Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord!
We continue our journey through Great Lent and are already beginning to feel that it is not just a time, but a real inner work, with its difficulties, breakdowns, and attempts to start anew. The Church dedicates the Fifth Week of Great Lent to Saint Mary of Egypt.
By this time, many of us are faced with the simple and honest feeling that not everything has worked out. Somewhere we weakened, somewhere we returned to old habits, and for some, Lent seems to pass by completely.
And it is at this moment that the Church offers us her example.
The life of Saint Mary is one of the strongest testimonies that for God there are no hopeless people. She lived for many years in sin, but one encounter with God changed the direction of her entire life.
Not immediately, not easily, but the path began. The path of repentance, which led her to holiness.
It is important to understand that her ascetic feat lies not only in going into the desert and leading a strict life. The Church does not call us to repeat this outwardly. The main thing is the depth of repentance. Not just regret for the past, but a real turning of one's whole life towards God — right where we are, in our usual circumstances.
Why does the Church remember her precisely at the end of Lent?
Because by this time we are already beginning to clearly see: by our own strength we cannot change ourselves. Lent reveals us to
ourselves — and this is not always joyful. But it is here that the Church shows us the way out: change
is possible when a person stops relying only on themselves and turns to God.
Saint Mary shows us a very simple thing: it does not matter so much where a person started and what they were like. What matters is what they are now and where they are going.
One can fall. One can go astray. One can lose focus. But one can always return.
And now, as Great Lent is coming to an end, the Church seems to quietly address each of us through her life: it's not too late, you can start anew, you can take a step towards God today.
May the feat of Saint Mary of Egypt strengthen us in these remaining days of Lent, help us not to stop, not to lose hope, and to reach the bright feast of the Resurrection of Christ with peace in our hearts.
