The Great Lent Dear and

👉🏾👉🏾👉🏾 About the #Great #Lent Dear and respected members who follow Orthodox education and spiritual services conveyed on John's Repentance website, today we are translating and sharing an important lesson on the subject from the book "Orthodox Mind" written by Deacon Yohannes Getachew. We urge you to read and learn from it. All the things that our God and Savior Jesus Christ did when he came to this earth were works of salvation. It is a crime to mutilate even one of the works done from conception to ascension. All of them are works of redemption for our salvation. Not only that, to avoid confusion as to who taught us righteousness, and to be an example for us in practice, he commanded us to do righteous deeds and leads us there. Therefore, it is essential to realize that this fasting is an example and a redemption fast. Of course, this name comes from the 40 days of fasting. What makes this fast great is because it is the fast that our Lord himself fasted for us. When St. Irenaeus explained how Christians in the past fasted this fast, some limited themselves to fasting for one day, some fasted for two days, others fasted for more than that, and some fasted for forty days until now. This difference in the timing of fasting has been there from those who were before us. He also tells us that most Christians fasted for several days during Lent, saying that some would fast by abstaining from food for 40 hours. Devotees at different times, some abstain from food all day and eat in the evening, and some fast day and night; Some people "fast" on Fridays and Saturdays. However, it is not disputed that this fast is a great fast known to all. Our Lord fasted this fast after his baptism. The reason for this is to make it clear that after we have received our sonship through baptism, we must keep the grace we received through fasting and prayer. When we get God's grace, the enemy, the devil, will inevitably try to destroy us, so he became a living example to us that we should fast and pray hard to protect ourselves. The Bible says, "After that, the Spirit led him into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil" Matthew 4:1. The phrase 'After that' means that after the Holy Spirit descended on him in the form of a dove, and after the Father testified, "this is my beloved son," in the cloud. It is said that the Spirit took him to the desert to defeat Satan, who was confused by these words. The essential thing that we need to understand here is that it is never said that the Holy Spirit moved Jesus Christ just as he takes the righteous to the monastery and the martyrs to the blood. 'The Spirit took him' is to express the unity of the will with the Holy Spirit. It is to show that he came down from heaven, was born of a virgin, and went to the desert by the will of the Trinity. However, it does not mean that Jesus Christ had a different will from the Holy Spirit and took him to the desert at the prompting of the Holy Spirit. This cannot be. In this reading, the "wilderness" is Satan's abode. Christ went to the desert means to Satan's place. Because Satan deceived Adam with food and went to where Adam was, Christ is going to defeat Satan in his own city. (Continued) 👇