I was directed by a gathering of regeneration young people to reread the book by Brother Costi Bendaly, "Fasting and Orality: The Psychological, Spiritual, and Pastoral Aspects of Orthodox Fasting," published by the "An-Nour Orthodox Cooperative" in 2020. Those among you who have perused works by Brother Costi are not in need of anyone to ...
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Orthodox fasting
The Word of God
If obedience to the Word bestows a new life upon us, then every exhortation to read it becomes new. This allows me to tell you today also that we, in our Church, did not arrange the fasts to remain without food. During the fast, the Christian finds his sustenance in the Word that proceeds from ...
Read moreThe Great Lent
Fasting, for those who practice it with conscious conviction, is a public acknowledgment that the world is transient. We all know that this great fast is our path to Pascha, a journey to the feast, as Father Alexander Schmemann, of blessed memory, used to call it. However, Pascha cannot be attained without the cross, without ...
Read moreSunday of the Publican and the Pharisee
The Church brings us today into the period of preparation for the Great Lent. The Gospel passage she reads to us (Luke 18:9-14) confers its name on this Sunday. The story of the parable is simple. A Pharisee and a tax collector enter the temple to pray. The former praises himself and looks down on ...
Read moreAn Offered Treasure
The forty-day holy fast in our Church begins with the petition of the hymnographer “Grant unto me thy word, O Word of the Father” (Kontakion of Forgiveness Sunday). The hymn is clear. The fast is a season of litanies. We had noticed, since we started looking at lent, during the preparation period, that the Church ...
Read moreThe Great Lent
Ever since I committed myself to the life of the Church, I have tried to observe this fast. I believe that our life in Christ consists, entirely, of endeavors. What we ask for in the Church is always greater than our practice of it. We try, we keep doing what we are doing, because we ...
Read moreBefore the Fast
The period of the preparation for Lent, which will be completed next Sunday, with its well-known titles, is a continuum. Before the fast and even as an introduction to it, the Church prompts us to establish ourselves on four virtues, without which we cannot secure righteousness; namely: humility, repentance, the love of the poor, and ...
Read moreThe Sunday of the Last Judgment
Tomorrow, in our Church, we enter into a partial fast, taking meat off our tables. This will be set off by this Sunday, which is the purpose, which we call the Sunday of the Last Judgment. In the Gospel we have read today, Jesus reveals to us that He will judge us according to our ...
Read moreThe Nativity Fast
Tomorrow, in our Church, begins another forty-day fast that is named after the feast of Nativity. If compared to Great Lent, this fast will be considered lightened in form, that is, in spite of our abstinence, in it, from meat and its by-products, we are allowed to eat fish, except on Wednesdays and Fridays. Are ...
Read moreHoly and Great Saturday
From Pascha to Pascha The forty-day Holy Lent is our path to a new life given forth by Pascha. I know many brethren, who practice fasting with ecclesiastical attention, and when it ends, they feel great distress. How is this distress to be treated? How can it not turn, in us, into (our) remaining fixed ...
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