Second Lenten Email

Part of traditional Lenten practice is the reading of spiritual books. One story that I have just reviewed today is the Silver Chair, part of the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. I’m sure you are familiar with the story and its climactic scene where the heroes are confronted by the witch. She doesn’t try to kill them or take any kind of physical action against them. Indeed, she offers comfort (though in a prison) and attempts to grow doubt in the minds of the heroes; doubt about the existence of any world other than her underground abode, doubt about whether or not the sun even exists. (The whole scene is very reminiscent of Sigmund Freud‘s argument in his evil book, Society and its Discontents.) And the heroes are deceived.

Thankfully, one of the heroes had labored hard in asceticism prior to embarking on the adventure. He had lived a semi-hermetic life in a marsh, eating no meat only eels. (If you ever look in a very old British cook-book you will find plenty of recipes for eel, a traditional Lenten food in those islands.) Just as he was about to slip under the spell of the witch’s reasonable-sounding argument he seems to have remembered the power of his past asceticism for he subjected his body to the pain of fire, thus clearing his head of the witch’s cobwebs. That is, he mortified his flesh (8:13) in order to save his life, and the lives of his friends.

In the practice of the Orthodox Church we do not put our bodies into fire in order to clear our minds. (Doing grave harm to one’s body is forbidden.) However, we still manage to fit in a lot of physical stuff in order to rid our minds of the devil‘s deceits and the world‘s cloying comforts. Prostrations have been found to be particularly useful (and exhausting), especially when coupled with the Lenten Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian:

"O Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth, lust of power, and idle talk. (prostration)
But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to Thy servant. (prostration)
Yea, Lord and King, grant me to see my own errors and not to judge my brother, for thou art blessed unto ages of ages. Amen. (prostration)."

Of course, the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love is none other than the Sprit of Truth Who dispels every reasonable-sounding enchantment that the enemy, or his agents wrap around our minds