Wine and Oil? Both wine and oil for many centuries were stored in "wineskins" as we read in the Bible. It is for this reason that wine and oil on Saturdays and Sundays in Lent was considered to be a partial breaking of the fast to honor the day, since the "meat" leached in to the two liquids.
Of course, today, we don't store either wine or oil that way, so the relation of these two things to the fast is different. However, wine also has the quality of alcohol, which certainly we see just for this reason was abstained from on certain days, and thus should still be restricted on all the non-wine days.
The Great Fast is also called the 40 day fast, and includes those days leading up to Holy Week. The purpose of Great Lent and Holy Week are different. Holy Week is dedicated strictly to the Lord. Great Lent is the time reserved for us to make a full examination of conscience and repent of our sins, and go to make a full confession before God.
Some people like to wait to go to confession until Holy Week, but this is not right. The "big" confession should always take place during Great Lent. The Fast in Preparation for Nativity generally 40 days, but goes strictest 4 days before Nativity. This is known as a "lesser" fast as it is less strict, except for the 4 days before Nativity itself. Orthodox Christians should do their best to fast on most Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year, with the exception of festal fast-free periods, such as after Nativity, after Pascha, after Pentecost, etc.
If on certain weeks you are not able to fast according to these standards, still do something, including one of these options which have some basis in Church tradition:. Fast from all these things until at least 3pm the biblical 9th hour of the day on Wednesdays and Fridays St. Isaac said that if you cannot fast the whole day, then fast until at least the afternoon. Fast from meat until 3pm on Fridays while Christ hung on the cross and until at least noon on Wednesdays so that you fast at least over half a day in some sense.
The Christian family should at least try to eat one fasting meal together during the week except for fast-free weeks. Christ did not say "if you fast" but rather "when you fast". Great Lent extends from Clean Monday until the Friday before Palm Sunday, and that is the time where we are to focus on us getting right with God so that we can rightly celebrate Holy Week and Pascha.
Also, Sundays prior to am. Amount of Food: Monday-Friday of Great Lent we restrict not only the kind of food that we eat but also the amount of food. Basil in the afternoon but we still do not eat meat eggs and cheese until after all the services are served for Pascha, meaning until after the midnight festal Liturgy. Below are four plans so that you can fast with some continuity throughout Great Lent and Holy Week on a level that is possible for you that maintain continuity within Church tradition.
If you generally have found yourself not fasting at all year after year, at least practice the Basic Fasting Level. If you have no health impediments, are prepared to increase prayer and charitable deeds then try one of the more strict plans. So, for example, it is Friday, you can fast during the day, and then for the evening meal eat with them what they are having whether it is fasting or not. If you have not already, consult the priest and maybe make a good fasting plan that works for you.
For those who have special health needs, for example diabetes, modifications need made to fasting rules. In such a case, fasting from all foods that are unhealthy may be your form of fast.
Likewise, those who take medications that require a certain pattern of eating should do so as needed. Particular fasting disciplines are relaxed, when necessary, when one is travelling or ill. Also, when receiving the hospitality of others if someone invites you to dinner, for example, go and receive with thanksgiving what is set before you. For those who live in households where not everyone is Orthodox, for example, modifications will need to be made for everyone to be able to eat as a family.
The foods traditionally abstained from are meat and dairy products, fish, wine and oil. According to some traditions, only olive oil is abstained from; in others, all vegetable oils. Since strict fasting is canonically forbidden on the Sabbath and the Lord's Day , wine and oil are permitted on Saturdays and Sundays.
If the Feast of the Annunciation falls during Great Lent, then fish, wine and oil are permitted on that day. Besides the additional liturgical celebrations described below, Orthodox Christians are expected to pay closer attention to their private prayers and to say more of them more often.
The Fathers have referred to fasting without prayer as "the fast of the demons" since the demons do not eat according to their incorporeal nature, but neither do they pray. During the weekdays of Great Lent, there is a liturgical fast when the eucharistic Divine Liturgy is not celebrated.
However, since it is considered especially important to receive the Holy Mysteries during this season the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, also called the Liturgy of St. Gregory the Dialogist , may be celebrated on Wednesdays and Fridays. At this vesperal service some of the Body and Blood of Christ reserved the previous Sunday is distributed. But if one puts them in a certain pattern of stripes and stars, they become the flag of the United States and represent the ideals and unity of the people of America.
The flag reminds us of the people's struggle for liberty. It represents the national unity which attained for them their rights as a people. The same could be said for the institutes of a nation, army or any group of people.
These institutes are created by the people and are used by them in certain ways for certain aims. Some of these institutes are the means for achieving certain values and ideals. In the life of the Church of Christ there are many institutes created and maintained to meet the needs of the people - the Ecclesia. Among these is the Great Lent which falls within the year-cycle of the life of the Church before Pascha-Easter. Lent is the period of time for self-examination by the believer; of putting on the spiritual armor of the Militant Church; of applying the riches of prayers and almsgiving; of adopting deeply the meaning of repentance; of atonement and reconciliation with God Almighty.
This great period of Lent before Easter is called by the Orthodox Church, Tessaracoste Quadragesimal , which comes from the word forty the 40 days of "fasting". This Institute of the 40 days of Lent precedes the Resurrection of Christ.
The celebration of the Resurrection of Christ does not fall on the same date each year, but according to the determination of the position of the moon and spring equinox, which is based on the original setting during the last Events of the life of Christ on earth. This day period of Lent is a period of "abstinence" from foods, but primarily from personal iniquities. Abstinence from foods fasting alone is a means of attaining virtue; it is not an end in itself. During the period of fasting one makes a special attempt to evaluate his calling as a Christian; to listen to the voice of the Gospel and heed its commandments; to accept the constant invitation to enter Christ's Kingdom.
It is an open invitation to everyone willing to enter; who believes in Christ and repents his iniquities; who makes an "about face" directly to Christ. To accomplish this - Which is a year-round concern - the Christian Church, dating back many years, out of experience and according to the nature of man instituted certain days of prayer and fasting as steps in a ladder to help those who need guidance to reach this spiritual plateau.
All of these steps must have genuine personal meaning to avoid becoming merely a habit and routine. Fasting encompasses the entire pious life of the Christian, as Christ proclaimed, that symbolizes a deep acceptance of His admonition to "repent".
This can be achieved not so much in terms of time, but in deeds in love of God and one's fellow man. During the period of the Great Lent the awakening of the spirit of man comes about through inspiration from the Head of the Church, Jesus Christ.
It is a time of self-examination and preparation, and of taking an inventory of one's inner life. He and Christ know his exact condition. At this time one sees himself in the mirror of the Gospel - how he looks. One finds the means and ways to correct and improve himself. Lent is a period of time when one delves into himself with the light of the Holy Spirit in order to rid himself of the impediments which hold him back. It is a period when one strengthens his faith by more prayer and devotional life.
Let us then examine the meaning of fasting, which became an Institute of the Church. Fasting means the total abstinence from foods, as the original Greek word in the Bible, nesteia, literally means. The word fasting today is used for selection of foods and a limiting of their quantity. Fasting also can mean eating once a day bread, salt and water, after sunset. Although the period of Lent appeals to the function of man as a whole in repentance, self-examination, almsgiving, relationship with people with whom one is at odds, attitudes toward life, the abstinence from foods plays a vital role in the life of the Christian.
The quantity and kinds of foods selected for this period of Lent help control carnal desires and develop discipline and a pious life. Fasting from foods is not a virtuous activity in itself, but a means for its achievement. But it has a distinct place in the life of the Christian, especially during the Great Lent. One may ask how the Institute of fasting originated. Was it a tradition handed down by the Apostles?
Was it determined as such by the early Church? Was the duration of fasting established from the beginning? These and similar questions require an answer. Fasting before Easter was not determined by the early Church as such either in specific days or for certain foods. In the New Testament the word for fasting, nesteia, means abstinence from food entirely. Bishop Irenaios of Lyon wrote a letter to the Bishop of Rome that there is a great difference about the duration of fasting before Easter.
Some people, he wrote, fast one day, others two, still others more days. Some of them fast 40 hours continuously, day and night, from all foods Eusebuis, Ecclesiastical History, , Tertuuian, an ecclesiastical writer of the 3rd century, refers to abstinence from foods as being two days, Friday and Saturday.
Some of the early Christians abstained from foods the whole day and ate only in the evenings, while others ate not at all, day or night, as did those who were fasting for 40 hours. Other Christians extended the period of fasting beyond the two days to one week during the mid-third century ,'but everyone was allowed to extend the duration of fasting as long as he wanted.
Thus, these Christians added hours and days of fasting at their own will, beyond the customary duration of time Dionysios, Bishop of Alexandria, P. Migne 10, Over the years, the days of fasting increased to seven before Easter.
These Christians ate in the evenings, and then only bread, salt and water, as recorded by Epiphanios in The difference in counting the hours of fasting resulted from the different calculations of the time of the Resurrection of Christ in the Gospels Matthew , before midnight; John , after midnight; Mark , at sunrise.
The period of fasting before Easter was extended to 40 days without substantial evidence of any authoritative determination. The fact is that the 40 days of fasting was known to the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Synod Augustine during the fifth century attributes the lengthy period of 40 days to the persecutions, Others refer to the example of Christ fasting 40 days in the wilderness Matthew ; or to Moses Exodus , or to Prophet Elias 1 Kings - III Vasilion LXX Probably the day fasting period among the people was started during the persecutions, because the people took refuge in monasteries and followed the order of abstinence of the monks, which was very strict.
Also hermits and other pious people of sobriety kept a fasting period of 40 days during the mid-third century, and this was handed down to the people. In reality, the day practice for fasting before Easter was not a simultaneous practice in all the Christian lands, but a gradual process.
Fasting as such was practiced by the people at the, very beginning for only two or three days per week, Wednesday and Friday and in some places Saturday in the West. In the course of time, a gradual increase in the number of weeks also took place. However, between East and West the number of weeks of Lent differed, with seven weeks being established in the East and six in the West by the mid-sixth century.
The adding of Saturday by the Church in the West as a fast day was related to the thought that the Body of Christ was in the tomb on this day. However, Bishop Inocentios of Rome ratified the Saturday fast, and gradually this day became a fixed day in the West. In rebuke of this practice in the West, Bishop Ignatios of Antioch in a letter denounced this Saturday fast ch.
During the seventh century, Bishop Gregory I of Rome added four days before the beginning of the six weeks of Lent, starting with Wednesday, known as Ash Wednesday. The Church in the East, on the other hand, added an additional week before the seven weeks, known as Cheese Week, to complete the 40 days of fasting in Lent before Easter, excluding the seven Saturdays and eight Sundays, which are non-fast days.
The reason for the number of 40 days of fasting during the Great Lent is obscure. The famous canonist of the twelfth century, Balsamon, writes, "There is but a forty day abstinence, that of the Pascha, but if one also likes to keep the weekly fast for other feasts Fasting from foods is relevant to the condition of the health of the Christian, however. Fasting is not for the sake of fasting alone:.
Great Lent is a period of time when the people are more conscious of their spiritual character.
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