Fasting = one meal per day?

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JHunt777
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Fasting = one meal per day?

Post by JHunt777 »

I would be interested to know, for those belonging to different TOC/GOC Synods, in which Synods is the traditional practice of one meal per day after 3pm during fasting periods practiced? I realize that one's spiritual father can relax this standard on an individual basis for medical reasons or other serious conditions, but I would be interested to know in general:

  1. Whether, along with the instructions on what to eat and what not to eat on a Fast day, you are also instructed in your church that one should only have one meal per day after 3pm on fast days, and
  2. What TOC/GOC Synod you belong to

In the intro to the Lenten Triodion, Met Kallistos says that while fasting rules have varied from time to time and place to place, the rule of one meal per day after 3pm on Fast days is a consensus. St. Gregory Palamas in his homilies also affirms that Christians have one meal per day in the evening during a fasting period, and he comments that this rule is light enough that anybody can do it without undue burden. St. Gregory is so insistent upon this practice that if someone claims that they are too ill to keep this rule, he instructs clergy not to take such claims at face value but to send such people to a trustworthy and honest, pious Orthodox physician for validation of such claims.

Thank you in advance for your contribution.

jgress
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Re: Fasting = one meal per day?

Post by jgress »

From what I know, St Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain in his Confessional prescribes the canonical fast of one meal after the ninth hour (or the evening, depending on your source). But in his Handbook of Spiritual Counsel, when he mentions the Wednesday and Friday fasts he seems to imply that only the Fathers of Mt Athos kept the one meal rule in all strictness. At our monastery of the Holy Ascension, it was the custom to eat twice a day every day (except at certain times like the first three days of Lent or Good Friday), but now I'm told they keep a much stricter regimen.

The one meal rule is not common practice at St Markella's at any rate. Certainly it is not considered the standard, although for all I know some keep it.

There is a book by Bishop Auxentius of Photiki "Fasting in the Orthodox Church" which I imagine will answer your questions, though I haven't read it myself. You can get it from ctosonline. Bishop Kallistos' edition of the Triodion is full of interesting information, but his prescriptions, either for fasting or for the order of services, should not be taken necessarily as the universal practice (even where he claims it is the universal practice).

Of course, I do not recommend keeping the one meal rule unless your confessor has specifically instructed you to do so, but I imagine I don't need to say that.

JHunt777
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Re: Fasting = one meal per day?

Post by JHunt777 »

From the number of views vs. the lack of responses in this thread, and from the duration of time in which this thread has been open (1.5 yrs), am I to understand that none of the TOC/GOC groups represented here instruct their faithful in general to eat only one meal per day on fast days?

Of course, I realize that people may individually follow this practice (hopefully with the blessing of their spiritual father), and I do not ask the question in order to absolutize fasting as if one person is more holy than another by virtue of following this long-standing fasting guideline, but I think it a shame if this important guideline were to be disregarded as on longer suitable for universal practice. As mentioned above, St. Gregory Palamas (just to mention one example) considered one meal per day on fast days (taken in the evening) to be easy enought that it could be followed by all people. Today it is very easy to fast as we have every possible variety and substitute at our finger tips every season of the year. While we must fast both bodily (from certain types of foods and from excess) and spiritually (abstaining from sins, practicing watchfulness over our thoughts, guarding our senses), it seems that the full value and importance of bodily fasting is lost when the bodily aspect is limited to consuming certain foods rather than others while the ascetic dimension of experiencing hunger during the fast (and practicing patience, humility, perseverance, and prayer in the midst of this hunger) is overlooked, forgotten, or discarded as unimportant. When the aspect of food quantity (and not just type) is overlooked, it would seem that much of the value and benefit of fasting is also lost (though of course we will certainly derive some small benefit from any effort on our part ot restrict the will and fast spiritually also).

jgress
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Re: Fasting = one meal per day?

Post by jgress »

Given that you're not even in the TOC, what business is this of yours, to be frank?

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Maria
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Re: Fasting = one meal per day?

Post by Maria »

JHunt777 wrote:

From the number of views vs. the lack of responses in this thread, and from the duration of time in which this thread has been open (1.5 yrs), am I to understand that none of the TOC/GOC groups represented here instruct their faithful in general to eat only one meal per day on fast days?

Of course, I realize that people may individually follow this practice (hopefully with the blessing of their spiritual father), and I do not ask the question in order to absolutize fasting as if one person is more holy than another by virtue of following this long-standing fasting guideline, but I think it a shame if this important guideline were to be disregarded as on longer suitable for universal practice. As mentioned above, St. Gregory Palamas (just to mention one example) considered one meal per day on fast days (taken in the evening) to be easy enought that it could be followed by all people. Today it is very easy to fast as we have every possible variety and substitute at our finger tips every season of the year. While we must fast both bodily (from certain types of foods and from excess) and spiritually (abstaining from sins, practicing watchfulness over our thoughts, guarding our senses), it seems that the full value and importance of bodily fasting is lost when the bodily aspect is limited to consuming certain foods rather than others while the ascetic dimension of experiencing hunger during the fast (and practicing patience, humility, perseverance, and prayer in the midst of this hunger) is overlooked, forgotten, or discarded as unimportant. When the aspect of food quantity (and not just type) is overlooked, it would seem that much of the value and benefit of fasting is also lost (though of course we will certainly derive some small benefit from any effort on our part ot restrict the will and fast spiritually also).

Since we are to fast in secret and to the best of our ability and means, most Orthodox Christians would rather not discuss fasting but desire to keep it confidential between their spiritual father, God, and their immediate family.

However, I think it might be interesting to note that whereas Worldwide Orthodox jurisdictions generally allow shell fish during Lenten days, including expensive crab and lobster, the GOC/HOTCA synod does not. On strict weekday fast days where there is no special feast day, the following guideline is to be followed:

No meat, dairy, fish, shellfish, oil or wine.

This avoids the commonly seen situation where Orthodox Christians go to a restaurant on Wednesdays and Fridays and order lobster with the requisite butter dip. As one Greek Orthodox Christian said to their priest who happened to be at the same restaurant: "What good is lobster without the butter dip?"

Since the above guideline is printed on the GOC/HOTCA online liturgical calendar, from which the above quote is taken, this information is quite public.

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner.

jgress
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Re: Fasting = one meal per day?

Post by jgress »

Thanks again, Maria. This is like the thread on Canon 37 of Laodicea: really, what business is it of ours whether other people eat shellfish on days of xerophagy or not, or whether they accept presents from their heterodox family on Western Christmas (St Spyridon's!) or not?

jgress
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Re: Fasting = one meal per day?

Post by jgress »

I suppose maybe I should clarify what I say in the context of the purpose of this part of the forum. Yes, it's good to ask questions in order to learn more about Orthodox praxis. So questions about how common the observance of the one meal rule are fine if they are merely seeking information. But Jason's last post was tending towards a kind of judgment of those who appear to be too lax. Well listen up: most Orthodox are very lax by the standards of yesteryear, and I'm talking about the True Orthodox here! Fr Steven Allen in a video interview with the Serbian True Orthodox made a wonderful statement about what it means to be True Orthodox:

We are not the best Orthodox. We are the worst Orthodox! But … we are Orthodox.

If we want to be strict, we should focus on being strict in our love for the Truth. This means uncompromising strictness with respect to dogmatic correctness. This means no fellowship with those who dilute the faith in even the least degree, as the World Orthodox are doing. But we don't approach asceticism in the same way. Asceticism is about how we take this uncompromised Truth and attempt to realize it in our everyday lives. Here the struggle is very severe, and we must recognize how feeble we are and how hard it is to come up to even a tiny fraction of the achievements of the saints. At this point, idle talk about how we don't observe the canons strictly become dangerous. Yes, we fall short, but how do you hope to fix that by pointing fingers at everyone else for not keeping the one meal a day rule? By all means keep it yourself, but don't make a big deal out of it and thereby drive others away from the Church!

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