Cheesefare, Expulsion from Paradise & Forgiveness Vespers - 2/22/26
Sunday, February 22nd, is Cheesefare Sunday where we remember the Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise. It is also the day we serve Forgiveness Vespers.
As we begin the Great Fast, we remember that Adam did not obey God’s command to fast (Gen. 2:16). As a consequence, Adam and Eve lost the life of blessedness, knowledge of God, and communion with Him, for which they were created. We became heirs of death and corruption.
Our fasting is an opportunity to free ourselves from our sinful desires and nourish our souls with prayer, repentance, and participation in the liturgies and life-giving mysteries of holy communion.
At Forgiveness Vespers we sing: “Let us begin the time of fasting in light, preparing ourselves for spiritual efforts. Let us purify our soul, let us purify our body. As we abstain from food, let us abstain from all passion and enjoy the virtues of the spirit....”
On this day, the Church also remembers:
Uncovering of the Relics of the Holy Martyrs at the Gate of Eugenius at Constantinople (395-423)
Martyrs Maurice and his son, Photinus, and Martyrs Theodore, Philip, and 70 soldiers, at Apamea in Syria (ca. 305)
Ven. Thalassius, Limnæus and Baradates, Hermits, of Syria (5th c.)
St. Athanasius the Confessor, of Constantinople (821).
Read more about the lives of these and others commemorated this day here.
Readings for Sunday, February 22nd:
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11
And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
12
The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.
13
Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.
14
But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.
1
Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things.
2
For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables.
3
Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him.
4
Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.
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14
For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
15
But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
16
Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.
17
But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,
18
so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
19
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal;
20
but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
21
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
The Holy Scriptures are part of the Church’s Holy Tradition. Metropolitan Kallistos Ware of blessed memory wrote:
In the words of Father Alexander Schmemann, “A Christian is the one who, wherever he looks, finds everywhere Christ, and rejoices in Him.” This is true in particular of the biblical Christian. Wherever he looks, on every page, he finds everywhere Christ.
See Metropolitan Ware’s article How to Read the Bible for more on an Orthodox approach to scripture.