As a traveler, approaching a river after a long journey, senses how cool the water will be, so you and I are getting nearer to the great time of purification. We should greet every Lent as if it were the last in our lives, so that we stop and think – if only for a short while, tearing ourselves away from the perpetual bustle and rush that constitutes our lives. Look how we live nowadays: how bitter and exhausted we are, what an endless hurry we are in – we are making such an effort, trying to make progress. But all of it comes to an end earlier than we realize. . .Let us think for awhile about how we can open up our souls to the Lord, how we can start to live a real life. So what kind of life is a real life? It is a life of love – for God and for others – a life in which what is most important comes first and is not pushed aside by trivialities.

– Father Alexander Men