Ukrainian Orthodoxy		Orthodoxie ukrainienne

Hunger for Righteousness' Sake: A "how to" of fasting

Dr. Alexander Roman alex.roman@unicorne.org

Fasting is one of those things that we all take for granted, even though we really shouldn't. Recently, I conducted a poll among individuals in my own immediate family, asking them to define what fasting actually is all about. The result was that every person seemed to have his or her own private definition in terms of what it is and how to do it. But how does the Church understand the rules of fasting? How do we truly fast?

Fasting and abstaining basically has to do with a fundamental control of our food intake over a period of time, as well as of other things that we will review. There are times when we are invited to make the effort not to eat at all over the space of a day (as on Great and Holy Friday) with allowances made for human weakness. Not only the quantity of our food intake is controlled, but also the type and nature of the food we eat throughout the duration of the Great and Holy Fast.

Fasting is designed to discipline our bodies, to make ourselves more open to the spiritual world and to prayer in the first instance.

First and foremost, fasting is about food. The Church asks us not to eat meat or meat by-products throughout the Great Fast.

We abstain completely from anything with any meat in it, from dairy products including eggs.

We also don't eat fish, as fish have a backbone and is therefore classified as "meat."

Shellfish can be eaten, as this does not have a backbone.

It was in the West that fish was introduced as a "meat substitute" for Lent, something that went against the most ancient traditions of the universal Church.

The fishing industry was largely responsible for successfully pressing their case at Rome, but fisheries elsewhere in the Orthodox East did their fair share of lobbying with Church authorities as well!

In the 19th century in the life of St Theophilus the Fool for Christ's Sake of Kyiv, we read of an instance where he counsels the wife of a fishmonger NOT to eat fish on Wednesdays and Fridays and tell her husband to stop his lobbying efforts in this regard.

As it turned out, the poor woman met with a drowning death in the Dnieper River . . .

When Catholic missionaries arrived in India, the local Oriental Christians were shocked beyond belief when they saw the Portuguese eat fish on Fridays and during Lent.

Both Wednesdays and Fridays are strict fast days throughout the year in the East. Both days recall the Passion and Death of Christ. It was on a Wednesday, the "fourth day of the week" when Judas went to the Jewish authorities to arrange the betrayal of the Lord Jesus. Wednesday therefore marks the beginning of Christ's Passion marked by His knowledge of Judas' betrayal, a Passion that culminates on Friday.

During the Great Fast especially and in many Orthodox monasteries, Monday is also observed as a strict fast day, in honour of the Angels. It is their bodiless nature we strive to imitate free from the cares of this world, the demands of our fallen humanity, and ready to ceaselessly praise and adore the Creator of all!

The Monday of the First Week of the Great Fast is as strict as Great Friday in terms of fasting from food.

Again, there are the rules of the Church and then there is the advice of our Father Confessors.

There are people with special diets such as diabetics and others who must translate their dietary restrictions into the framework of the fasting tradition of the Church.

Elderly and sick people are not bound by the rules of fasting. In all things, we should seek out the advice and guidance of our confessors and spiritual fathers.

Having a good Orthodox calendar is also a great advantage, as flexibility in the rules and strictness are well demarcated such as on the Feast of the Annunciation and Palm Sunday when fish is allowed.

Wine and oil are symbols of joy and the use of these is strictly controlled by fasting rules as well. Again, an Orthodox Calendar or one's own weekly parish calendar can be of tremendous assistance to us here as they will reflect local usage and practice.

Saturdays and Sundays (Day of the Resurrection) are not calculated as fast days in the East, but meat is not eaten on these days nevertheless.

It is good to have an Orthodox cookbook with many recipes for all sorts of things that are made without the forbidden foods, but that are yet highly palatable.

One such cookbook that was in my possession some years ago listed recipes for so many tasty treats that my family soon realized we actually preferred the so-called "fast foods" that we found in between its covers!

Too much of a good thing, it would seem . . .

Fasting and abstaining also has to do with controlling what our minds and souls consume.

Television is one of those pleasures that we can definitely do without during the Great Fast. We can control the amount of time we watch it, and cut back the hours we waste in front of it.

So what do we do with all that extra time? Well, we can do some reading.

No one expects anyone to become a theologian, but spending some time reading the Bible, perhaps the Orthodox Bible Study published by Thomas Nelson, or some of the books written by Alexander Schmemann and John Meyendorff (+memory eternal) on spirituality.

There is the "Spiritual Ladder of Divine Ascent" divided into 30 chapters by St John of the Ladder. This classic is read liturgically in Church during the Great Fast and we can review it privately.

There is the Philokalia, or four English volumes of the original five-volume series on the spiritual life. The "Way of the Pilgrim" is an introduction to the Jesus Prayer, accessible to one and all.

Prayer is something that fasting is designed to enhance. We can begin by seeing if we can attend the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified on the Wednesdays and Fridays of the Great Fast.

Privately, we can pray from the treasury of the Church's liturgy, especially the liturgy of the Great Fast.

The Psalms have a great place in the prayer of the Church at this time and they are read through twice each week from now until Pascha. We can do our best to spend time praying and reflecting on the Psalms, especially how they relate to our spiritual life and to the prophecies concerning Christ (e.g. Psalm 21/22).

The Jesus Prayer, or "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner," is the pentitential prayer par excellence!

We can say this prayer throughout the day and also have one or two prayer periods when we say it with a greater spiritual focus. We can tie knots on a cord or string, 50 or 100, to help us say it, if we don't have a "vervitsa" or prayer-rope of our own (we should get one and it is a great investment for our spiritual lives!).

The Prayer of St Ephrem the Syrian is a beautiful prayer that can be done frequently throughout the day. The Church's Horologion for the Great Fast, together with the prayers from the Lenten Triodion, is a wonderful well-spring of spirituality.

Rather than get discouraged by the length of liturgical prayer, we can simply bite off what we can comfortably chew and digest spiritually. Our good Mother, the Church, provides us with much beneficial food for our souls. Like any good mother, she wants to eat as much as possible since that is "good for us." As we would listen to our own mothers as we grew up, so should we listen to the Church as much as we are able in this respect!

Perhaps we might be able to set aside some of the money that would otherwise go for more expensive, meat dishes in our families and, after the space of some weeks, donate this to a food bank. Or we can set aside foods at every meal for food banks and other charitable institutions that give immediate assistance to homeless people and others.

St John Chrysostom counseled that what we deny ourselves in fasting should go to relieve the needs of the poor!

I remember a father telling his little son to take a dollar to a homeless person and present it to him with the words, "In the Name of Jesus Christ!"

When he did so, the homeless person turned to his little benefactor, bowed, and said, "And in the Name of Jesus Christ, I thank you, sir!"

We may have our own particular charity that we favour. There is a poor person, a former civil servant, who stands at the subway on my way to work. We've known each other for three years now and we exchange Christmas and Easter cards regularly. I can't imagine my life without him!

Perhaps there are people in our own families who need our attention, who never ask for our help or our company, but who need it nevertheless.

There are all sorts of opportunities whereby we may exercise ourselves in the Charity of Christ.

Our fasting should be like the wood that we use to kindle the spiritual fire of prayer, meditation and devotion within our hearts.

Having ignited our souls in this way, God will send us out to share the Fire of His Love to others.

Christian asceticism has often been compared to athletic competitions where Christians strive to "run the race" and "gain the laurels of victory."

In that case, on your marks, get set . . .

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