The first week of Great Lent is generally known as “clean week”. In essence it is a chance for each of us to start with a clean slate – so to speak – to start the Lenten season off with a sure and clean foundation, to build upon with our fasting, prayers, and charity. This is so very important that they are specific services for every day. Of course there is the Wednesday evening Presanctified, but there is also the beautiful services of the Canon of St. Andrew (unique to only the first week of Great Lent and the 5th Wednesday of the fast).
Indeed the character of “clean week” has in many ways been defined by the Canon he wrote. His work articulates, “Your will be done” (Lk. 11:2); and the witness of God’s saving work throughout the ages; the simplicity of His love and mercy for us. This is contrasted with the confusion and vanity of our own reasoning – of “my will be done” which in every age, has been the agent of violence and injustice, exploitation and indifference.
This service was composed as a private Lenten devotion. It takes the form of a dialogue with his soul, contrasting the struggle to live and be healed, in communion with the divine – “Your will be done”; and reject the communion with death and sin – “my will be done”. Maybe it is because what St. Andrew struggles with in his Canon, is so intimate and personal, that makes it all the more relatable, especially as we begin Great Lent. Saint Andrew’s struggles, ultimately articulate our struggle as Christians.
This is the context for us, as in these services we being a dialogue with our own soul; where our passions, pride, addictions, distractions, lusts, anger, fear, and laziness; are compared with those men and women who in scripture who rejected the living God; choosing rather that which was finite and corruptible. St. Andrew poetically relates for himself and us, the tragedy of “my will” and its futility and fruitlessness.
“I have refused to imitate Abel’s righteousness, O Jesus: never have I offered You any acceptable gift or godly work; neither a pure sacrifice nor a blameless life. Like Cain, we are condemned, O wretched soul, for we have offered to the Creator of all only our defiled actions, a polluted sacrifice and a useless life” (Canon of St. Andrew – Tuesday Ode 1 Troparia)
In contrast to this, St. Andrew calls us to be inspired by those righteous men and women of scripture, who found life in the living God; truly being witness of “Your will be done”. Again, as St. Andrew writes, both for himself, and for us,
“The ladder seen of old by the great Patriarch Jacob is an example, O my soul, both of ascent through action and of ascent through spiritual understanding. If, therefore, it is your desire to live by your works, with understanding and contemplation, you will be made new”. (Canon of St. Andrew – Monday Ode 4 Troparia)
All that St. Andrew considers – and that we are called to consider – provides the whole context for clean week (and the rest of our Lenten journey) as it guides to accept the things of God, and reject those things that are not of God – a sort of cleaning guide.
We are called to “Wash (ourselves), make (ourselves) clean; Put away the evil of (our) doings from before (the Lord’s) eyes” (Is. 1:16) as we begin this fast. And in the same way we clean up our homes, offices, shops, we are called to do some “soul cleaning”. In cleaning up, we generally find things that are really important and useful; and things that are neither – just garbage that has accumulated. What St. Andrew offers us to in this “clean week” helps identify what is what, and guides us to keep that which is important, useful and life-giving in acclimation of the divine – of “Your will be done”; and identifies what is garbage, guiding us to throw away all that is futile, and decaying; the consequences – of “my will be done”.
By St. Andrew’s prayers, may his work inspire us to engage in this dialogue with our souls. Being guided by his struggle, may we reject the garbage and clutter of our hearts, of “my will be done”, and commit to the clarity of that which is of “Your will be done”.
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