Fasting in the Christian Church

[eduardo89]

Dude....you WIN!
CONGRATS!!!!
I just knew SOMEONE had to win the internet sometime!

What's his prize? Must be something huge! Does he now officially become one of God's Elect?

[otherone]

What's his prize? Must be something huge! Does he now officially become one of God's Elect?

Don't be jelly, brah. There can only be ONE internet winner.

[Terry1]

Paul is referring to PEOPLE, not some massive central authority that makes new commands that people have to follow to be saved. The "church" there are INDIVIDUALS that Jesus bought with His own blood.

By the way, this is another verse that proves limited atonement without a shadow of a doubt. Jesus died for and redeemed only His elect, His people.

No it doesn't Sola. All means all in the word of God. God came to save the world that all *might be* saved, but knowing all wouldn't choose God. God's foreknowledge does not and can not usurp His divine decree which is that He came to save the world. The offer of salvation was extended to all of mankind, God knowing that all would not come to Him.

When a shepherd goes looking for his lost flock of sheep, will he only go looking for certain ones or try to save them all, still knowing that all won't return to Him?

[TER]

A blessed Lentern Journey to Pascha to all faithful! May this be a time of spiritual renewal and growth in Christ.

I ask forgiveness from everyone, especially those whom I have offended and mistreated. I have so many failings I need to work on...

I hold no hard feelings to anyone and I ask again for your mercy and forgiveness.

May the light of the the Risen Christ fill our hearts and strengthen our minds in the days leading to Pascha and may we always live in the joy of His unfading Light.

[TER]

"In this time of fasting and prayer, brethren, let us with all our hearts forgive anything real or imaginary we have against anyone. May we all devote ourselves to love, and let us consider one another as an incentive to love and good works, speaking in defense of one another, having good thoughts and dispositions within us before God and men. In this way our fasting will be laudable and blameless, and our requests to God while we fast will be readily received."

-St. Gregory Palamas, excerpt from Homily Seven: "On Fasting"

[RJB]

At Lent, I always feel like we're about to separate on a great adventure (like the Lord of the Rings) where we'll all meet up in the end as we journey to grow closer to our savior. Limiting access to the internet is always good. I try to replace it with some good music or talk.
http://www.ancientfaith.com/radio/listen
God bless

A blessed Lentern Journey to Pascha to all faithful! May this be a time of spiritual renewal and growth in Christ.

I ask forgiveness from everyone, especially those whom I have offended and mistreated. I have so many failings I need to work on...

I hold no hard feelings to anyone and I ask again for your mercy and forgiveness.

May the light of the the Risen Christ fill our hearts and strengthen our minds in the days leading to Pascha and may we always live in the joy of His unfading Light.

[TER]

At Lent, I always feel like we're about to separate on a great adventure (like the Lord of the Rings) where we'll all meet up in the end as we journey to grow closer to our savior. Limiting access to the internet is always good. I try to replace it with some good music or talk.
http://www.ancientfaith.com/radio/listen
God bless

I love that website!

Here is the music I put on when I am reading or doing work.

[RJB]

Out of rep. Thank you!

[TER]

'A life of fasting, properly understood as general self-limitation and abstinence, to the annual practice of which the Church always calls us with the Great Lent, is really that bearing of the cross and self-crucifixion which is required of us by our calling as Christians. And anyone who stubbornly resists this, wanting to live a carefree, happy, and free life, is concerned for sensual pleasures and avoids sorrow and suffering that person is not a Christian. Bearing one's cross is the natural way of every true Christian, without which there is no Christianity.

- Archbishop Averky of Syracuse (of Blessed Memory)

[TER]

In the same way, fasting, vigils, scriptural meditation, nakedness and total deprivation do not constitute perfection but are the means to perfection. They are not in themselves the end point of a discipline, but an end is attained to through them.

- St. John Cassian (one of the founders of monasticism in the western Church)



Any of the moderators know why I have a hyperlink on the word 'meditation'?

[TER]

Beware of limiting the good of fasting to mere abstinence from meats. Real fasting is alienation from evil. ‘Loose the bands of wickedness.’ Forgive your neighbor the mischief he has done you. Forgive him his trespasses against you. Do not ‘fast for strife and debate.’ You do not devour flesh, but you devour your brother. You abstain from wine, but you indulge in outrages. You wait for evening before you take food, but you spend the day in the law courts. Woe to those who are ‘drunken, but not with wine.’ Anger is the intoxication of the soul, and makes it out of its wits like wine.

- St. Basil (in his homilies on the Holy Spirit)

[TER]

Fasting is acceptable to God when abstention from food is accompanied by refraining from sins, from envy, from hatred, from calumny, from vainglory, from wordiness, from other evils. He who is fasting the true fast `that is agreeable' to God ought to shun all these things with all his strength and zeal, and remain impregnable and unshakeable against all the attacks of the Evil one that are planned from that quarter. On the other hand, he who practices abstention from food, but does not keep self-control in the face of the aforesaid passions, is like unto one who lays down splendid foundations for a house, yet takes serpents and vipers as fellow-dwellers therein.

- St. Photios the Great

[TER]

In the same way, fasting, vigils, scriptural meditation, nakedness and total deprivation do not constitute perfection but are the means to perfection. They are not in themselves the end point of a discipline, but an end is attained to through them.

- St. John Cassian (one of the founders of monasticism in the western Church)

Any of the moderators know why there is a hyperlink on the word 'meditation'?

[TER]

Hello?

[heavenlyboy34]

RPFs puts hyperlinks on words for no reason sometimes. It's been happening for many moons, and I thought it was just my browser or something. :/

[TER]

RPFs puts hyperlinks on words for no reason sometimes. It's been happening for many moons, and I thought it was just my browser or something. :/

WHAT?? How do I take it off?

[Olaf]

It's probably one of those plugins a lot,of forums use to make money. If you click on the word RPF makes money.

[TER]

It's probably one of those plugins a lot,of forums use to make money. If you click on the word RPF makes money.

I have never seen that before.

[Olaf]

I have never seen that before.

I've seen it used on many blogs and other forums.

[TER]

I see.

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

I've seen it used on many blogs and other forums.

What other forums have you trolled?

[Olaf]

What other forums have you trolled?

Which other forum members do you stalk?

[TER]

There was a man who was leading an ascetic life and not eating bread. He went to visit an old man. It happened that pilgrims also dropped by, and the old man fixed a modest meal for them. When they sat together to eat, the brother who was fasting picked up a single soaked pea and chewed it. When they arose from the table, the old man took the brother aside and said: "Brother, when you go to visit somewhere, do not display your way of life, but if you want to keep to it, stay in your cell and never come out." He accepted what the old man said, and after that behaved like the others whenever he met with them. We are reminded here that fasting must be done in secret, not before others, as the Lord has said: "But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly."

- Sayings of the Desert Fathers

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

Which other forum members do you stalk?

Which other forums do you stalk?

U mad cause you got caught? Again.

[Olaf]

What was I caught doing?

Which other forums do you stalk?

U mad cause you got caught? Again.

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

What was I caught doing?

What WEREN'T you caught doing? Here's are some of your posts, including accolades for PRB. PRB is this forum's second most prolific and dubious character. Neg rep for you, bub.

He's gay so it's kosher.

PRB, from what I've seen, is a fantastic poster.

Wow, PRB completely owned this thread. Great posts!

Maybe not forever, but the socialized medicine in FEMA camps will be excellent. At the very least you wont have to worry about cavities thanks to the fluoridated water they'll provide.

I'm not sure what a douche canoe is.

[TER]

Fasting as a Tool of Perfection


“A worker,” notes Saint John Cassian, “takes the trouble to get hold of the instruments that he requires. He does so not simply to have them and not use them. Nor is there any profit for him in merely possessing the instruments. What he wants is, with their help, to produce the crafted objective for which these are the efficient means. In the same way, fasting, vigils, scriptural meditation, nakedness, and total deprivation do not constitute perfection but are the means to perfection. They are not in themselves the end point of a discipline, but an end is attained to through them.” And, “Fasts and vigils, the study of Scripture, renouncing possessions and everything worldly are not in themselves perfection, as we have said; they are its tools. For perfection is not to be found in them; it is acquired through them. It is useless, therefore, to boast of our fasting, vigils, poverty, and reading of Scripture when we have not achieved the love of God and our fellow men. Whoever has achieved love has God within himself and his intellect is always with God.”

Saint John Kolovos counsels as follows: “If a king wanted to take possession of his enemy’s city, he would begin by cutting off the water and the food and so his enemies, dying of hunger, would submit to him. It is the same with the passions of the flesh; if a man goes about fasting and hungry, the enemies of his soul grow weak.”

Saint Makarios of Egypt: “He who wants to enter the strong man’s house through the narrow gate, and to make off with his goods, must not surrender to luxury and obesity. He must strengthen himself in the Holy Spirit, having in mind the phrase that ‘flesh and blood is not able to inherit the kingdom of God [1 Cor. 15:50].’ But how should he strengthen himself in the Spirit? Here he should heed the words of Saint Paul, that God’s wisdom is regarded as foolishness by men, as well as those of Isaiah, that he had seen the Son of Man, and His form was despised, and He was forsaken by all the sons of men. Thus he who wants to be a son of God must first humble himself in the same way and be regarded as foolish and despicable, not turning his face aside when spat upon, not pursuing the glory and beauty of this world or anything of this kind, not having anywhere to lay his head, vilified, mocked, downtrodden, regarded by all as an object of contempt, attacked invisibly and visibly, yet resisting in his mind. It is then that the Son of God, Who said, ‘I will walk among you, and be your God, and ye shall be My people [Lev. 6:12],’ will become manifest in his heart. And He will receive power and strength so that he can bind up the strong man and make off with his goods, and tread upon asp and basilisk, snakes and scorpions.”

The old man, Abba Moses, was asked, “What is the good of the fasts and watchingfulness which a man imposes on himself?” He replied, “They make the soul humble. For it is written: ‘Behold the lowliness of my toil, and forgive all my sins [Ps. 24:18].’ So if the soul gives itself all this hardship, God will have mercy on it.”

[TER]

Imitating the Fast of Christ in our Spiritual Warfare

By St. Basil the Great

Our Lord, having fortified through fasting the flesh which He assumed for our sake, submitted to the attacks of the Devil therewith, both instructing us to anoint and train ourselves with fasting for the struggles that we must undergo amid temptations and affording the adversary a handle, so to speak, through hunger. For on account of the height of His Divinity He would have been inaccessible to the Devil, had He not submitted to human weakness through hunger. However, before He ascended back to Heaven, He tasted food, giving assurance of the true nature of His risen body.

Will you not give up fattening and gorging yourself? Will you allow your mind to waste away through lack of nourishment, because you take no thought for saving and life-giving teachings? Or do you not know that, just as in the case of a battle those who fight for one side cause the defeat of the other, so he who sides with the flesh prevails over the spirit, while he who aligns himself with the spirit brings his flesh into subjection? “[For] these [flesh and spirit] are contrary the one to the other.” Hence, if you wish to make your mind strong, tame your flesh through fasting. For this is what the Apostle says, that to the extent that our outward man perishes, our inward man is renewed; he also says: “When I am weak, then am I strong.”

Will you not disdain perishable foods? Will you not conceive a desire for the table in the Kingdom of Heaven, for which fasting here on earth is assuredly a preparation? Do you not know that by immoderate satiety you fatten for yourself the worm that torments? For who amid lavish feasting and perpetual delectation has become the partaker of any spiritual gift? Moses needed a second fast in order to receive the second set of laws. If the animals had not fasted along with the Ninevites, the Ninevites would not have escaped the threat of destruction. Whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? Were they not those of the people who demanded to eat meat? As long as they were content with manna and water from the rock, they overcame the Egyptians and journeyed through the sea; there was not a feeble one among their tribes.” But when they recalled the fleshpots and returned to Egypt in their desires, they did not see the Promised Land. Do you not fear their example? Do you not shudder at their gluttony, lest it exclude you from the good things for which we hope? But not even the wise Daniel would have seen visions, had he not rendered his soul more pellucid through fasting. For certain thick vapors are emitted from rich foods, which, like a dense cloud, prevent the illumination produced by the Holy Spirit from entering the mind. But if there is any food that is proper even to Angels, it is bread, as the Prophet says: “Man ate the bread of Angels” — not meat, nor wine, nor those items that are zealously sought after by those enslaved to their stomachs.

Fasting is a weapon against the army of demons. “[For] this kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.” So many are the benefits of fasting, whereas satiety is the beginning of lasciviousness. For sybaritism, inebriation, and all manner of rich foods immediately give rise to every kind of brutish wantonness. Hence, men become lecherous stallions on account of the frenzy wrought in the soul by self-indulgence. Perversions of nature arise from drunkards when they seek the feminine in the masculine and the masculine in the feminine. Fasting teaches moderation in conjugal relations, and, by chastising intemperance even in licit sexual activity, engenders abstinence by mutual agreement, so that married couples may devote themselves to prayer.

[RJB]

Acts 9:1-19New International Version (NIV)

Saul’s Conversion

9 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. 3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. 8 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. 9 For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.

10 In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!”

“Yes, Lord,” he answered.

11 The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”

13 “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. 14 And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”

15 But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”

17 Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, 19 and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

[TER]

Repentance doesn’t mean feeling bad about yourself, guilty and miserable. It is seeing the truth: admitting the truth about your sinful self, and the truth about God, which is that He already knew this truth about you and loves you anyway. He is like the father of the prodigal son; He only wants us to come home.

- Presbytera Fredrica Matthewes-Green