During the Daytime before Presanctified

by Fr. Alexander Schmemann

In the light of the approaching encounter with Christ (in the Holy Eucharist,) how serious and how grave becomes the day I have to spend in the usual occupations; how the most trivial and insignificant things, which fill my daily existence and to which I am so accustomed that I pay no attention to them, acquire a new significance. Every word I say, every act I perform, every thought passing through my mind becomes important, unique, irreversible, and either each is “in line” with my expectation of Christ or in opposition to it.

During those special days, time itself, which we usually “waste” so easily, is revealed in its true meaning as the time of either salvation or damnation. Our whole life becomes that which it was made by Christ’s coming into this world – ascension to Him, or running away from Him into darkness and destruction.

Nowhere indeed is the true meaning of fasting and Lent revealed better or fuller than on the days of the evening Communion – the meaning not only of Lent but of the Church and of Christian life in their totality. In Christ, all of life, all of time, history, the cosmos itself have become expectation, preparation, hope, ascension. Christ has come; the Kingdom is yet to come!

In “this world” we can only anticipate the glory and joy of the Kingdom, yet as Church we leave this world in spirit and meet at the Lord’s table where in the secret of our heart we contemplate His uncreated light and splendor.