“If due to some weakness one happens to break the fast, one should not lose heart or abandon it altogether” #
Although the basic requirements of the fast are laid out in any Church calendar, both believers and non-believers often have a wide range of questions on this topic. How does one properly prepare for the beginning of the fast? How should the first week be spent?
Priest Ioann Kurbatsky:
The Church prepares Christians for Great Lent several weeks before it begins through special services, hymns, readings from the Gospel and the Epistles, and the sermons of pastors. It also does so through a special rule regarding food. It is good to begin in advance reading the patristic teachings on fasting and the struggle against the passions. It is also beneficial to plan and assign oneself a daily prayer rule and daily reading for the whole of Great Lent.
The main condition for entering the fast is given in the Gospel:
“If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you your trespasses” (Matthew 6:14).
This is the absolute condition for the forgiveness of our sins. God does not demand the mortification of the flesh or supernatural feats, but He does require that we forgive. To forgive does not simply mean saying “I forgive you” — or “God will forgive.” It means truly forgiving from the heart and wiping away all vengeance and malice from within. And to ask forgiveness oneself.
We sin much before God and before men. On the eve of the fast, let us ask forgiveness for our sins and debts: children before parents, parents before children, spouses before one another, and so on. And let us keep peace with all during the fast and throughout our life.
St. Ephraim the Syrian said this:
“If you, O man, do not forgive every person who has sinned against you, then do not burden yourself with fasting and prayer… God will not receive you.”
In our parish, it is customary on Forgiveness Sunday to ask forgiveness of one another. The rector does so first, turning to the people after his sermon and asking forgiveness for every sin committed in word, deed, or thought. Then the faithful ask forgiveness of one another. On that day, many people come to church, as on a great feast.
I know that in many parishes, they hold prayer services every day during the first week of Great Lent. We only pray on Monday and Tuesday. We simply do not have the strength for more, nor are there enough people to read and sing. But we do pray daily in church the Great Compline with the Penitential Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete. We schedule it for 6:00 PM, so that anyone who works can have time to come and pray.
Many people keep a strict fast the first week and prepare for confession.
Priest Ioann Sevastyanov:
Not long ago, I came across some words by Saint John Chrysostom, who said that one should neither lessen one’s personal ascetic labor nor increase it, but rather maintain consistency and moderation.
This applies perfectly to how we should prepare for Great Lent. One ought to prepare for the fast as the Ustav prescribes. And, as far as possible, one should follow that Ustav—both in terms of prayer and in terms of food. The fast itself is our preparation. There is no need to prepare for the preparation.
It is better to enter the fast with an open heart and to wait and see what the Lord will do with me this time. I believe that anyone who has kept even a few Lenten fasts has noticed that each time we emerge from the fast with different outcomes, different states of soul—even if we fasted in the same way.
So we understand that the result of the fast is what the Lord sends us. And He sends us gifts according to His good mercy. Of course, it is also not fitting to spend the whole year storing up anger and grievances just to have something to ask forgiveness for on Forgiveness Sunday. Ask forgiveness when conflict and enmity arise—not just when everyone else is doing it for form’s sake.
Church Ustav prescribes abstaining from food during the first days of the fast, and dry eating (sukhoyadeniye) on the remaining days. What does this mean, and how obligatory are these rules for laypeople?
Priest Ioann Kurbatsky:
The Holy Fathers all speak with one voice about fasting with discernment. That means taking on an ascetic struggle in proportion to your strength—so that you still have the strength to pray and to work. The important thing is to endure the entire fast. It often happens that people who are ill begin fasting very strictly. They last about a week, and then their illnesses worsen, and they are no longer able to continue and end up breaking the fast.
This is like an athlete who sprints 100 meters at full speed and collapses, exhausted—while another one, albeit slowly, finishes the whole 10-kilometer course. In other words, it is better to eat food with oil throughout the entire fast than to keep a strict fast for one week and then start eating cottage cheese, kefir, and the like.
The first and last weeks of the fast are the strictest. But some ustavs permit daily eating, after all, we pray: “Give us this day our daily bread.” I have known zealous people, especially when young, who eagerly embraced total abstinence from food—and the next morning they could not even get up, having no strength at all to pray.
Abba Isaac said:
“Just as healthy eyesight longs for light, so too does fasting—if undertaken with discernment—seek out prayer. And when you begin to fast, your mind awakens and seeks communion with God.”
It is precisely prayer that should be the criterion for the strictness of the fast. If a person is fasting and is still able to pray and carry out his work, then let him keep the fast in all its strictness.
Dry eating (сухоядение) means uncooked food without vegetable oil. According to the Ustav, this is prescribed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. But most working Christians simply eat food without oil throughout the week. With the blessing of one’s spiritual father, an allowance may be made to use oil on other days as well—not only on Saturdays and Sundays. By the way, few people seem to know about the existence of olive, flaxseed, mustard, and other beneficial vegetable oils. And very often they ask for a blessing to ease the fast, whereas a blessing should also be sought if one desires to intensify the fast. One should not be afraid to fast; one should not fear any labor that is for the sake of salvation.
Sometimes people come to confession and say: “I have only one sin—I cannot fast.” One must treat one’s salvation more attentively, read spiritual literature, and pray to God with fervor in order to discern one’s sin more deeply and truly repent of it. One must understand that the inability to fast is often the consequence of more grievous sins that have damaged the soul. For example, a person may have lived improperly for years, destroying his body—and now he all the more needs to fast and repent for having ruined himself.
Let us therefore fast without hypocrisy, not for display before men, but with a humble spirit before the brethren if we are not able to fast to the full extent. But let us also not exalt ourselves over our neighbor when we manage to keep the fast in full. Fulfillment is good—but if we use it as a weapon to gain a moral victory over our neighbor, thinking ourselves above him, then it turns into evil. God will reject us as He rejected the boastful Pharisee who condemned the publican at the very moment when God justified him.
And when we feel that we lack strength or patience, let us ask God to help us in the struggle of the fast.
If due to some weakness one happens to break the fast—оскоромиться, that is, consume dairy or other forbidden foods—one should not lose heart and abandon the fast altogether. If a person stumbles on the path, he does not lie there—he gets up and continues walking. And he does this no matter how many times he falls.
Abba Moses said:
“What is the strength of those who wish to acquire virtue? It is that if they fall, they do not despair, but rise again and return to the labor.”
Let us likewise apply all our effort to the doing of good deeds! “Wait on the Lord” (cf. Ps. 26[27]:14), let us show Him our sincere resolve, let us ask Him for help! And He will surely show us His mercy and pour out His grace upon us abundantly.
Priest Ioann Sevastyanov:
The Ustav of Great Lent should be kept to the utmost of one’s physical and spiritual strength. The written Ustav gives us certain guidelines. But we understand that what may come easily to an experienced Christian may be nearly unbearable for a beginner. During the first week, it is indeed best not to eat anything during the first four days—not even to drink water.
I know elderly people for whom this is possible. But there are some young Christians for whom it is simply not. What is needed here is an inward understanding of one’s limits and one’s disposition. Dry eating is understood differently by different people. Some think it means eating without a first (liquid) course. Others understand it as eating only cold, uncooked food—even without tea. Therefore, you will not be in error if you take dry eating to mean food without any liquid dish.
When speaking of fasting, people usually discuss dietary restrictions. But what about spiritual activities? Is it permissible during the fast to listen to music, read books, watch films, and so on?
Priest Ioann Kurbatsky:
Fasting is a time of repentance. Saint Basil the Great, in his first homily on fasting, says:
“Do not limit the benefit of fasting merely to abstinence from food; for true fasting is the estrangement from evil. Loose every bond of injustice. Forgive your neighbor his offenses; remit his debts. Do not fast with quarrels and strife. You do not eat meat, but you devour your brother. You abstain from wine, but you do not restrain yourself from insults. You wait until evening to eat food, but spend the day in the courts.”
A fast must not pass in vain—that is, we must not merely get through this time, but bring forth fruit worthy of repentance; we must cross this sea like a merchant ship filled with goods, and not empty.
Fasting is given so that we may draw near to God through prayer, the reading of the lives and writings of the saints, and abstaining from all evil, from entertainments, from idle talk, and from sloth. We long for that joy, that purity which we once had but lost and squandered, like the prodigal son, through various sins—deceit, greed, hatred, malice, lust, envy… “Let us strive with tears to recover what we have lost,” says the Canon for Cheesefare Sunday.
Fasting is a tool of spiritual warfare. It is the path home to our God and Father.
You ask about music, films. It is better to refrain from such things, bearing in mind the purpose for which we fast. The words of the Apostle Paul, “All things are lawful unto me, but not all things are expedient; all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any” (1 Cor. 6:12), apply especially to the season of fasting.
Take, for example, Saint Gerasimus of the Jordan. During Great Lent, he tasted nothing at all, communing only on Sundays with the brethren at church. The rest of the week he spent in solitary prayer to God. Let us, at least in small part, imitate such saints. They saw no other human beings—while we, at the very least, might step away from television, the internet, social media, forums, and the like. Let our mind, too, fast—let our attention be cleansed from the constant barrage of vain, and often sinful, impressions.
We are surrounded by constant noise—informational, musical, and otherwise—at work, in public transport, everywhere. Sometimes one looks upon modern man with sorrow: he is always engulfed in noise, in bustle, in so-called music. Even when he goes out into nature, he cannot bear to be in silence. He blasts music that drowns out the workings of the soul, reflection, and quiet contemplation of the beauty of God’s creation. Silence, however, teaches us to treat our words with care, and to learn to listen and truly hear others. As Abba Isaiah wrote: “Do not be negligent in any labor. For labor, suffering, and silence give birth to humility.”
Nowadays many people work in fields that are connected to the internet. One must avoid entertainment (let alone games). But spiritually edifying content—homilies of the holy fathers, sermons, ascetical, historical, and apologetical writings, information about Church life—is not at all forbidden during this time. But in any case, we must remember: nothing is more valuable than prayer.
Let us take up at least a small, but consistent labor: additional prayers, set readings from Holy Scripture and the Holy Fathers (with a clear goal in mind—what and how much), acts of mercy—remembering the words of the Savior: “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice” (Matt. 9:13). All this we do in order to acquire spiritual fruit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance (Gal. 5:22–23).
It is good to identify the passion that most strongly wars against us and begin to struggle against it—be it anger, lustful thoughts, or vanity. Or simply to labor diligently: raising children, fulfilling family responsibilities. Then there will be no time left for idle amusements.
And so, in these coming days, let us delve into ourselves and focus on spiritual work. We must as it were tear these days out of the regular flow of life and offer them as a tithe of time unto God.
Priest Ioann Sevastyanov:
I was deeply moved by a story told by our priests who traveled to visit Christians in Uganda. In this very poor country, the faithful fast in the following way: during the fast, they eat tomatoes without salt, and on Pascha they break the fast with tomatoes with salt. Now that is a beautiful illustration of the right understanding of fasting.
It seems to me that the main principle of fasting is abstaining from what is familiar and habitual to you. Therefore, each person must look into their own heart and ask: what am I particularly attached to? And during the fast, they should refrain from that. Conscience is the best guide. The conscience will certainly point out what is not fitting for us to do during the fast. For one person, something may be entirely harmless, while for another, it may be a stumbling block—books, newspapers, the internet…
Let us therefore fast with a fast that is pleasing, brethren!
Published on ruvera.ru