…is a Patristic characterization of the Orthodox attitude during the Great Fast.  Archbishop LAZAR (Puhalo) from Canada expands upon this:

The Holy Prophet said, “Let the four fasts of the year be joy and gladness to Israel.” Truly, it is a time for repentance. But repentance is a joyous experience, a lifting of burdens, an illumination of the heart, and experience of Paradise. If Great Lent is truly a period of repentance, then how could [it] be other than joy and gladness in the midst of extra temptations, a foretaste of Pascha, a sense of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, because true repentance brings all these into the heart of the believer.


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