Also a short homily on Sunday of the Cross by St John of Kronstadt:
Homily on the Sunday of the Cross. St. John of Kronstadt
Look, how the Lord as if announces to us from the Cross what He has endured for us.
Faith Lent 2023
- Thread starter Roosh
- Start date
Also a short homily on Sunday of the Cross by St John of Kronstadt:
I have practiced the lenten fast since 2019 and every year it has brought me closer to God and Jesus.
Initially, I followed the advice that is laid out at Abbamoses for Orthodox Christians. Every parish tends to have different rules and recommendations for the great lent. Bear in mind that The Great Lent is not found in the bible but it's related to the 40-day fast of Jesus. Moses also fasted 40 days and 40 nights for 3 times. It's possible that Jesus and Moses fasted with nothing at all (barely drinking water as well) which is the highest form of "fasting".
If you want to be perfect, follow the way of the Orthodox monks because it's the strictest form. I have done strict 40-day vegan fasts during lent and noticed them to be massively beneficial spiritually, physically and mentally. Nowadays I do a gradual fast where I start by giving up meat, then fish, then dairy until I'm eating full vegan.
Instead of nourishing your body with pleasures, nourish your soul with prayer and the word of God. To understand what is bad, study the 7 deadly sins and study the bible.
In the modern day, you want to fast from:
- All animal products, these tend to elevate the ego
- All stimulants including caffeine, sugar, nicotine, drugs
- All forms of media and entertainment
For a moment you detach from the worldly life and the benefits in physical, mental and spiritual health are enormous. I’ve never felt more joy and love than during fasting. I consider The Great Lent a gift from Jesus.
Initially, I followed the advice that is laid out at Abbamoses for Orthodox Christians. Every parish tends to have different rules and recommendations for the great lent. Bear in mind that The Great Lent is not found in the bible but it's related to the 40-day fast of Jesus. Moses also fasted 40 days and 40 nights for 3 times. It's possible that Jesus and Moses fasted with nothing at all (barely drinking water as well) which is the highest form of "fasting".
If you want to be perfect, follow the way of the Orthodox monks because it's the strictest form. I have done strict 40-day vegan fasts during lent and noticed them to be massively beneficial spiritually, physically and mentally. Nowadays I do a gradual fast where I start by giving up meat, then fish, then dairy until I'm eating full vegan.
Instead of nourishing your body with pleasures, nourish your soul with prayer and the word of God. To understand what is bad, study the 7 deadly sins and study the bible.
In the modern day, you want to fast from:
- All animal products, these tend to elevate the ego
- All stimulants including caffeine, sugar, nicotine, drugs
- All forms of media and entertainment
For a moment you detach from the worldly life and the benefits in physical, mental and spiritual health are enormous. I’ve never felt more joy and love than during fasting. I consider The Great Lent a gift from Jesus.
The fast has got me thinking quite a bit about what separates us Orthodox Christians from “the world.” If you look at Orthodox Jews and Muslims - their traditions are a hill they die on.
The question for me is becoming - do we become more hardline to emphasize our otherness like the Muslims and Jews? Abba Poemen had some good wisdom that “if keeping the fast was so important, we should’ve stayed home.” He told a story I often call “the worlds first vegan.” I feel like saying I’m fasting and refusing the hosts food is violating MT 6:17. However Poemen lived in 5th century Egypt where everyone was Christian. We live in the 21st secular century where our otherness needs emphasized. Thoughts on which takes priority?
The question for me is becoming - do we become more hardline to emphasize our otherness like the Muslims and Jews? Abba Poemen had some good wisdom that “if keeping the fast was so important, we should’ve stayed home.” He told a story I often call “the worlds first vegan.” I feel like saying I’m fasting and refusing the hosts food is violating MT 6:17. However Poemen lived in 5th century Egypt where everyone was Christian. We live in the 21st secular century where our otherness needs emphasized. Thoughts on which takes priority?
I've never heard anyone ever say to refuse a host's food whilst fasting. This is extremely offensive to the host and not conducive to evangelism. I was recently listening to a talk by Abbot Tryphon, he relayed a story of a nun who asked her abbess to visit her family for western Christmas (they were on the Old Calendar which celebrates Nativity 13 days later while the nun's family was not Orthodox). The nun said she would keep the fast and refuse to eat anything against the fast at her family's home. The abbess looked at her and said you will eat what your mother puts before you.
Saying "I can't eat the food you made for me, I'm fasting" is like the pharisees going out into the streets and doing bows and praying, to show everyone their "virtue." This is why Christ told us to pray in the inner rooms of our house, and then God would reward us openly (Matt. 6:6).
It may be somewhat different if you're in an Orthodox country and the person you're visiting should be fasting as well. But even in that case I think things should be clarified beforehand, not when you arrive for the meal.
Regarding the rest of what you're saying regarding otherness... I don't think we have to worry about that. If we maintain Orthodoxy, our otherness will become more and more visible as the world becomes more and more depraved.
I think the important thing is not to be a Jew about it...
What I mean is, don't refuse if someone kindly brings you food that breaks the fast. It is better to break the fast than offend someone who is just being kind. However, its also the case that you shouldn't view this as a loophole, wherein you tell yourself that you can break the fast as much as you like if you can persuade people to give you meat as a 'gift'
The problem is that family or acquaintances always offer explanations or ask for explanations regarding certain things, when limited interactions with other people should be the case (visiting, partying) in the first place.
It seems to me that we are getting much closer to the Desert Fathers (not to make excuses) foreseeing the future when they suggested it'd be a miracle to just believe. So much of modern life is an utter trap I have a hard time getting around the absurdity of it.
I did just this about two weeks ago.
Got invited to a seafood boil a buddy was having. I knew if I went I'd overeat, I'd drink, I'd curse, all the usual.
Just told em to hit me up after Easter (they then asked if I was ok)
I told them it was Lent.
(They then asked what I gave up)
I told them.
And they were cool about it and said they'd save some of the seasoning for me.
I sometimes see stories like the one about the nun above and worry if I'm being 'Pharisaic' by refusing.
But I can't accept every invitation given to me. I'm not turning up my nose at them and I need to *try* to deny what the old me would've simply jumped at.
All situations have their own considerations.
Thank you.
I should probably add that the 'bigger deal' might only amount to eye rolls and looks of 'n-nani?!'
But they're better avoided, in my book.
At worst, you relapse due to social pressure.
At (dubious) best, you end up hating your peers for 'condemning' you.
Yes, I just don't like drawing attention to myself. And it's not like I'm doing that great of a job during Lent anyway, for various reasons.
Stump the Priest: The Council of Jerusalem on the Blood of Animals
Question: "In Acts 15, while not imposing circumcision or kosher dietary laws on gentile converts, the Apostles nevertheless commanded th...
fatherjohn.blogspot.com
Now it makes sense why I never liked blood sausage. This is also something you might want to confess.
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This is questionable also on the basis of the writings of St. Paul. I don't consume blood products, however, so I'm open to certain people thinking they should not be consumed (due to their beliefs or weaknesses).Stump the Priest: The Council of Jerusalem on the Blood of Animals
Question: "In Acts 15, while not imposing circumcision or kosher dietary laws on gentile converts, the Apostles nevertheless commanded th...
Now it makes sense why I never liked blood sausage. This is also something you might want to confess.
Stump the Priest: The Council of Jerusalem on the Blood of Animals
Question: "In Acts 15, while not imposing circumcision or kosher dietary laws on gentile converts, the Apostles nevertheless commanded th...
Now it makes sense why I never liked blood sausage. This is also something you might want to confess.
Great share. I knew about this before as a "rule," but I didn't fully understand until now the rational explanation based on the philosophy of the soul.
Something I was thinking about today since it’s Good Friday for the other Christian communions, is how when I was a Protestant there wasn’t really anything special about this day, or Easter.
They were just normal days for the most part, the only difference being that you were supposed to think some about Christ’s death and resurrection. There wasn’t any real lead-up or preparation for it, and it all felt kind of arbitrary. At least Christmas has a whole season to get you in the mood. Sure there’sa lot of cynical commercialized nonsense, but there is some build up to it.
It’s funny, the pastors I had over the years would always try so hard to say something revelatory and profound that would change us on Easter. They tried their best but it always felt so abstract, just theoretical intellectual information. Yes, Jesus is risen and that’s great, but that’s true every day, right, so how is today really much different? Deep down, I thought stuff like this. In Orthodoxy it’s completely different because you feel it in your bones.
You actually live and experience the echoes of all these monumental events like Lazarus Saturday, Palm Sunday, the institution of the Eucharist, the Crucifixion and Resurrection: through Lent, through fasting, the services, an upended way of life from the normal way of doing things.
I’m not the world champion of fasting by any stretch but in the process I’ve left behind a lot of the things that make my life normal, listening to and playing music, video games, other recreational activities. Interestingly, the desire to even do any of that stuff has just left.
Anyway, when Pascha arrives you feel the gates of Hades blown to pieces, Christ emerging triumphant from the tomb, the dawn of a new creation. It’s all visceral and right in front of you, the power of it all magnified by what we gave up in the process: and thus, very little of it is based on the abstract activity of our rational faculties. It’s something that has to be lived, and experienced, to be brought to life.
Let us all through God’s mercies and Grace double down and fight hard for another week, the glorious Holy Week, as we see the finish line on the horizon, the celebration of the triumph of our Lord.
They were just normal days for the most part, the only difference being that you were supposed to think some about Christ’s death and resurrection. There wasn’t any real lead-up or preparation for it, and it all felt kind of arbitrary. At least Christmas has a whole season to get you in the mood. Sure there’sa lot of cynical commercialized nonsense, but there is some build up to it.
It’s funny, the pastors I had over the years would always try so hard to say something revelatory and profound that would change us on Easter. They tried their best but it always felt so abstract, just theoretical intellectual information. Yes, Jesus is risen and that’s great, but that’s true every day, right, so how is today really much different? Deep down, I thought stuff like this. In Orthodoxy it’s completely different because you feel it in your bones.
You actually live and experience the echoes of all these monumental events like Lazarus Saturday, Palm Sunday, the institution of the Eucharist, the Crucifixion and Resurrection: through Lent, through fasting, the services, an upended way of life from the normal way of doing things.
I’m not the world champion of fasting by any stretch but in the process I’ve left behind a lot of the things that make my life normal, listening to and playing music, video games, other recreational activities. Interestingly, the desire to even do any of that stuff has just left.
Anyway, when Pascha arrives you feel the gates of Hades blown to pieces, Christ emerging triumphant from the tomb, the dawn of a new creation. It’s all visceral and right in front of you, the power of it all magnified by what we gave up in the process: and thus, very little of it is based on the abstract activity of our rational faculties. It’s something that has to be lived, and experienced, to be brought to life.
Let us all through God’s mercies and Grace double down and fight hard for another week, the glorious Holy Week, as we see the finish line on the horizon, the celebration of the triumph of our Lord.
I gave up video games this year. To fill my time I pursued other avenues of entertainment but I also read the Bible a lot more. This also made me irritable which is something I need to work on.
Your Lent is over? Does your Church follow the Julian Calendar Roosh? In any case, hope everyone had a blessed Palm Sunday. I do love seeing the big crowds even if they only show up once a year, it always fills me with hope.
"If someone is capable of even a little faith, they are capable of great faith."
"If someone is capable of even a little faith, they are capable of great faith."
I think Great Lent technically finishes at Holy Week, but since we fast even more strictly for holy week, most people just lump them together.
I'm on the Old Calendar. Lent technically ends 40 days after it starts (on a Friday), then the next two days are Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday, then Holy Week begins on Monday.