Why We Fast

Modern science sees the value of the Church’s tradition of fasting

From Old Testament times, the people of God prepared for holy occasions with fasting and prayer, and the New Testament continued with this holy tradition. The Lord Himself fasted for forty days before beginning His earthly ministry, demonstrating the importance of fasting before starting any spiritual task. Christ even went so far as saying “When you fast” (Matt. 6:16), rather than If you fast. Our Lord told his disciples that “when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then they shall fast”. If we are to overcome evil, the Lord Jesus Christ said we must pray and fast, for the devil and his foul spirits depart not out but by prayer and fasting. Since prayer and fasting are seen as two weapons for us to do battle, how foolish we would be to use only one weapon, for what soldier would enter a battle field with only one weapon at his disposal.

The scriptures document, throughout, the importance of fasting for the health of the soul, and the Church has established fasting periods that actually total up to about half of the year, averaging about 180 days, when added all together. Each section of the Church calendar has particular periods of fasting, with the winter fast before Christmas; the spring fast of Great Lent; the summer Apostles fast; and the fall Dormition fast. Throughout the rest of the year, we Orthodox Christians observe two days of fasting per week, with Wednesdays and Fridays given over as fast days. We even see the Church assigning special fast days that are connected with individuals feasts such as the Eve of Theophany, the Beheading of Saint John the Forerunner, and the Elevation of the Holy Cross.

Modern science has come to see that the spiritual discipline of the Church’s fasting rules promotes good health, for avoiding meat and dairy products two days per week, help keep animal fats and related cholesterol problems under control. Our contemporary medicine has discovered nothing new, for the Church has known the value of fasting for thousands of years. And this fasting, when wholly embraced, helps us empty ourselves while making way for the grace that is abundant during the fast periods, to bring about transformation of the soul.

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

Photos: Brother Apollos is now in charge of the monastery’s Way of a Pilgrim Bookstore, and has made some wonderful changes in the floor plan. We are hoping to soon have one of the best Orthodox bookstores in the region.

Tuesday March 8, 2016 / February 24, 2016
Week of the Last Judgment. Tone seven.
Maslenitsa. Meat is excluded

First (4th c.) and Second (452) Findings of the Precious Head of St. John the Baptist.
Venerable Erasmus of the Kiev Caves (1160).
Uncovering of the relics (1486) of St. Romanus, prince of Uglich.
Martyrs Montanus, Lucias, Julian, Victoricus, Flavian and their companions at Carthage (259).
St. Cummain Ailbe, abbot of Ilona (669) (Celtic & British).

Scripture Readings

Jude 1-10

Greeting to the Called

1 Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James,

To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ:

2 Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

Contend for the Faith

3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Old and New Apostates

5 But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; 7 as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

8 Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. 9 Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” 10 But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves.

Luke 22:39-42

The Prayer in the Garden

39 Coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him. 40 When He came to the place, He said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.”

41 And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”