In a pastoral message issued at the beginning of the Triodion period, Archbishop Atanasie of Great Britain and Northern Ireland said that this liturgical season is “a true school of repentance and humility, a school of prayer, and also a school of spiritual asceticism, which reopens for us the doors of the Kingdom of Heaven.”
Archbishop Atanasie stressed that this liturgical order is not accidental, but has a profound pedagogical and symbolic meaning for Christian life. “The ten weeks of the Triodion are the ten steps that lead us toward fullness, toward perfection,” he said, linking them to the Ten Commandments and to the rhythm of the creation of the world.
He also noted that monastics have always understood this period as a privileged time of encounter with Christ. “Monastics have always seen in these blessed ten weeks of the Triodion the opportunity to draw closer to Christ, to climb the steps of repentance, and to have the courage to ascend Golgotha in order to rejoice more deeply in the Resurrection.”
The Archbishop of Great Britain and Northern Ireland reviewed the meaning of each Sunday during this period, highlighting the Church’s proposed spiritual journey, which begins with the Sunday of the Tax Collector and the Pharisee and continues through Holy Week.
Joy through repentance
Quoting Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov, Archbishop Atanasie warned against spiritual negligence and religious indifference.
“If our life were not centred on the ordinances of the Church — if in times of fasting we did not fast, in times of prayer we did not pray, and in times of repentance we did not repent — then, when the time of the Resurrection comes, would we truly be able to rejoice?”
“May the Lord grant that we emerge from this school of the Triodion wiser in spiritual matters, so that day by day, week by week, month by month and year by year, we may live ever closer to what is divine, leaving behind what is worldly,” Archbishop Atanasie prayed.
Photo: Apollography / Nicu Apolozan
