2026 Great Lent Archpastoral Message

Great Lent 2026

To the clergy, monastics, and the faithful of the Diocese of the West:

Dear fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters – Christ is in our midst!

I greet you all at the beginning of the blessed and saving Lent, the holy forty days, that the Church has set aside and consecrated in her wisdom for our salvation and renewal. It is the time for the strengthening of our piety, for the confirmation of our faith, and for the remembrance of our own identity as Christians. We are members of Christ, those who are called to be God’s children, members of his household, the people “bought with a price.” 

In the First Book of Kings, we read about Prophet Elijah, in time of despair and affliction, fleeing to Mount Horeb and fasting for forty days and forty nights.  Having received the nourishment from the angel, the prophet is granted the vision of one true God in a “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:12).  Our great ascetical father, Venerable Theodore the Studite (d. 826), in one of the three-ode canons that he wrote for the First Week of Lent, uses this biblical image to make clear for us, Orthodox Christians, the goal set before us in this time of fasting: “On Mount Horeb Elijah was cleansed by fasting and saw God: let us also cleanse our hearts by fasting and we shall see Christ.” For us, as members of the body of Christ, the time of the Great Fast is not a time of despair and sadness, but a season of sober self-examination, that is, repentance, with joy and thanksgiving, as the Lord commands: “when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by men, but by your Father who is in secret” (Matt 16:17-18).  Most of all, however, we embark on our fasting journey so that at the end of this journey we may prepare to see Christ, our Lord and God, crucified for us, and to meet him risen from the dead on the third day as the first fruits of our own rising on the last day.  

Thus, let us be grateful to God for the wonderful gift of this season.  May we to the best of our ability and strength strive to fast, to pray, and to come to the Divine services that the Church offers for our edification and reflection.  As the prophet Elijah was fed with the angelic bread on the mountain, so let us draw our strength from the Divine mysteries of Christ that we are given, the Holy Eucharist that the Church offers us at the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, where we draw near to Christ “in faith and love”, so that we become “communicants of the eternal life.”  Most of all, though, let us not forget and neglect one another, especially our neighbor who may need our attention and help, for the fasting that nurtures love and compassion is the fast truly acceptable to God.

I wish you all a blessed, joyful, and spiritually nourishing time of the Great Fast.  I assure you of my archpastoral blessing and prayers, as we walk together through this blessed season, in the expectation of celebrating the triumphant joy of Holy Pascha.  As we enter this holy time, I ask you all for your forgiveness, in anything I have sinned against you as your bishop.  May God forgive and bless us all.  

With love in Christ,

+ Vasily
Bishop of San Francisco and the West