The fourth Sunday of Lent, is the Sunday of the Steward. The parable of The Unrighteous Steward is in the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 16, verses 1 to 8. This parable is about a rich man and his steward. The steward was one who looked out for his own personal benefit and through his cunning arrangements he made deals with those who were in debt to his master…
Poon Paregentan is the last Sunday preceding the six-week, forty-day period of Great Lent. It falls seven weeks prior to the Resurrection (Easter Sunday) and, along with the Feast of the Resurrection (Easter), is a moveable feast within an interval of thirty-five days between February 1 and March 7.
The theme of Poon Paregentan is recalling man’s life of perfect harmony with God in the Garden of Eden before his fall from Grace. The hymns and odes of the day recall the story of God creating mankind in His image and likeness, placing man sinless in a bountiful garden paradise and allowing him to share in His divinity. The Lenten period of strict fasting, penance and reconciliation ultimately prepares us for Easter—the Feast of the Glorious Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
As of Monday we entered the period of Great Lent (Medz Bahk), and the Church has taken on a somber, mournful, and penitential manifestation. Beginning last Sunday, which was Poon Paregentan, the altar is closed with a dark curtain, symbolic of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden.
