The Olympics of Virtue (On Our Lenten Asceticism)

The Olympics of Virtue  
(On Our Lenten Asceticism)[1]

By Yuri Ruban, 
PhD in History, PhD in Theology  

Time is relentless and swift-flowing. The lazy “Russian frosts” of recent years suddenly awoke by the New Year. The festal days passed in a flash. February snowstorms and the Feast of the Reception of the Lord, which concludes the cycle of Nativity celebrations and commemorations, suddenly marked the always unexpected turn toward spring.

The sequence of preparatory weeks — with their Maslenitsa merriment, yet also the first Lenten hymns that compel one in confusion to fall silent and bow the head — closed with Forgiveness Sunday. Having asked forgiveness from one another, Orthodox Christians become “ascetics.” But can everyone be an ascetic? What is the meaning of asceticism?

In the most general sense, asceticism is a certain system of psycho-physical and spiritual exercises that practically expresses the essence of the religion within which it is formed. Clearly, in countries with a state religion the ascetic tradition exerts enormous influence on the system of personal and social values.

Abraham, the Knight of Faith

Rembrandt van Rijn, The Sacrifice of Abraham, 1634 (Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg)

By Yuri Ruban,
PhD in History, PhD in Theology

A journey through the pages of the Orthodox calendar takes us far back – almost two thousand years before the birth of Christ. On October 9/22, the commemoration of "the righteous Abraham the Patriarch and his nephew Lot" is recorded. The story of Abraham inaugurates the history of God's people and is found in the first book of the Bible.

"And the Lord said to Abraham: 'Go from your country, your people and your father's household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great'" (Gen. 12:1-2). Here lies a turning point in the spiritual history of humanity.

Mary of Egypt, the Holy Sinner

 

By Yuri Ruban,
PhD in History, PhD in Theology

The fifth and penultimate Sunday of Great Lent has arrived (there are two weeks left until Pascha). Today the Orthodox Church invites us to look at the life of one beautiful woman from Alexandria, Egypt, as an example. In her youth, she was a well-known harlot in this port city, or, in literary terms, a courtesan. At first glance, this may seem strange and even provocative! Are there really few other role models in the treasury of Christian holiness – such immaculate virgins as Barbara, Katherine (whose very name translates as “always pure”) and others who have remained faithful to their Heavenly Bridegroom since childhood? Moreover, it was not need that pushed her “to the streets”, as, for example, with Sonia Marmeladova! She herself admitted that, having left her parents at the age of twelve and having lost her purity, she “unrestrainedly and insatiably gave myself up to sensuality.” “Often when they wished to pay me, I refused the money. I acted in this way so as to make as many men as possible to try to obtain me, doing free of charge what gave me pleasure... I had an insatiable desire and an irrepressible passion for lying in filth.” It is all the more important to understand why the former harlot entered the trinity of saints (along with Gregory Palamas and John Climacus) , who became symbols of the Lenten “School of Piety”!