My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
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THE HOLY SEASON OF GREAT LENT: NOT BY BREAD ALONE: FASTING TODAY IN THE ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN WAY (PART III)
By Reverend Father Peter A. Chamberas
From the early centuries of Church History, three more Lenten Seasons were gradually introduced into the annual liturgical cycle of the Church:
A. The Christmas fast for the Nativity of Christ includes a period of forty days, beginning on November 15th. Meat, poultry, and meat products are entirely excluded during this period of forty days. However, from November 15 to December 12, the Feast of Saint Spyridon, fish is permitted not only during Saturdays and Sundays but also on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. The time before Christmas, as with the time before Pascha, is a sober time of serious preparation, a time of prayer, fasting, and charity, and not a time for parties and entertainment. The time for a joyful yet sober celebration is after Christmas, not before.
B. The fast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul on June 29th, and of all the Twelve Apostles on June 30th, will vary in duration each year because it begins on the Monday after the Sunday of All Saints, following the Sunday of Pentecost, which comes fifty (50) days after Pascha, the moveable feast falling on a different date each year. If the Fast of the Holy Apostles is only a few days in duration, then it should be kept as strictly as possible, and if it is several weeks long, then meat, poultry, and meat products, dairy products, and eggs are excluded. Fish is allowed on all days except Wednesdays and Fridays.
C. The fifteen (15)-day fast of August precedes the Feast of the Holy Transfiguration of Christ on August 6th and the Feast of the Dormition (Koimisis) of the Theotokos on August 15th. This two-week fast is kept rather strictly, meaning that olive oil and wine are partaken only on the Saturdays and Sundays that fall within this period. On the Feast of the Holy Transfiguration, the fast is broken by adding only olive oil, wine, and fish to the festive meal.
A peculiar characteristic of the Orthodox Christian fasting is the treatment of each Saturday and Sunday that happens to fall within the longer periods of Ascetical Fasting during the four Lenten seasons of the year. Saturdays and Sundays are never strict fasting days, except for Holy and Great Saturday. In fact, the rule requires that the fast be suspended during these two days by simply adding something special to the Lenten means, such as olive oil and wine. This is the case because Sunday is always the day of the Lord par excellence reminding Christians of the Lord's Resurrection, the day when the faithful gather for public worship, celebrating the Holy Eucharist and having communion with the Risen Christ. Saturday also remains in the mind of the Church as the special Sabbath day, when God rested from work of creation. The special standing of these two days of the week in the life of the Church requires that they not be days of mourning and strict fast, even during the otherwise strict and long periods of Lenten fasting.
Some additional days of strict fasting are January 5th as the Forefeast of Theophany; August 29th as the day of the beheading of Saint John the Baptist and Forerunner; September 14 as the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, which associates the finding of the Holy Cross by Saint Eleni (Helen) in 325 A.D. the recovery of the Holy Cross from the Persians by Emperor Heraclius in 628 A.D. and the Sacrificial death of Christ on the Cross on Holy and Great Friday. Additional circumstances for fasting may include times of special needs in a family, a parish, or a regional church; the reception of other Mysteries (Sacraments), besides Holy Communion, such as adult baptism, repentance, and confession, ordination, and marriage.
This general outline indicates briefly when and how Orthodox Christian observe a total of ascetical fast within the liturgical year of the Orthodox Church, which designates that well over 200 days of the year are, to some degree, days of fasting. But now the more important question may be asked: Why do Orthodox Christians fast, and why are they challenged to fast so much? The answer again is to be found in the Holy (Sacred) Tradition of the Orthodox Church that defines the nature of the Christian life as one involving the whole person of body and soul in a spiritual and total commitment to god. Fasting is not only a dietary discipline; it includes a spiritual component with even greater expectations and challenges that are, unlike the dietary elements, never relaxed.
The very first Commandment of God at the beginning of human life was one of fasting: "From the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you may not eat..." (Genesis 2:16-17). Saint Basil the Great reminds us that Adam and Eve were given this stern rule to practice self-control and obedience to the Divine Will. While called to strive for spiritual maturity and perfection, they disobeyed god's first commandment and lost paradise by not fasting. Moses fasted an extraordinary fast of forty days, not only once but twice, as a spiritual preparation while ascending the mountain to receive the revelation of God in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 34:27-28; Deuteronomy 9:9-11, 16-18), in setting this precedent Moses clearly projected the religious importance of fasting as an expression of sinful man's total orientation toward God. Through the physical ordeal of fasting and the inner compunction of repentance, man willingly afflicts and humbles himself before God and this enables him to appeal more fervently in prayer for the mercy and the forgiveness of god, but also to be vigilant and receptive to the revelation of God. Centuries after Moses, the Prophet Elijah, "being zealous for the Lord Almighty," kept a 40 day fast in the desert over the sins of Israel and as result the presence and power of God was finally revealed to him "in the sound of a gentle breeze" (cf. 3 Kings 19:8-12).
(To be continued)
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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George