My dear friends in Christ God,
A blessed Nativity Fast to all!
The Holy Nativity Fast is one of the four Canonical Fasting Seasons in the Ecclesiastical year. This is a joyous fast in anticipation of the Divine Nativity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That is the reason it is less stringent than other fasting seasons.
The Fast begins on November 15th and ends December 24th, a forty day Fast. It is a time for all Orthodox Christians to intensify their spiritual lives through prayer, fasting, and charity. We are instructed to observe a fast as we prepare for the coming of the Son of God in the flesh. We are aware that the "sacred" number of forty (40) - years or days - is a very Scriptural number, always implying a period of anticipation and fulfillment, an act begun and completed in accordance with the express will of God. That could be the forty years of Israel's wandering in the desert, or the Lord fasting and praying for forty days in the wilderness. This designated forty day serves as a microcosm of Israel's testing and preparation.
The purpose of fasting is to focus on the things that are above, the Kingdom of God. It is a means of putting on virtue in reality, here and now. Through it, we are freed from dependence on worldly things. We fast faithfully and in secret, not judging others, reconciling with our enemies, and coming to the aid of our neighbor.
Fasting in itself is not a means of pleasing God. Fasting is not a punishment for our sins. Nor is fasting a means of suffering and pain to be undertaken as some kind of atonement. Our Lord Jesus Christ already redeemed us on His Cross. Salvation is a gift from God that is not bought by our hunger or thirst.
Let us turn to the Holy Scripture and see the true purpose and spirit of fasting. Saint Paul in his Epistle to the Romans writes the following: "Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him. Who are you to judge another's servant? To his own master, he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand...He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks" (Rom. 14:1-6).
This passage is read on the eve of Great Lent, reminding the faithful that the main focus of the season is not on the details of fasting restrictions, but rather on overcoming the passions of the soul (13:14). "Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts" (Romans 13:12-14).
"But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch, therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man." (St. Luke 21:24-36).
"Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward when they had ended, He was hungry. And the devil said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread." But Jesus answered him, saying 'It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God'" (St. Luke 4:1-4).
We fast to be delivered from carnal passions so that God's gift of Salvation may bear fruit in us. We fast and turn our eyes toward God in His Holy Church. Fasting and prayer together.
Fasting is not irrelevant. Fasting is not obsolete, and it is not something for someone else. Fasting is from God, for us, right here and right now.
Most of all, we should not devour each other. We ask God to "set a watch and keep the door of our lips."
FOR YOUR INFORMATION
We do not fast between December 25th and January 4th (even on Wednesdays and Fridays);
If you are pregnant or nursing a newborn;
during serious illness;
without prayer;
without philanthropy;
according to your own will without guidance from your spiritual father.
WE ABSTAIN FROM:
Meat, eggs, cheese, butter, yogurt, cream, milk, all types of alcohol and oil.
Permitted are:
Fish is permitted on Saturdays and Sundays before December 20th. Some permit the consumption of fish on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Wednesdays and Fridays are always strict fast.
While we are fasting we must never lose sight of the true Christian spirit of fasting.
In His Holy Diakonia,
+Father George