WHEN TO FAST

The Orthodox Church has days and periods of fasting. In the Calendar these are designated by a frame around the date. FAST DAYS: Wednesday and Friday (except during feasting weeks)

• The Eve of the Theophany – January 18
• The Beheading of St. John the Baptist – September 11
• The Exaltation of the Holy Cross – September 27

FAST PERIODS:

• The Great Lent
  (from 02-03 until 18-04)
• The Apostles’ Fast
  (from 15-06 until 11-07)
• The Fast preceding
  the Dormition of the Theotokos
  (from 14-08 until 27-08)
• The Nativity Fast
  (from 28-11 until 06-01)

FEASTING WEEKS:

• From Christmas until the Eve of Theophany – from 07-01 until 17-01
• Week of the Publican and the Pharisee – from 09-02 until 14-02
• Meat Fare Week
  - from 23-02 until 28-02
• Bright Week
  - from 19-04 until 25-04
• Week of the Pentecost
  - from 07-06 until 13-06

Saint John Chrysostom says: “When you hear about the fast do not be afraid of it as if it were a fearsome commander: it is not terrible for us, but for the evil spirits. Has the evil spirit possessed you, show him the face of fasting, and the one – scared stiff and tied, as it were, with iron chains – will become more motionless than even a stone, especially at the sight of its friend, the prayer.” This is why Christ also says: “However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting” (Mt. 17:21). So then, if fasting is that awful for our enemies and expels them, instead of fearing it we ought to like it and accept it with joy. Fasting and prayer are a great gift of God to us, without which there are no deification and salvation for us humans. They are our graceful participation in the Cross of Christ and therefore in His Resurrection alike. Fasting and prayer were consecrated and granted to us in the Church by our Lord, the Godman Jesus Christ Himself, through His entire life in the flesh among us humans. Our Lord fasted in the desert for forty days and nights and often went into a deserted place and prayed. Ever since then, fasting and prayer in the Church have been observed and lived as some of our greatest sanctities. A sufficient indicator of the above is the life of any of our Saints, from the All-Holy Mother of God and the Holy Apostles until present-day. Genuine fasting and prayer as graceful gifts of God exist in the Church alone and never outside of her. This means that the one who practices fasting and prayer ought to have been baptised, to communicate, confess, respect and participate in all the other Holy Mysteries of the Church. By fasting, in the broader sense, we refer to our entire Christian life and mode of existence in the Church, including prayer as well. Hence we can, as it were, divide fasting into bodily and spiritual. In a limited sense by fasting we most often refer to bodily fasting, which is abstinence from certain foods in the days and seasons fixed by the Church in the course of the year. These days should accurately be observed and no one should devise, without blessing, more or less than the Church, inspired by the Holy Spirit, has established. Much caution ought to be taken when determining bodily fasting. It is not possible every man, every actual person to impose upon oneself and to be loaded one and the same weight. Within the Church there also live and are saved children that are growing up (from whom till the age of seven no fasting whatsoever is required as preparation for Communion), and helpless, aged people, then people in poor health or burdened with hard physical work, as well as women, pregnant or with infants. To each of these their spiritual father, the priest, will determine fasting according to their bodily strength or if needed, will completely absolve them from it. There are also people who although may have no bodily infirmity, are spiritually weak and incapable of putting up with the whole rule of fasting. Among them there are likewise such ones who make their first steps towards the Church or come back to her after a longer period of time. Spiritual fathers ought to be much careful with these brothers and sisters Christians and not overburden them with fasting more than they can freely and with love bear and accept. By determining the right measure of fasting to those people, as well as their approach to the Holy Mysteries, we will help them a lot in their further spiritual growth. Whereas, on the other hand, the excessive, the immoderate fasting can paralyse and put an end to their spiritual development. We know that solid food is not given straight away to a newly born child, but milk at first. If this caution is necessary for physical growth, how much more it is then important for the spiritual one. Here is what our Hagiorite monk, the great ascetic and a spiritual father, Episcope Gabriel of Velika from the Lesnovo Monastery, who continually lived in strictest fasting, says about this: “Let those who do not fast at all begin fasting, if they wish to be saved and their souls to enter the

Heavenly Kingdom . Yet they cannot immediately adopt the whole rule, but at first let them fast on Wednesdays and Fridays, in the first and in the last week of the fast, and afterwards in the course of time they will make efforts, and the Lord will help them accept the whole rule, so that in a while they will also fast properly… Besides, the beginner may at first not eat meat and fat in the fast days, but he may eat cheese and eggs, so that in the course of time he will transfer to complete fasting.” ( Rules and Regulations of the Orthodox Church on Fasting , Episcope Gabriel of Velika, the Hagiorite). As we can well notice, a feature of the holy people of the Church is great rigorousness to themselves and great condescension and mercy towards their weaker brothers and sisters. Bodily fasting is inseparably bound with spiritual fasting. There is no true fasting without repentance and mourning, without humility, without prayer, without patience, without love and mercy for our fellowmen and without the other Holy Virtues. From the bodily fasting, as we have seen, the spiritual father can absolve us, but from the spiritual fasting – no one can, not even an angel from on high. Thus, bodily fasting is not always compulsory as preparation for Holy Communion, whereas, the spiritual one is crucial. Spiritual fasting is the very core of Christian living and existence in the Church. Still, bodily fasting as well assists the spiritual one. For instance, it helps us a lot to practise patience, humility, and prayer, the spirit of repentance to reign in us, and besides, from what we would save by fasting, we could give alms and support the poor. Provided fasting were thus properly understood, we believe that there would be no Christian able to justify himself for not keeping it.1 As for those who devoutly and regularly observe fasts, they should always take them as preparation for the Holy Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ. (excerpt from the Epistle On Fasting, on Prayer, on Confession and on Holy Communion, from the book Homily from Eleusa)
____________1 64. Canon of the Holy Apostles
Sixth Ecumenical Council:
If any of the clergy be found fasting on the Lord’s day (Sunday), or on the Sabbath, excepting the one (the Great and Holy Saturday) only, let him be deposed. If a layman, let him be excommunicated. 69. Canon of the Holy Apostles
Sixth Ecumenical Council:
If any episcope, presbyter, or deacon, or reader, or singer, does not fast the holy Forty-day fast of Easter, or the fourth day, or the day of Preparation, let him be deposed, unless he be hindered by some bodily infirmity. If he be a layman, let him be excommunicated. 

 

 

Orthodox Christian Holy Matrimony, or Crowning

HOLY MATRIMONY is one of the Sacraments of the Holy Orthodox Church in which a man and woman are united by the Holy Trinity. Their conjugal union is blessed by our Lord Jesus Christ through the Church. God’s grace is imparted to them to live together in His love, mutually fulfilling and perfecting each other. The Mystery of marriage of the Holy Orthodox Church is steeped in ritual and symbolism. Each of the acts has special meaning and significance.

THE RINGS

The rings are blessed by the priest who takes them in his hand and, making the sign of the cross over the heads of bride and groom, says: “The servant of God … is betrothed to the handmaid of God … in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” The couple then exchange the rings, taking the bride’s ring and placing it on the groom’s finger and vice-versa. The rings, of course, are the symbol of betrothal and their exchange signifies that in married life the weaknesses of the one partner will be compensated for by the strength of the other, the imperfections of one by the perfections of the other. By themselves, the newly-betrothed are incomplete: together they are made perfect. Thus the exchange of rings gives expression to the fact that the spouses in marriage will constantly be complementing each other. Each will be enriched by the union.

THE CANDLES

The Wedding service begins immediately following the Betrothal Service. The bride and groom are handed candles which they hold throughout the service. The candles are like the lamps of the five wise maidens of the Bible, who because they had enough oil in them, were able to receive the Bridegroom, Christ, when He came in the darkness of the night. The candles symbolize the spiritual willingness of the couple to receive Christ, Who will bless them through this Mystery.

THE JOINING OF THE RIGHT HANDS

The right hand of the bride and groom are joined when the priest reads the prayer that beseeches God to “join these thy servants, unite them in one mind and one flesh.” The hands are kept joined throughout the service to symbolize the “oneness” of the couple.

THE CROWNING

The service of the Crowning, which follows, is the climax of the Wedding service. The crowns are signs of the glory and honor with which God crowns them during the Mystery. The groom and the bride are crowned as the king and queen of their own little kingdom, the home – domestic church, which they will rule with fear of God, wisdom, justice and integrity. When the crowning takes place the priest, taking the crowns and holding them above the couple, says: “The servants of God, (names), are crowned in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” The crowns used in the Orthodox wedding service refer to the crowns of martyrdom since every true marriage involves immeasurable self-sacrifice on both sides.

THE COMMON CUP

The service of crowning is followed by the reading of the Epistle and the Gospel. The Gospel reading describes the marriage at Cana of Galilee which was attended and blessed by our Lord and Savior Christ, and for which He reserved His first miracle. There He converted the water into better wine and give of it to the newlyweds. In remembrance of this blessing, wine is given the couple. This is the “common cup” of better life denoting the mutual sharing of joy and sorrow, the token of a life of harmony. The drinking of wine from the common cup serves to impress upon the couple that from that moment on they will share everything in life, joys as well as sorrows, and that they are to “bear one another’s burdens.” Their joys will be doubled and their sorrows halved because they will be shared.

THE WALK

The priest then leads the bride and groom in a circle around the table on which are placed the Gospel and the Cross, the one containing the Word of God, the other being the symbol of our redemption by our Savior Jesus Christ. The husband and wife are taking their first steps as a married couple, and the Church, in the person of the priest, leads them in the way they must walk. The way is symbolized by the circle at the center of which are the Gospel and the Cross of our Lord. This expresses the fact that the way of Christian living is a perfect orbit around the center of life, who is Jesus Christ our Lord. During this walk around the table a hymn its sung to the Holy Martyrs reminding the newly married couple of the sacrificial love they are to have for each other in marriage – a love that seeks not its own but is willing to sacrifice its all for the one loved.

THE BLESSING

The couple return to their places and the priest, blessing the groom, says, “Be thou magnified, O bridegroom, as Abraham, and blessed as Isaac, and increased as Jacob, walking in peace and working in righteousness the commandments of God.” And blessing the bride he says, “And thou, O bride, be thou magnified as Sarah, and glad as Rebecca, and do thou increase like unto Rachel, rejoicing in thine own husband, fulfilling the conditions of the law; for so it is well pleasing unto God.”

YOUR PRESENCE

In attending this Mystery, we ask you not only to witness the marriage of two people but also to add your prayers to theirs that God may bless their life together, for “unless the Lord build the house, those who build it labor in vain.” (Ps.127:1)