Lent: How to deal with passions.
During Lent, Christians often spend time remembering and celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus.
... Lent would begin on Ash Wednesday, in order to fulfill forty days of fasting without counting Sundays, in which it was not customary to fast. On that first Wednesday an ash stain is placed on those who participate, to remember that humans come from the dust (Gen. 3:19).
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There are those who consider that one day is more important than another, but there are those who consider the same every day. Each must be firm in his own opinions. He who gives special importance to a certain day does so for the Lord.
(Romans 14: 5-6a)
Great Lent is a time of specially concentrated spiritual life. And though we are called to fight our passions every day, if not every minute, at a different time, "without fasting," struck down by the hustle and bustle of modern life, we find ourselves distracted from spiritual work. Fasting brings us back to it. That is why, at this time, we turn to the pastors of the Russian Orthodox Church with the request to give us advice on how to fight our passions, Christians of the information age, what we should pay attention to first, how tune in, where to look for help and support, hoping this is spiritual. Work will continue at the end of Lent.
One of the most important moments in the fight against passions is what is called an attentive life. This is especially true now, because a person has never been so overloaded with information, so overloaded with everything that comes in from the outside, he has never been so inattentive as now. That is why it is so difficult for us today to fight against passions. Not only because we are very proud, not only because we are very weak, but also because our attention is constantly scattered.
It is necessary not only arbitrariness in the fight against passions, but it is also very important to take care of the attention. And when we lose this attention to ourselves, we should definitely regain it again, because with the help of attention you can see what you are going to do, what you are going to say, what is happening in your heart.
Talking about fighting passions today is a matter of attentive Christian life.