The Catalog of Good Deeds

Archpriest Andrew Lemeshonok, the spiritual father of St. Elisabeth Convent, answers various questions of the parishioners.

May I listen to music during the Great Lent? What kind of music is suitable for this season?

There is hardly any uniformity in approaches to this issue. Every person has his own measure because music plays different roles in the lives of various people.

There is music designed solely for entertainment. It makes one cheerful or elated. It is intended to evoke certain feelings or emotions. You should keep away from this kind of music. The Great Lent is the time when an individual must not be distracted or diverted. On the contrary, he must become more focused and concentrated on his life, his relationships with God and his neighbour. So if music serves to entertain, distract, or deafen out serious contemplation, it won’t be right. There is music that helps one to feel empathy and other good emotions. It helps a person to concentrate and leads to compassion. This kind of music is acceptable. Again, the Great Lent is the time when we can remain silent to try and hear God’s voice inside our hearts.

You should look inside your heart and say what impact this or that music really has on your mood. Does it help you? Does it make you closer to God? Does it bring anything positive into your life: something you need to survive and not to be depressed when struggling with the sin, or is it just a way to have fun and to fill in the empty spaces in your life? Look at its effects: do you gain or lose anything? Do you get closer to God or remain barren? That’s what has to be your primary touchstone.

You’ve got to weigh in all the outcomes of your actions. For instance, if it is the Holy Week, and you listen to music. Let all human flesh be silent — therefore, we ought to keep silent. Elder Silouan used to say that one should fast to such an extent so as to be able to pray after the meal: that’s how he could identify the proper measure of food. One person can be in mood for prayer even if he eats a lot, while another person can’t. That’s why it depends on whether you are addicted to music or not. If music is your passion, then you should abstain from it during the Great Lent. You ought to seek the balance you need to remain vigilant and wakeful.

As far as church music is concerned, it is even beneficial. Lenten chants are prayerful and lead us to repentance. It is only natural that we have Lenten concerts where people listen to church music, which is sung in churches during the Great Lent. It is really helpful for the souls that cannot get away from the vanity of this world. I think we should use it.

I heard an opinion that one can even eat meat during Lent due to one’s illness or out of love towards one’s neighbour. Is it correct?

God isn’t jealous. Where is the source of love? Is it in me or in God? Can I love anyone without God or is my love self-centred and short-lived? These are the questions that you have to ask. Loving God and loving one’s neighbour are tantamount. How can you love other people without God?

What did Jesus Christ come into this world for? He came in order to teach us to love. Our goal is to fix the broken connection with God. Thanks to God, one is capable even of loving one’s enemies. It leads to a different level of love: the kind of love that isn’t transient or emotional but inspired by the Lord. It’s God’s grace and love that is mirrored in our hearts and pours out on our neighbours.

As far as eating meat is concerned… When St John of Kronstadt was a child, he fell ill. His father said that he’d rather die than eat meat. That was how rigorously people observed the fast, how they followed church regulations and how they trusted God. Not everyone has achieved this level of faith. Presently, there are many people who ask for a priest’s blessing to eat non-lenten foods because their doctors told them so. Will a priest oppose doctors’ advice? If a person asks for this blessing in advance and is convinced that he cannot endure without non-lenten food — if he does not rely on God completely — the priest will bless him to fast less stringently.

It seems to me that the meat-eating issue is purely abstract, detached from life. What does a dying person need meat for? He may need some water, of course. If only that meat could bring the dying person back to life, it would be fine for him to eat it. However, if that person is a devout Christian and relies on God to such an extent that he would not break his fast no matter what, then he that is able to receive it, let him receive it (cf. Matthew 19: 12)! Alas, there are few such people nowadays. When an individual starts worrying and hesitating, it’s worse than if he ate some meat and forgot about it. You’ve got to look at the given person and examine the situation trying to find out the lesser evil. You can make so many mistakes by being careless. Things can be letter-perfect according to the law, but they are not okay by the spirit of the law.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise (Cf. Psalm 51: 17). Let us learn to serve God and to honour the fast. May our fast consist not only of abstaining from meat and dairy but also from sinful feelings, the vanity and negligence, which assail us not only through food but also through what we see and hear.

I have to eat non-Lenten products during the Great Lent due to my poor health. Even so, I refrain from going to concerts, which I love, and I cut back on other things. How can I prepare for Communion, aside from prayer?

It’s your life, and it’s up to you to settle the limits of your ascetic practices. So, it’s the Lenten season now, and you’ve got to consider what you can give up for God’s sake. We can’t do much but we can bring to the Lord the small donation of the poor widow, can’t we? What can you abstain from during the Great Lent for God’s sake? Seek and find something you can fight against. I believe it will be helpful for you.

God does not argue with us. We don’t need to bargain with him: you do you, I do me… It is us who need fast, not God. When a person makes an effort and forces himself to do something, he finds the joy and the gracious assistance that he requires. God’s power is made manifest in weakness (Cf. 2 Cor. 12: 9).

February 28, 2018

St. Elisabeth Convent

Back in the day, there were no canned foods, chemically cloned flavors, hermetically sealed wrappers, governmentally required labelling, the FDA, Food Police and trace ingredients that bind, harden, smooth and flavor our food. If you got a fish or a loaf of bread or something made of corn, it pretty much was a fish, bread or made of corn. Technology has made fasting a science and the playground of Phariseeism and obsessive compulsive attention to details.

Editor’s note: A typical American diet includes foods that are processed. Their ingredients are changed or are not real. Our fasting rules belong to a time before food processing and offer no guidance whatsoever in a food environment like what we have today. The following humorous article Rules of Fasting: How to Read Labels reflects what a lot of us do today when trying to figure out if a specific food meets the rules or not. We read the labels. But even if there is a little trace of milk or egg from processing on the label, you really can’t consider that food non-fasting just because of the invisible ingredients.

OK. So, one of the issues that modern culinary technology presents us with is “reading labels” for Lent. Back in the day, there were no canned foods, chemically cloned flavors, hermetically sealed wrappers, governmentally required labelling, the FDA, Food Police and trace ingredients that bind, harden, smooth and flavor our food. If you got a fish or a loaf of bread or something made of corn, it pretty much was a fish, bread or made of corn. Technology has made fasting a science and the playground of Phariseeism and obsessive compulsive attention to details. Take my beloved Pop Tarts, f’rinstance. Over FIFTY ingredients in a crust and some jammy stuff between them. Check it out:

ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACINAMIDE, REDUCED IRON, THIAMIN MONONITRATE [VITAMIN B1], RIBOFLAVIN [VITAMIN B2], FOLIC ACID), SUGAR, DEXTROSE,VEGETABLE OIL (SOYBEAN, PALM, COTTONSEED AND/OR HYDROGENATED COTTONSEED OIL† WITH TBHQ AND CITRIC ACID FOR FRESHNESS), CORN SYRUP, WHEY, CRACKER MEAL,HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, COCOA, CONTAINS TWO PERCENT OR LESS OF CORNSTARCH, COCOA PROCESSED WITH ALKALI, SALT, LEAVENING (BAKING SODA, SODIUM ACID PYROPHOSPHATE, MONOCALCIUM PHOSPHATE), MODIFIED CORN STARCH, MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES, SODIUM STEAROYL LACTYLATE, GELATIN, DRIED EGG WHITES, DATEM,PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED SOYBEAN OIL†, MODIFIED WHEAT STARCH, XANTHAN GUM, NATURAL VANILLA FLAVOR, CARAMEL COLOR, SOY LECITHIN, CALCIUM PHOSPHATE, COLOR ADDED, NIACINAMIDE, REDUCED IRON, VITAMIN A PALMITATE, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B6), RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), THIAMIN HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B1), FOLIC ACID.

If I’m keeping the fast “strictly”… OOPS!!! look at ingredient numbers 31 through 33… Lactylate, gelatin and dried egg whites! DANG… not fast worthy. So WWSJTFD? (What would St. John the Faster Do?) Well dear blog readers, I am here to help you with a primer on the historical/dogmatic/liturgical method of fasting. (Please consult with your spiritual Father before applying any of these rules to your Lenten discipline.)

So, here is a survey of the fasting rules that have applied at various times in Orthodox history.

You can eat something if a NON-fasting ingredient shows up on the list after this:

1. The Shema Rule: (“Our God is One” from Deuteronomy, for the biblically illiterate): You can eat anything that has non fasting ingredients after the first ingredient listed. Since Orthodoxy is a fulfillment of Judaism, and God is “one nature”, this is a REALLY handy rule. (Pop Tarts would be fastworthy by this rule, so you get the idea. Hmmm… it just occurred to me, so would a bacon double cheeseburger without the hamburger patties, which is much better than a BLT without the bacon.)

2. The Nicene Constantinapolitan Rule: (Also known as The Incarnational (God with meat) Two Natures Rule): You can eat it if the non-fastworthy ingredient shows up after TWO ingredients.

3. The Trinitarian Rule: After 3 ingredients.

4. The Angelic Ranks Rule 9 (because we aspire to the angelic life): After 9 ingredients.

5. The “Lord Have Mercy Rule” of Matins/Hours: After 12 ingredients. (Pop Tarts are still “IN”).

6. The “Lord Have Mercy Rule” of Russian or Monastic Vigil: After 40 ingredients. (Pop Tarts are OUT).

7. The “Lord Have Mercy Rule” of Russian/Monastic Litia/Vigil: After 300 ingredients. (You may eat only organically grown potatoes for Lent, but only if the fertilizer is certified to be free of non-fasting trace ingredients… which is why the Russians allow Vodka during Lent… YEAH!!!).

I hope this helps. Blessed Lent to all.

By Steven Robinson

Source: http://www.pravmir.com/rules-of-fasting-how-to-read-labels/

The first question which presents itself during the Lenten season is one of cuisine: “What on earth can I eat since the Church forbids eating meat, fish, and dairy?” It is a reasonable question, but must not be allowed to skew one’s understanding of what Lenten fasting is all about or give the impression that Lent is primarily about food.

For one thing, the Church does not have any food laws in the same way that Judaism, Islam, or Hinduism have food laws. Religions often have food laws, but Christianity is not a religion. Rather it is our participation in this age of the powers of the age to come, and as such it transcends religion with all its categories, including the category of unclean food. Religions have such a category, and both Judaism and Islam forbid the eating of pork. Hinduism (at least as practised by some) famously forbids eating cows, and some of its literature declares that no one who eats meat can have any knowledge of God. These are true food laws, and no one can obtain a dispensation from them to eat pork any more than they could obtain a dispensation from the law of gravity. They are not “food guidelines”, but “food laws”. Unclean food remains unclean, no matter what.

Christianity knows nothing of this. St. Paul declared that “nothing is unclean in itself” (Romans 14:14), and that “nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for then it is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer”. To deny this in the Church, he says, is one of the “doctrines of demons” (1 Timothy 4:1-5). Our fasting rules are not food laws.

What then is the point of them? The rules and abstinence have less to do with the stomach and more to do with the heart. God originally made us as spirit, soul, and body, with these three hierarchically ordered: our bodies submitted to our souls and our souls submitted to the spirit. Now everything is topsy-turvy and inverted: our bodily appetites rule over us, with our souls and personalities following obediently these bodily desires. The spiritual life comes a distant third. Fasting is meant to overturn all this, and restore us to proper balance. By fasting from good things such as meat, fish, dairy, and wine, we train our appetites to submit. Have you ever seen a dog with a treat balanced on its nose? The dog longs for the treat, but has been trained by its master not to eat the treat until allowed. Lent disciplines us to imitate the obedience of the well-trained dog, and not to eat the treat of more luxurious cuisine until allowed at Pascha. Lent says to our imperious desires, “You’re not the boss of me—the Lord is”, and demands that it submit to the spiritual life.

The fasting rules fulfill another function—that of binding us together as one family. If simple ascetic abstinence were the sole function of Lent, then rules would not be necessary. Each person could decide for himself “what to give up for Lent” and proceed with his own individual programme of disciplining the desires. But Christianity is not a philosophy but a family. Nothing in it is individual and isolated. We do not baptize ourselves when we become Christians, but receive baptism at the hands of another. We do not take bread and wine at home alone, but come to the Eucharistic assembly along with our fellows to receive it from the priest. The New Testament epistles were mostly not written to individuals, but to churches, and the prayer the Lord taught us was not the “My Father”, but the “Our Father”. Christianity is relentlessly corporate, and it binds us together as a single body, a united family. That is why the Church gives a single set of rules for everyone to follow. If one gave up meat, while another gave up chocolate and a third gave up coffee, all might benefit from their asceticism, but corporate meals would become impossible. So the Church bids us become one, and to eat together, sharing not only the same Eucharistic Chalice, but also the same fellowship table. The food on that table must be allowed by everyone who approaches it—hence the single set of fasting rules for all.

Finally, the most important thing about the Lenten fasting cuisine is that it helps soften our heart and promote love. An old book once proclaimed, “Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche”, and a wise woman I know once built on that and further proclaimed, “Real Christians Don’t Eat Each Other”. It is tempting to be cannibalistic. As St. Paul once warned his Galatian converts, “If you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another” (Galatians 5:15). It is too easy to speak words which wound, and to destroy another by gossip, criticism, and insult. As Solomon once taught, life and death are in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21), and we often use that power for death and not for life. St. James warned us that the tongue is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. Man stands at the top of the food chain, and has tamed every other species—lions, and tigers and bears. But oh my!—no one can tame the tongue. If one has tamed the tongue, one has arrived, and is mature and perfect man (James 3:1-12).

Lent bids us tame the tongue and to love silence. Some people when they arise in the morning turn on the computer or the television or the radio, and leave it on all day. Most of us do the same with the tongue—when we rise, we turn on the tongue, and leave it on. Lent bids us turn off the tongue, and only turn it on when we need to use it—and then turn it off again. It’s hard work, just as fasting is hard work. But only by doing this can we achieve spiritual maturity.

Lenten cuisine is ultimately not about food, like an Orthodox version of Jenny Craig. It is about spiritual maturity, and drawing near to Christ and to each other. It will be over soon enough, as Pascha draws ever closer. All the more reason to use it while we have the chance.

Source: http://frlawrencefarley.blogspot.com.by/2015/03/lenten-cuisine.html

The son of a samurai and son-in-law of a Shinto priest, Takama Sawabe was a fierce Japanese nationalist. He hated Christianity and all foreign influences in his country. One day he angrily confronted the Orthodox Christian missionary to Japan, a Russian priest-monk named Nicholas (Nicolai). Father Nicholas spoke to him:

"Why are you angry at me?" Fr. Nicholas asked Sawabe.

"All you foreigners must die. You have come here to spy on our country and even worse, you are harming Japan with your preaching," answered Sawabe.

"But do you know what I preach?"

"No, I don't," he answered.

"Then how can you judge, much less condemn something you know nothing about? Is it just to defame something you do not know? First listen to me, and then judge. If what you hear is bad, then throw us out."

After listening to Father Nicholas and learning about the Orthodox Christian way of life, the nationalist samurai who had once endorsed Shintoism now believed in Jesus Christ and was baptized, becoming the first person to embrace Orthodox Christianity in Japan. At his baptism, he appropriately received the Christian name Paul, after St. Paul, one of the Church's greatest Apostles who, before his conversion, had used his authority to violently persecute the Christian Church. Paul Sawabe would eventually be ordained an Orthodox Christian priest. You can read about Father Paul (pictured here) in a brief article on the Japanese National Diet Library website dedicated to Portraits of Modern Japanese Historical Figures, which includes another photo, and on Orthodoxwiki.

Father Nicholas, the missionary who taught Paul the Orthodox Christian Faith and baptized him, was later consecrated as bishop and is today known as St. Nicholas of Japan.

According to the the book, Missionaries, Monks, and Martyrs, St. Nicholas worked hard to learn about Japanese language and culture:

Along with language learning, Nicholas studied the culture and history of Japan. He read their mythology and literature, and learned about Confucianism, Shintoism, and Buddhism. He even attended the sermons of popular Buddhist preachers and public storytellers in hopes of understanding the mind of the Japanese. For close to seven years he continued this intense study. Eventually, he became one of the foremost scholars of the Japanese language and went on to translate service and prayer books, catechism books, and the Scripture, as he waited for opportunities of evangelism to open within the country.

Source: http://symeonsjournal.blogspot.com.by/2006/08/orthodox-christianity-in-japan.html

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