The Catalog of Good Deeds: Lent and Fasting

Showing posts with label Lent and Fasting. Show all posts

To avoid turning Lent into hard and senseless weeks of diet, one should keep several simple rules. The aim of a fast is to bend our body to our soul (to restore the right hierarchy of soul and body), to multiply love, to sharpen attention to our spiritual life, to train our will and gain our powers for spiritual fight.

1. “Always be happy, pray all the time, be thankful for everything”

The temptation to fall into despair is strong. “How can I live without tasty food? No more entertainments! How long the services are!” In fact, there is no reason for despair. Long services are at the same time the examples of middle-aged spiritual poetry, philosophical reflections on the human’s place in eternity, feeling of unity with other people praying in the church as well as communion with God. Often we can face the other side of the Lenten despair: “I cannot fast according to the statue. I miss services. I get distracted by secular vanity.” Remember that God needs our heart, not our legs or stomach. He sees in a soul the desire to serve Him, and He sees the weaknesses, too. This constant recollection about God will become our constant joy about Him.

2. Keep praying!

Of course, there is no need for us to get on the way of hesychasm. Still, we can try to get half a foot closer to perfection. We need to devote more time to prayer than we do usually. We should be more attentive during services – sometimes it might be useful to take a book with the texts of services. We should perform the prayer rule more thoroughly – leave your computer half an hour earlier and read the evening prayers. Add the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian. While on the way, read or listen to Psalter. It is rather useful to fight against numerous temptations during Great Lent with prayer: when you feel angry or get despaired you can cope with this condition with the help of short Jesus’ prayer.

3. Church prayer

If we did not manage to organize our life in a way that we can only eat permitted foods, read the entire prayer rule or just pray during the day because of the everyday routine, the church comes to our rescue. During Great Lent, Divine services are performed every day in monasteries and many parish churches in big cities. We can go to church before or after work and stay at least for a part of the service. This will help to tune on a completely different from the secular environment mood. If we speak of Great lent, we should point out that there are certain services for which we could even take a day off. These are the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete during the first four days of Great Lent, the reading of the entire Canon of St. Andrew of Crete on the Wednesday evening during the fifth week, akathist to the Mother of God on Friday, and the services of the Holy Week. It is advisable to attend the Liturgy of Presanctified Gifts at least once during Great Lent.

4. “Open to me the doors of repentance, O Life-giver!”

It is known that it is not God who needs fast, but we. For example, Great Lent consists of two parts: the Lent itself and the Holy Week. The Church offers us to read the Great Canon twice during Lent for good reason. Every Saturday after the all-night vigil, we can hear the chant “Open to me the doors of repentance, O Life-giver!” for good reason. Three weeks before Great Lent the Church appeals for repentance with the parable about the Publican and Pharisee, and the recalling of the Last judgement and Adam’s expulsion. We need these 40 days of Lent exactly for repentance. If you are not going to repent, then there is no need to fast. It will be just a waste of your health.

5. Watch your health

If you feel that your health is getting worse during Lent, you should discuss the degree of your abstinence with your spiritual father. If you have any diseases of the stomach or metabolic dysfunction, you cannot fast in full or partial accordance with the Church statue just because you want to. Today even some monasteries do not fast with only dry food; so, the Lord will not judge a working person who has health problems, too. Gastric ulcer will not bring you closer to the Lord. In fact, it can even distance you from God. The border between pure desire to follow the Church canons and the pride for your personal efforts is rather thin.

6. Eyes on your own plate

“I boast when I fast, and I still boast when I do not fast”, - writes St. John Climacus in his “Ladder”. “Boasting while fasting” is dangerous and goes hand in hand with judging others. Your brother eats fish while you are on bread and water? Not your business. He drinks milk while you do not even put sugar in tea? You have no idea about the condition of his organism. He has eaten a sausage and is going to partake of Holy Communion next morning while you have begun the Eucharistic fast even before the all-night vigil? This concerns only him and the priest who lets him to take part in the sacrament. “Boasting while not-fasting” is more delicate passion. In the present-day world, there is such a character as a publican who is boasting because he is not a Pharisee. In this case, we can observe another tendency: he does not eat oil – but I make hundred prostrations at home before going to bed! He does not take any alcohol – but I repent every weekend! Here we can say only what children in kindergarten are said: “Eyes on your own plate”.

7. Man does not live by bread alone

Think less about food. Fast is not about changing your food regime. Vegetarians do not eat animal food at all but it neither brings them closer to God nor keeps them from Him, just like the Apostle said. The continuation of this well-known phrase is, “but with any word of God” – it suits perfectly to the period of Great Lent, when we pay special attention to reading Bible, which is the word of God. There is a tradition to read full Gospel as well as it will be useful to read the teachings of Holy Fathers: “Ladder”, Philokalia, explanations of Gospel and so on.

8. Hurry to do good

Concentration on our personal spiritual condition must not turn into negligence towards other people. Fast is supposed to develop in us both love towards God and love towards our neighbor. St. John Chrysostom offered to donate the money saved during Lent to people in need. What is more, during Great Lent there is no need to stop communication with those people who can need it – a pregnant friend, a sick neighbor, a lonely relative. A short talk with these people over a cup of tea is not just entertainment but helping others.

9. Loving people without pleasing people

Good attitude towards our neighbors can sometimes lead to such an unpleasant thing as people pleasing. In fact, there is no good attitude in it at all, while there is personal flabbiness and dependence on the opinion of other people. During Great Lent, this passion becomes especially sharp. “Let’s meet on Friday after work and go to a café!” your friend says, and here you are ordering a cake with her: I don’t want to offend her! “Come to us on Saturday evening!” your neighbors say, and you are going to miss the evening service… “Have one more piece of chicken if you don’t want to hurt my feelings!” your relative says capriciously, and here one can even hide behind respectful attitude towards older people. However, it will be a wickedness. Unwillingness to come into conflict is not always connected with love towards others. To get rid of the sin of people pleasing we can recall the advice by St. Paisios the Hagiorite: we should conceal our personal fasts in order not to fast for show, while the fast for the whole Church is being strong in our faith. We should not only strive to respect other people, but make others respect our faith, too. Quite often, a polite explanation is enough for people to understand your position. What is more, most often it comes out that all our explanations are fanciful: a friend in a café will not be confused by your empty espresso cup, your neighbors will be glad to meet with you after the service, and your relative will be pleased to treat you to potatoes with mushrooms.

10. Follow Christ

Finally, the most important rule of Great Lent is to remember about the aim of this period. Fast is a period of concentrated anticipation of the feast to which it leads, such as Resurrection of Christ, Dormition of the Mother of God and so on. If we speak of Great Lent, it should be an anticipation of a hardworking person. We try to go through Lent together with the Lord; together we will reach the grave of Lazarus; together we will enter Jerusalem; we will listen to Him in the Temple and partake of Holy Communion with His Apostles at His Last Supper; we will follow Him on His way of the Cross; we will mourn on Golgotha with the Mother of God and His favorite disciple John… Finally, together with the myrrh-bearing women we will come to the opened Grave and will feel joy for He is not here. Together with them, we will exclaim, “Christ is risen!”

Source: http://dishupravoslaviem.ru/post-10-pravil-pravoslavnogo-posta/

During Lent we make more prostrations. That’s a process that begins by making the sign of the Cross, then bowing down, resting your knees on the floor and then touching your forehead to the floor. I’ve collected, below, some photos of people making prostrations from around the internet.

It’s a prayer posture that we often see in the Old Testament, when we read that people “fell on their faces.” (I don’t know if prostrations are ever used in Judaism any more.) Here’s a detail of the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser, (827 BC, now in the British Museum), which depicts the Jewish King Jehu (2 Kings 9-10) making a prostration before the conqueror Shalmaneser III of Assyria.

What prostrating most looks like to Western people is Muslim worship; Muslims carried it over from their earlier history as Orthodox Christians, just as Christians continued the practice from their Jewish roots. When Orthodox make prostrations, we don’t do them as neatly as Muslims do, all in a row, and men and women worship together.

(A point of confusion can be that the term “prostrate” or “prostration” in English literaly means lying flat on the floor. In Western liturgical practice, if a prostration is called for, that’s what is meant. In the East the term got applied instead to this act of “falling on your faces.”)

People might do prostrations all together during a service, or privately, apart from liturgical worship. If you visited a holy site, you might feel like expressing your awe and gratitude with a prostration. Some people make prostrations when they say the Jesus Prayer, during their private prayer time. When you ask someone to forgive you, it is beautiful (though not required) to accompany the request with a prostration. It represents your recognizing the presence of Christ in the person you have offended.

There is a prayer we say frequently in Lent, and accompany with prostrations. It is the Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian (AD 306-373):

We make a prostration at the end of each line, so three in all. It’s not a uniform process, and some do it more quickly, others more slowly. Some can’t make a prostration very well (or maybe they can get down easily enough, but have trouble getting back up!), and instead make a “metania,” making the sign of the Cross and then bowing and reaching to the floor with the right hand. It’s not like everyone is *required* to make a prostration; it’s meant instead to help you express your sorrow for sin with your whole body, not just your words, and your gratitude for forgiveness.

How-to: Begin by making the sign of the Cross. Begin bending forward, and begin to lower the palms of your hands to rest on the floor. It’s more efficient to focus on what you do with your hands that what you do with your knees, because if you focus on knees, it tends to become an awkward 2-stage camel-like process. But if you instead follow the sign of the cross with a gentle controlled-fall forward, aiming to rest your palms to the floor, and allowing your knees to fall into place—then you can push off lightly from your palms and return to a standing position.

It’s a way the Judeo-Christian tradition has expressed awe, documented back to 827 BC (and remember all those who “fell on their faces” from Genesis to Revelation). Why not give it a try?

By Frederica Mathewes-Green

Source: http://frederica.com/writings/about-prostrations.html

Cheesefare Sunday received it's name because the previous week we did not eat meat, but only dairy products, such as milk, cheese, etc., as well as eggs and fish.

Many find this rule of the Church to be "unreasonable", saying: "How is milk of a lamb allowed but not the meat of the lamb, since milk is produced by the lamb? How are eggs allowed and not chicken, since the first are produced by the second?"

Of course these people would have a point, if we maintained that the meat of the lamb or fowl was tainted and for this reason we do not eat it. Then we should not eat what is produced by them, since these also would be tainted. But through our Church no food is tainted. This is what is taught by the apostle Paul in his First Epistle to Timothy (4:3-5). Rather the Church simply divides food into greater or lesser consumption towards self-restraint and, at certain times, allows the one and forbids the other.

An accurate response towards those who say the above has been answered by Athanasios of Parios, a wise and important teacher of the Church, when he writes to a certain doctor:

"You criticize your friend because during Cheesefare he eats eggs, yet does not eat the chicken which gives birth to the egg...? But what similarity can be made between an egg, which is not alive, and a chicken, which is alive? The egg is much lower than the fowl. And as proof I appeal to your own opinion, that is, the opinion of a doctor. To whomever is sick and begins to approach the stages of recovery you prescribe as food small and delicate chicks and not tough fowl. For what reason do you do this? Because, you say, the fat and greasy foods will harm him who now begins to recover from his sickness, since his stomach does not have the strength to endure and digest heavy foods. If therefore there is a difference between a small chick and a big chicken and the chick is, as a food, much lower in strength than the chicken, and no doctor has ever said that the egg of a chick or chicken is the same food or equally suitable for the sick, is it not clear that unreasonable are those who criticize us for eating eggs and not fowl?... They criticize us also that we eat olives, but not olive oil, even though inside the olives is the olive oil. But within grapes is wine also. Yet however many grapes we eat we will not get drunk; at most we will become stuffed in our stomachs...."

Besides this, it is well-known that with olive oil we are able to cook innumerable and delicious foods, though olives are considered xerophagy (dry foods). Xerophagy is to not eat cooked foods, but unprepared ones, such as bread with olives or dry fruit, etc.

By Elder Epiphanios Theodoropoulos

Translated by John Sanidopoulos

Source: http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2011/03/why-only-no-meat-during-cheesefare-week.html

How would you respond to someone who destroyed or defaced a picture of one of your loved ones? You would probably be very upset with that person, for how we treat images of people indicates what we think of them. If we dishonor someone’s picture, we dishonor that person. But if we treat images with care and respect, we honor the person whose image it is.

On this Sunday of the Last Judgment, we remember that every human being is created in the image and likeness of God. There is no avoiding what that means: How we treat others is how we treat the Lord. Every person is a living icon, and how we treat them reveals the true nature of our relationship with Jesus Christ.

That is why He taught in today’s gospel reading that the ultimate standard of judgment is how we treat those whom it is so easy to disregard: the hungry, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the prisoner. To the extent that we serve these people, we serve our Lord. To the extent that we ignore them, we neglect and denigrate Him. Christ says to the righteous, “In that you did it to the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.” And He says to those headed for punishment, “In that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.”

We learn from this passage that the health or sickness of souls is manifested—is shown—in what we do every day as we encounter those whose life circumstances require sacrifice on our part for their well-being. Contrary to popular opinion, the Christian life is not some kind of pious escape from the unpleasant challenges of life, but a vocation to take up our crosses as we become living icons of our Lord’s love and mercy, especially for those whose challenges are in no way attractive or congenial to us.

It is hard to hear, but nonetheless true: How we treat the living icons of Christ manifests the true nature of our relationship with Him, regardless of what we say we believe. St. John wrote in his Epistle, “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?” (1 John 4:20) He also writes, “But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” (1 John 3: 17-18)

It is easy in a place such as Abilene, TX, to be a Christian in word only, for it usually costs us very little here to say that we believe in Jesus Christ. But that is only a matter of words which are rarely challenged in West Texas. It is much more demanding to be so united with Christ that we convey His love and mercy to everyone in our lives, especially those whose problems we would rather ignore. All the more is that the case when we notice that the righteous people in our gospel text were not even aware that they were caring for the Lord when they served those in need. They spontaneously showed love and mercy to their needy neighbors simply because that is the kind of people they were. That is how they served Christ without even knowing what they were doing.

If you are like me, you are a long way from meeting that standard of holiness. It is so easy to excuse ourselves from helping others because we have more important things to do. We say we are too busy and do not have enough resources. We think that other people’s problems are their fault and their concern, not ours. We like to avoid the truth that we really do encounter Christ in our neighbors, especially when they are annoying, demanding, and unappreciative.

Of course, we do not have to be wealthy or even healthy in order to give someone a call or otherwise express friendship. It does not require a lot of money to read to a child or to visit someone in a nursing home. A homebound person can send a note or email message or make a phone call. Even with Lenten fasting, many can donate blood and save someone’s life. Everyone can put at least something into the “Food for Hungry People” containers that we will distribute during Lent. No matter how young or old we are, we interact with people who need our companionship, our encouragement, and our prayers. Instead of ignoring them, we must treat them as Christ treats us, showing mercy and love even when we are more annoying, demanding, and unappreciative than we know.

It sounds so easy, but we all know how hard it is in practice. And that is precisely why we need the spiritual disciplines of Great Lent, such as fasting, prayer, almsgiving, forgiveness, and reconciliation. For when we humble ourselves before God and our neighbors in these ways, we open ourselves to the holy strength that conquers even death itself. When we turn our attention from obsessive self-centeredness to the love of God and neighbor, we take a crucial step toward the healing of our souls.

As much as we do not like to hear it, the person whose life circumstances we find to be revolting bears the image of God. Christ died and rose again for those whom we are inclined to condemn, disregard, and ignore. And, no, our lives will not be destroyed if our plans, schedules, routines, and agendas are put on hold or replaced by those a Kingdom not of this world. Since our goal is to enter that Kingdom, we should not be surprised when we experience discomfort and struggle in serving a Savior Whom the world rejected.

Even as St. Paul, in addressing whether Christians should eat meat that had been sacrifice to pagan idols, said that “if food makes by brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble,” we must undertake our Lenten disciplines so that we will find the spiritual strength not to cause others to stumble, especially by failing to show them the love and concern due to every living icon of the Lord. His ultimate judgment will be to confirm the state of our souls, to confirm who we have become through our thoughts, words, and deeds. Regardless of whether we have the eyes to see it, our daily actions shape us profoundly and have eternal consequences.

As we prepare for our Lenten journey, we should remember that fasting is not simply a change in diet, but a tool that can help us fight passions that keep us from serving Christ in our neighbors. When done in secret and with humility, fasting weakens the self-centeredness that keeps us from sharing God’s love with others. It is therapy for the healing of our souls that frees us to serve Christ in our neighbors more fully. Since they all bear the image and likeness of God, how we treat them is how we treat Him.

If you are like me, you really need the spiritual disciplines of Lent to help you serve Jesus Christ more faithfully. And if you wonder how to serve Him, just think about the sick, lonely, poor, and otherwise needy people you know. As St. James wrote in his epistle, “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” (James 1:27) Surely, that is the Lord’s will for us all this Lent and every day of our lives. If we live that way, then His judgment will confirm that we have shown others the same gracious mercy that we have received from Him. For since He has loved and served us so profoundly through His cross and glorious resurrection, then we must love and serve Him in all who bear His image and likeness. For even the most miserable and lowly human being is truly a living icon of Jesus Christ. Lent will help us gain the spiritual vision to see that glorious truth.

By Fr. Philip LeMasters

Source: https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/easternchristianinsights/2016/03/05/780/

This article is not about Ghandi and the independence of India; is not about hunger strikes and the upholding of civil rights; but it is an attempt to restore to its former heights an overlooked tool for spiritual development‚ recommended by generations upon generations of Holy Fathers and spiritual elders.

Upon hearing the word “fast” today‚ one doesn’t think of freedom‚ on the contrary‚ the discipline of fasting is more associated with coercion‚ restriction and limitation of choices. This is the primary reason why so many people do not even consider fasting in their development as Christian.

From a material point of view however this is what fasting is: we abstain from certain foods‚ or even all foods‚ on certain days. This nearsighted view however is the main culprit in our misunderstanding of this exercise because it only pertains to our material side‚ to our flesh that needs nourishment to survive. Man however is more than just organic matter and his universe expands beyond the bounds of the physical reality into the spiritual realm. If we fail to grasp this important aspect‚ then sure‚ fasting is really unnecessary. But if fasting was so unnecessary than why did Jesus Christ bother to fast in the wilderness for 40 days before He started His visible works in the world? He probably knew something about fasting‚ something that we have a tendency to ignore because its discipline is uncomfortable to our pampered bodies.

We mainly reject fasting because we have perverted the purpose of food from nutrition to pleasure. This is not something new‚ this has happened long time ago in paradise with Adam and Eve that ate out of curiosity and hope for life fulfillment without God‚ not out of hunger. From there on there is an entire history of food abuse all the way to our days. Today we live in a society where 90% of food commercials on TV advertise “junk-food”‚ food that is good only to make us feel happy and satisfy cravings‚ bringing no dietary value: pure pleasure‚ no nutrition.

Giving up something so enjoyable is very hard‚ even if it is not good for you‚ let alone if you can justify it as a necessity. Sometimes however‚ giving up something we like might be the best thing to do. Giving up something occupying so much on one’s mind opens tremendous opportunities to concentrate on other important aspects of our life. Freed from the agonizing decision about what restaurant we will go next‚ one can pay more attention to other thing that matter‚ like for instance our relationship with God that is blatantly ignored while we spend so much time imagining the next culinary delight.

A perfect example of the fruits of such spiritual exercise is St. John the Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord‚ the very protector of our parish. We see him depicted in some of his icons dressed in a torn camel hair robe with a modest and wild appearance but‚ surprisingly‚ bearing wings. The wings are an illustration of his ascetic life‚ a life spent in complete obedience to God‚ of renunciation to any bodily pleasures‚ save the bare necessities‚ that made him close to the life of the angels. The wings are also a symbol of his freedom from all that is material and the great spiritual mobility that he has received from God as a reward for his ascetic life.

God did not force St. John to accomplish any of his ascetic endeavors; John has freely chosen to incline the balance of his life to God‚ and take flight towards heavens‚ unrestrained by the chains of sin or matter.

When Christ was tempted in the desert with food he replied to the devil: “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone‚ but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Mat. 4:4). Our souls need this food‚ our souls need to listen to the saving commandments coming from the mouth of God and distributed by the Church to all of us. If we understand this we also understand the discipline of Great Lent is not restrictive‚ but liberating‚ opening upon us a realm of possibilities that were buried under heavy layers of gluttony and self-gratification. True freedom lies not in freely choosing the next meal‚ but in being released from the bonds of sin and following the will of God in all things. “For when you were the servants of sin‚ you were free from righteousness. But what fruit had you then from those things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now set free from sin and become servants to God‚ you have your fruit unto holiness‚ and as your end‚ life everlasting.” (6:20-2’)

The Great Lent is a journey through the history of mankind‚ a journey from slavery to freedom in which we are called to join not as observers‚ but as full participants‚ assuming upon ourselves the responsibility that our new life in Christ is bringing to the table. Growing wings is a choice‚ let us choose right.

Have a Blessed Lent!

Source: http://dialogues.stjohndfw.info/2012/02/fasting-for-freedom-or-growing-wings-for-god/

It’s no use to ask the Prodigal Son just how he ran away. He probably couldn’t tell you how he ended up in the swine world, a sullen existence that stretched as far as he could see.

Life was tough now. He had left home to “find himself” -- a mentally ill message the world has always fed its population. He had wandered into the place waving a lot of cash around. Things were great. It was lollapalooza 24/7, rock around the clock and party like 1999.

He took lots of selfies with other prodigals.

He got friended by thousands of people on fb. His instagram account blew off the charts.

Then the market crashed. His house was foreclosed on. The area suffered the worst drought in history.

There was no more cash to wave around. His fellow prodigals vanished.

His was all by himself, no reason to take a selfie anymore.

In trying to find himself, he lost himself, his heart broken into tiny eggshell pieces like Humpty Dumpty, fallen once and for all.

How did he run away? How did he get here?

It just happened. He wasn’t “paying attention” to the real things, to nature, his own human nature, the things of the spirit, and to the signs of beauty and truth.

The Prodigal Son never “ran” away. He shuffled off, away from his Father’s House. He was dazzled by the carnival of entertaining fantasies, the cardboard fronts of exciting desires. The hall of mirrors and pretty lights that covered up the reality of the place where he had drifted off to.

Which was here, the Swine World, so far away from his Father’s House.

So far this is a sad script. Human beings have only one home, one space of the heart that is real. That place is a spiritual place, the Father’s House where there is more than enough bread and wine, more than enough shelter, and best of all, more than enough feeling and knowing that one is home with the Father and given rest.

But human beings, to a man, let their minds wander off like a prodigal, and sooner or later, their bodies also wander out of the House and into the world of crashing markets, droughts and famines, disillusionment, disappointment, broken friendships and despair.

There is a cruel, cruel irony about passions. When any of the passions call — whether greed or gluttony, pride or despair, anger or lust or despair — they advertise with promised comforts. Anger promises revenge. Despair promises a protective shell. Lust promises an easier husk of love. Pride promises self-godhood. Gluttony and greed promise satisfaction and fulfillment.

And the moment a prodigal falls for the advertisement of a passion, an amnesia sets in. The prodigal forgets the way to his Father’s House, which is the way of the heart. He forgets that he belongs to the caring God Whose Name is love.

He forgets that he is human.

He forgets that other people are human, images of the Trinity, and instead calls them blasphemous names, merely functional objects of his own passions. If the passion is anger, then another person is called an enemy. If lust, then just sexual object. If despair, then merely a source of impossible expectations. If pride, then only a convenient underling, an extension of one’s own ego -- which has become an entire world that is very sick..

He forgets that his Father cares for him, and God is then seen only as angry and condemning.

He forgets about beauty, truth, goodness and love and the day turns to gray, sunsets become foreboding and night belongs to terror.

He forgets what is real because he is blind to Christ, and instead he willingly believes in the false darkness that rejects the light.

And that is why every prodigal — son or daughter — ends up exchanging their Father’s House and their own noble human nature for the Pig Pen of Life, and a life of falsehood — where the famine-lands call you, instead of the noble name of “human,” merely just an “individual,” or a “consumer,” or a “number,” or a “likely voter,” or a “marketing segment,” or a point in the 68% area in a normal distribution, or a diagnosis, or a predictable opinion-holder in an election survey. Or just a packet of desires that can be manipulated to try anything more transgressive, anything more thrilling, anything more individualistic, just to avoid the knowledge that the Swine World is just that, a cage with a feeding trough, filled with cheap trick grime and the modern mud of despair.

Don’t ask how the Prodigal Son ended up running away and slopping around in the domain of pigs. A sinner falls into sin in a fog of forgetfulness and amnesia. Human beings cannot rationally apostasize from their human nature -- the inheritance of the Father. They must become irrational and stultified first. They must forget their Father's House in order to shuffle off to the Swine World.

Always.

So there is no way for him to remember just how he got here.

But he doesn’t need to.

All he has to do is open his eyes, look around at the reality of the Pig Pen of Life, and remember how things were in his Father’s House … how the Bread tasted and how the Wine glowed with sweet light … how the arching roof of the Father’s love gave shelter from the storm of existence … how the pure white robe felt clean and pure, for once, on the heart that had tired so much of the dirty, leaden burden of the passionate world … and how the ring gave shining warmth -- of kindred-spirit to a cosmic family -- to his right hand.

Remember your true human nature, and Whose you are, and Whose you should be.

No one remembers how they became a prodigal.

But everyone remembers how they came to their senses, dusted themselves off from the grime of the Swine World, and decided to walk in beautiful repentance back to the House of the Father, and go in peace on the journey home, in the way of the heart, fasting, praying, giving alms, reading and thinking about the Word.

Ask any Prodigal about that, and he or she will be glad to tell you, for the memory is clear and bright.

For once, he is dressed and in his right mind, because he’s walking back home.

Source: http://janotec.typepad.com/terrace/2016/02/walk-away-from-the-swine-world.html

Q: Hello Father! Why don’t we observe the Wednesday and Friday fast during the week of the Publican and the Pharisee? Thank you! Respectfully, Olga.

A: The parable of the publican and the Pharisee gives an image of the spiritual truth that God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble (Js. 4:6). The Pharisees were representatives of the social-religious trend in Judea during the second century B.C. Their distinguishing characteristic was an intense zeal for observing the Law of Moses. Religious life requires that a person be attentive to himself, that he have moral sensitivity, humility, and pure intentions. If he doesn’t have these, a hardness of heart gradually creeps in on him. Then a pseudo-spirituality inevitably comes. The result is spiritual death. If instead of humility there is self-opinion and pride, instead of sacrificial love there is spiritual egoism, then it is not hard for the devil to take over such a person and make him an accomplice in his evil deeds. People who are unbelieving or spiritually inattentive do not even know or guess how often they do just what the enemy of our salvation wants them to do.

Phariseeism is not a vocation or a membership in some kind of religious organization. Phariseeism is a state of the soul. It begins with self-opinion and self-aggrandizement. Just as soon as a person’s attention to himself and strictness with himself relaxes, the first shoots of a dangerous plant appear, the fruits of which can kill the soul. Death comes as a result of poisoning with the poison of pride.

The main moral characteristic of a Pharisee is self-love and egoism, which directs all the movements of his soul. We rarely think about how much egoism and therefore, phariseeism we have in ourselves. Our insensitivity to our surroundings, our constant coldness, the lack of a constant readiness to sacrifice our time, energy, and convenience for the sake of others shows how far we are from the repentant publican, who with a contrite heart pronounced only five words, but departed justified.

Hieromonk Job (Gumerov)

By cancelling the Wednesday and Friday fast during the week of the Publican and the Pharisee, the holy Church desires to keep us from pharisaical self-complacency, when the formal observation of Church rules (fasting, prayer rule, and church attendance) becomes the goal of spiritual life. The holy fathers teach that all this must be fulfilled, but it must be seen as a means for acquiring spiritual fruits.

The Pharisees considered themselves to be wise and knowing. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace (Js. 3:17-18)

Q: Hello! Christ tells the parable of the Pharisee and the publican in the temple. The Pharisee says that he does this and that, including that he fasts two days out of the week. Tell me, please, what days of the week were these, and why were they fast days? Thank you! Evgeny.

A: According to the law of Moses there was only one day established as a day of fasting (Heb. tsum—to draw out) during the year—on the day of Purificaton (Yom Kippur): Lev. 16:29; Num. 29:7. Nevertheless, any of the sons of Israel could voluntarily take on a fast. Such fasts are often written about in the Old Testament. A fast could be for one day, or it could go on for many days: the prophet Moses on the mountain in the presence of God spent forty days without food and water (Ex. 34:28), and the prophet Elias fasted for just as long (3 Kings 19:7-8). Fasting for the Jews presupposed total abstinence from food. David ate nothing for seven days (2 Kings 12:16-21). The faster usually put on sackcloth, refrained from daily washing, sprinkled his head with ashes (3 Kings 21:27; Nem. 9:1). The Jews had voluntary recourse to fasting: 1) Before decisive events, the outcome of which depended upon God’s mercy; (2 Kings 12:16, 21-23; Eph. 4:3-16, and others); 2) During sincere repentance and humility before God (1 Kings 7:6; 3 Kings 21:27); Ezd. 10:6; Nem. 9:1); and 3) To attain full communion with God (Ex. 34:28; Deut. 9:9, 18).

In Babylonian captivity, a one-day fast was established for the Jews: On the ninth day of the fourth month (tammuza), as a sorrowful remembrance of the Chaldean capture of Jerusalem (587/6 B.C.), on the tenth day of the fifth month (ava), on which the city was destroyed and the temple was burned (Jer. 52:12-13), on one of the days of the seventh month (tishri) in memory of the murder of Godolia (Jer. 41:1-3)

The Pharisee from the Lord’s parable fasted twice a week voluntarily, and boasted of it. The Pharisees had a custom of fasting on the fifth day of the week, when the prophet Moses ascended Mt. Sinai, and on the second, when he descended from the mountain.

The prophets condemned external fasts without repentance and humility. The parable of the publican and the Pharisee speaks of this. Such a fast leads to pride and spiritual blindness.

Q: Who are the Pharisees?

A: The Pharisees (according to one etymology, the Hebrew perushim—set apart) were representatives of the most influential religious-social trend in Judea. They are first mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew (3:7-9). The lack of mention of them in the Old Testament leads us to believe that this sect was formed significantly later than the conclusion of the canon of sacred Old Testament books (c. fifth century B.C.). There is a convincing theory by certain researchers who see the sect of the Pharisees as an answer to Hellenism—the tendency toward cultural-historical synthesis among the Mediterranean peoples. This tendency was the result of Alexander the Great’s successful military campaigns (356-323 B.C.). The Hellenic influence on Israeli society apparently brought to life this party of zealous defenders of national tradition. Josephus Flavius first speaks of the Pharisees as one of the three sects (along with the Sadducees and Essenes) in the thirteenth book of Judaic antiquity (13.5:9), talking about the activities of one of the Maccabees—the high priest Jonathan (c. second century B.C.).

The Pharisees, unlike the Sadducees, accepted the future resurrection, and the existence of angels and spirits. They preached a strict life, ritual purity, and exact fulfillment of the law. Representatives of this movement struggled against pagan influence upon the people, and stood for national independence. All of this attracted people to them.

But the farther time separated them from the God-revealed source of truth, the stronger a purely human origin showed itself in their teachings and actions. Formalism began to grow. The Lord through Moses forbade the introduction of new commandments and the repeal of those already given: You shall not add to the word that I speak to you, neither shall you take away from it: keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you (Deut. 4:2). Despite this, they introduced 613 new rules: 248 commands (according to the number of bones in the human body) and 365 prohibitions (according to the number of days in the year). They ascribed more significance to their innovations than they did to God’s commandments. The Savior rebuked them for this: Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? (Mt. 15:3); For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men (Mk. 7:8). They characteristically treated with contempt sinners, publicans, and people not of the book: But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed (Jn. 7:49). Although there were many sinners in Israeli society during the time of the Savior, the Lord never rebuked anyone like he did the Pharisees. But woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye love the uppermost seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them (Lk. 11:42-44). Jesus Christ rebuked the soulless formalism of the Pharisees and Scribes, who accused the Savior of violating the Sabbath by healing seriously ill people. Without doing away with the law, the Lord placed works of love and mercy for suffering people higher than ritual: The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath (Mk. 2:27).

Pride and self-opinion about their righteousness lead the Pharisees to spiritual blindness and made them incapable of humbly accepting anyone higher, purer, and more righteous than themselves. The Lord’s miracles, His teachings, which astounded the people by their moral heights, and His meekness all evoked wrath in the representatives of this sect. This was the main reason why they did not see in Jesus Christ the Messiah promised by the prophets, and, along with the Sadducees, demanded His crucifixion.

The better representatives of the Pharisees, who had a living faith and were not deadened by formalism, became Christians: the Apostle Paul, righteous Nicodemus, Gamaliel, and others.

Our Lord Jesus Christ warned His disciples against the leaven of the Pharisees (Mt. 16:11). Phariseeism as a spiritual state is a danger to any believer. It begins when a person prays formally, with his lips and not his heart, out of habit, and thinks he is pleasing to God. “People who are trying to conduct a spiritual life sometimes have the most subtle and difficult battle through their thoughts every moment of life—a spiritual battle. One has to be a bright eye to everything in every moment in order to notice the thoughts flowing into the soul from the evil one and deflect them. Such people must always have a heart burning with faith, humility, and love; otherwise, devilish deceit easily settles into it, and after deceit comes little faith or faithlessness, and then also all kinds of evil, from which they cannot soon cleanse themselves even with tears. Therefore do not allow your heart to be cold, especially during prayer, and avoid all cold indifference” (St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ). Spiritual pride, assurance of your own righteousness, ostentatious piety and hypocrisy are all phariseeism. The Holy Church in its struggle with the danger of falling into this state puts forth the example of the repentant publican. With his humble prayer we begin our daily morning prayers: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

By Hieromonk Job (Gumerov)

Source: http://www.pravoslavie.ru/76967.html

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