The
Podvig of the Apostles’ Fast is less strict than during Great Lent: We abstain
from eating meat and dairy products throughout the Fast.
The
Church ustav also provides that, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays during the
Apostles’ Fast, we abstain from consuming fish, wine and oil; on the other days
of the week, Tuesday and Thursday, we abstain from eating fish. Eating fish is
permitted on Saturdays and Sundays, on days commemorating certain great Saints,
and on the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist (7 July).
St. Seraphim of Sarov on Fasting
Fasting
consists not just of eating rarely, but also of eating little. And not just in
eating only one meal, but in not eating much. Foolish is the faster, who waits
for a specific time [to eat a meal], but then at the time of the meal is
completely consumed, body and mind, with insatiable eating.
In
proportion to how the body of the faster becomes thin and light, so the
spiritual life attains perfection and reveals itself in wonderful ways. Then
the soul acts as if in an incorporeal body. Carnal feelings are shut off, and
the spirit, released from the world, ascends to heaven and completely immerses
itself in contemplation of the spiritual world.
Every day
one should partake of just enough food to permit the body, being fortified, to
be a friend and helper to the soul in performing the virtues. Otherwise, with
the body exhausted, the soul may also weaken.
Holy Hierarch Basil the Great
Do you
fast? Then feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, visit the sick, do not
forget the imprisoned, have pity on the tortured, comfort those who grieve and
who weep, be merciful, humble, kind, calm, patient, sympathetic, forgiving,
reverent, truthful and pious, so that God might accept your fasting and might
plentifully grant you the fruits of repentance.
***
It is
necessary most of all for one who is fasting to curb anger, to accustom himself
to meekness and condescension, to have a contrite heart, to repulse impure
thoughts and desires, to examine his conscience, to put his mind to the test
and to verify what good has been done by us in this or any other week, and
which deficiency we have corrected in ourself in the present week. This is true
fasting.
***
As bodily
food fattens the body, so fasting strengthens the soul; imparting it an easy
flight, it makes it able to ascend on high, to contemplate lofty things and to
put the heavenly higher than the pleasant and pleasurable things of life.
***
The point
is not only that we should come to church each day, that we should continually
listen to one and the same thing, and that we should fast for the whole Forty
Days. No! If we, from continually coming here and listening to the teaching, do
not acquire anything and do not derive any good for our soul from the time of
the fast all this does not procure for us any benefit, but rather serves for
our greater condemnation, when despite such concern for us by the Church we
remain just the same as before.
Do not
say to me that I fasted for so many days, that I did not eat this or that, that
I did not drink wine, that I endured want; but show me if thou from an angry
man hast become gentle, if thou from a cruel man hast become benevolent. If
thou art filled with anger, why oppress thy flesh? If hatred and avarice are
within thee, of what benefit is it that thou drinkest water? Do not show forth
a useless fast: for fasting alone does not ascend to heaven.
***
Fasting
is wonderful, because it tramples our sins like a dirty weed, while it
cultivates and raises truth like a flower.
Holy Hierarch John Chrysostom
Whosoever
rejects the fasts, deprives himself and others of weapons against his own
much-suffering flesh and against the devil, who have power over us especially
as the result of our intemperance.
***
We are
told: It is no big deal to eat non-Lenten food during Lent. It is no big deal
if you wear expensive beautiful outfits, go to the theater, to parties, to
masquerade balls, use beautiful expensive china, furniture, expensive carriages
and dashing steeds, amass and hoard things, etc. Yet what is it that turns our
heart away from God, away from the Fountain of Life? Because of what do we lose
eternal life? Is it not because of gluttony, of expensive clothing like that of
the rich man of the Gospel story, is it not because of theaters and
masquerades? What turns us hard-hearted toward the poor and even toward our
relatives? Is it not our passion for sweets, for satisfying the belly in
general, for clothing, for expensive dishes, furniture, carriages, for money
and other things? Is it possible to serve God and mammon, to be a friend to the
world and a friend to God, to serve Christ and Belial? That is impossible.
Why did
Adam and Eve lose paradise, why did they fall into sin and death? Was it not
because of one evil? Let us attentively consider why we do not care about the
salvation of our soul, which cost the Son of God so dearly. Why do we compound
sin upon sin, fall endlessly into opposing to God, into a life of vanity? Is it
not because of a passion for earthly things and especially for earthly pleasures?
What makes our hearts become crude? Why do we become flesh and not spirit,
perverting our moral nature? Is it not because of a passion for food, drink,
and other earthly comforts? How after this can one say that it does not matter
whether you eat non-Lenten food during Lent? The fact that we talk this way is
in fact pride, idle thought, disobedience, refusal to submit to God, and
separation from Him.
Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt
The
greatest of the virtues is prayer, while their foundation is fasting.
***
The
reason that fasting has an effect on the spirits of evil rests in its powerful
effect on our own spirit. A body subdued by fasting brings the human spirit
freedom, strength, sobriety, purity, and keen discernment.
Holy Hierarch Ignaty Brianchaninov
If thou,
O man, dost not forgive everyone who has sinned against thee, then do not
trouble thyself with fasting. If thou dost not forgive the debt of thy brother,
with whom thou art angry for some reason, then thou dost fast in vain God
will not accept thee. Fasting will not help thee, until thou wilt become
accomplished in love and in the hope of faith. Whoever fasts and becomes angry,
and harbors enmity in his heart, such a one hates God and salvation is far from
him.
Venerable Ephraim the Syrian
A
excellent faster is he who restrains himself from every impurity, who imposes
abstinence on his tongue and restrains it from idle talk, foul language,
slander, condemnation, flattery and all manner of evilspeaking, who abstains
from anger, rage, malice and vengeance and withdraws from every evil.
***
Let thy
mind fast from vain thoughts; let thy memory fast from remembering evil; let
thy will fast from evil desire; let thine eyes fast from bad sights: turn away
thine eyes that thou mayest not see vanity; let thine ears fast from vile songs
and slanderous whispers; let thy tongue fast from slander, condemnation,
blasphemy, falsehood, deception, foul language and every idle and rotten word;
let thy hands fast from killing and from stealing another’s goods; let thy legs
fast from going to evil deeds: Turn away from evil, and do good.
Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk
Seest
thou what fasting does: it heals illnesses, drives out demons, removes wicked
thoughts, makes the heart pure. If someone has even been seized by an impure
spirit, let him know that this kind, according to the word of the Lord, “goeth
not out but by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:21).
Saint Athanasius the Great
The
strictness of the Quadragesima [the Forty Days] mortifies the passions,
extinguishes anger and rage, cools and calms every agitation springing up from
gluttony. And just as in the summer, when the burning heat of the sun spreads
over the earth, the northern wind renders a benefaction to those who are
scorched, by dispersing the sultriness with a tender coolness: so fasting also
provides the same, by driving out of bodies the burning which is the result of
overeating.
Saint Asterius of Amasia
Fasting
is the mother of health; the friend of chastity; the partner of
humblemindedness (illnesses are frequently born in many from a disorderly and
irregular diet).
Venerable Simeon, the New Theologian
Give the
body as much food as it needs, and thou shalt receive no harm, even if thou
shouldest eat three times a day. If a man eats but once a day, but
undiscerningly, what benefit is there to him from that. The warfare of
fornication follows excess in eating – and after this the enemy weighs down the
body with sleep in order to defile it.
Saints Barsanuphius and John
As a
flame of fire in dry wood, so too is a body with a full belly.
Venerable Isaac the Syrian
Always
establish one and the same hour for taking food, and take it for fortifying the
body and not for enjoyment.
Venerable Anthony the Great
Do not
neglect the Forty Days; it constitutes an imitation of Christ’s way of life.
Saint Ignatius the Godbearer
The holy
fasters did not approach strict fasting suddenly, but little by little they
became capable of being satisfied by the most meagre food. Despite all this
they did not know weakness, but were always hale and ready for action. Among
them sickness was rare, and their life was extraordinarily lengthy.
To the
extent that the flesh of the faster becomes thin and light, spiritual life
arrives at perfection and reveals itself through wondrous manifestations, and
the spirit performs its actions as if in a bodiless body. External feelings are
shut off, and the mind that renounces the earth is raised up to heaven and is
wholly immersed in the contemplation of the spiritual world.
Source: http://stillwaterorthodox.org/2017/06/fast-holy-apostles-peter-paul/
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