The main text we will use is the just published book: Now is the Accepted Time: Lenten Sermons of St. Theophan the Recluse. While it is not necessary to acquire this book, it is available on Amazon in both Kindle and paperback formats. I will also draw upon for our sessions two other books: Season of Repentance: Lenten Homilies of St. John of Kronstadt and Homilies During Great Lent by St. Nektarios Kefalas.
St. Theophan the Recluse, one of the greatest teachers of the Russian Orthodox Church, was steeped in the patristic tradition. He calls all to salvation through the joy of repentance, confession, and holy communion. These sermons delivered by the saint over a number of years, are organized thematically to reveal the meaning of the liturgical life of the Church and its application to our lives. They begin with the preparatory period before the Fast and continue through it, culminating in the time of Holy Week.
St. Theophan is concise, clear, and profound. Drawing from early patristic commentary, he shows the specific actions the enemy of our salvation, the devil, uses to weaken a person in mind, soul, and body and gives the reader tools to fight back against him. The reader is assured that the Lord will tangibly grant him the knowledge that his labor is not in vain and his path is not misguided. Thus, this book will inspire the reader to enter into the Lenten season with renewed hope.
“Oh, that the Lord Himself would help us never to be deprived of His abiding in us!…The Lord is in us! Let us take care to keep Him within ourselves forever.”. St. Theophan
