After Pure Week: Holding the Line
March 2026
Pure Week has a certain intensity. The services are longer. Our attention is sharper. Our resolve feels strong.
But Lent is not measured by one week.
Now the real test begins.
Great Lent is not a spiritual project. It is a reordering of life. The commitments we made must now become steady habits. Families especially should make clear why we fast, pray, and simplify—not as punishment, not as mere tradition, but as training for the heart.
Life does not slow down because it is Lent. Work continues. School continues. Deadlines and fatigue continue. The challenge is not escaping daily life, but living it differently—remaining “in the world but not of the world.”
Christ gives us a pattern that has endured for centuries: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. If one weakens, the others quietly collapse.
Read More →
St. Nicholas Orthodox Church is a parish of the Orthodox Church in America in San Anselmo, CA.