Welcome to the forum! Assuming that you are already familiar with Christianity, I would recommend the following;
- Start a prayer rule (Morning and Evening Prayers primarily. They can be found on the internet or you can PM me and I;ll email you coupler of Word documents)
- Pray during the services that you attend. Pray hard. Sit/stand next to folks who get there early and pray hard as well.
- Try to get into the habit of starting Sunday with Vespers on Saturday night and get to Church early on Sunday so that you can prepare for the Divine Liturgy (even though you will not receive Holy Communion for a while).
- Try to attend services particular to Lent, such as the Great Canon, Pre-sanctified Liturgies, and certainly the Holy Week services. Make sure that you do not miss Paschal Services and since it will be crowded, get there a bit early and claim a front-and-center place.
In Christ, Kyrill
Well said. I'd add only to speak to the priest about a fasting rule. I would recommend something simple (we started with a simple eucharistic fast on Sunday even though we were not communing and giving up meat but not fish on appointed fast days, but quickly got into the rhythm of keeping the same fasts the Church keeps). But in the end, ignore my recommendations and do whatever your priest tells you.
Reading convinced me I wanted to explore Orthodoxy. Prayer, fasting and attendance convinced me I was in fact Orthodox and needed to join the Church.
