Lent as an Act of Creating Time and Space

The cycle of year is a small model of world history. It has a beginning, a progression and an end in time and space. For the Christian, it is like being away from home, like a stay in a foreign country, where there may be a lot of excitement at the start, but as time passes, there an overwhelming sense of homesickness develops.

Lent symbolises the last things that need to be done in order to get back home, it is a focus on the essential, an effort and an expectation. It is self-mobilisation, a final stretch before the finish line, in this case the most important event of the year – the Resurrection. Lent is not only about looking inward, but also about outward activity, altruism, acts of charity, forgiveness.

Lent is a time taken out of the monotony of linear progression; it is a space connected to the universe. It is a preparation for an encounter with the eternal and infinite – with God.

Orest Kormashov is an artist, lecturer and icon scholar. He has worked for decades as a painting instructor at Tallinn University. He has also devoted himself to painting and icon restoration, to lecturing about the world of icons, as well as to the activities of the Museum of Russian Icons.

The lecture will be in Estonian.

Everyone is welcome.