Greeting during Lent

[John Morehead]

Is there during Lent a greeting like the usual greetings during Christmas and Pascha? Is "Joy of the Feast!" such a greeting? I've heard it, but my question is whether it, or something else, is generally customary, or whether there's really not a customary Lenten greeting. Thanks!

[Fr Averky]

Dear John,

As far as I know, and I have been Orthodox for 36 years, there is no particular greeting, at least, not in the Russian Orthodox Church to which I belong. I do know that for the first few days of Great Lent, should we telephone or write someone, like Orthodox friends or relatives, we say to them, "May you have a blessed, peaceful, and spiritually beneficial Great Lent, leading you to the Bright Pascha of the Lord!" However, this is limited to the firt fewdays, for Lent is not a time to rejoice, but to repent and mourn for our sins. When the Feasts of Feasts arrives, then from Pascha until the giving up of the Feast, we greet each other with "Christ is Risen!"

I hope this will help.

hieromonk Averky