On keeping the fast - St. Philaret of New York

[Maria]

I copied this sermon from Fr. John Somers' facebook page

• ON KEEPING THE FAST

  Great Lent is upon us, and on its threshold it would be good for the Christian to think about how he should spend the time of Great Lent, and above all, how he should observe the fast and follow the church rules. We need to keep in mind that on one hand, whenever the rules on fasting are mentioned in the church books, they seem to be intended for monasteries. Yet we know that the great ascetics and fasters observed the fast much more strictly than the church rules call for.

  Yesterday, on the last Saturday before Great Lent, the Church commemorated all those ascetics who lived their lives in extremely strict abstinence. They include St. Anthony the Great, St. Macarius the Great, St. Theodosius the Great, St. Pimen the Great, St. Euthymius the Great, and others. All of them were ascetics who, I repeat, fasted much more strictly than the church rules call for. Of course, by pointing them out to us, the Church does not require that we imitate them to the same extent. First of all, they had a completely different way of life. They were recluses or, at any rate, desert-dwellers. Their amazing accounts are contained in the Lives of Saints. For example, St. Paisius the Great seems to have set a record among them. Except for the Holy Gifts, he took no food for two forty-day periods in a row, that is, for eighty days straight. Nonetheless, he was so full of strength, not only spiritual but physical as well, that he was able to observe all the rules and fulfill all his duties as a monk even while fasting. Many saints fasted for forty days, imitating the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, while those who fasted for one week at a time took food only at the end of the week. There were many who did likewise, and also in Russia. But, I repeat, the Church does not at all require that we do the same. The Church sets forth rules for fasting. If those saints could fast like that, the requirements in our service books are more or less within reach of everyone. Of course, when a person really is not capable, he is not required to follow the fasting rules strictly, because the point is for a person to restrain to some degree his passionate, capricious, and lustful flesh, and humble it, dealing with it firmly and subjugating it to his spirit. Fasting is necessary to humble one’s sinful fleshly nature, but if a person is sick, such measures are not required of him as of a healthy person, because fasting accomplishes that which in his case is brought about by his illness that has weakened his nature. A strict fast is not required of someone who is infirm and feeble, someone who is already fighting or is threatened by illness. Just remember that if a person cannot fast strictly and it is lent, let him just observe the fast to the extent that he is able, so as not to weaken himself further, for he is already weak. However, during lent he should definitely abstain from something he really likes, whether it be food or something else. Let him exercise restraint in some way or another to make up for his not fasting from food, for it is during Great Lent that he should abstain from anything else he really likes that has become habitual and could possibly turn into a passion.

  For example, I have known many people who had the bad habit of smoking tobacco. Many of them would stop when Great Lent started. They bravely endured those feelings of deprivation that a person experiences when he quits. The urge to smoke decreases, and eventually it becomes easier to abstain. And then when you ask them, “Well, if you are already used to not smoking, for it seems that it is not so hard for you now, why do you take it up again when it is Pascha and the fast is over?” They say, “We really don’t know...we don’t really feel like smoking, but do so anyway, out of weakness...”

  We must remember that a person’s will is weak when he relies solely on himself. But when he relies on God’s help, and, realizing his weakness, asks the Lord for help, the result is completely different. I knew one lady, already getting on in years, who for forty years smoked non-stop, like a chimney. She was told that St. Seraphim would help people with such an addiction. And a real miracle took place. Here was a woman who could not do without a cigarette for even half an hour, and, as she later told me herself, she went to the icon of St. Seraphim and with great faith asked him, “Batiushka Father Seraphim, you know that I do want to give up this bad habit. Help me to give up smoking!” And, as she said, she never again wanted a cigarette. This shows that when a person turns to the Lord and to His saints with such wholehearted faith, God’s help will come WITHOUT FAIL! We have to remember this! Lent is the time when a person needs to think about his life and about his soul, and strive to somehow cleanse it from all kinds of sinful pollution and purify it. Indeed, we have to spend the time of Great Lent not just going to confession and receiving Holy Communion as a formality, then going back to the same sins, but really thinking about our life, evaluating it according to the holy and rigorous commandments of the Gospel, and striving to somehow improve ourselves during these holy days. And we need to ask the Lord for help that we may somehow manage to keep controlling ourselves, so that whatever we may have accomplished would not disappear without a trace, as it often happens when Lent is over, but that it would all remain secure in our souls as a spiritual acquisition.

  As Lent begins, we should all ask the Lord to help us make good use of this time. The holy fathers liked to say that for good reason, in our northern hemisphere, lent always occurs in the springtime. Spring is the time for sowing, and now, good seeds are sown so that we can enjoy the fruits thereof for the whole year. We need to think of this spiritual spring as the time to sow good seeds in our hearts so that they will, with God’s help, yield good and lasting fruit. Amen.

  St. Metropolitan Philaret of New York, Sermons, Vol. II, pp. 35-37
  Like ·

[jgress]

I copied this sermon from Fr. John Somers' facebook page

• ON KEEPING THE FAST

  Great Lent is upon us, and on its threshold it would be good for the Christian to think about how he should spend the time of Great Lent, and above all, how he should observe the fast and follow the church rules. We need to keep in mind that on one hand, whenever the rules on fasting are mentioned in the church books, they seem to be intended for monasteries. Yet we know that the great ascetics and fasters observed the fast much more strictly than the church rules call for.

  Yesterday, on the last Saturday before Great Lent, the Church commemorated all those ascetics who lived their lives in extremely strict abstinence. They include St. Anthony the Great, St. Macarius the Great, St. Theodosius the Great, St. Pimen the Great, St. Euthymius the Great, and others. All of them were ascetics who, I repeat, fasted much more strictly than the church rules call for. Of course, by pointing them out to us, the Church does not require that we imitate them to the same extent. First of all, they had a completely different way of life. They were recluses or, at any rate, desert-dwellers. Their amazing accounts are contained in the Lives of Saints. For example, St. Paisius the Great seems to have set a record among them. Except for the Holy Gifts, he took no food for two forty-day periods in a row, that is, for eighty days straight. Nonetheless, he was so full of strength, not only spiritual but physical as well, that he was able to observe all the rules and fulfill all his duties as a monk even while fasting. Many saints fasted for forty days, imitating the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, while those who fasted for one week at a time took food only at the end of the week. There were many who did likewise, and also in Russia. But, I repeat, the Church does not at all require that we do the same. The Church sets forth rules for fasting. If those saints could fast like that, the requirements in our service books are more or less within reach of everyone. Of course, when a person really is not capable, he is not required to follow the fasting rules strictly, because the point is for a person to restrain to some degree his passionate, capricious, and lustful flesh, and humble it, dealing with it firmly and subjugating it to his spirit. Fasting is necessary to humble one’s sinful fleshly nature, but if a person is sick, such measures are not required of him as of a healthy person, because fasting accomplishes that which in his case is brought about by his illness that has weakened his nature. A strict fast is not required of someone who is infirm and feeble, someone who is already fighting or is threatened by illness. Just remember that if a person cannot fast strictly and it is lent, let him just observe the fast to the extent that he is able, so as not to weaken himself further, for he is already weak. However, during lent he should definitely abstain from something he really likes, whether it be food or something else. Let him exercise restraint in some way or another to make up for his not fasting from food, for it is during Great Lent that he should abstain from anything else he really likes that has become habitual and could possibly turn into a passion.

  For example, I have known many people who had the bad habit of smoking tobacco. Many of them would stop when Great Lent started. They bravely endured those feelings of deprivation that a person experiences when he quits. The urge to smoke decreases, and eventually it becomes easier to abstain. And then when you ask them, “Well, if you are already used to not smoking, for it seems that it is not so hard for you now, why do you take it up again when it is Pascha and the fast is over?” They say, “We really don’t know...we don’t really feel like smoking, but do so anyway, out of weakness...”

  We must remember that a person’s will is weak when he relies solely on himself. But when he relies on God’s help, and, realizing his weakness, asks the Lord for help, the result is completely different. I knew one lady, already getting on in years, who for forty years smoked non-stop, like a chimney. She was told that St. Seraphim would help people with such an addiction. And a real miracle took place. Here was a woman who could not do without a cigarette for even half an hour, and, as she later told me herself, she went to the icon of St. Seraphim and with great faith asked him, “Batiushka Father Seraphim, you know that I do want to give up this bad habit. Help me to give up smoking!” And, as she said, she never again wanted a cigarette. This shows that when a person turns to the Lord and to His saints with such wholehearted faith, God’s help will come WITHOUT FAIL! We have to remember this! Lent is the time when a person needs to think about his life and about his soul, and strive to somehow cleanse it from all kinds of sinful pollution and purify it. Indeed, we have to spend the time of Great Lent not just going to confession and receiving Holy Communion as a formality, then going back to the same sins, but really thinking about our life, evaluating it according to the holy and rigorous commandments of the Gospel, and striving to somehow improve ourselves during these holy days. And we need to ask the Lord for help that we may somehow manage to keep controlling ourselves, so that whatever we may have accomplished would not disappear without a trace, as it often happens when Lent is over, but that it would all remain secure in our souls as a spiritual acquisition.

  As Lent begins, we should all ask the Lord to help us make good use of this time. The holy fathers liked to say that for good reason, in our northern hemisphere, lent always occurs in the springtime. Spring is the time for sowing, and now, good seeds are sown so that we can enjoy the fruits thereof for the whole year. We need to think of this spiritual spring as the time to sow good seeds in our hearts so that they will, with God’s help, yield good and lasting fruit. Amen.

  St. Metropolitan Philaret of New York, Sermons, Vol. II, pp. 35-37
  Like ·

Thank you for posting this! Very edifying.

[Jean-Serge]

I also recommend the homily by the same Saint Philaret on the same topic, available here page 2 to 5:

A WORD ON THE FAST
Saint Philaret of New York, the New Confessor + 1985 A.D.

IN THE NAME of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!

YOU and I are at the very doors of the fast. Strictly speaking it should not be necessary to explain to Orthodox Christians what the fast is and why it is necessary for man, because the fast is a churchly practice, and every Orthodox person, knowing the Holy Gospels, should recall the words of the Saviour which have great significance: If a man neglect to hear the Church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican (Matt. 18:17), which means that through the sin of not heeding the Church he, as it
were, ceases to be an Orthodox Christian.

This is clear and simple. However, nowadays life itself shows us that Orthodox Christians frequently consider that they are faithful and devoted children of the Church while yet regarding the fast in an unchurchly and un-Orthodox way, and that it is just something that the ministers of the Church have to speak about and bring to remembrance. Before all else, beloved ones, recognise and firmly bear in mind that the fast was not established by some individual minister of the Church, even by one that was a holy God-pleaser and a righteous man. The fast was established by the whole Church; the fast is a church precept. Therefore if we fail to fulfil this precept
there should be some over-riding reason for this; if there is indeed such a reason in certain circumstances,then the Church is always ready to accommodate this. For instance, if an extremely sick person needs fortifying nourishment for the strengthening of his enfeebled organism, the Church not only permits him to modify the fast, but in certain circumstances frees him from it altogether. Sometimes it happens that someone is found to be in circumstances in which he is deprived of the opportunity of choosing food in accordance with his own discretion; in such restricted circumstances the Church frees us from the obligation of fasting.

But unfortunately,it happens that we hear people say strange things, such as this: “It’s all the same to God what I eat, potatoes or ham!” Of course, the Lord has no needs regarding whether we eat one thing or another, but bear in mind, irrational man, that the fast is not something needful to God, but to you yourself. When the Son of God was incarnate on earth, according to the witness of the holy Gospel, at the beginning of His ministry He himself fasted for forty days and forty nights. And when later the
Apostles asked Him why they had been unable to cast out the evil spirit from the possessed youth, the Lord replied: This kind goeth not out (that is, is not expelled) but by prayer and fasting (Matt.17:21). With these words the Saviour places fasting on a par with prayer as the means of overcoming evil, demonic power.

Pay careful attention to what you see in this holy church. In it there are [icons of] many choirs of saints who pleased God. And show me in their midst just one, who held such an opinion as is now, unfortunately, held by many Orthodox Christians, who assert that the fast is not important, that to God it is all the same what we eat, and that fasting is wholly unnecessary. But,mark, the saints who pleased God, whom the Church has glorified, and consequently affirms that their way is the true, righteous and perfect way, - they all fasted, and they fasted to an extent that many of us would probably not have the strength to fast. Show me, I repeat, just one of the saints who pleased God, depicted in the holy icons, who spoke of the fast in the same way as today the “wise ones” do, who consider that their own unhealthy arguments excel the precepts of the Church.

The Venerable Seraphim of Sarov once demonstrated the meaning of the fast exactly. A certain woman came to him, a loving mother who had a daughter
whom she must needs give in marriage. Naturally the heart of the mother was anxious about the fate and happiness of her daughter, and she desired to know whether her daughter would be happy with her future life’s partner. This woman came to the Elder Seraphim with these questions. When he had heard what she had to say, Saint Seraphim told her: “Before everything else, if your daughter has a chosen one, then before all else, does he keep the fasts?” - “for (the Elder immediately went on to say) he who does not keep the fast, such an one is not a Christian.” Take this to heart, Christian soul. On this subject, the Venerable Seraphim is an indisputable authority. He did not ever tell anyone to take on those incredible and super-human struggles and labours which he himself took on. He never commanded anyone to dothis,but he required of the Christian unfailing obedience to the Church, and he made his teaching concerning the fast in the spirit of that saying of the Saviour regarding obedience to the Church,which we have given above (i.e. Matt. 18:15-17). If someone does not keep the fast, that means he does not hearken to the Church, which has enjoined the fast, and it follows that he ceases to be a son of the Church, he ceases to be an Orthodox Christian. It is impossible to escape this cast-iron logic. Therefore with regard
to fasting, once and forever bear in mind that if you wish to be a faithful son of the Orthodox Russian Church, you are bound to keep the fasts.

Sadly, in this regard people are somehow extraordinarily feeble, even unconcerned as they say. Once, as if this justified him, one of the church workers said to the renowned Russian hierarch, Philaret the Metropolitan of Moscow, who is renowned for his holiness, life and his exceptional wisdom: “Master, what to do? The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Shaking his head, Metropolitan Philaret said: “No, my friend, now it is more appropriate to say the opposite: The spirit is weak, but the flesh is strong. And it dictates its own rules and the spirit is unable to withstand this and involuntarily submits to it, and a man fulfils every caprice of his body, his flesh.”
Nowadays they often say: “It is difficult to fast, it isn’t always possible to lay on a fasting meal.” But in my opinion, this is not right. In the circumstances of life in Australia, where I was until recently, and here in America [and of course here in England too - transl.] it is simply shameful to say it. It would be better to say straight-forwardly: “We don’t want to fast!” At the very least this would be open, and not another lying excuse. I spent the last years in China. There, there was a literal
famine; there, there was appalling need; there at times there was simply nothing to eat at all. There many people were far from eating every day; nonetheless there were people who wanted to keep the fasts, - they fasted and they did not die from hunger.

The Venerable Seraphim told someone: “Bread and water never harmed anyone. From fasting not one person has ever died, but from overindulgence many die.” Simple and wise instruction. Beloved brethrenwho are listening! You and I are children of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad , and we must bear in mind that we must distinguish ourselves from the people who are not Orthodox among whom we find ourselves. Once the Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in the town of Philippi, praising them that
they shine as lights in the world (Phil. 2:16), in the midst of that pagan darkness which surrounded them. And how clear would the beauty and power of our Orthodox Church be, if her children were in all things and always strict in their adherence to her precepts, and especially with regarding to fasting. This always makes a great
impression upon the non-Orthodox, upon the heterodox. The person who follows his own convictions and ways always deserves the respect of all.

And so,I repeat, you and I are at the eve of the fast, and I want to hope that everyone, when he hears the call of the Church, will apply himself to this fast, not like disobedient people,but rather like those who are obedient to Church teaching. And I hope that all of us who are standing here will keep this fast, according to the
measure of our strength, remembering that he who does not fast will never greet the feast of Christ’s Nativity in the way that one who keeps the church fast does. Amen.

[Barbara]

These are both MARVELOUS sermons !
How great a speaker was Metropolitan Philaret the Great...what I like to call him. Of course, he humbly refers to his
Moscow namesake from the 19th century, Met. Philaret {Drozdov}, if my memory serves me correctly as to name in the world.
Both are great luminaries of the Church.

These sermons are SO well put, and speak to the truth about how lax people are in many regards. Not just fasting.

Maybe, on the basis of the account in the first sermon, St Seraphim could be made the official Saint of Breaking Addictions !

And the Icon for that would be The Inexhaustible Chalice.

What a heartening tale of that inveterate smoker stopping the filthy habit while making a sincere prayer !