There needs to be a balance, lest our fasting be of the sort that Christ Himself condemns—the fasting of the Pharisees. Sorta misses the point. One can become just as controlled by soy milk, tofu burgers, and drawn margarine as one can be controlled by whole milk, hamburgers, and drawn butter.
Perhaps it would be better to just eat the real thing and be done with it, because it takes more time to make tofu taste, look and smell like the genuine item than it would to simply eat turkey.
This misses the whole point of fasting in the first place, and I dare say, one can become even more controlled by trying to make tofu taste like turkey than by simply eating turkey in the first place, which is a no-brainer. I even know people who eat the dairy-free Lenten chocolate cake when it is not a fast day or season simply because it tastes so much better than the regular version—which indeed misses the whole point.
The full fast prescribed in the Typikon of the Monastery of St. Sabbas--no meat, eggs, dairy through the whole period. One may eat olive oil and small portion of wine only on Saturdays and Sundays and Annunciation, fish with backbone only on Annunciation, Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday. One may eat shellfish through the period. No hard liquor strong drink. Abstain from all meat throughout Great Lent and Holy Week.
Abstain from eggs and dairy throughout, but when this is not possible most definitely on Pure Week, on Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the period, and during Holy Week. Hard liquor is to be abstained from throughout all of Lent. During Holy Week from Holy Monday to Great Saturday , try to fast as strictly as possible, and especially from Thursday evening after supper until Saturday night, abstaining from meat, eggs, dairy, fish, and alcohol.
Eat no full meals but only collations small meals for health from Thursday night after supper until Saturday after the Basil Liturgy, but then still eat only fasting foods. Following the midnight Liturgy we break the ascetical fast and eat all kinds of foods as it is the Feast of feasts, with a completely fast-free week following.
Eat no meat, eggs or dairy on Pure Monday, nor on Wednesdays and Fridays throughout. Abstain from a whole meat group mammal meat, for example, since mammals are closest to humans, or at least from a whole group such as beef or pork throughout the whole period, and all meat, eggs and cheese on Wednesdays betrayal and Fridays crucifixion. During Holy Week, try to fast as strictly as possible, but especially from Thursday evening after supper until Saturday night from meat, eggs and cheese, eating no full meals but only collations small meals for health until after the final Resurrection Liturgy.
Give up at least one type of mammal meat pork, beef, etc. For Presanctified Liturgy , fast until midday, eat fasting foods as needed after that, and abstain from all food for 4 hours prior to Communion Communion usually comes about 50 minutes into the Presanctified Liturgy. In other words, if Presanctified Liturgy starts at say 7pm, communion would be about pm.
Count back 4 hours from that start abstaining from food around pm. Obviously if a person gets sick or has some sort of health requirement where they need to eat, they should do so, and may still commune. Fasting is relaxed or dispensed with when a person is ill, when they are travelling such as a trip , when receiving the hospitality of others who are not Orthodox if someone invites you to dinner, for example, go and receive with thanksgiving what is set before you. Those who are traveling have dispensation, but should still try to fast Fridays at least until evening—after the period when Christ was on the cross abstaining at least from meat.
For any other questions please discuss with priest. Exceptions to fasting rules. Powered by Orthodox Web Solutions. Home Back Print Top. Donate Using PayPal.
When we think of fasting in the Orthodox Church today, our mind almost immediately goes to certain rules relating to what we can and cannot eat. Moreover, this practice is especially associated with Great and Holy Lent. Then, there are some who might go to great lengths, meticulously checking all ingredients of certain food items in supermarkets for example, in order to ensure that there are no traces of foods which they know are not permitted during fasting periods, also rejoicing with delight when they happen to find substitutes to their favorite food.
A question which justifiably arises, however, is whether this in fact is what fasting is all about. Is this the true meaning of fasting?
Or, have we reduced it merely to rules about what foods are permitted and what are not? In studying some of the hymns found in the Triodion— a liturgical book out of which many beautiful hymns are chanted during the period of Great Lent—the hope is that we might recover the true meaning of fasting. This approach is plausible to the extent that the hymns of the Orthodox Church, more generally, reflect its theological vision; indeed, they reveal, in sung form, the theological outlook of the Orthodox Church.
Without such additional efforts, however, the practical impact of fasting on our prayer life may be relatively small, and difficult to perceive, and this appears to have led many in the modern Church to question its usefulness on empirical grounds.
Those of the faithful who have made use of the traditional fasting practices of the Church in their fullness, however, are well aware of the prayerful and dispassionate benefits of the practice. In any case, fortunately there are other benefits of fasting available even to those of us who do nothing more than keep the basic fasting rules regarding what types of food may or may not be eaten on given days.
But this is far less common than generally believed, and such complicated situations are properly handled by economia, with the competent assistance of both medical and spiritual guides. Obligatory, in this case, means obligatory.
0コメント