CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES

LENT

According to the West Syrian Tradition (WST), lent days are reserved for prayer, fasting, repentance, spiritual nourishment and purification. Lent prepares us for the sense of repentance, receiving the Holy Confession and the reception of the Holy Qurbana. The believers achieve spiritual and physical sanctification. Moreover, during lent days the faithful come to know the significance of helping the poor and needy. Lent helps the faithful to defeat Satan and his strategies. Lent is a weapon to defeat Satan. During lent days we abstain from certain foods and drinks which help us to conquer satanic traps.

After Jesus was baptized, he followed the Holy Spirit into the wilderness. He stayed there for forty days and forty nights. Like Moses on the mountain. Like Noah in the arc. Like the Israelites’ years in the desert.

Like them, Jesus wanted to come close to God. In the wilderness, there is no one and nothing, except for God. Not even food. So Jesus fasted. He ate nothing. Not one crumb of bread. Not one grain of salt. And he prayed. Jesus talked to his Father, and he listened, too.

But Jesus wasn’t the only one in the wilderness. The devil was there too. The devil tempted Jesus to eat food. Just like the serpent tempted Adam and Eve to eat the fruit in the garden. And he tempted Jesus to turn away from God.

But Jesus didn’t turn away. He didn’t eat like Adam and Eve had done. Instead, Jesus came close to God. You see, Jesus was getting ready because he knew that when he left the wilderness, he would have big work to do. He would need to feed the hungry, and heal the sick, and tell everyone about the kingdom of God. And he also knew that after he did all this, he was going to die.

A long time ago, the church set aside 40 days for us to come close to God, too. We call it Lent. During Lent, we are all on a journey with Jesus in the wilderness. We are all getting ready for Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Fasting is part of lent. Through fasting, we quit certain meals like breakfast or lunch and make use of that money for helping the poor. Lent and fasting help us to reconcile with God. We spend more time praying and meditating. Especially during Nineveh lent and Great lent we have special prayers, fasting, kneeling (Kumpidil), etc. There are seven special psalms for the repentance prayers, which are used to recite during the lent season as the sign of repentance.

There are five canonical Lents in the WST. They are:

• Yeldho nombu is related to Christmas for 25 days.
• Nineveh nombu related to the repentance of Jonah and the city of Nineveh for three days.
• Great lent related to the fasting of Jesus Christ for forty days and followed by the commemoration of suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for 10 days, a total of fifty days.
• Sleeha nombu is related to the commemoration of the martyrdom of Apostles for 13 days.
• Soonoyo nombu, which is related to the departed feast of St. Mary for 15 days.