Holy Fathers about the benefits of fasting. Thoughts of the Holy Fathers on Fasting

“And you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,
to appear fasting, not before men, but before your Father who is in the secret;
and your Father, who sees in secret, will repay you openly.”

Gospel of Matthew 6:17-18

Lent is a time of special repentance for every Christian. These days we abstain from food, attend divine services more often and try to heal ourselves from the passions that tormented us through fasting, prayer and repentance. Well, and most importantly, “with this holy fast, a person glorifies God, and to everyone who zealously observes fasting, He opens the door of mercy” (St. Ephraim the Syrian).

Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk

“There is a bodily fast, there is a spiritual fast. There is a bodily fast when the belly is fasting from food and drink; there is spiritual fasting when the soul abstains from evil thoughts, deeds and words.

Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt

“The time of Fortecost is a time of struggle, exploits against invisible enemies, against all sins and passions that possess us. Fortecost was established in imitation of our Savior, who gave us an image and example in everything, and during fasting He was tempted by the devil and defeated him by the Word of God.

Saint Basil the Great

“If Eve had fasted and had not eaten from the tree, then we would not have needed to fast now. Do not limit the benefits of fasting to mere abstinence in food, because true fasting is the elimination of evil deeds ... Forgive your neighbor an insult, forgive him his debts. You do not eat meat, but offend your brother... True fasting is the removal of evil, the abstinence of the tongue, the suppression of anger in oneself, the excommunication of lusts, slander, lies and perjury.

Saint Ignatius (Bryanchaninov)

"Purified by fasting - humble in spirit, chaste, modest, silent, subtle in feelings of the heart and thoughts, light in body, capable of spiritual exploits and speculation, capable of receiving Divine grace."

Venerable Ephraim the Syrian

“This fast, beloved, pleases our Angels and Guardians, because through fasting and prayer we become their relatives. Christ our Lord also rejoices in this fast, if only we fast with love, hope and faith.

Saint John Chrysostom

“We should do this: not just go through the weeks of fasting, but examine our conscience, test our thoughts, and notice what we managed to do this week, what the next, what new things we undertook to achieve the next and what passions we have corrected. If we do not correct ourselves in this way and show such concern for our souls, then we will not benefit from fasting and abstinence to which we subject ourselves.

Abba Dorotheos

“Whoever fasts out of vanity or, believing that he is doing a virtue, fasts foolishly and therefore begins to reproach his brother, considering himself someone significant. And whoever fasts wisely does not think that he is wisely doing a good deed, and does not want to be praised as a faster.

Saint John of the Ladder

“It is better to eat and give thanks to the Lord than not to eat and condemn those who eat and thank the Lord.”

Saint Silouan of Athos

“You can fast a lot, pray a lot and do a lot of good, but if we are conceited, then we will be like a tambourine that rattles, but is empty inside.”

Venerable Simeon the New Theologian

"Fasting, as a doctor of our souls, in one Christian humbles the flesh, in another it tames anger."

Every time, before Great Lent, people asked Metropolitan Vladimir what to eat and what not, to which he humbly replied: “The main thing is not to eat each other.”

Saint John Chrysostom:

Look now at the beneficial effects of fasting. Great Moses, having spent forty days fasting, was rewarded with receiving the tablets of the law; when he came down from the mountain and saw the iniquity of the people, he threw these tablets, obtained with such an effort, and broke them, considering it incongruous to communicate the commandments of the Lord to the people, drunk and honoring iniquity. Therefore, this wonderful prophet had to fast for another forty days in order to be worthy to receive again from above and bring to the people the tablets broken for their iniquity (see Ex. 24-34). And the great Elijah fasted for the same number of days, and now he escaped the dominion of death, ascended in a fiery chariot, as it were, into heaven, and to this day has not yet experienced death (see 1 Kings 19:8). And the man of desires [Daniel], after having spent many days fasting, was rewarded with a wonderful vision; he also tamed the fury of the lions and turned it into the meekness of the sheep, not changing their nature, however, but changing their disposition, while their brutality remained the same (see Dan. 10, 3). And the Ninevites with fasting rejected the determination of the Lord, forcing dumb animals to fast along with people, and thus, having lagged behind all evil deeds, disposed the Lord of the universe to philanthropy (see Jonah 3, 7-8). But why else should I turn to slaves (after all, we can count many others who became famous for fasting in both the Old and New Testaments), when you can point to our universal Lord? For our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, after already forty days of fasting, entered into a struggle with the devil and himself set an example for all of us, so that we too would arm ourselves with fasting, and, having been strengthened by it, would enter into a struggle with the devil (see Matt. 4, 2). But here, perhaps, someone - a person with a sharp and lively mind - will ask: why does the Lord fast for as many days as the slaves, and not more than them? This was done not without a reason and not without a purpose, but wisely and according to His inexpressible love of mankind, so that they would not think that He appeared on earth in a ghostly way and did not take on flesh or did not have human nature, for this He fasted for the same number of days, and not more, and thus stops the shameless mouths of the hunters for disputes ...

Therefore, I ask ... that, knowing the benefits of fasting, you do not lose it due to negligence, and when it comes, do not be sad, but rejoice and rejoice: because, as blessed Paul says, if our external person smolders, then our internal one from day to day is renewed (2 Cor. 4:16). In fact, fasting is food for the soul, and just as bodily food fattens the body, so fasting strengthens the soul, gives it an easy flight, makes it able to rise to a height and think about things above, and puts it above the pleasures and pleasures of this life. Just as light ships cross the seas more quickly, and those burdened with a large load drown, so fasting, making our mind lighter, helps it quickly cross the sea of ​​present life, strive for heaven and heavenly objects and not respect the present, but consider shadows and sleepy dreams as insignificant. .

Great blessings come from two virtues: prayer and fasting. For he who prays as he ought, and fasts moreover, does not ask for much, and he who does not demand much will not be a money-lover, and he who is not a money-lover loves to give alms. Whoever fasts, he becomes light and inspired, and prays with a cheerful spirit, quenches evil wishes, propitiates God and humbles his arrogant spirit. That is why the apostles almost always fasted. Whoever prays with fasting has two wings, the lightest of the wind itself. For such a person does not sleep, does not speak much, does not yawn and does not relax in prayer, as happens with many, but he is faster than fire and higher than the earth, therefore such a person is especially an enemy and a fighter against demons, since there is no stronger person who sincerely prays . If a wife could bow down to a cruel leader who neither feared God nor was ashamed of people, then all the more can one bow down to God who constantly stands before Him, tames the womb and rejects pleasures. If your body is weak to fast without ceasing, then it is not weak for prayer and for neglecting the pleasures of the womb. If you cannot fast, then at least you can not be luxurious, and this is not unimportant and not far from fasting and can tame the fury of the devil. For nothing is so kind to the demon as luxury and drunkenness - the sources and mother of all evils.

The Lord, common to all of us, as a child-loving father, wishing to cleanse us from the sins we have committed at any time, and gave us healing in holy fasting. So, no one grieve, no one be sad, but rejoice, rejoice and glorify the Trustee of our souls, who opened this wonderful path for us, and accept his approach with great joy! Let the Hellenes be ashamed, let the Jews be put to shame, seeing with what joyful readiness we welcome his advance, and let them know by the very fact what a difference there is between us and them. Let them call drunkenness, every kind of unbridledness and shamelessness, which they usually produce at the same time, holidays and celebrations. But the Church of God, in spite of them, calls fasting a feast, contempt (of the pleasures) of the worm, and then all kinds of virtues that follow. And this is a true holiday, where the salvation of souls, where peace and harmony, from where all worldly splendor is banished, where there is no scream, no noise, no running of cooks, no slaughter of animals, but instead of all this, perfect calmness, silence, love, joy reign. , peace, meekness, and innumerable blessings.

I wish you, having cleansed your soul and said goodbye to fun and all intemperance, accept with open arms the mother of all blessings and the teacher of chastity and all virtue, that is, fasting - so that you also enjoy great pleasure, and he (fasting) brought you the proper and appropriate medicine for you. And doctors, when they intend to give medicine to those who wish to purify their rotten and spoiled juices, order to refrain from ordinary food, so that it does not prevent the medicine from acting and exerting its strength, all the more so when we are preparing to receive this spiritual medicine, i.e., the benefits that occur from fasting, we must purify our mind by abstinence and lighten the soul, so that it, mired in intemperance, does not make fasting useless and fruitless for us.

As intemperance in food is the cause and source of innumerable evils for the human race, so fasting and contempt (pleasures) of the womb have always been for us the cause of untold benefits. Having created man in the beginning and knowing that this medicine is very necessary for him for spiritual salvation, God immediately and at the very beginning gave the following commandment to the primordial: from every tree in the garden you will eat; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, do not eat from it (Gen. 2:16-17). The words: “eat this, but do not eat this,” concluded a kind of fast. But the man, instead of keeping the commandment, transgressed it. Yielding to gluttony, he showed disobedience and was condemned to death.

The one who fasts most of all needs to curb anger, accustom himself to meekness and condescension, have a contrite heart, cast out impure desires by presenting that unsleeping fire and impartial judgment, be above money calculations, show great generosity in almsgiving, expel all malice against his neighbor from his soul ...

See what true fasting is. We will perform such and such a fast, not considering it, like many, only in order to stay without food until evening. This is not the main thing, but that we combine with abstinence from brashen and abstinence from what is harmful (for the soul) and show great concern for the performance of spiritual deeds. A fasting person should be calm, quiet, meek, humble, despising the glory of this life. As he despised his soul, so he must despise vain glory, and look only at the One who tests hearts and wombs, with great zeal to make prayers and confessions before God, and, as much as possible, help himself with alms.

In addition to abstaining from food, there are many ways that can open for us the doors of boldness before God. Whoever eats food and cannot fast, let him give the most abundant alms, let him pray fervently, let him show intense zeal for hearing the word of God - here bodily weakness does not hinder us in the least - let him reconcile with enemies, let him banish from his soul all remembrance of malice . If he does this, he will make a true fast, such as the Lord requires of us. After all, He commands the very abstinence from food so that we, curbing the desires of the flesh, make it obedient in fulfilling the commandments. And if we decide not to accept help from fasting because of bodily weakness and indulge in greater carelessness, then, without knowing it, we will inflict the greatest harm on ourselves. If even during fasting we have a lack of the above-mentioned good deeds, then we will all the more show negligence when we do not use the medicine of fasting... he thanks God for having had enough strength to bear fasting labor, and the eater also thanks God, because this will not harm him in the least in the salvation of his soul, if he wants to.
The philanthropic God has opened to us an innumerable number of ways in which we, if we only want to, can achieve the highest boldness (before God).

Saint Barsanuphius the Great:

Bodily fasting means nothing without the spiritual fasting of the inner man, which consists of protecting oneself from passions. This fasting of the inner man is pleasing to God and will reward you for your lack of bodily fasting.

Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt:

How great is the power of fasting and prayer! No wonder: during fasting, the soul becomes dominant over the lusts of the body, generally subordinates it to itself, and the devil very often acts through the flesh; a fasting person overcomes, therefore, both the flesh and the devil - which means that then he is close to God in his moral state and can most easily do the powers of God. If prayer is added to this, which brings down to us the blessing and help of heaven, then a person can really command not only material nature, but also fallen spirits. How did the Lord Himself defeat the devil? Fasting and prayer.

In fasting, especially a priest, one must leave the sweetness that irritates the flesh and not please it, but grieve it: sleep not for long, teach the people the Word of God, unfeigned, fruitful repentance, arouse hatred for every sin, explain how it is unnatural to us and disgusting to God, how he (sin) contrary to nature has become related to it and acts in it imperiously, insatiably and fatally.

Where does fasting and repentance lead? Why work? It leads to the cleansing of sins, peace of mind, to union with God, to sonship, to boldness before the Lord. There is something to fast and confess with all my heart. The reward will be invaluable for conscientious work.

They say: it’s not important to eat modest in fasting, fasting is not in food; it is not important to wear expensive, beautiful clothes, to go to the theater, to evening parties, to masquerades, to get magnificent expensive dishes, furniture, expensive carriages, dashing horses, to collect and save money and so on; but because of what does our heart turn away from God, the Source of life, because of what do we lose eternal life? Is it not because of gluttony, is it not because of precious clothes, like the gospel rich man, is it not because of theaters and masquerades? Why do we become hard-hearted towards the poor and even towards our relatives? Is it not because of our addiction to sweets, in general to the womb, to clothes, to expensive dishes, furniture, carriage, money and other things? Is it possible to work for God and mammon, to be a friend of the world and a friend of God, to work for Christ and Belial? Impossible. Why did Adam and Eve lose paradise, fall into sin and death? Is it not because of a single poison * (* Is it not because of a single poison - Is it not only because of food.)? Take a good look at why we do not care about the salvation of our soul, which cost the Son of God so dearly, because of which we add sins to sins, we fall incessantly into opposition to God, into a vain life, is it not because of addiction to earthly things, and especially to earthly sweets? What causes our heart to harden? Because of what we become flesh, and not spirit, perverting our moral nature, is it not because of addiction to food, drink and other earthly goods? How, after this, to say that eating fast in fasting is not important? This very thing that we say so is pride, superstition, disobedience, disobedience to God and separation from Him.

Eating extensively, you become a carnal person, not having a spirit, or soulless flesh, but by fasting, you attract the Holy Spirit to yourself and become spiritual. Take cotton paper not soaked in water. It is light and, in small quantities, is carried in the air, but moisten it with water, it becomes heavy and immediately falls to the floor. So it is with the soul. Oh, how to protect the soul with fasting!

Fasting is a good teacher: 1) it soon makes it clear to anyone who fasts that every person needs very little food and drink and that in general we are greedy and eat, drink much more appropriate, that is, what our nature requires; 2) fasting well renders or reveals all the infirmities of our soul, all its weaknesses, shortcomings, sins and passions, just as muddy, stagnant water that begins to clear itself shows what reptiles are found in it or what quality rubbish; 3) he shows us the need to resort to God with all our hearts and seek mercy, help, salvation from Him; 4) fasting shows all the cunning, deceit, all the malice of the incorporeal spirits, whom we previously worked without knowing, whose deceit, when illuminated, now clearly turns out to be the light of God's grace, and who now viciously persecute us for leaving their ways.

Whoever rejects fasting forgets what caused the fall of the first people (from intemperance) and what weapon against sin and the tempter the Savior showed us when he was tempted in the wilderness (fasting for forty days and nights), he does not know or does not want to know that a person it falls away from God most often through intemperance, as it was with the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah and with Noah's contemporaries - for all sin in people comes from intemperance; whoever rejects fasting takes away from himself and others weapons against his many-passionate flesh and against the devil, who are strong against us especially through our intemperance, he is not a warrior of Christ, for he throws down his weapon and voluntarily surrenders himself into captivity to his voluptuary and sin-loving flesh; he, finally, is blind and does not see the relationship between the causes and consequences of deeds.

If you eat and drink greedily, you will be flesh, but if you fast and pray, you will be spirit. "Do not be drunk with wine... but be filled with the Spirit" (Eph. 5:18). Fast and pray and you will do great things. A well-fed person is not capable of a great deed. Have the simplicity of faith - and you will do great things: for "everything is possible to him who believes" (Mark 9:23). Have diligence and diligence - and you will accomplish great things.

If there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:10), then what joyful time for the good Angels of God is our Great Lent, and in particular the days of repentance and communion: Friday and Saturday? And how much the priests contribute to this joy of theirs, carefully, paternally confessing their spiritual children! But, on the other hand, there is no sadder time for demons than the time of fasting, which is why they become especially ferocious during fasting and with special ferocity attack priests who contribute to sincere repentance for the sins of God's people, and with special force they chill in the temple and at home to pious Christians who are zealous for prayer, fasting and repentance. Which of the pious priests and laity does not know the demonic fury directed at them during the very celebration of the Sacrament of Penance? - The slightest oversight on the part of the priest-confessor, the slightest unrighteous movement of the heart, and they, with all their demonic ferocity, enter the heart of the priest and torment him for a long, long time, if he does not soon expel them, uninvited guests with the most fervent prayer of repentance and living faith.

The fast of Moses is for the intemperance of the Israelites. The suffering of the saints is for our effeminacy; their fasts and deprivations - for our intemperance and luxury; their fervent prayers are for us, lazy to pray. The fast of our Lord Jesus Christ is for our intemperance. The stretching out of His hands on the Cross is for our stretching out of hands to the forbidden tree and to everything forbidden by the commandments of God. The sanity of our prayers for others is to justify those for whom we pray; the sanity of our deeds and virtues for others, for example, prayers and alms for the dead and for the living. So, the prayers with tears of mother Augustine for her son saved Augustine.

It is necessary for a Christian to fast in order to clarify the mind and arouse and develop feelings and move the will to good activity. We overshadow and suppress these three abilities of a person most of all by overeating, drunkenness and worldly cares (Luke 21:34), and through this we fall away from the source of life - God and fall into corruption and vanity, perverting and defiling the image of God in ourselves. Overeating and voluptuousness nail us to the ground and clip, so to speak, the soul's wings. And look how high the flight of all fasters and abstinences was! They, like eagles, soared in the sky; they, the earthly, lived with their minds and hearts in heaven and heard inexpressible words there, and there they learned divine wisdom. And how a man humiliates himself by gluttony, overeating and drunkenness! He perverts his nature, created in the image of God, and becomes like the dumb cattle and even becomes worse than him. Oh, woe to us from our addictions, from our lawless habits! They prevent us from loving God and our neighbors and keeping the commandments of God; they root in us criminal carnal selfishness, the end of which is eternal perdition. So a drunkard, for the pleasure of the flesh and the stupefaction of himself, does not spare a lot of money, but spares a penny for the poor; the tobacco smoker throws tens and hundreds of rubles into the wind, and spares the poor the kopecks that could save his soul; those who like to dress luxuriously or hunt for fashionable furniture and utensils spend a lot of money on clothes and furniture with utensils, and beggars are passed by with coldness and contempt; those who love good food do not spare tens and hundreds of rubles for dinners, while the poor are spared pennies. And therefore it is necessary for a Christian to fast, because with the incarnation of the Son of God, human nature is inspired, deified, and we hasten to the heavenly Kingdom, which is not food and drink, but truth and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14, 17); food for the belly, and the belly for food: but God will destroy both (1 Corinthians 6:13). Eating and drinking, that is, having a passion for sensual pleasures, is peculiar only to paganism, which, not knowing the spiritual, heavenly pleasures, delivers all life in the pleasure of the womb, in much eating and drinking. That is why the Lord often denounces this pernicious passion in the Gospel. And is it reasonable for a person to live unceasingly in gastric fumes, in gastric vapors rising inside from the incessant cooking of food and its fermentation? Is man only a walking kitchen or a self-propelled chimney, which can rightly be likened to all those engaged in incessant smoking?

We, Christians, as new people, are commanded to fast, so we should not worry much about nourishing the womb, excesses in food and drink, about delicacies, because all this hinders the achievement of the Kingdom of Heaven. Our duty is to prepare for the heavenly life and take care of spiritual food, and spiritual food is fasting, prayer, reading the Word of God, especially Communion of the Holy Mysteries. When we do not care about fasting and prayer, then we are filled with all sorts of sins and passions, but when we feed on spiritual food, then we are cleansed of them and adorned with humility, meekness, patience, mutual love, purity of soul and body.

“When you fast, do not be gloomy, like hypocrites, for they do not take on gloomy faces in order to appear to people who are fasting” (Matthew 6, 16).
At present, there are very few people who, out of hypocrisy, would want to appear to others during fasting as great fasters in order to earn fame for themselves from people. Most likely there will now be people who neither want to be nor appear to be fasters; because they consider fasting to be useless and superfluous for themselves, and to seem like fasters to others is a stupid and ridiculous thing.

Is fasting necessary, that is, not only abstaining from certain foods that are not used during fasting, but also abstaining from eating them in large quantities? Is fasting necessary as abstaining from the pleasures of gross sensuality? Is fasting necessary as abstaining from disorderly thoughts and movements of the heart and disapproving actions? But do you want, beloved, to inherit blessed eternity, or the Kingdom of Heaven, which also undoubtedly exists, as it is certain that we now live on earth, because God the Word incarnate Himself, His prophets, apostles and all the saints assures us of this His? How not to want! There, according to the faithful and immutable Word of God, righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit live forever and ever (Rom. 14:17), God is there, blessed spirits are there, righteous people are there, and on earth - for not much more than seventy years only you can almost see sins, turmoil and calamities - everywhere. If you want, then you must certainly fast: since flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Cor. 15:50), because the Kingdom of God is not food and drink (Rom. 14:17).

Is fasting necessary as abstaining from disorderly thoughts and movements of the heart and disapproving actions? If you agree that God is your Legislator and righteous Judge, Who knows how to punish the violators of His laws, if your conscience tells you that your soul, out of its rank, has repeatedly violated the order of moral life, has gone out of obedience to the laws of the Creator, then you must agree that you need to restore the order of your moral life, bring your thoughts into the right order from disorderly fermentation here and there, force your heart to tear itself away from unworthy objects to which, due to your inattention and oversight, it clung so strongly that it forgot about the first object of his love - God; behave in such a way that it would not be a shame to put your actions before the court of your conscience and at the court of people and God. You know that an abomination to the Lord is an unrighteous thought (Prov. 15:26), that God asks Himself of your heart, which you have given to the will of the passions, that every evil one (Ps. 5:5) and unclean will not dwell with Him. If you want to be with God, if you want to be eternally prosperous, then you must agree that you need to fast with your soul, collect your mind, correct your thoughts, cleanse your thoughts, instead of the rags of unrighteous deeds, adorn yourself with precious clothes of good deeds. The bodily fast is established in order to make it easier for the soul to fast.

For this, by the way, the fasts were established by the Holy Church, so that Christians would have weapons in them against the devil and his countless wiles.

Prayer and fasting purify, enlighten and strengthen the soul; on the contrary, without prayer and fasting, our soul is an easy prey for the devil, because it is not fenced and protected from him. Fasting and prayer are spiritual weapons against the devil, which is why the Lord says that the race of demons proceeds only through prayer and fasting. The Holy Church, knowing the power of this spiritual weapon, calls us twice every week to fast - on Wednesday and Friday, by the way, in remembrance of the suffering and death of our Savior, and in a year - many times in all multi-day fasts, and Great Lent connects with special sympathetic prayers of repentance. Fasting and prayer have that spiritual benefit that, by strengthening our souls, they strengthen faith, hope, and love in us and unite us with God.

The time of Fortecost is a time of struggle, exploits against invisible enemies, against all sins and passions that possess us. This is how it should be according to the meaning of the Church. Fortecost was established in imitation of our Savior, who gave us an image and example in everything, and during fasting He was tempted by the devil and defeated him by the Word of God.

Whoever truly fasts must inevitably endure the sorrow of the flesh, the stubborn struggle of the spirit with it, and, to top it all off, the intrigues of the devil acting on our soul through various thoughts that cause great sorrow, especially to those who are not yet firm and imperfect in the Christian life.

We now have Great Lent, which lasts forty days. What is this Great Lent? He is a precious gift to us of our Savior, Who Himself fasted for forty days and nights, did not eat or drink, a truly precious gift for all those who seek salvation, as a mortifier of spiritual passions. By His word and example, the Lord legitimized him to His followers. And with what love, with what divine, gracious powers the Lord serves all those who truly fast! He enlightens them, cleanses them, renews them, strengthens them in the struggle against passions and invisible enemies, against principalities and authorities and world rulers of the darkness of this age; teaches every virtue and elevates to perfection, to incorruption and heavenly bliss. All those who truly fast have experienced and are experiencing this. Fasting with prayer is a sure weapon against the devil and the many-passionate flesh. Let no one be clever that fasting is not needed.

It (fasting) pacifies our sinful, whimsical flesh, frees the soul from under its weight, giving it, as it were, wings for free soaring to heaven, gives a place for the action of the grace of God. Whoever fasts freely and correctly knows how light and bright the soul is during fasting; then good thoughts easily enter the head, and the heart becomes purer, more tender, more compassionate - we feel the desire for good deeds; is contrition for sins, the soul begins to feel the fatality of its position and begins to lament over sins. And when we do not fast, when thoughts are in disorder, feelings are not curbed, and the will allows itself everything, then you rarely see a saving change in a person, then he is dead in his soul: all her forces act in the wrong direction; the main goal of action - the goal of life - is overlooked; there are many private ends, almost as many as every person has passions or whims. A strange work is going on in the soul, the result of which seems to be some kind of creation: you see the materials for construction, the beginning, middle and end of the work, but in fact the end of everything comes out - nothing. The soul goes against itself, against its own salvation with all its might: with the mind, and will, and feeling. Whoever fasts in a Christian way, reasonably, freely, according to the unfalse promise of the Lord, is rewarded for his feat from the Heavenly Father. Your father, the Savior said about a true faster, who sees in secret, will reward you openly (Matt. 6:4). And this reward, no doubt, is always generous, truly paternal, serving to our most essential benefit.

Or they consider it a sin to eat, even due to bodily weakness, on a fast day something modest and without a twinge of conscience despise or condemn their neighbor, for example, acquaintances, offend or deceive, weigh, measure, indulge in carnal impurity.

O hypocrisy, hypocrisy! O misunderstanding of the spirit of Christ, the spirit of the Christian faith! Is it not inner purity, meekness and humility that the Lord our God requires of us first of all? Shouldn't the inner pots and dishes be cleaned so that the outer one is clean? Is not external fasting given to help inner virtue? Why do we pervert the divine order?

Saint Ignatius (Bryanchaninov):

But what is a post in essence? And is there not self-deception among those who consider it necessary to fulfill the fast only by the letter, but do not love it and are weary of it in their hearts?

And is it possible to call fasting only the observance of some rules about not eating fast food on fast days? Will fasting be fasting if, apart from a certain change in the composition of food, we think neither about repentance, nor about abstinence, nor about cleansing the heart through fervent prayer?

Fasting is not a diet. The apostle remarks that “food does not bring us closer to God” (1 Cor. 8, 8). “There is no perfection in the visible abstinence of the flesh, and the unbelievers can have it out of necessity or hypocrisy,” says St. John Cassian the Roman. Abstinence in food is only the basis for further construction, it "preserves our mind in due purity and sobriety, in due subtlety and spirituality our heart."

Saint Theophan the Recluse:

Fasting on Wednesday and five is enough. There is no need to add anything else to this. Lean more on streamlining thoughts and feelings. It is enough to keep the body in continence.

Fasting children, if health does not allow, is not necessary. But it’s a pity that, having got used to it from childhood, then they won’t arrange for a post.

I also congratulate you on the beginning of the soul-saving post. The great blessing is this time. God, through the Holy Church, has beneficially established it for us, the weak, the incapable and the incapable of good fasting all the time of our lives, although we realize that all of it, not excluding a moment, must belong to the Lord and be turned to His glory. This is also according to our very creation, and even more so according to redemption, in which we are bought at a priceless price, which is why we should not belong to ourselves, but to the one who bought us, who, by virtue of this, became our Master, lawfully demanding that we betray ourselves and others to Him. masters did not call upon themselves, which, due to our oversight, are innumerable.

This began the week of preparation for fasting, and at the very beginning - the Meeting, which very significantly indicates that those who wish to meet the Lord can achieve this only through fasting labors, publican humility, sincere repentance at the direction of the prodigal, the memory of the Last Judgment, weeping over the fall into Adam and about their own sins and cries: “Have mercy on me, God, have mercy on me!”
Please stand at the beginning of this path, look it all into the distance ... and then set out, to the best of your ability, to go through it, as the Lord desires.

Congratulations on St. Forty days. Help you, Lord, to spend it in good health and for the salvation of the soul. You can serve all the services with bows at home ... and go to mass on Saturday and Sunday.

You can also pray at home without going to church. When fasting, it’s good to force yourself. And on other weeks you can pray at home, only go to the Presanctified. And at home, then read the aftermath, as expected, or even with bows alone, you can get off.

With the eve of fasting!... You heard: open the doors of repentance!... The merciful Lord again stands at His open doors with open arms. Let us fall into His arms and weep before the Lord, Who created us and in every possible way arranges our salvation by His providential actions for us.

Regarding food during treatment: you can take it as prescribed by doctors, not for the sake of the flesh, but as an aid to a speedy recovery, meaning, after the cure, be more strict with this matter, with food, i.e. You can observe this severity when taking fast food food, namely to take it in smaller quantities. But although this is possible, however, those who refrain from fasting and keep a fasting table, although weak, do better: as I advise you ... They refused the operation, and it turned out better; it will be better if you refuse here too, for the fear of God. All food is useful, as long as it is not spoiled, but fresh and healthy ... As the elders of God lived for more than a hundred years, eating only bread and water ...

Abstinence from passions is better than all medicines, and it gives a long life.

Not from food alone, the stomach ... or health, but from God's blessing, which always overshadows the one who betrays himself into the will of God when he lifts burdens on the path of fulfilling the commandments of God.

You congratulated me on the new year, and I congratulate you on the post. The words are different, but the deed is one: for whoever does all that is done in St. fasting as it should, he will truly enter the new year of life. This is what I wish you. Of course, you are new for a long time; but our news is such that it often requires updating. We flow along the path of life among rags, which, under our feet, and on the sides, and in front, and behind, and above, and below, and from the inside, and from the outside, envelop us and crowd us, and it is very difficult or impossible that which of them does not stick and did not remain on us and in us, as it is impossible for a person walking along a high road not to become dusty. So the merciful Lord arranged a fast for us, which, on the one hand, is a review, or an inspection, where there are some dust particles, rags, on the other, a bathhouse for washing everything that is dilapidated, plain, dirty, so that, having passed both, we are brand new , clean and pleasing to God and people, like a tree in spring, again covered with leaves and flowers. I wish you all this from the bottom of my heart.

Where did they find such a rule about fasting? Wherever spiritual fasting is spoken of, it is not mentioned that there is nothing to worry about about bodily fasting, you can do without it, and it is only reminded not to be limited to bodily fasting alone. Great Lent and the Dormition are significant, but one cannot conclude from this that other fasts can be turned into non-fasts. It is necessary to be correct in the church charter completely, without reservations.

Fasting is not to eat your fill, but to leave yourself a little hungry, so that neither thought nor heart are burdened.

Having bothered with fasting, you give yourself consolation. It's okay. Only less carnal consolation, but more spiritual. And it is fitting to inspire the carnal with thanksgiving, dimensional dimensionality and spiritual comprehension. You seem to be doing just that. In the general course of your life, you see yourself surrounded by the graces of God more than others - and thank the Lord. Dobre! This thanksgiving is the strengthening of the possession of these graces. Move from the joyful to the expectation of the sad - and also get ready to give thanks: for everything is from the Lord for our good - eternal.

The type of food in the restoration of strength is a side matter ... The main thing is fresh food (not spoiled), the air is clean ... and most of all, peace of mind. Restless spirit and passion spoil the blood - and significantly harm health. Fasting, and fasting life in general, is the best means of maintaining health and its prosperity.

With post! Help you, Lord, to spend it soul-saving. Don't push yourself too hard. There is not enough strength to obey and to fulfill the rule. Everything in moderation. Pay more attention to the inner and more strictly analyze everything that happens there, in the light of the word of God with fatherly indications. A small crookedness there threatens with a big disaster.

Nowhere is it written without a special need to take on too much post. The post is an external matter. It must be undertaken according to the demand of the inner life. What is your need for such excessive fasting? And so you eat a little. The measure that has already been established could be kept in fasting. And then you always have a great post. How about spending whole days without food? It could also be done on the week when they were preparing to partake of the Holy Mysteries. The whole post is so torturing yourself for what? And they would put to eat a little every day. Your thought would always consider you a poison and a drinker, but now, it is true, it magnifies you - and it is necessary to fight. Sometimes the pleasure of one's feat will break through, and for this God's punishment follows, usually manifested by a decrease in warmth and composure. In view of this evil, I cannot call your fasting good. Get it in moderation. On this Pentecost, hold the table according to the Rule or in relation to it. And for the rest of the time, lighten the post. You don't need this at all. I feel sorry for you; but I say this about fasting not out of pity, but out of confidence that you will not benefit from it in any particular way, and self-delusion is close - a great and great misfortune!

Self-indulgent and stubborn in everything across! You don't want to listen to anything. Well, live as you wish. This rhyme of your crappy will not lead to good. There are already the beginnings of self-deception, but you don’t see it. Look at what you write: "I'm not what I used to be." This is called self-conceit. Say further: “And if you don’t say anything against a trip to Voronezh and Zadonsk, I won’t listen.” This is called willfulness. Finally, about prayer, that "it's better for you to pray this way and that way." This means following your tastes. Of these three: self-taste, self-will and conceit - the pernicious spirit of delusion is composed. He is in your firstfruits; but if you do not take heed, and all act in the same rank, he will grow up and destroy you. And it's all the fault of the post! He sticks out at you - not at all in place.
Who is against fasting? Fasting is one of the first deeds of a monk and a Christian. But it is impossible not to rebel against immoderate fasting. This one is detrimental. Only empty rumor excites outside and vanity inside. Your elders are rightly grumbling: here we have an ascetic, she eats one prosphora, she does not make a fire. And you are getting stronger and stronger. They talk about trifles, and in you they give birth to a worm of vanity and a high opinion of themselves: “Now I’m not the same.” Your tongue sometimes speaks humble speeches, but it lies in your heart that you have ascended high and, tea, have surpassed everyone. It always happens. Start striking at external exploits, you will immediately fall into spiritual pride. And the enemy needs something. Well, mother, add, add. And mother of all strength! He thinks that he pleases God, but in fact he amuses the enemy and the boil of vanity inflates and expands. I am writing you all this unsweetened stuff for the sake of the danger you are in.
Look around and while there is time, fix things.

You think I want to feed you. Not at all. I want to direct you to moderate fasting, which would keep you in humble feelings. And then you don't know where you're going. Talk about it with whoever you want, everyone will say the same. It won't take long to distort your inner self with an unreasonable outer one, but once again you can fix it properly - you won't suddenly fix it. This bad feeling will begin to deepen in you, that you are no longer what you were before; warmth, tenderness and contrition will decrease. When the heart grows cold, then what? Beware of this. The path of humble, moderate action is the most reliable.

Again I repeat: who is against fasting? But post a fast, and at least drop another. That is what yours is. And I consider him so not for his own sake, but for the reason that he leads you into self-conceit, as your entire past letter was filled with. So it is impossible not to rise up against him as the cause of such a dangerous mood of the spirit. Fasting itself is blessed. Eating less and sleeping less is a good thing. Still, in moderation. And besides, the soul must be protected by deep humility. Writing as he wrote, he had one thing in mind - to arouse in you apprehension and vigilant observation of the suggestions of the enemy, with which he knows how to approach so skillfully that you will not even notice. He will begin with a subtle thought and will lead to great deeds according to his kind. Look, for the Lord's sake, disgrace yourself. May the Lord help you to deepen your feelings of self-abasement and humility!

Congratulations on your holy post. Bless you, Lord, to see him soul-saving. Yes, look, do not upset your health. If you don't feed the horse, you won't be lucky. Of course, you must wish that what you started never changes and turns into the law of life. Bodily exploits are handy to us because the body can get used to everything. Until he gets used to it, he screams, and when he gets used to it, he will be silent. That's the limit of work on the body. The body is an obedient slave, but it must be trained. Well school, only in moderation. Work on the soul has no end.

With regard to fasting, act with complete freedom, applying everything to the main goal. When to weigh down, when you can lighten, depending on the need. Fasting is not an end, but a means. It is better not to bind oneself in this respect by an invariable decree, as if by bonds: when it is so, when it is otherwise, only without privileges and self-pity, but also without cruelty, leading to exhaustion.

You're all messing around with your penny fasting. Well, do as you have planned: just do not consider this important. It is important to pay attention to the movements of the heart and purify them by repentance every minute. Do this more. At the same time, to see the Lord and be in mortal memory - these are important things!

Do not regret the fact that you had to add something from food. One should not even be attached to the holy rules, but keep oneself in relation to them with complete freedom, disposing of them reasonably. It does not matter if you add something else, only not for the sake of the flesh, but out of need.

But here is the fast: let us fast, brethren, with a pleasant fast. Woe when fasting is not pleasing to us or to God. Since we have become weak!.. And all because we are righteous... A sinner will not feel sorry for himself, and when he feels sinfulness - then hold on, sinful flesh!

There are so many rumors about fasting, how they rise up against it and say: “Why is fasting so strict, when the Lord Himself says that what does not enter into a person defiles, but comes from the heart, and the apostle teaches: “Let not the eater condemn the one who eats” * (*...who does not eat, do not condemn the one who eats.) (Rom. 14, 3), and St. Chrysostom on St. Pascha calls everyone to rejoicing, both those who have fasted and those who have not?

Poor post! How much he suffers reproaches, slander, persecution! But everything, by the grace of God, is worth it. Yes, and how else? Support is strong! The Lord fasted, the apostles fasted, and, moreover, not a little, but, as the apostle Paul says about himself, “there are many in fasting,” and all the saints of God kept a strict fast, so that if it were given to us to survey the abodes of paradise, we did not find there would be not a single one who would shy away from fasting. So it should. By breaking the fast, paradise is lost - the lifting of a strict fast should be among the means to return the lost paradise.
Our mother, Holy Church, compassionate, is it our stepmother? Would she place such a heavy and unnecessary burden on us? But it imposes! It's true, it can't be otherwise. Let us submit... Yes, and everyone who wants to be saved submits... Look around. Little by little, someone who cares about the soul will start to fast now, and the stronger his care, the stricter he fasts. Why would it? “Because during fasting, things go more successfully and it is easier to control the soul. Whoever dissuades from fasting, it is true, salvation is not dear to him. Where the womb writes the laws, there God is the womb. To whom God is the womb, that is the enemy of the Cross of Christ. Whoever is an enemy of the Cross is an enemy of Christ, our Savior and God. Here is how you proceed: when someone begins to rise up against some ascetic ordinance of God, start asking him what kind he accepts besides this rejected one? For example, who rejects fasting, ask: “Well, is it necessary to go to church? Is it necessary to keep a prayer rule at home? do I need to confess? and so on... and you will surely find that he will renounce everything. And it will be clear to you that he is not good at fasting, but about any cramped conditions in general... He wants to live widely... Well, let him live! Only by all means read him the definition of the Judgment of God on a wide path! It is the duty of anyone leading this definition! After all, when you ask everything, it turns out that such a sage is of a completely different kind of faith. And tell him then; tell me that you, brother, have a different god, other laws, other hopes! apostles, shepherds and teachers of the universe - all fasters and legislators of fasting! So we can't do it any other way. And you go your own way. Don't you think to convince such people?.. Where are we going! Their forehead is copper and the neck is iron! What will you do with them? Do not think that they have any solid reasons. No. They just have a lot of persistence. Those false interpretations that you have heard, it is true, are considered lofty ideas among them. And look what is there? They say: what does not enter the mouth defiles ... Who argues against this? Do those who fast abstain from food because they are afraid of being defiled by it? God have mercy! Nobody thinks so. And it is the cunning worldly who weave lies in order to somehow cover themselves with plausibility. Those who break the fast defile themselves, only not with food, but with the violation of the commandment of God, disobedience and stubbornness. And those who fast and do not keep their hearts pure are not considered pure. Both are needed: both bodily fasting and spiritual fasting. So it is said in the teachings, so it is sung in the Church. Whoever does not fulfill this is not to blame for fasting! Why, then, refuse from the post under this pretext? Would you like to ask those who do not want to fast whether they keep their hearts pure? The thing is incredible! If during fasting and other ascetic labors it is hardly possible to control our kind heart, then without fasting there is nothing to say. Remember how one old man met a young monk who was leaving the tavern and said to him: “Hey, brother! It's not a good thing to come here!" He answered him: “Go! If only the heart was pure...” Then the elder said with amazement: “For how many years I have been living in the wilderness and fasting and praying, and rarely go out anywhere, but I have not yet acquired a pure heart; and you, young one, walking around the taverns, managed to acquire a pure heart. Wonder!” The same must be said to anyone who refuses to fast! And the fact that it says further: “Let not the one who eats not condemn the one who eats”, does not lead to anything. After all, this is an instruction! Putting ourselves among those who fast, let us thank for the advice or reminder. But the one who does not fast is not freed from the obligation to fast and from the responsibility for not fasting. Whoever condemns a non-faster sins, but the non-faster does not become righteous through this. And let's not judge. Let everyone to himself, as he knows. And it is necessary to stand for the rule or the law of fasting and not allow freestyle wrestlers to insidiously weave lies. Finally, the indulgence of Chrysostom to those who did not fast means only the kindness of his heart and the desire that on the Bright Sunday of Christ everyone rejoices and there is not a single sad face. Such is the desire of the holy father, but whether it comes true in practice - God knows! Say to the patient: be healthy, be healthy... Will he be healthy from this? The same is there. Everyone is invited to rejoice, but is everyone truly rejoicing? Where is the conscience to go? Noise and din is not joy. Joy is in the heart, which does not always rejoice at external amusements.

Help you, Lord, to fast for salvation, to speak and partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ properly. And take care of yourself, and put things in order, and enjoy the peace of God - the grace of the Lord our Savior, when you are more sincerely able to receive Him into yourself.

Saint Leo the Great:

“After the long feast of Pentecost, fasting is especially necessary in order to purify our thoughts and make us worthy of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The real feast, which the Holy Spirit sanctified by His descent, is usually followed by a nationwide fast, beneficially established for the healing of the soul and body, and therefore requiring that we see it off with due goodwill. For we have no doubt that after the apostles were filled with the power promised from above and the Spirit of truth dwelled in their hearts, among other mysteries of the heavenly teaching, at the suggestion of the Comforter, the teaching was also taught about spiritual abstinence, so that the hearts, cleansed by fasting, would become more capable of accepting grace-filled gifts... it is impossible to fight the forthcoming efforts of the persecutors and the furious threats of the wicked in the pampered body and fattened flesh, since what delights our external person destroys the internal one, and on the contrary, the rational soul is purified the more the more the flesh is mortified.

Rev. Isaac Sirin:

The spirit does not submit [to the cross] unless the body first submits to it.

Rev. Efrem Sirin:

The Kingdom of God is now close to everyone who serves God in righteousness; because the days of pure fasting have come for the one who really fasts in purity.

Therefore, beloved, let us keep this fast with zeal and with a pure heart; because it is sweet and pleasant for those who spend these holy days. Let us use this holy fast for wrestling with the devil; because without fasting and prayer no one can overcome the evil one. Let us use this fast, beloved, to ask and pray for mercy from the All-Good and Merciful, Who does not reject the one who asks. This fast, beloved, opens the door of heaven, because it lifts us from the earth and raises us to the heights.

... With the help of this holy fast, a person ascends to heaven and soars into paradise, if only he fasts in perfect purity. With this holy fast, a person glorifies God, and to everyone who zealously observes the fast, He opens the door of mercy.

One salvation is fasting and prayer.

Fasting leads to the gates of paradise, but charity opens them.

Dear guest, great post.

Whatever they put, then eat, and listen to the owner in the house!

Fasting is not in the belly, but in the spirit.

Bread and water are healthy foods.

They don’t die from fasting, but die from gluttony.

The law is not written for the sick and the road.

We fast all the posts, but we are no good!

During fasting, food is simple.

Holy Fathers about fasting:

Do not neglect the forty cost, it is an imitation of the habitation of Christ.

St. Ignatius the God-bearer

Fasting is the teacher of moderation, the mother of virtue, the educator of the children of God, the guide of the disorderly, the tranquility of souls, the support of life, the world is strong and unperturbed; its severity and importance calms passions, quenches anger and rage, cools and calms all sorts of unrest arising from polyeating.

St. Asterius of Amasia

Do not limit the benefits of fasting to mere abstinence in food, because true fasting is the elimination of evil deeds ... Forgive your neighbor an insult, forgive him his debts. You do not eat meat, but you offend your brother... True fasting is the removal of evil, the abstinence of the tongue, the suppression of anger in oneself, the excommunication of lusts, slander, lies and perjury. Refraining from this is true fasting.

holy Basil the Great

It is not food that matters, but the commandment, Adam was expelled from paradise not for overeating, but for eating only the forbidden.

teacher Ambrose Optinsky

According to the teachings of the Holy Fathers, we should not be body-killers, but passion-killers, that is, we should exterminate the passions in ourselves.

teacher Macarius Optinsky

In addition to abstaining from food, there are many ways that can open for us the doors of boldness before God. Whoever eats food and cannot fast, let him give the most abundant alms, let him make fervent prayers, let him show intense zeal for hearing the word of God - here bodily weakness does not hinder us in the least - let him reconcile with enemies, let him banish all remembrance of malice from his soul . If he does this, he will make a true fast, such as the Lord requires of us. After all, He commands the very abstinence from food so that we, curbing the desires of the flesh, make it obedient in fulfilling the commandments.

holy John Chrysostom

The Apostle Paul said: if one of the unbelievers calls you and you want to go, then eat everything that is offered to you without any research, for peace of mind (1 Cor. 10, 27) - for the sake of the person who welcomed you cordially.
Foolish people are jealous of fasting and the labors of the saints with wrong understanding and intention, and think that they are passing through virtue. The devil, guarding them as his prey, casts into them the seed of a joyful opinion of himself, from which the inner Pharisee is born and nurtured and betrays them to perfect pride.

holy Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow

Whoever fasts out of vanity or, believing that he is doing a virtue, fasts foolishly and therefore begins to reproach his brother, considering himself someone significant. And whoever fasts wisely does not think that he is wisely doing a good deed, and does not want to be praised as a faster.

Abba Dorotheos

One should be counted as a suicide who does not change the strict rules of abstinence even when it is necessary to reinforce weakened forces by eating.

teacher John Cassian the Roman

Priest Alexander Elchaninov

« Fasting saves us not for our deeds, but by the grace inherent in it as an institution of the Church... Abstinence from food teaches us to refrain from passionate thoughts and feelings. Temperance is the first step in all virtues…»

Abbess Arsenia (Sebryakova)

About true and false fasting - bodily and spiritual fasting - "People, who God is the womb": about the dangers of gluttony - and pleasing the flesh - The benefits of fasting - Orthodox asceticism: fasting, abstinence, asceticism - Fasting and prayer - Relaxation of fasting - How to conduct fast? — Fasting in Holy Scripture — Prologue in the Teachings

“It is written in the law that God commanded the children of Israel to give a tithe every year of everything they acquired, and in doing so they were blessed in all their affairs. Knowing this, the holy apostles established and handed over to help us, and as a blessing to our souls, something more and higher - that we should separate a tithe from the very days of our lives and consecrate it to God: so that we also receive a blessing in all our works, and yearly cleanse the sins that we have committed during the whole year.

Judging thus, the apostles consecrated to us of the three hundred and sixty-five days of the year these seven weeks of the Holy Forty Days. God gave these holy days so that if anyone tries with attention and humility to take care of himself and repent of his sins, he will be cleansed from the sins that he has committed during the whole year. Thus, his soul will be freed from the burden, and thus, purified, he will reach the holy day of the Resurrection and unjudgmentally partake of the Holy Mysteries, having become a new person through repentance in this holy fast. Such a one, in spiritual joy and gladness, with the help of God, will celebrate the whole of Holy Pentecost, for Pentecost, as the Fathers say, is the rest and resurrection of the soul; this is signified by the fact that we do not bow our knees throughout Holy Pentecost (from Holy Pascha to Trinity).

On True and False Fasting – Physical and Spiritual Fasting

“Why do we fast and You don’t see? we humble our souls, but you do not know?” “Behold, on the day of your fast, you do your will and require hard work from others. Behold, you fast for strife and strife, and in order to strike others with a bold hand; you do not fast at this time so that your voice will be heard on high. Is this the fast that I have chosen, the day on which a man torments his soul, when he bends his head like a reed and spreads sackcloth and ashes under him? Can you call this a fast and a day pleasing to the Lord? Share your bread with the hungry, and bring the wandering poor into your house; when you see a naked man, clothe him, and do not hide yourself from your kindred. Then your light will open like the dawn, and your healing will soon increase, and your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will accompany you. Then you will call, and the Lord will hear; You will cry out and He will say, “Here I am!” (Is.58; 3-5, 7-9).

The Holy Fathers explain that it is not fasting in itself, as a burdensome and heavy duty to God, that the Lord needs from us, but striving for spiritualization, for strengthening the spiritual forces of the soul through obedience, readiness for abstinence, for life in the spirit, and not in the flesh This is the real purpose of this post. At the same time, if the fasting person himself, proudly, with arrogance and condemnation, treats his non-fasting neighbor, if he does not do works of mercy, then such a fasting person is not pleasing to the Lord; there is no benefit from his fast - there is only one harm. The Lord God speaks about this through His prophet to the murmuring Jews, seeing their slyness and pride, behind the outward deeds of “righteousness”, forgetting about the main thing – inner transformation and spiritual growth.

Only external deeds of piety do not draw nearer to God, but move away from Him, because they are full of hypocrisy. And Jesus Christ denounces the teachers of the Jewish people, lawyers and Pharisees: “So you also appear righteous to people outwardly, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity”(Matthew 23:28). God sees our heart, closely follows it, where it inclines - what does a person feel, what does he think about? One and the same deed (almsgiving, fasting, prayer, etc.) can either be pleasing to God or not, depending on our inner disposition, on heartiness or soullessness (for appearances, and even with dark thoughts, with some calculation, as sometimes, for example, alms are given) of the act being performed.

To be seemingly virtuous and fasting does not mean to actually be so. And only God, the Seer of our souls and hearts, knows about it. For fasting is, first of all, abstinence from passions, from thoughts that defile a person, and then already from food. And when righteousness is on the lips, and outwardly everything is decent, but in the heart there is lies and deceit (or vanity, or pleasing to people, or arrogance, or contempt for one’s neighbor, etc.), then such a person is disgusting to God. The sacrifice to God must be pure, say the Holy Fathers, that is, from a pure heart and with bright thoughts. After all "God is spirit: and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth"(John 4:24).

Here is what he writes about this to his spiritual daughter Elder Mikhail (Pitkevich) (1877-1962):“Whatever fast you observe, even the strictest, if without true repentance, then the Lord does not accept it. Such fasting will not lead to salvation or consolation. The main thing is to cleanse your heart inside».

Holy Fathers of the Church write about it like this:

“Beware of measuring fasting by simply abstaining from food. Those who abstain from food, and behave inappropriately, are likened to the devil, who, although he does not eat anything, nevertheless does not stop sinning.

Saint John Chrysostom (347-407) says that " Post is medicine but even the most useful medicine becomes useless if the patient does not know how to use it. .

Anyone who believes that fasting is only abstaining from food is mistaken. True fasting is abstaining from evil…

So, let the eye also have its own limits and rules, so as not to be immediately carried away by everything that presents itself to it; and let the tongue have a fence so as not to warn thoughts ... One must in every possible way refrain from obscene laughter, and have a quiet and calm gait, and modest clothes ... For the decency of the external members is some expression of the internal state of the soul.

Rev. John Cassian the Roman(350-435): « It is not an external enemy that we need to be afraid of: our enemy lies within ourselves. This is why internal warfare is constantly being waged within us. If we win in it, all external battles will become insignificant, and everything will become peaceful with the soldier of Christ and everything will be submissive to him. There will be nothing for us to fear the enemy from without, when what is inside of us, having been defeated, will submit to the spirit. We should not believe that for the perfection of the heart and the purity of the body, the fast alone, which consists in abstaining from visible foods, can be sufficient for us. No, to this must be added soul fasting. For she, too, has her own harmful delicacies, from which, having weaned herself, she falls into precipices of voluptuousness and without an abundance of bodily nourishment. condemnation there is food for her, and a good one at that. Anger it also has food, although not so easy, and sometimes harmful and even deadly. Envy there is the food of the soul, poisonously damaging its juices and constantly tormenting it, unhappy, with the happy successes of others. Vanity it is food that temporarily delights it with a pleasant taste, and then makes it empty, naked and devoid of all virtue and leaves it barren and incapable of bearing spiritual fruit - and, therefore, not only deprives of reward for immeasurable labors, but also attracts great punishments… Why, in our holy fasting, refraining from all this, as much as we have strength, we will make the observance of bodily fasting expedient and fruitful. For the vexation of the flesh, being united with the contrition of the spirit, will present a sacrifice most pleasing to God and will build a habitation worthy of His holiness in the pure and well-decorated inmost secrets of the heart. But if, while fasting bodily, we are entangled in the most pernicious passions of the soul, then the exhaustion of the flesh will not bring us any benefit, when at the same time we remain defiled in our most precious part, when, that is, we are faulty with that part of our nature, which, in fact, becomes the habitation of the Holy Spirit. For it is not corruptible flesh, but a pure heart that is made a dwelling place for God and a temple of the Holy Spirit. So, when our outward man is fasting, it behooves us to keep the inward from harmful tastes. To present him especially to the pure God, in order to be worthy to receive Christ as a visitor, the holy Apostle admonishes when he says: In the inner man, by faith, Christ dwell in your hearts(Eph. 3, 16-17)."

Holy Fathers on the importance of not only bodily, but also spiritual fasting wrote: “All of us, brethren, must know what is pleasing before God, so as not to be condemned. What is it that we fast and do not correct ourselves, what will be the benefit in that? Mere abstention from fast food, even the most severe, will not do us any good, if at the same time we do evil deeds. If we feed on ashes alone, and if we do not lag behind malice, we will not be saved. If we abstain from bread, and at the same time we are angry with our brother and envy him, then we become like only animals ... If you want to abstain from meat and fish, then at the same time leave behind anger and malice, pride, slander, envy, resentment, theft , drunkenness, fornication and every sin. And whoever does not drink anything and does not eat meat, but keeps malice in his heart, such is worse than cattle. And cattle don't eat meat and don't drink wine. If someone sleeps on the bare earth, but thinks evil, do not boast of such a person: even cattle do not need a bed. Let us lag behind, brethren, from our sins, and then we will not be like cattle. Let us produce the fruits of good deeds and become like the angels, and with the saints we will receive eternal life.”

Rev. Abba Dorotheos of Palestine (620):“But we must not only observe the measure in food, but also refrain from every other sin, so that, as we fast with the belly, we also fast with the tongue. We should also fast with our eyes, that is, not look at vain things, not give our eyes freedom, not look at anyone shamelessly and without fear. Likewise, the hands and feet must be restrained from every evil deed. By fasting, as St. Basil the Great, with an auspicious fast, moving away from every sin committed by all our feelings, we will reach the holy day of the Resurrection, having become, as we said, new, pure and worthy of communion of the Holy Mysteries.

Saint Boniface (1785-1871):“According to the holy fathers, fasting and abstinence consists in moderation, and that all who strive for perfect virtue in general should eat food that is permitted to maintain the body, and refrain from lust. And the weak in body can equal in virtue with the healthy and strong, if they destroy lusts that the weakness of the flesh does not require ...

We know that we abstain bodily in order to acquire purity of heart through fasting. But bodily continence is in vain when we cannot reach the end for which we undertake the labors of continence; for when, fasting bodily, we live according to the inspiration of the passions, we will defile the best part of ourselves, because we will defile the place where the Holy Spirit should dwell, which, as you know, is not inhabited by corruptible flesh, but by a pure soul.

Prot. Alexander Elchaninov (1881-1934):“Our life does not flow smoothly and evenly. It goes on like any living process, like the life of nature, with moments of decline and elevation. Lent is a period of spiritual effort. If we cannot give our whole life to God, then let us dedicate at least periods of fasting undividedly to Him - let us intensify prayer, multiply alms, tame passions, reconcile with enemies.

“Fasting is not hunger. A diabetic, a fakir, a yogi, a prisoner, and just a beggar are starving. Nowhere in the services of Great Lent is it said about fasting only in our usual sense, i.e. as about non-eating meat and so on. Everywhere one call " Let's fast, brethren, bodily, let's fast spiritually". Consequently, fasting only then has a religious meaning when it is combined with spiritual exercises. Fasting equals refinement. A normal, biologically prosperous person is inaccessible to the influences of higher forces. Fasting shakes this physical well-being of a person, and then he becomes more accessible to the influences of another world, his spiritual filling goes on.

“People, whom God is the womb”: about the dangers of gluttonyand pleasures of the flesh

"... Their god is the womb ... they think about earthly things"(Phil. 3, 19).

“Food for the belly, and the belly for food;but God will destroy both…”(1 Cor. 6:13).

"Food should strengthen the body, not cause disease"

Saint Basil the Great

« Dominate your belly until it has dominion over you»

Saint John of the Ladder

Saint Theophan the Recluse (1815-1894):“Look around and consider: what are all people doing, why are they so busy, who do they work for? Every single one works for the stomach and all the trouble to meet its requirements: give me food, give me drink. How great a blessing is promised in the future by the mere promise of the abolition of this tyrant of ours!

Stand now on this point and decide: where will the indefatigable thirst for activity, which belongs to this age, be directed in another age, when there will be no need to bother about the stomach or about worldly things in general? We must decide this now in order to prepare for what awaits us in the infinite future.

Saint Basil the Great (330-379):“The womb is the most unfaithful ally in treaties. It's a storehouse of nothing. If a lot is invested in it, then the harm keeps in itself, but does not preserve the invested.

Learn to keep the womb in a strong bridle: it alone does not give thanks for the good deeds rendered to it.

Saint John Chrysostom (347-407):“Why, tell me, do You fatten the body with satiation in food? Are we sacrificing ourselves? Or offer a meal? Nothing is so repugnant and harmful to the body as satiety, nothing destroys, burdens and damages it so much as immoderate consumption of food. Those who are intemperate in food are so foolish that they do not even want to save themselves as much as others take care of the skins. For wine sellers do not fill wineskins more properly, so as not to break them, and they do not even want to have such care for their poor womb, but burden it to excess with food and fill it with wine ... and thus severely restrict the spirit and the power that governs life. . Gluttony prematurely brings one closer to old age, dulls the senses, darkens the thought, blinds the penetrating mind and imposes a great burden and an unbearable burden.

Just as a ship, loaded with more than it can hold, sinks under the weight of the load, so does the soul and the nature of our body: taking food in sizes exceeding its strength ... it overflows and, unable to withstand the weight of the load, plunges into the sea death and at the same time destroys the swimmers, and the helmsman, and the navigator, and the sailors, and the cargo itself. As it happens with ships in this state, so it is with those who are satiated: no matter how quiet the sea is, nor the skill of the helmsman, nor the multitude of sailors, nor the proper equipment, nor the favorable season, nothing else benefits the ship so overwhelmed in this way, so and here: neither teaching, nor exhortation, nor censure of those present, nor instruction and advice, nor fear of the future, nor shame, nothing else can save the soul so overwhelmed.

Saint John of the Ladder (649):“The head of demons is a fallen dennitsa, and the head of passions is gluttony.

Gluttony is a lie of the womb, which, being saturated, cries out: "I am still hungry."

Venerable Simeon the New Theologian (1021) writes: “It is impossible to fill the flesh to the full with brashnas, and spiritually enjoy smart and divine blessings. For, to what extent one works for the womb, to such an extent deprives himself of the tasting of spiritual blessings; on the contrary, to what extent one begins to refine his body, in proportion to that he will be saturated with food and spiritual comfort.

“How many different arts, substances, tools a reasonable person uses in order to fill a small and senseless womb! How humiliated is the mind when it is exhausted in inventions, so that the tribute daily demanded by the womb, as an implacable master, should be brought to it in the greatest possible elegance and be acceptable to them in the greatest possible amount! And how the womb scolds this servile mind, putting impurity and stench as the end of all its worries about grace!

If the real purpose of food and drink is to maintain and renew the bodily composition, and the taste of food and the pleasantness of drink are given as a means to this end, then every piece of food eaten for taste in excess of satisfying hunger is an overeating, and every sip of drink taken after quenching thirst and after the encouragement of forces for pleasantness, belongs to the cup of drunkenness.

"They say: it’s not important to eat fast in fasting, not fasting in food; it is not important to wear expensive, beautiful outfits, go to the theater, to parties, ... start magnificent expensive dishes, furniture, ... collect and save money and so on. But why does our heart turn away from God, the Fountain of life, why do we lose eternal life? Is it not because of gluttony, Is it not because of precious clothes, like the gospel rich man, is it not because of theaters ...? Why do we become hard-hearted towards the poor and even towards our relatives? Is it not because of our addiction to sweets, in general to the womb, to clothes, to expensive dishes, furniture, ... to money and so on? Is it possible to work God and mammon(Matthew 6:24), to be a friend of the world and a friend of God, to work for Christ and Belial? Impossible. Why did Adam and Eve lose paradise, fall into sin and death? Is it not because of the poison alone? Take a good look, because of which we do not care about the salvation of our souls, which cost the Son of God so dearly; why do we add sins to sins, why do we continually fall into opposition to God, into a vain life, is it not because of an addiction to earthly things, and especially to earthly sweets? What causes our heart to harden? Why do we become flesh and not spirit, perverting his moral nature, is it not because of his addiction to food, drink and other earthly goods? How, after this, to say that eating fast in fasting is not important? it the most that we say so there is pride, superstition, disobedience, disobedience to God and separation from Him.

... To eat and drink, that is, to have a passion for sensual pleasures, is peculiar only to paganism, which, not knowing spiritual, heavenly pleasures, provides all life in the pleasure of the womb, in many eating and drinking. That is why the Lord often denounces this pernicious passion in the Gospel. And is it reasonable for a person to live unceasingly in gastric fumes, in gastric vapors rising inside from the incessant cooking of food and its fermentation? Is man just a walking kitchen or a self-propelled chimney what justice can be likened to all those engaged in incessant smoking? What pleasure is it to live in incessant vapour, evaporation and smoke? What will our homes look like? Why should we infect the air with a stench and breathe it, and above all darken and suppress the soul, kill its last spiritual strength?

Have no passion not only for food and drink, for clothing, for a spacious and well-decorated dwelling, for rich household utensils, but also for your health, even for your life, do not have the slightest passion, surrendering your whole life to the will of the Lord, saying: I hedgehog to live Christ, and hedgehog to die, there is gain(Phil. 1, 21). Hate your soul in this world, keep it in your eternal belly(John 12:25). Addiction to temporary life, to health leads to many deviations from the commandments of God, to indulgence of the flesh, to breaking fasts, to evading conscientious performance of the duties of service, to despondency, impatience, irritability. Never sleep in the evening before the evening rule, may your heart not become emaciated from untimely sleep, and may your enemy not stumble it with petrified insensibility in prayer. Be sober, stay awake(1 Peter 5:8). Watch and pray that you do not fall into attack(Matthew 26:41)."

Rev. Ambrose of Optina (1812-1891). To the question of someone from the crowd: how many times one should eat a day, the priest answered with an example: “An old man was escaping in the desert, and the thought came to his mind: how many times should one eat a day? He once met a boy and asks him what he thinks. The boy replied: "Well, if you want to eat - eat." “What if you still want to?” the old man asked. “Well, eat some more,” said the boy. "What if you still want to?" the old man asked for the third time. "Are you an ass?" the boy asked the old man in turn. “So,” added the priest, “you have to eat twice a day.”

Elder Arseny (Minin) (1823-1879): « A voluptuous larynx and an unsatiated womb are a wall between God and man.

You overeat, get drunk, and how many thousands of young children and old people at this time are dying of hunger, without a piece of rotten bread. You dress elegantly, sit in a richly decorated room, you are served, and how many do not have where to bow their heads, and die from cold, hunger and disease.

About the benefits of fasting

About the benefits of fasting Saint John Chrysostom (347-407) says like this: “Fasting is food for the soul. And just as bodily food fattens the body, so fasting strengthens the soul, gives it an easy flight, makes it able to rise to a height and think about things above and puts it above the pleasures and pleasures of this life. Just as light ships cross the seas more quickly, and those burdened with a large load sink, so fasting, making our mind lighter, helps it to quickly cross the sea of ​​present life, strive for heaven and heavenly objects ... On the contrary, drunkenness and overeating, burdening the mind and fattening the body, make the soul a prisoner, constrain her from all sides and do not allow her to use a sound judgment of the mind, make her rush along the cliffs and do everything to the detriment of her own salvation.

The Lord, common to all of us, as a child-loving Father, wishing to cleanse us from the sins committed by us at any time, gave us healing in holy fasting. So, no one grieve, no one be sad, but let everyone rejoice, rejoice and glorify the Trustee of our souls, who has opened this beautiful path for us, and accept his approach with great pleasure ...

Look now at the beneficial effects of fasting. The great Moses, having spent forty days fasting, was honored to receive the tablets of the law... The great Elijah fasted for the same number of days, and now he escaped the dominion of death, ascended, as it were, in a fiery chariot to heaven... And the husband of desires, Daniel, after having spent a lot days, was rewarded with a wonderful vision; he tamed the fury of the lions and turned it into the meekness of the sheep, not changing, however, their nature, but changing their disposition ... And the Ninevites rejected the Lord's decree by fasting, forcing the dumb animals to fast along with people. And thus, having left behind all evil deeds, they disposed the Lord of the universe towards humanity (John 3, 7-10) ... And our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, after forty days of fasting, entered into a struggle with the devil and Himself set an example for all of us, so that we too Armed with fasting and, having strengthened by it, entered into a struggle with the devil ...

Fasting is wonderful, because it suppresses our sins like weeds, and raises and grows the truth, like a flower.. If you started fasting at will, then do not be gloomy, but rejoice: it cleanses your soul of poison ... "

Rev. Ambrose of Optina (1812-1891):“It is not the food that matters, but the commandment. Adam was expelled from paradise not for overeating, but for eating only the forbidden. Why even now on Thursday or Tuesday you can eat whatever you want and we are not punished for it, but on Wednesday and Friday we are punished because we do not obey the commandment. What is especially important here is that through obedience, humility is developed.

During fasting and abstinence, the flesh does not rebel so much, and sleep does not overcome it so much, and empty thoughts crawl into the head less, and spiritual books are more readily read and more understood.

The Holy Apostle Paul says: If our outer man smolders, then our inner one is renewed from day to day(2 Cor. 4:16). He called the outer man the body, and the inner man he called the soul. If a,- He speaks, - our outer man, that is, the body smoldering decays, is oppressed and thinned by fasting and other feats, then the internal is updated. And vice versa, if the body is nourished and thickens, then the soul decays, or comes into oblivion of God and his highdestination».

Mother Arsenia Abbess of the Ust-Medveditsky Monastery (1833-1905):

“Many scholars of our century say that fasting and all church orders are empty rituals, outward appearances leading to nothing. And the more I live, the more I am convinced that all the legal provisions established by the holy fathers under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit are the greatest blessing given to us by the Lord, that all of them are extraordinarily saving by the grace present in them. Scientists say: "All this is trifles, only the truths of the Gospel are important." - I'll tell you that it is impossible to directly comprehend, to stand on the gospel truths, bypassing and neglecting the statutes of the Church. They, only they lead us to the highest truths of the teachings of Christ.. – Now we are talking about fasting, that is, about refraining from overeating and from excesses, in general, in order to make our body lighter and thinner, more capable of spiritual sensations. And the Lord Jesus Christ sanctified this establishment of the Church with a forty-day fast, and the fast became saving for us, although we, due to our weakness, do not spend it at all as we should. But we must believe that our nature, through the forty-day fast of the Lord Jesus Christ, has been cleansed and made capable of spiritual sensations. We must believe that fasting saves us not for our exploits, but by the grace inherent in it, as an institution of the Church. One church bell brings us salvation, reminding us with its funeral tone of the mortality of everything earthly. Abstaining from food teaches us to abstain from passionate thoughts and feelings. Temperance is the first step in all virtues… The Lord Jesus Christ says: Love your enemies that is, those who slander and reproach you. – How to do it? He curses you to your face, can't you suddenly love him now? First, refrain from answering you with abuse too. Further, refrain your thought from a bad thought about this person, and so on. Means, the first step to love is abstinence. It also leads to the help of God. And then God's help will become necessary for you when you begin to abstain from anything. Then you will see that your own strength is too small, that you need God's help and you will begin to ask for it with all your being. This is how true prayer is acquired. Then, during fasting, our usual fasting, confession of sins and communion of the Holy Mysteries, in addition to those gifts of grace that are given to us in the performance of all this, remind and move us to that greatest repentance, to which we must come in life. They remind of the confession that a person must bring directly to the Lord, in the deepest knowledge of his fall and the greatest sinfulness of his nature, which must be followed by eternal union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Here are the blessings. which come from fasting. Let us not be afraid of him and the fact that we will spend him in a wrong way, but we will rejoice that he is so saving!

Saint Boniface (1785-1871) on the benefits of fasting and abstinence says: “Overeating and drunkenness should be observed in every way, for they are the beginning and root of fornication and impurity, intercessors and preparers of eternal torment, from them heaviness of the soul, clouding of the mind, inflammation of carnal lust, kindling of anger, a convenient attack on us by a demon, and divine love alienation. On the contrary, temperate and sober life is heaven on earth, while corrupt and sinful life is the greatest anguish of the soul and hell on earth.

Fasting unites us with God, but satiety turns our salvation into destruction. What separated Esau from God and handed him over to his brother as a slave? Is it not the only food for which he sold his primacy? What, on the contrary, gave Samuel his mother? Is it not prayer combined with fasting? What made the strong Samson invincible? Isn't it a post? Fasting gives birth to prophets, strengthens martyrs, delivers wisdom to legislators, it is a faithful guardian of the soul, a reliable champion of the body, a weapon of warriors, a strengthening of ascetics, a friend of good vigor, a builder of sobriety. He drives away temptations, inspires to piety, gives courage in battle. And so on".

Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt (1829-1908):“It is necessary for a Christian to fast in order to clarify mind both excite and develop feeling, and encourage good deeds will. These three human abilities we overshadow and suppress most of all. gluttony, drunkenness and worldly cares(Luke 21:34), and through this we fall away from the source of life - God and fall into corruption and vanity perverting and defiling the image of God in himself. Obsession and voluptuousness nail us to the ground and cut off, so to speak, the wings of the soul. And look how high the flight of all fasters and abstinences was! They, like eagles, soared in the sky; they, the earthly, lived with their minds and hearts in heaven and heard inexpressible words there, and there they learned Divine wisdom. And how a man humiliates himself by gluttony, overeating and drunkenness! He perverts his nature, created in the image of God, and becomes like the dumb cattle, and even becomes worse than it. Oh, woe to us from our addictions, from our lawless habits! They prevent us from loving God and our neighbors and keeping the commandments of God; they root in us a criminal carnal selfishness, the end of which is eternal perdition. And therefore it is necessary for a Christian to fast, because with the incarnation of the Son of God, human nature is inspired, deified, and we hasten to the Heavenly Kingdom, which is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14, 17). Food for the belly, and the belly for food; but God will destroy both(Cor. 6:13).

Whoever rejects fasting forgets why the first people fell into sin (from intemperance) and what weapons the Savior showed us against sin and the tempter when he was tempted in the wilderness (fasting for forty days and nights), he does not know or does not want to know that a person falls away from God, precisely through intemperance, as was the case with the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah and with the contemporaries of Noah, for from intemperance comes every sin in men; whoever rejects fasting takes away from himself and others weapons against his many-passionate flesh and against the devil, strong against us, especially through our intemperance, he is not a warrior of Christ for he throws down his weapons and voluntarily surrenders himself into the captivity of his voluptuous and sin-loving flesh; he, finally, is blind and does not see the relationship between the causes and consequences of deeds.

Eating extensively, you become a carnal person, having no spirit, or soulless flesh; but by fasting, you attract the Holy Spirit to yourself and become spiritual. Take cotton paper that is not wetted with water, it is light and, in small quantities, is carried in the air, but moisten it with water, it becomes heavy and immediately falls to the floor. So it is with the soul. Oh, how to protect the soul with fasting!

Fasting is a good teacher: 1) he soon makes it clear to every fasting person that every person needs very little food and drink, and that in general we are greedy and eat and drink much more proper, that is, as much as our nature requires; 2) fasting well shows or reveals all the infirmities of our soul, all its weaknesses, shortcomings, sins and passions, just as muddy stagnant water beginning to clear itself shows what reptiles are found in it or what quality rubbish; 3) he shows us the need to resort to God with all our hearts and seek mercy, help, salvation from Him; 4) fasting shows all the cunning, deceit, all the malice of the incorporeal spirits, which we previously worked without knowing, whose deceit, when now illuminating us with the light of God's grace, is clearly shown and which now viciously persecute us for leaving their ways ... "

Saint Nicholas of Serbia (1880-1956) writes in lettermerchant K. K., about the fruits of fasting: « Why do so many people not fast? you ask. Because they do not know the fruits of fasting. The health authorities of our country should recommend the observance of fasting in one voice with the Church, because fasting brings wonderful fruits, and not only spiritual, but also bodily. There are many examples to prove this, but I will dwell on one of the recent ones.

Here is what one widow from Bechey writes: “I started fasting last year on Trinity. So I decided: if I go to church and pray to God, then I need to fast. While my husband was alive, we did not fast and were often sick. It has never been such that both were healthy: first one in bed, then the other. And so they lived their whole lives. I was always irritated, the slightest trifle led to anger. I was tormented by fears. I was afraid of everything, even my own thoughts and premonitions. Since I started fasting (a year has passed since that Trinity Day), I have been calm, there is joy in my soul and lightness in my body. I'm not offended by anything, I'm not angry with anyone. Church hymns and prayers resound in my soul. Dreams are bright and blessed. Now I live with my wealthy friend, but I feel that the whole world belongs to me. I am perfectly healthy, although I am old, I am not afraid of anything, not even death. I have only one insatiable desire - the desire for silence, fasting and prayer: in them I find the fullness of happiness».

This is how an old woman from Bechei writes about herself. And with her experience she confirms to us the gospel teaching and the centuries-old experience of the Church.”

Priest Alexander Elchaninov (1881-1934):“Fasting strengthens the spirit in a person. In fasting, a person goes out to meet angels and demons.

Orthodox asceticism: fasting, abstinence, asceticism

“The soul is not humbled by anything,as if someone were to be temperate in food."

Avva Pimen

Saint Basil the Great (330-379):"How much you take away from the body, so much you give strength to the soul."

Saint John Chrysostom (347-407):“A Christian cannot live carelessly, but he must establish laws and rules for himself in order to do everything carefully, even in relation to things that are unimportant. For all real life is a feat and a struggle, and once entering this field of virtue, it is necessary to be temperate in everything. All the ascetics says the Apostle, abstain from everything(1 Cor. 9, 25) ... Since our struggle is not with people, but with evil spirits, then our exercise and abstinence must be spiritual, for our weapons, in which Christ has clothed us, are spiritual.

Saint Nil of Sinai:“A poorly nourished body is a well-trodden horse that will never throw off its rider. Satiation with food feeds thoughts, and the drunken one fills the dream with a dream. The beginning of fruitfulness is color, and the beginning of an active life is abstinence».

Rev. Isaac the Syrian (550) writes: “The Savior began the work of arranging our salvation by fasting. Likewise, all those who follow the Savior’s footsteps on this basis affirm the beginning of their achievement, because fasting is a weapon prepared by God. And who, if he neglects him, will not be rebuked for this? If the Lawgiver Himself fasts, how can one of those obliged to keep the law not fast? Therefore, before Lent, the human race did not know victory, and the devil never experienced defeat from our nature: but from this weapon he was exhausted from the very beginning. And our Lord was the leader and the firstborn of this victory, in order to put the first victorious crown on the head of our nature. And as soon as the devil sees this weapon on one of the people, this enemy and tormentor immediately comes into fear, thinking and remembering his defeat in the wilderness by the Savior - and his strength is immediately crushed, and the view of the weapon given to us by our Chief, burns him. He who is clothed in the weapon of fasting is inflamed with jealousy at all times. Whoever abides in it, his mind is unshakable and ready to meet and ward off all fierce passions.

As soon as someone begins to fast, he longs from that time to come into conversation with God. For a fasting body cannot bear to sleep the whole night on its bed. When the seal of fasting is placed on a person’s mouth, then his thought is taught in tenderness, his heart exudes prayer, his face is sad, and shameful thoughts are far from him ... he is an enemy of lusts and vain conversations ... Fasting with prudence is a vast abode for all good

If you cannot fast for two days, fast at least until evening; but if you are not able until evening, then beware of satiety.

Rev. Seraphim of Sarov (1759-1833) about the post says: “Our ascetic and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, before setting out on the feat of the redemption of the human race, strengthened Himself with a long fast. And all the ascetics, starting to work for the Lord, armed themselves with fasting and did not enter the path of the Cross otherwise than in the feat of fasting. They measured the very successes in asceticism by successes in fasting.

Fasting consists not only in eating infrequently, but in eating little; and not in eating once, but in not eating much. That fasting is unreasonable, who waits for a certain hour, and at the hour of the meal, the whole indulges in insatiable taste both in body and mind. In reasoning about food, one must also observe that one should not distinguish between tasty and tasteless food. This business, characteristic of animals, in a rational person is unworthy of praise. We refuse pleasant food in order to subdue the warring members of the flesh and give freedom to the actions of the spirit.

True fasting consists not only in the exhaustion of the flesh, but also in giving that part of the bread that you yourself would like to eat to the hungry.

The holy people did not start strict fasting all of a sudden, becoming gradually and little by little able to be content with the most meager food...

The holy fasters, to the surprise of others, did not know relaxation, but they were always cheerful, strong and ready for business. Diseases between them were rare, and their life flowed extremely long.

To the extent that the flesh of the fasting person becomes thin and light, the spiritual life comes to perfection and reveals itself through miraculous manifestations. Then the spirit performs its actions as if in an incorporeal body. External senses seem to be closed, and the mind, having renounced the earth, ascends to heaven and is completely immersed in the contemplation of the spiritual world.

Food should be consumed every day so much that the body, strengthened, is a friend and helper to the soul in the accomplishment of virtue ...

On Fridays and Wednesdays, especially on four fasts, follow the example of the fathers, eat food once a day, and the Angel of the Lord will cling to you.

Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt (1829-1908) writes: “Whoever desires to save his soul, he will destroy(Matthew 16:25), i.e. whoever desires to save his old, carnal, sinful man will destroy his life: for true life consists in crucifying and putting to death the old man with his deeds, and putting on the new man, renewed in the image of the One who created him. Without the mortification of the carnal old man, there is no true life, no eternal bliss. The stronger and more painful the mortification of the old man, the more perfect is his renewal and rebirth, the higher is his purification, the more perfect is his life and the higher is his blessedness in the next age. Kill yourself and live…»

Rev. Barnabas of Gethsemane (1831-1906). To the questions of some sisters who turn to the elder for a blessing to eat meat, which is often prescribed to them by doctors to cure this or that disease, the elder strictly instructs the sisters not to follow such advice from doctors.

- Father! But what to do when there is absolutely no strength to bear even the easiest obediences, some sufferers object to him. “After all, it’s hard for us ourselves to think about meat food, and even so, to live without benefiting the holy monastery, only burdening others with ourselves, we don’t want to, our soul hurts about it. We would only improve our health a little, father!

“But you, sisters, will not improve your health by eating meat, unless you further upset it. Health is a gift from God. But if it is taken away from us by the will of God, perhaps for the salvation of our souls, then should we violate the rules of monastic life established by the holy fathers? Care should be taken that, having strengthened the forces of the body, at the same time not weaken the forces of the soul.

We, monks, should care more about the soul than about the health and peace of the body; one should try with feasible labors and patience to find the way to salvation, and for sorrows and various hardships sent down from God, thank Him, because they are a ladder to heaven.

The doctors advised me myself, sisters, to leave lean food for a while and eat meat. Otherwise, they said, I would not live more than two days. It was for the first time after my entry into the monastery, when I really was in an almost hopeless state.

But, not having received the consent and blessing of my elders to eat meat, I refused to eat it and now I remained alive.

After all, the Mother of God Herself, showing one monk the way to salvation, commanded him not to eat meat. This monk earnestly asked the Queen of Heaven to show him this desired path, and She, the Lady, appeared to him and said: “Do not eat meat, do not drink wine, pray to God more often and you will be saved.”

So, sisters, I repeat to you once again: do not think that you will get your health only from eating meat, for without the will of God, meat will not help you, and perhaps it will even harm you. Therefore, I earnestly ask you, sisters, always and in everything to rely on the will of God, and not on your human mind, which advises you, as in this case, by violating the ordinances of the Holy Church to supposedly bring yourself some benefit. The Holy Apostle says: When I am weak, then I am strong.”; it is also said that the power of God is perfected in weakness(2 Cor. 12:9).

Reverend Elder Alexy Zosimovsky (1846-1928). From the notes of the spiritual daughter of the elder: “Often I complained to the elder that I can not keep posts because of home conditions. I got into a lot of trouble because of this and there was no way to fast - it meant: nothing to eat. To all my requests to allow me not to fast, the elder said resolutely and firmly: “I can’t, baby, I can’t bless you for this: I am a monk, and fasting is laid down in our charter. See for yourself, pray, God sees the conditions of your life. Only at confession, do not forget to repent of the violation of fasting days.

Saint Theophan the Recluse (1815-1894) writes about what without fasting and exploits, passion cannot be overcome: “The basis of the passions is in the flesh; when the flesh is emaciated, then it is as if a mine has been dug under the passions and their fortress is crumbling. Without fasting, to overcome passions would be a miracle, similar to being on fire and not getting burned.…

Bodily exploits are needed because the body serves as the seat of passions. If you do not humble the flesh, you will not be successful in overcoming the passions. Therefore, it is necessary to overburden the flesh with deprivations of food, sleep, rest, and all sense gratification.

Archbishop Innokenty Borisov (1908):« A sensual person does not oppose anything with such force as holy fasting. Attending worship, going to confession—all this is agreed upon, but putting the yoke of fasting on oneself—this seems to many Christians to be too heavy and even a dangerous burden. How do you think you can be a true Christian without fasting? Others say they fear for their health. Are you sorry for your weak constitution? Take pity on him really and give peace to your belly ... As a reward, you will receive strength and lightness, and a special feeling of health, which you do not have now. The desire for food, spoiled by satiety, will become more alive and nobler. How long did those people who spent their entire lives fasting live? “And eighty, and ninety, and even a hundred years.”

Reverend Elder Sevastian Karaganda (1884-1966):“For non-observance of fasts for no reason - the time will come - illness will befall. Then you will fast against your will. The Lord allows for sins.

Elder Schemagumen Savva (1898-1980) writes that " one who does not observe the four fasts, Wednesday and Friday, is excommunicated from the Church. Saints Pachomius the Great and Seraphim of Sarov call such people Jews who betrayed Christ, and Roman soldiers who crucified Him, for in Wednesday the Lord was betrayed, and on Friday he was crucified- and these days are mourning for every Christian.

Many break the fast because they are afraid of losing their health. They forget that health does not give us meat, but God. Meat food during fasting does not serve us in health, but leads to illness. On the contrary, many sick people, having begun to fast, are healed ...

Man is a herbivore, so God created him and gave him food for food, the human body is adapted for it. He does not absorb the juices of the animal, he quickly grows old, but the main thing is that passions are born with the taste of meat, and from passions - diseases. Elephants, bulls, horses eat only plant foods, which means that it has everything necessary to create large organisms and in order to have tremendous physical strength.

The Holy Fathers say that the body is a donkey on which we must travel to the Heavenly City of Jerusalem. If you don’t feed him, he will collapse, if you overfeed him, he will go berserk. Therefore, one must always adhere to the golden mean, follow the royal path.

Venerable Elder Paisios the Holy Mountaineer (1924-1994):

"Orthodox abstinence and in general, spiritual exercises are always directed towards the highest spiritual goal - towards sanctification of the soul. Whereas another, worldly, asceticism, as, for example, with deceived yogis and so on, is aimed at making the body flexible, in order to twist one’s arms and legs, like a paper carios, and receive praise from unreasonable people, and then bullying mocking demons.

asceticism performed for the love of Christ, hiding in itself the desire for the salvation of the soul that Christ loves, greatly delights and calms the soul with its fatigue, strengthens the body, and also brings dispassion, because thanks to it the disorderly movements of the body are humbled, and then it can do with less food, for this is enough when there is peace in the soul and meekness in the body.

A variety of dishes, and especially fatty ones, is indecent not only for monks, but also for pious lay people, except, of course, for holidays - for the joy of the day, for the glory of God - or cases when it is necessary to show hospitality out of love. We are also not talking about the sick, because for them fasting can be canceled: it is enough for them to glorify God in their illnesses in order to be crowned, like the holy martyrs.

For healthy youths, abstinence is the strongest bridle against the passions, necessary for the spirit to rule and a double world to reign. Then, in purity of heart, they can look at people purely as angels look at angels. Those who do not refrain and live unrestrainedly even look at angels carnally, like the inhabitants of Sodom (see: Gen. 19:5), who have strayed from God. The natural consequence of this is that those who love their well-fed flesh and the comforts of life love people carnally and are spiritually destroyed by their own flesh.

Those who want their flesh to be like a skeleton from asceticism, thereby revere it like holy relics, and love it as a good friend of their soul, and then love all people with immaculate love as images of God, as their brothers ... "

Fasting and prayer

Saint John Chrysostom (347-407) says in one of his talks: Great blessings come from two virtues: prayer and fasting. For he who prays as he ought, and, moreover, fasts, does not require much; but whoever demands little will not be greedy; and whoever is not a money-lover loves to give alms. Whoever fasts, he becomes light and inspired and prays with a cheerful spirit, quenches evil wishes, propitiates God and humbles his arrogant spirit. Therefore, the apostles almost always fasted. Whoever prays with fasting has two wings, the lightest of the wind itself. For such a person does not sleep, does not talk much, does not yawn and does not relax in prayer, as happens with many... Such a one is especially an enemy and a fighter against demons, since there is no stronger person who sincerely prays…»

Archpriest Valentin Sventsitsky (1882-1931):“Fasting and prayer are two wings of the spiritual life, two wings clipped from modern Christian society by worldly sophistication.

…After all, when now, with God's help, fasting is gradually being restored among ordinary Christians, it meets with no less bewilderment among believers than among unbelievers.

"Are you fasting?" This surprised question is not asked by atheists at all, it is asked in exactly the same way by believers. For them, as if the matter had been decided, that fasting should be gradually withdrawn from church use.

This will never happen, for spiritual life will never cease in church life, but without fasting there can be no spiritual life.

You can only talk about the spiritual life, and if you go from words to deeds even a little bit, you will need fasting right away. Only those who have not even tried to raise the question of spiritual life as the goal and task of life can talk about the uselessness of fasting.

How many times have I pointed out the reason that causes this bewilderment among Orthodox Christians on the issue of fasting — bewilderment based on the fact that ordinary everyday Christian life has almost completely merged with ordinary everyday godless and worldly life.

Only in the most recent times, all our difficult trials and experiences have again created a desire for the churching of our daily life and hence for a decisive separation between the life of the world and the life of the Church. But usually, all the same, life outside the temple, if we take our attitude towards people, our attitude to sorrows, our attitude to material well-being, our attitude to insults, to slander, take this common everyday worldly life of ours, it turns out that it so coincides with life of unbelieving people, which was a very pernicious thought: in order to live like this, no fasts are required at all.

Yes, that's right, in order to live the way they live, it is not required, it is not required at all!

If you want to continue living the same way, you don't need to fast!

If you want to answer every word tooth for tooth, if you want to answer every insult with insult, if you want to arrange your worldly affairs, resolutely disregarding everything, stepping over everything, thinking only about your well-being, in a word: if you want to live as the godless world permits, do not fast. Eat everything in Lent, eat everything in Passion Week; what can be abstinence?!

But you don't want to live like that! You live like this only because of your weakness, because of your weakness!

We are so tormented why we do not have enough strength to live as we should, why we do the evil that we do not want, but do not do the good that we want. Why is our spirit not humbled, why is there not enough humility to endure insult, why is everything the same with us as it is with atheists, although we believe!

This is where we find out that one of the reasons is our breaking the fast. The confessor who receives confession knows better than anyone this terrifying position on the question of fasting.

After all, here he sees the most ecclesiastical people, the most consciously embarking on the path of spiritual life. There is no longer any doubt in faith: they are visited only as fleeting, passing demonic thoughts, the need for frequent communion is already felt, the high Christian dignity is already recognized, the ridicule and bewilderment of the surrounding people are no longer in the least embarrassed, everything seems to be safe. And here's the post question. In response, terrible words are heard: “Allow me, father, to eat dairy during fasting!” - "You are sick?" - "Not". “Why not?”

The answers are different, but always unsatisfactory. Mothers take care of the health of their children, no matter how sick they get from it. Adults are embarrassed: will they have enough strength to fast, others have family disagreements on this basis - a lot of things! But behind all this one feels all the time: yes, because deep down you don’t believe in fasting.

In the depths of the soul there is no faith that fasting is a driving, not always conscious force, but the most powerful force in the matter of our spiritual dispensation.

You will not notice why you have a disorder in your soul, you yourself are not aware; but look into the works of the holy fathers and there you will find an explanation: there you will be told that fasting is the first stage of spiritual life, that further achievements on the spiritual path are always connected with your fasting feat.

So great is the significance of this feat of fasting, closely connected with the feat of prayer. For these are two wings, and if one is broken, then the other, even if it tries to raise a person, will not be able to.

True fasting is unthinkable without prayer. And prayer is impossible without fasting…”

on fasting and abstinence:

“The commandment to fast is as old as the world itself. This is the original commandment given by God to man (Gen. 2:17). Blessed Augustine compares the body with a furious horse, captivating the soul, the unbridledness of which must be tamed by a decrease in food, for this purpose, fasting is mainly established.

Learn to keep the womb in a strong bridle: it alone does not give thanks for the good deeds rendered to it.

From food, fast from time to time, but from intemperance constantly.

Relaxation of fasting

Saint Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow (1783-1867):“You should not impose on yourself a post that exceeds your strength. Fasting is for the person, not the person is for the post. Facilitating fasting for the weak is permissible, according to the rule of the Church, and very just, because weakness itself delivers what is sought through fasting, that is, the taming of sensuality and the inactivity of carnal passions; and, therefore, it is not necessary for the weak to pacify the flesh with fasting, but that the weak body be supported with food and medicine, so that it does not become completely incapable of serving the soul.

Elder Michael (Pitkevich) (1877-1962):“But I look at fasting this way - this is abstinence, and not exhaustion of oneself. The main thing in fasting is a contrite heart, with sincere repentance and humility: contrite and humble heart God will not despise(Ps.50, 19). You need to work, you live in the world, you need strength - don’t feast, don’t enjoy yourself, don’t allow yourself excesses, and if you have to eat an egg or milk during fasting, the Lord will not exact, will not make it a sin ... "

How to post?

Archbishop of Voronezh and Zadonsk Anthony (1773-1846) to the question "How ... to conduct the Great Lent?", He said:

"Go to church. Our Mother Church will teach us how to celebrate Great Lent. With prayer, combine abstinence from food forbidden by the Church, almsgiving with abstinence, love, humility and other holy virtues with almsgiving. You need to speak, confess, partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ and, having prepared yourself so salutarily, meet in heavenly, inexpressible joy and the Bright Resurrection of Christ.

Fasting in Holy Scripture

Old Testament

“When they were satisfied, their heart was lifted up, and therefore they forgot Me.”(Hos.13, 6).

“But even now the Lord says, turn to Me with all your heart in fasting, weeping and mourning.”(Joel 2:12).

“Do not be among those who drink wine, between those who are satiated with meat: for the drunkard and the satiated will become impoverished, and sleepiness will put on rags”(Prov. 23, 20-21).

In the book of Tobit, the angel Raphael tells Tobias: “A good deed is prayer with fasting and charity and justice... It is better to do alms than to collect gold ”(Tov.12, 8).

The psalms of King David mention how he fasted, dressed in sackcloth, exhausted his soul with fasting. For example: "My knees are weak from fasting"(Ps. 109:24).

New Testament

“When you fast, do not be despondent like the hypocrites; for they put on gloomy faces in order to appear to men as fasting. Truly I say to you that they already receive their reward.”(Matthew 6:16-18).

Christ, having cast out a demon from a young man, said to the apostles: This kind is driven out only by prayer and fasting."(Mt.17, 21).

About fasting on Wednesday and Friday: “The days will come when the Bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days”(Mk.2, 20).

“The Lord Jesus Christ was led by the Spirit into the wilderness; there for forty days he was tempted by the devil and did not eat anything in those days.(Luke 4:1-2).

“When they (the apostles) served the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said: “Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I called them.” Then they, having fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, let them go” (Acts 13:2-3).

“Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is useful; everything is permissible to me, but nothing should possess me.(1 Cor. 6:12).

The Holy Apostle Paul in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, admonishing the faithful to all to show themselves as servants of God, among other charitable deeds, also mentions fasting: “... in vigils, in fasting"(2 Cor. 6, 5) - and then, recalling his exploits, he says:" ... in labor and exhaustion, often in vigil, in hunger and thirst, often in fasting"(2 Cor.11, 27).

Prologue in teachings. On the Necessity and Benefits of Fasting

(The word of St. John Chrysostom about alchbe. Prol. 23 Dec.)

The Holy Church, following the example of the Lord and His Apostles, established fasts for us on certain days. So, according to its charter, we observe the fasts: Veliky, Rozhdestvensky, Assumption and Petrovsky; we fast on Wednesdays and Fridays, on the day of the Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord and on the day of the beheading of the Head of the Precious and Glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord John. Here, speaking of fasts and listing them, we will stop for a moment and ask ourselves: the posts are established, but the point is, are they needed and are there any use for us from them?

What to answer to this? St. Chrysostom He argues: “Many say: why fast for the purely living? But they are wrong. Who was holier than Adam before the fall? But he also had a post. From every tree in the garden, it was commanded to him, you will eat; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, do not eat from it (Gen. 2:16-17). Here is the first post that was in paradise. But if it was necessary for a person in Paradise, then it became even more necessary for him after the fall. If he was needed for us even when we had not yet sinned; all the more became necessary after the fall. And God is angry with those who blaspheme the fast, and loves those who observe it. Adam did not keep the fast and heard a terrible voice: Thou art the earth and go to the earth. From this understand that God is angry with those who blaspheme the fast, and condemns those who violate it to death. Understand the power of fasting. He saves those who go to it from execution; and not one or two, but a great many. Remember the Ninevites: they would have all perished if they had not turned to repentance and fasting. Honest fasting pulled them out of the very abyss of destruction. And we have a lesson from them. They did not know the law and kept the fast. Should we, who have the law and instructions for fasting, violate it? Both Moses and Elijah, going to talk with God, first of all imposed a fast on themselves. And the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, not needing fasting, however, fasted for forty days in order to give us an example and show that by fasting we can overcome all the power of the devil.”

It is clear, brethren, that fasting is useful and necessary for us. And this is true. - let's conclude the lesson with the words of one preacher, is the most favorable remedy for the salvation of the soul and for the health of the body. As a man cannot walk without legs, a bird cannot fly without wings; so it is impossible for the soul to be saved without fasting. Fasting mortifies the passions, tames the revolt of the flesh, quenches the inflamed lust, curbs the tongue and keeps it from idle talk, drives away sinful thoughts, elevates the mind to God, disposes the soul to prayer, softens the hardness of the heart, gives rise to tender groaning about sins, opens the way to repentance and reconciliation with God. What a blessing! How much good fasting brings us (Instructions by archpriest Piskarev, part 2, pp. 65-66).

Fast, brethren, and you will renounce sensual life, you will think of heaven more often, you will more easily cultivate piety in your soul, you will perfect yourself in faith, hope and love for God, and adorn yourself with virtues. Amen.

For violators of fasts

(The holy prophet Daniel and the holy three youths Ananias, Azariah and Misael)

Today's peace-loving people and carnivores do not rebel against any of the Church's decrees so much as they do against the decree on fasting. "What are the posts for?" they scream. “Without nutritious food, health is lost, and the mind is darkened, and we cannot pray, and we are irritated by them, etc.” they shout like that, and it turns out, in their opinion, as if the fast is really evil, and breaking it is not at all reprehensible and even should be. But in fact, they are gravely mistaken; for fasting not only does not harm health, but corrects it; not only does not darken the mind, but enlightens it.

When Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, took the Jews into captivity to Babylon, he took it into his head to take several children from the best Jewish families for education at his court. Among these children were the twelve-year-old boy Daniel and his three companions: Ananias, Azariah and Mishael. Receiving plentiful, but forbidden by the law of Moses, food from the royal table, they did not want to be defiled by it and asked the superintendent appointed over them to give them only vegetables and water for food. The bailiff at first refused their request, saying: "I'm afraid of the king: if he sees you exhausted, then he will take my life." To this Daniel answered: “make an experiment on us for ten days; and if after this time the youths who eat the royal food turn out to be fuller than us, then refuse us our request, otherwise fulfill it. The clerk agreed, so what? At the end of the term, their faces appear good and strong in flesh more than the youths eating from the royal meal (Dan.1, 15) This was before the R. Christ. Let's go back to the times of the New Testament. Macarius of Alexandria in St. He ate Lent once a week and lived a hundred years. St. Simeon Stylite in St. He ate nothing at Forty Days and lived one hundred and three years. Saint Anfim also spent Great Lent without food and lived for one hundred and ten years. And some lived even longer, for example, Paul of Thebes was one hundred and thirteen, and Alipy the Stylite was one hundred and eighteen years old. Clearly, it means that fasting not only does not harm health, but also strengthens it.

As for the opinion that the mind is clouded by fasting, it is even more unfounded than the first. The mentioned Daniel and his comrades held the post for three years and studied during this time. Have their minds been diminished? On the contrary, God gave them, it is said, meaning and wisdom in all bookish wisdom (Dan.1, 17). And when, at the end of the period of education, they were brought before the king, the king spoke with them: and not having been found from all of them, like Daniel and Ananias and Azariah and Mishael; and standing before the king, and in every word of wisdom and skill, about which the king inquired from them, I found ten more than all the charmers and sorcerers that exist in all his kingdom (19-20). Let's move on now, back to the times of the New Testament. Macarius of Egypt, the great fast, was not a scholar at all; meanwhile, his writings are distinguished by a deep knowledge of theology, the human soul and visible nature. Anthony the Great studied only from the book of nature and put to shame the arrogant philosophers with his learning. The apostles, also people not learned, but who had the habit of imposing a fast on themselves before going out to preach, more than once also put to shame the wise of this world and subjected whole nations and kingdoms to Christ. And finally, He Himself? And He also, entering into public service, fasted forty days and forty nights. After this, there is nothing to be extended in proofs about the benefits of fasting and in refutation of arguments regarding its harm. The voluptuaries who have become flesh and blood, perhaps, cannot be convinced by anything. The true followers of Christ, who crucify their flesh with passions and lusts, must remain faithful to the statutes of the Church and without proof, and do not need any idea of ​​the benefits of fasting.

Let us, brethren, imitate the latter and avoid the superstitions of the former. Let our body actually become weak from fasting. What's the deal? A Christian should not take care of the fullness and beauty of the body, but of the renewal and adornment of the soul; and it is renewed and strengthened only when the body is subjected to it. As long as your outer man smolders, both the inner one is renewed(2 Cor. 4:16). Amen.

About cooking with a prayer for the blessing of God

(From a word from Paterik about a certain monas who ran away from human glory)

Based on the example of the Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed food during His earthly life before eating it (Matt. 14:19), on the teaching of St. fathers (Kir. Jer. voice. teaching XIII, 36) and, finally, on the natural feeling of love and gratitude to God, who has mercy and nourishes us, we Christians have a habit of sitting down at the table to pray and ask God to bless us food for health. But this one thing, brethren, is dissatisfied. We need to watch that its preparation both begins and is accompanied by prayer; for the food prepared with the request of God's blessing becomes both pleasant to the palate and healthy to the body; without the blessing of God, it not only loses its taste, but also becomes harmful to health.

Under the emperor Theodosius the Younger, near the Tsar-city, a monk settled, who came out of the Egyptian desert. Once the emperor, passing by his hut, decided to go to him and pushed at the door. The monk opened and, not knowing who his guest was, mistook the emperor for a simple warrior. Having made a prayer, the king sat down and began a conversation with the monk. “How do they live, asked the Egyptian fathers?” “Thank God,” the elder replied, “and they are praying for your salvation.” And then, in turn, he asked: “Would you like to eat something?” “I want to,” was the answer. The monk supplied bread, butter, salt and water. Guest, drank and ate. After the meal, he said to the elder: “Do you know who I am?” “God knows you,” replied the monk. "I am Theodosius Tsar." The monk bowed to him. The king continued: “Oh, how blessed are you, monks, free from the vanity of the world! Here I am born of a king; but believe me, in all my life I have not tasted food with such pleasure as I have now tasted from you. “Do you know why this is?” - said the old man. "From what?" “Because we, monks, prepare food with prayer and blessing; therefore the bad is also made sweet; you have a lot of work to do, making it, but they don’t ask for blessings, therefore tasty food becomes tasteless. ” The meeting is over; but after this, the king began to show special respect to the elder. The latter, not enduring the glory of man, soon again retired to Egypt ...

At present, diseases of the womb have become perhaps the most common. Who today does not complain of loss of appetite, indigestion? Who does not cry out: both that, and another, and the third is harmful to me? What is it from? From intemperance? I agree. But at the same time, this is also because the food of Christians in recent times is not at all sanctified by prayer. Look at the ancient ascetics: didn't they eat much worse and harsh food against us? And, however, lived for a hundred years or more. Why is this? Because, as the aforementioned elder put it, the blessing of God brought down by prayer and the evil of the past made sweet and life-giving; but we have no prayer for food, there is no blessing of God on it, there is no sanctification, and, consequently, there is no pleasant taste and nourishing power in it.

So, let's go from here, to call God's blessing on bread which we eat, and into the cups from which we drink. Let us not imitate the people of this age, who now consider it a shame to protect both food and themselves, before eating it, with the sign of the cross; Let us often bring to mind the words of Christ the Savior: For if he be ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, and the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels(Mark 8:38). Amen.

The devil is persecuted by fasting, reading the Gospel and fighting evil thoughts

(Word about Mark Monas)

Speaking with you about the means that are given to us to fight the devil and serve to shame him and drive him away from us, we pointed to prayer, humility, reading the Psalter, diligence and prayer to St. Archangel Michael. Now we intend to speak about the benefits of some more, namely: fasting, reading and studying the Gospel and fighting evil thoughts.

The Monk Macarius, sitting one day by the road, saw the devil in the form of a man hung with some kind of vessels and heading towards a nearby monastery. With a prayer, the saint stopped the demon and asked: “Where are you going?” “Yes, I’m going to visit the brethren,” was the answer. “And what kind of vessels are with you?” said the reverend. “And this,” answered the demon, is various dishes for the monks. “Why are there so many of them with you?” Macarius asked. “Yes, so that if you don’t like one thing, then treat the brethren to others. One of my evil advice or suggestion will not be accepted, so I will offer another even bitter one, and in this way I will catch someone, ”said the devil and went his own way. The monk remained to wait for his return. After waiting, he asked: “Well, how are you doing?” “Khudy,” answered the demon, “almost all the monks did not accept me, and only one obeys me a little.” "What's his name?" "Theopempt," answered the devil, and disappeared. Macarius went to the monastery. Having learned about his approach, the monks with vaiyas in their hands came out to meet him, and all vied with each other in front of each other, each calling him to himself. He, having learned which of them was Theopempt, went to the latter and was received with joy. The conversation began. "How are you doing?" asked the reverend of his master. “Very well, by your prayers,” replied Theopempt. "Well, don't evil thoughts bother you?" continued the old man. Ashamed to admit to them, the monk said that they did not embarrass him. “What a lucky man! exclaimed the reverend; and I’ve been fasting for so many years, and you yourself see how everyone reveres me, but meanwhile bad thoughts still haunt me. Then Theopempt confessed: “Yes, father, I am also greatly possessed by the spirit of a fornicator!” The elder then began to extort from him other evil thoughts that overwhelmed him, and Theopempt confessed to very many. “Until what time are you fasting?” Macarius asked after this. “Until the third hour in the afternoon,” answered the monk. The monk told him: “Try to keep the fast until the evening; read and study the gospel and the writings of St. fathers; if an evil thought comes, drive it away from you with all the strength of your soul, and the Lord will help you defeat the enemy.” Theopempt promised to follow the elder's advice, and Macarius left him. Soon after this, he again met the devil and to his question: “Where are you going?” again received an answer: "I'm going to visit the brethren." Waiting again for the demon to return, the monk asked again and again: “How are you?” “Very thin,” answered the devil, “now, without exception, all the monks have not accepted me and Theopemptus with them. And I don't know who corrupted him like that. For now he was the worst for me.” After this, the demon disappeared, and the monk returned to his cell, glorifying God.

Seeing from here how unbearable for the devil is fasting, the word of God, and the fight against evil thoughts, let us also use these means in warfare with him and oppose them to our common enemy. He tries by all means to destroy us: and we, for our part, must use all measures in order to defeat him. He declared uncompromising abuse to us: and we will declare it to him. He, like a lion, roaring, looking for someone to devour: and we will go out against him clothed in all the armor of God. Amen.

Compiled by L. Ochai

02.01.2014

Update 03/11/2019

The instructions of the Elders Ephraim of Arizona and Moses the Holy Mountaineer, Saint Cosmas of Aetolia, St. Nicodemus the Holy Mountaineer, St. Silouan the Athos, St. Paisius the Holy Mountaineer - for those who observe Great Lent.

Elder Ephraim of Arizona

Elder Ephraim of Arizona

“Strive in abstinence from food, in prostrations, in prayers, in the labors of the heart and mind, for this labor in the name of God is holy and will receive a multiple reward from the Lord, because for it a person is awarded a crown of honor and glory. The demons are especially afraid of fasting, for fasting drives them out.”

Elder Ephraim of Arizona

“The holy fathers certainly began any of their work in the name of God from fasting. They believed in the great power of fasting, claiming that the Holy Spirit does not overshadow a person with a full stomach. However, any Christian desiring cleansing must start with the basics, which are fasting, prayer, and sobriety. Combining fasting, prayer and sobriety, a person rises to the highest levels of spiritual perfection” –

Elder Ephraim of Arizona

“It is not worth doing anything higher than necessary, because the measure is needed in everything, because without the measure there will be no benefit. Therefore, fasting is holy, but it is only a means. And therefore we establish it for ourselves in accordance with the instructions of the confessor and our bodily and spiritual strengths. It is enough to have a good intention. For, according to St. Basil the Great, there is such a great difference between the bodily endurance of different people, as between iron and hay ”-

Elder Ephraim of Arizona

Cosmas of Aetolia (1714 - 24 August 1779)

Saint Cosmas of Aetolia

“The stars in the sky and the sand of the sea are equal in number to the men and women who in the world lived prudently and chastely, fasted, prayed, gave alms, did good deeds - all out of love for the Holy Trinity. They lived their earthly life well and inherited the eternal joy of the Kingdom of God.”

Saint Cosmas of Aetolia

“When a person repents, prays and fasts, the devil is scorched and leaves him” –

Saint Cosmas of Aetolia

“We need to fast on the days of long fasts, especially on Great Lent, as the holy fathers of the Church, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, prescribed for us. In their writings, they told us to fast, humble the body and kill passions like dangerous wild beasts. Again, if we eat in moderation, we can easily live, and when we eat a lot, then our expenses are high ”-

Saint Cosmas of Aetolia

“He who fasts strictly the first three days of Great Lent will receive a reward for his soul. But it is necessary to do this, commensurate with one's own strength, I do not say this about those who cannot. And for one or two days, if you can fast, you will benefit your soul.”

Saint Cosmas of Aetolia

Saint Nicodemus the Holy Mountaineer (1749 - July 1, 1809)

Saint Nicodemus the Holy Mountaineer

“Be wise and prudent in raising bodily feats - fasts, vigils, labor work, and the like. They are essential, and without them do not dream of succeeding in spiritual life, but know and keep a wise measure in them. This measure is the middle between the self-pleasing indulgence of the flesh and its ruthless exhaustion without extreme need for it. Look for this middle by experience and deed, and not by theory, and at the same time take gradualness as a rule, going from bottom to top ”-

“Through fasting, vigil, kneeling, abstinence, and other ascetic labors, having freed themselves from passions, they also discovered a natural way of returning the mind to the heart, in order to more easily and quickly purify a person’s mind and heart, and thus become able to contain the supernatural grace of God” –

Saint Nicodemus the Holy Mountaineer

Saint Silouan of Athos (1866–1938)

“It is possible to dry up the body with fasting soon, but to humble the soul so that it is constantly humble is not easy, and not soon possible. Mary of Egypt struggled with passions for 17 years, like with wild animals, and only then did she find peace; but she quickly withered her body, because in the desert she had nothing to eat ”-

“If someone prays and fasts a lot, but does not have love for enemies, then he cannot have peace of mind” -

“You can fast a lot, pray a lot and do a lot of good, but if we are conceited at the same time, we will be like a tambourine that rattles, but is empty inside” -

Rev. Paisius the Holy Mountaineer (1924 - 1994)

Venerable Paisios the Holy Mountaineer

“If someone is sick, then he has an excuse to eat fast during fasting - the general rules do not apply to him. If someone ate meat during fasting, not because of illness, but because of spiritual weakness, then he should ask: “Forgive me, my God,” he must humble himself and say “I have sinned.” Christ will not execute such a person. However, if a person is healthy, then he should fast. And the one who is indifferent, still eats whatever he wants, and he does not care about anything ”-

“If a person keeps in himself an evil thought about someone, then no matter what feat he performs - fasts, vigils or something else, everything will go down the drain. How will austerity help him if he does not fight against evil thoughts, but accepts them? Why does he not want to first clean the vessel of the dirty oil sludge, suitable only for soap, and only then pour pure oil into it? Why does he mix the pure with the impure and make the pure good for nothing?” -

Venerable Paisios the Holy Mountaineer

Elder Moses the Holy Mountain

“During the period of fasting, temptations, trials, conflicts and falls often occur. They do not happen by chance, but in order for us to become more mature spiritually, to come into balance and humble ourselves. Let's not forget that the life of every Christian is the way of the cross to Golgotha. There is no resurrection without crucifixion. Great Lent is a great opportunity to prepare and embark on the bright path of ascent. Great Lent stands on two legs: prayer and abstinence. But prayer and fasting without humility and love will not bear any fruit.”

Elder Moses the Holy Mountain

“Lent acts like an x-ray, like a camera, like a mirror. We, to some extent, are afraid of him, as he reveals our true unsightly spiritual state” -

Elder Moses the Holy Mountain