Fasting

[ultra_sinful]

hoax or not, it is better to use no oil but olive oil.

[Ekaterina]

Fasting
The meaning of fasting consists, in the first place, in abstinence (in theology it is called self-denial), in forcing oneself to do not only what is pleasing to "my little soul," as the Russians would say. The meaning of fasting lies in controlling one's egoistic desires, in submission to something other than the continuous dictates of the self-loving ego. Why is this necessary? Why is it good for us periodically to tame and humble ourselves? Because our nature is a part of the world which is wallowing in sin in the words of John the Evangelist; man carries in himself the fruits of the original sin, and his voluntary renunciation of the ties to this natural world elevates him - above that world and frees him from it thus beginning the process of freeing him from the shackles which keep him in bondage to sin.

It would be wrong to think that fasting is in some way similar to suicide. Atheists and materialists try to force this idea upon us arguing that religion is a renunciation of life, a disregard for life in the name of a non-scientific and abstract idea of the Spirit-GOD. Any religion, they aver, is the opium of the masses, and fasting blunts man's physical activity. This assertion is entirely unsubstantiated. The practice of fasting was instituted in order to revitalize, not destroy, our nature. Fasting is the hygiene of the soul, the means of its cleansing and healing. In the physical sense alone fasting is good for one, and one can speak about the necessity to fast from the medical point of view.

Fasting gives us back our lost equilibrium and brings into harmony our mind, our soul and our body. Abstaining from excessive food results in the lightening of the capabilities of the mind and the soul. Food is conducive to sleep rather than activity, be it physical -or mental. incidentally, St. Seraphim of Sarov used to say that it is not meet to speak of things Divine having "stuffed one's gut."

Man must eat in order to survive. Eating is certainly not sinful from the spiritual point of view. Heaviness and obesity are harmful for spiritual life: the Bible tells us that God warned Israel on its way to the Land of Canaan: "Israel, Israel! Thou goest to the land that floweth with milk and honey. Beware, Israel, lest thou become heavy and forget thy God!"

It pains us to see hunger in this world. Yet it not less painful to see what the poet Marina Tsvetaeva called the "satiety of the sated."

Fasting leads to the total equilibrium and harmony of our mental, spiritual and physical selves. If our physical self becomes dominant, it is good to reduce physical activity so as to liberate the spirit and establish the equilibrium of spiritual purity. Even the stoics taught that spiritual purity leads to the harmony of man's entire being.

Why does the Church prescribe the choice of foods for fasting periods?

Our physiological activity is a function of the food we eat. The more we eat foods which are located higher up on the ladder of organic and animal world, the more active we become in the physical sense. Vladimir Soloviov gives the following gradation of physical activity. Physical activity is the least pronounced in the plant world. For this reason, the most "fasting" food consists of vegetables, fruits and cereals. Fish are more highly developed than plants, and birds are more highly developed than fish. That is why the physical energy derived from birds is proportionately stronger than that derived from either fish or plants. The most highly developed animals are mammals which is why they are justly considered the most "un-lenten" food.

Apart from its physiological aspect, fasting is important for spiritual development and the training of will.

The Lord gave man the freedom of will so that he may do good deeds, seek the Truth and create beautiful things. But the freedom of will does not mean the absence of will, lack of volition, weakness of will or apathy. If man is given his freedom of will, than he must know what he wants, towards what end his will should be directed. The freedom of will must never lead man to immorality, lack of concern, indecency, licentiousness. Having decided what is good and what evil, man is under an obligation to use his will to do good which would lead him to God. Man is called to the doing of good deeds, to spiritual activity, the building of the City of God. For this reason, fasting, as every form of self-denial, is a marvelous instrument in the education of man's will and the taming of his licentiousness.

The discipline of the Church fast, as every discipline makes man more compatible with others, less solipsistic, less self-willed. Man must make his will conform with the will of the Church. It is good for each of us to know what the will of the entire Church is. It is good for us to fast at times and in the manner prescribed by the Church. It is good for us, for our salvation, to be subject to the discipline of the Church, to be together with all others, to have the personal ego conform with the general desire of the Church. It is imperative for a man to be active not only in his own cause but also in the "Common Cause" and to submit to the discipline of the Church. Incidentally, the word "liturgy" means "common cause." According to the Church's definition, Christians are "Christ's soldiers." Together, they make up "Christ's Army." The earthly church is the "Church militant", the church fighting for the salvation of its children. Discipline in the army of the Church, in the army of Christ, is just as necessary as it is in the ordinary army. This is in part the essence of Christian catholicity.

Fasting, of course, is not merely an exercise in abstinence. It also consists in performing good deeds. The Church insists on this aspect of fasting in Lenten hymns. It is evident, for instance, in the following liturgical text: "While fasting, brethren, in our bodies let us also fast in our spirits, let us destroy every alliance of deceit, let us give bread to the hungry and let us bring the poor and the homeless into our homes."

On the eve of the Lenten Fast, during the liturgy on the Sunday of Repentance the gospel reading speaks of conditions on which is predicated our liberation from the slavery to sin , to "this world." The first condition for our liberation from the dictatorial will of the flesh, the matter, is fasting. But for the fast to be real, authentic, the Gospel indicates, we must not fast hypocritically, ostentatiously. In the words of Christ, when we fast must not appear to fast unto men but unto our Father which is in secret. The second condition is forgiveness. "If ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you." The triumph of sin and the principal sign of Its dominion over the world are quarrels, discord, dissension, hatred. The first breach in the fortress of sin is forgiveness, that is the return to unity, concord, love.

At the end of the vespers on the Sunday of Forgiveness, the worshippers come up to the celebrant and ask for forgiveness after which they turn to each other asking each other for forgiveness. It is precisely this act of love, this act of becoming one, that marks the beginning of the Fast.

Today, there are not many who stop to think about the meaning of fasting. This is a result of the overall spiritual weakening, of the lack of spiritual vigor and responsibility.

O, if only we remembered what we were called for, what feats of spirit the Lord expects of us! If only we remembered more often that we were appointed laborers in the vineyard of the Lord and that we shall be called by the Master to account for our labors and for the fruits brought forth by our labors in His vineyard! Perhaps it is to us that the terrible words of the Master in the parable refer: "The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof!" (Matt. 21, 33-43.)

Archpriest Victor Potapov

[GOCPriestMark]

Saint John of Kronstadt (1829-1908), when remarking on caring too much for the flesh, said, "It is remarkable that however much we trouble about our health, however much care we take of ourselves, whatever wholesome and pleasant food and drink we take, however much we walk in the fresh air, still, notwithstanding all this, in the end we sicken and corrupt; whilst the saints, who despise the flesh, and mortify it by continual abstinence and fasting, by lying on the bare earth, by watchful­ness, labors, unceasing prayer, make both their souls and bodies immortal. Our well-fed bodies decay and after death emit an offensive odor, whilst theirs remain fragrant and flourishing both in life and after death. It is a remarkable thing: we, by building up our body, destroy it, whilst they, by destroying theirs, built it up-by caring only for the fragrance of their souls before God, they obtain fragrance of the body also."

The Spiritual Counsel of Father John of Kronstadt, ed. by W. Jardine Grisbrooke (London: James Clark & Co. Ltd., 1967), pp. 152­153.

[Liudmilla]

A Fast Pleasing To God

“Moses stayed with God for forty days and forty nights” (Exodus 34: 28).
Even in the Old Testament we already find 40-day fasts; all of them were caused by special circumstances, had a special assignment from God and bore special fruit. In the very beginning of the Old Testament we read about Moses, the meekest of all people on earth, that he “had seen God face-to-face.” From the very beginning of his difficult assignment - the terrible struggle with a people who angered the Lord their God, - he ascended a mountain and “he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water; and he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments” (Ex. 34:28).

For a short while he left his worldly affairs and concerns and ascended straight up to the Lord. He saw Him, took pleasure in Him, was transfigured by Him, so that his face shone for a long time afterwards, and spent time with Him alone, in this wondrous and continuous communion, obeying His will and listening to His words, for forty days and forty nights! What an extraordinary fast! A fast of close communion and mystic conversation with God.

How was Moses able to see God? We are not told about it; it is impossible to describe in words. But we know for a certainty that this meeting did take place, and it left an indelible trace. His face began to shine because God had spoken with him, and his soul, which had appeared before the Heavenly Father, took on power and grace for the remainder of his life. This was a fast of a close meeting with God.

And what about our fast? Does it consist of seeking the Face of God, as King David said: “Thou art my God; from early morning will I seek Thee, my soul thirsteth for Thee…. to see Thy power and Thy glory” (Psalm 63:1-2). Do we seek private conversation with God (prayer), which comprises the mystic power of Christian life? A fast pleasing to God is the soul’s intimacy and communion with Him, and to this fast was not only Moses summoned, but each one of us as well.

From “Day by day” - diary of an Orthodox priest.

The Great Fast - our exile
“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down,
yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.”

In these words of the Lenten psalm, we Orthodox Christians, the New Israel, remember that we are in exile. For Orthodox Russians banished from Holy Russia, the psalm has a special meaning; but all Orthodox Christians, too, live in exile in this world, longing to return to our true home, Heaven. For us the Great Fast is a season of exile ordained for us by our Mother, the Church, to keep fresh in us the memory of the Zion from which we have wandered so far. We have deserved our exile and we have great need of it because of our great sinfulness. Only through the chastisement of exile, which we remember in the fasting, prayers, and repentance of this season, do we remain mindful of our Zion.

“If I forget thee, O Jerusalem…”

Weak and forgetful, even in the midst of the Great Fast we live as though Jerusalem did not exist for us. We fall in love with the world, our Babylon; we are seduced by the frivolous pastimes of this “strange land” and neglect the services and discipline of the Church which remind us of our true home. Worse yet, we love our very captors - for our sins hold us captive more surely than any human master - and in their service we pass in idleness the precious days of Lent when we should be preparing to meet the rising sun of the New Jerusalem - the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

There is still time; we must remember our true home and weep over the sins which have exiled us from it. Let us take to heart the words of St. John of the Ladder: “Exile is separation from everything in order to keep the mind inseparable from God. Exile loves and produces continual weeping.” Exiled from Paradise, we must become exiles from this world if we hope to return. This we may do by spending these days in fasting, prayer, separation from the world, attendance at the services of the Church, in tears of repentance, in preparation for the joyful Feast that is to end this time of exile; and by bearing witness to all in this “strange land” of our remembrance of that even greater Feast that shall be when our Lord returns to take home His people to the New Jerusalem, from which there shall be no more exile, for it is eternal.
Father Seraphim Rose.

The original sin
Some people say: it does not matter if one eats non-lenten food during lent, fasting does not pertain only to food; it does not matter if one wears beautiful and expensive clothes, goes to the theater, to the dances, buys magnificent furniture, chinaware, keeps savings accounts, etc.; but - for what reason does our heart turn away from God, the Source of life, for what reason do we lose eternal life? Is it not because of gluttony, because of expensive clothing, like the rich man of the Gospel, because of our passion for luxuries? Is it possible to serve God and mammon, to be a friend both to the world and to God, to serve Christ and the devil? Totally impossible. For what reason did Adam and Eve lose paradise and embraced sin and death? Was it not from a single food? Look carefully at the reason why we disregard the salvation of our souls, for which the Son of God had payed such a high price, why we pile sin upon sin, why we constantly find ourselves in opposition to God, why we fall into a life of vanity. Is it not because of our attachment to worldly things, particularly to worldly luxuries? For what reason do our hearts coarsen and we become flesh, instead of spirit, distorting our moral nature? Is it not because of passion for food, drink and other earthly goods? After all of this, how is it possible to say that it does not matter if one does not fast during lent? The very fact that we say such a thing is an expression of pride, vanity, disobedience to God and abandonment of Him.

The 40-day mountain. Whoever rejects fasting, forgets why the fall of the first people occurred (from intemperance) and what a weapon against sin and the tempter was indicated to us by the Saviour when he was tempted in the desert, (fasting for forty days and nights); such a person does not know or does not wish to know that man falls away from God primarily due to intemperance, as happened with the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah and with the contemporaries of Noah, - because all kinds of sin appear among people as a result of imtemperance.

Whoever rejects fasting - denies himself and others a weapon against his multi-passioned flesh and against the devil, both of them garnering strength against us particularly through our intemperance; such a one is not a soldier of Christ, for he throws in his weapon and willingly gives himself up into the imprisonment of his sin-loving flesh; finally, such a one is blind and does not seen the relationship between the causes and the consequences of actions.

---

A Christian should fast in order to purify his mind, encourage and develop his emotions, and incite his will to the doing of good. These three abilities of man we obscure and suppress primarily through gluttony, drunkenness and earthly cares, and subsequently we fall away from the source of life, which is the Lord God, and we fall into corruption and vanity, whereby we pervert and defile the image of God in ourselves. Gluttony and lechery nail us down to earth and clip our soul’s wings. And yet regard the high ascent achieved by all those who engaged in fasting and abstinence! They soared like eagles; they, earthly beings, lived with their minds and hearts in the heavens, heard ineffable things there, and learned divine wisdom there. Yet how does man humiliate himself by gluttony and drunkenness!

He corrupts his nature, created in God’s image, and becomes comparable to mute beasts, and sometimes descends even lower. O, woe unto us for our passions, for our iniquitous habits! They prevent us from loving God and our neighbors, and from fulfilling God’s commandments; they plant within us a criminal self-love of the flesh, whose end is eternal damnation. Thus a drunkard does not hesitate to spend a great deal of money on his bodily pleasure and satiety, yet begrudges pennies for the poor; those who love to dress luxuriously, or who love to buy fashionable furniture and expensive china spend an enormous amount of money on clothes and furnishings, yet walk by the poor with coldness and disdain; those who love to eat well do not hesitate to spend tens and thousands of rubles on fine dining, yet begrudge the poor even a brass farthing. It is also necessary for a Christian to fast because, through the incarnation of the Son of God, human nature has become spiritual, sacred, and we hurry towards the heavenly realm, which is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. To eat and to drink, i.e. be addicted to sensual pleasures, is characteristic only of pagans, who, not being cognizant of spiritual heavenly pleasures, look upon the satisfaction of the belly – indulgence in food and drink – as the prime pleasure in life. It is for this reason that the Lord denounces this ruinous passion so frequently in the Gospel.

From the spiritual diary of St. John of Kronstadt,
“My Life in Christ”

[Liudmilla]

Transgressing the fast

A great many of us are guilty of contempt of fasting. The Church commands us to keep fasts very strictly. This is a sure means of humbling and destroying within us the sin of gluttony, that vile and disastrous form of idolatry. Moreover, through fasting the Church honors and glorifies the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour’s Most-holy Mother, the Elevation of the Life-giving Cross, the beheading of Saint John the Baptist. A religious person cannot but commemorate with fasting such days and periods of salvation. But many of you do not fast at all, and even cite the Holy Writ: “It is not that which goes into the mouth which defiles a man, but that which comes out of the mouth” (Matt. 15:11). Opponents of fasting argue thus: “If you do not use offensive language, do not become angry, do not mock other people, - that is just as good as keeping lent.” However, these are totally different things. One should not make fun of others anyway, nor be angry or filled with wrath, nor repay malice with malice. And, of course, not eating meat during lent, yet chewing out other people makes for poor fasting. But how can we disdain lent when the Lord Himself said: “This kind (i.e. demons) is in no way expelled safe by prayer and fasting” (Matt. 17:21). So you see, there are only two resources against the evil spirits: prayer and fasting. How can we not use them? How can we not fast? How can we not listen to our holy Mother, the Church? “For whomever the Church is not a mother, for such a one God is not a father,” said the holy martyr Cyprian; how can we not obey our Mother?

It is true that non-lenten food of itself does not make a person unclean. Milk does not compromise an infant even during Passion week, and equally those whom the doctors had ordered to imbibe milk daily due to illness. That same milk, for example, or cheese or other dairy product which you are not allowed to eat today, after a certain number of days, when the fast ends, will be allowed, and it is not unclean, nor has it ever been unclean. But what truly makes a person unclean? It is the thoughts that come out of the heart which make a person unclean, as Christ Himself explained to us. It is not milk which makes you unclean, when you imbibe it during lent without a valid reason, but your blasphemous thoughts, your contempt for Church rules, your reasoning sullies you: “Just think of it - who keeps the fast nowadays? Try to be good instead, try not to offend others, and that is fasting enough!” It is such blasphemous thoughts, issuing from the sinful and rebellious heart of a person, which make him unclean! While those who are ill, and who are consequently allowed to break the fast, should break it only out of sheer necessity, in great sorrow and with a daily prayer of repentance: “Lord, forgive me, a sinner, that out of sheer necessity, due to illness, I am forced to break the holy fast. Even my illness has arisen out of my sins, just as all our illnesses have been engendered by the fall. Forgive me, o God, and strengthen my health, so that in the future I would have the great joy of keeping the fast which I so desire.”

You have sinned by overeating, eating out of turn, eating secretly, over-indulgence. Repent before God and try each one of you to overcome your destructive passion, be it for over-indulgence, or overeating, or whatever. Particularly since over-indulgence weakens the body, while constant overeating destroys it completely. The main thing is that a stomach fed too abundantly and an obese body produce a multitude of substances which choke the mind and the heart, do not allow them to function in a normal spiritual manner. A corpulent flesh becomes the mistress of a person, and yet this flesh is a fallen entity, contains within itself a law which counteracts the law of our mind and is hostile to our spirit and all that is spiritual. “Take heed to yourselves, the Lord warns us, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and so that day come upon you unawares” (Luke 21:34).

Drunkenness, to which so many around us are subject, is a mortal sin. "Be ye not deceived, beloved, - the Apostle tells us, - neither thieves, nor adulterers, nor covetous, nor extortioners, nor revilers, nor drunkards shall inherit the kingdom of God!" (I Cor. 6:9). Whoever is guilty of the heavy sin of drunkenness, try to scramble out of this devilish abyss before it is too late, otherwise your fate shall be eternal damnation, eternal torture. As it is, your wives and children already suffer from you, drunkards, when you, being out of your mind, beat them up, when you squander the money needed for their daily bread. “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is fornication!” (Ephes. 5:18). How many iniquities have been committed by people in a drunken state, how many murders even. How much wealth has been squandered, how much energy and health has been destroyed, both of the drunkard himself and of his family members. How many children have been conceived in a drunken state, and all of them are either sick, or weakly, or deformed, or congenital idiots - and they walk around as a living shame and reproach to the miserable drunkards who have produced them. And these latter perish, they suffer, as medicine terms it, from a deterioration of identity, they are no longer themselves, they have lost their human worth. How can such a drunken individual rule over his home, keep his children in obedience and instruction, which the Lord demands from every husband and father, from every master of a home. One can always drink in moderation. Christ performed His first miracle in Cana during a merry wedding feast, by turning six large jars of water into delicious wine, so that we would know to drink in moderation and not become drunk.

Protopriest Anatoly Pravdolyubov.

[Liudmilla]

The benefits of fasting
Man is precious to the Lord, the entire world is subjugated to him; the Son of God Himself came down to earth from heaven, in order to save man from eternal torment, to reconciliate him with God. All the fruits and the flesh of various animals have been given to him to eat, different beverages have been provided to him to satisfy his taste, - but not to the point of satiety, not for pleasure exclusively. Every Christian has other pleasures - great, spiritual, divine pleasures; it is to these pleasures that the pleasures of the flesh must be subjugated, must be tamed or completely excluded if they become a hindrance to spiritual pleasures. Therefore, food and drink are not forbidden in order to bring sorrow to man, or, as it is commonly said in society, to restrict his freedom, but in order to give him true pleasure, real and eternal. It is for this reason that non-lenten foods and liquor are forbidden during lent, because man is very precious to God and must be safeguarded from attaching himself to material things which are unworthy of him.

Saint John of Kronstadt.

[DavidHawthorne]

My understanding of the canons is that we are not to fast on Saturdays and yet we are not to eat meat during the Fast(s) even on Saturday and Sundays. Is there a difference between fasting and abstinence in ancient Christianity that is obscured nowadays?