Lord grant you a blessed fast and bless your offerings to support Santa Verena Charity programs.

Metropolitan Serapion