Categories: orthodox-life
Date: 16 June 2006 00:31:32
I listened to most of the tape on Fasting from the series The Inner Life of the Church last night: I stopped the tape just before the Q&A time. I took myself off to sleep earlier than usual last night, however I feel very refreshed and ready today.
A very interesting and informative talk on Fasting in Orthodoxy: Fr David certainly has not only a wealth of knowledge, and also great skill in communicating this knowledge as well as making it very interesting to listen to. He always has an anecdote or humorous aside or quote from the Fathers or other literature to make you see things anew.
There is of course much that could be said on fasting, but I recall two examples he gave in particular that showed fasting in a new and unexpected light. One concerns the pilgrimage to the Holy Land by the nun Egeria. I only came across this letter late last year, thanks to Fr David Anderson in another talk he gave: and thanks to Seraphim at Ancient Church who has made a copy available on his website. It is worth the read, especially in terms of seeing how Christians were worshipping and living in Jerusalem in the fourth century. And in terms of fasting, it certainly shows that the Orthodox regulations aren't as strict as we may feel:
XXVIII. This is the custom of the fast in Quadragesima: some, when they have eaten after the dismissal on the Lord's Day, that is, about the fifth or sixth hour, do not eat throughout the whole week until after the dismissal at the Anastasis on the Sabbath; these are they who keep the weeks' fast.2. Nor, after having eaten in the morning, do they eat in the evening of the Sabbath, but they take a meal on the next day, that is, on the Lord's Day, after the dismissal from the church at the fifth hour or later, and then they do not breakfast until the Sabbath comes round, as I have said above.
3. For the custom here is that all who are apotactitae, as they call them here, whether men or women, eat only once a day on the day when they do eat, not only in Quadragesima, but throughout the whole year. But if any of the apotactitae cannot keep the entire week of fasting as described above, they take supper in the middle (of the week), on the fifth day, all through Quadragesima. And if any one cannot do even this, he keeps two days' fast (in the week) all through Quadragesima, and they who cannot do even this, take a meal every evening.
4. For no one exacts from any how much he should do, but each does what he can, nor is he praised who has done much, nor is he blamed who has done less; that is the custom here.
The other example I recall vividly is the example of the Saint Bishop Fructuosus, an account of whose martyrdom can be read here. As the account states, he did not even break the Wednesday or Friday Fast when he was in prison or on the way to his death:
As Bishop Fructuosus was being taken to the amphitheatre with his deacons, the people began to sympathize with him, for he was much beloved of pagans and Christians alike....
Many out of brotherly affection offered him a cup of drugged wine to drink, but he said: ‘It is not yet the time for breaking the fast.' For it was still in the fourth hour, and in jail they duly observed the stational fast on Wednesdays. And so on Friday he was hastening joyfully and confidently to break his fast with the martyrs and prophets in heaven, which the Lord has prepared for those who love Him.