What is fasting, how to properly observe its traditions. Posts - what are they? How to write a post that will be ranked among the best posts

“It is not appropriate for Christians to eat fish on Holy Pentecost. If I give in to you on this, then next time you will force me to eat meat, and then offer to renounce Christ, my Creator and God. I'd rather choose death." This was the answer of the holy, blessed king of Kartalin Luarsab II to Shah Abbas, as is clear from the “Martyrology” of Catholicos-Patriarch Anthony. This was the attitude towards church fasts of our pious ancestors...
In the Orthodox Church there are one-day and multi-day fasts. One-day fasts include Wednesday and Friday - weekly, except special occasions specified in the Charter. For monks, a fast is added in honor of the Heavenly Powers on Mondays. Two holidays are also associated with fasting: the Exaltation of the Cross (September 14/27) and the beheading of John the Baptist (August 29/September 11).

Of the multi-day fasts, we should mention, first of all, Lent, consisting of two fasts: the Holy Pentecost, established in memory of the forty-day fast of the Savior in the Judean desert, and Holy Week, dedicated to the events of the last days of the earthly life of Jesus Christ, His Crucifixion, Death and Burial. (Holy Week translated into Russian is a week of suffering.)

Monday and Tuesday of this week are dedicated to the memories of the Old Testament prototypes and prophecies about the Sacrifice of Christ the Savior on the Cross; Wednesday - the betrayal committed by the disciple and apostle of Christ, giving up his Teacher to death for 30 pieces of silver; Thursday - establishment of the Sacrament of the Eucharist (comunion); Friday - Crucifixion and death of Christ; Saturday - the stay of the Body of Christ in the tomb (in the burial cave, where, according to the custom of the Jews, they buried the dead). Holy Week contains the main soteriological dogmas (the doctrine of salvation) and is the pinnacle Christian fasts, just as Easter is the most beautiful crown of all holidays.

The time of Lent depends on the moving holiday of Easter and therefore does not have stable calendar dates, but its duration, together with Holy Week, is always 49 days.

Petrov's fast (of the holy apostles Peter and Paul) begins a week after the feast of Holy Pentecost and lasts until June 29/July 12. This fast was established in honor of the preaching work and martyrdom of the disciples of Jesus Christ.

Assumption Fast - from 1/14 to 15/28 August - established in honor Mother of God, earthly life Which was spiritual martyrdom and empathy for the suffering of Her Son.

Christmas post- from November 15/28 to December 25/January 7. This is the preparation of believers for the holiday of Christmas - the second Easter. In a symbolic meaning, it indicates the state of the world before the coming of the Savior.

Special posts may be appointed by the Church hierarchy on the occasion of public disasters (epidemics, wars, etc.). There is a pious custom in the Church - to fast every time before the Sacrament of Communion.

IN modern society Questions about the meaning and meaning of fasting cause a lot of confusion and disagreement. The teaching and mystical life of the Church, its Charter, rules and rituals still remain as unfamiliar and incomprehensible to some of our contemporaries as the history of pre-Columbian America. Temples with their mysterious, like hieroglyphs, symbolism, directed into eternity, frozen in a metaphysical flight upward, seem shrouded in impenetrable fog, as if ice mountains Greenland. Only in recent years society (or rather, some part of it) began to realize that without solving spiritual problems, without recognizing the primacy of moral values, without religious education, it is impossible to solve any other tasks and problems of cultural, social, national, political and even economic nature, which suddenly found themselves tied in a “Gordian knot”. Atheism retreats, leaving in its wake, as on a battlefield, destruction, the collapse of cultural traditions, the deformation of social relationships and, perhaps the worst thing - flat, soulless rationalism, which threatens to turn a person from an individual into a biomachine, into a monster made up of iron structures .

A person initially has a religious feeling - a feeling of eternity, as an emotional awareness of his immortality. This is the mysterious testimony of the soul about the realities spiritual world, located beyond sensory perception - gnosis (knowledge) of the human heart, its unknown powers and capabilities.

A person brought up in materialistic traditions is accustomed to consider the data of science and technology, literature and art to be the pinnacle of knowledge. Meanwhile, this is an insignificant part of knowledge compared to the enormous information that a person possesses as a living organism. Man owns the most complex system memory and thinking. In addition to the logical mind, it includes innate instincts, the subconscious, which records and stores all his mental activity; superconsciousness is the ability of intuitive comprehension and mystical contemplation. Religious intuition and synthetic thinking are the highest form of knowledge - the “crown” of gnosis.

In the human body there is a constant exchange of information, without which none of it could exist. living cell.

The volume of this information in just one day is immeasurably greater than the content of books in all the libraries of the world. Plato called knowledge “remembering,” a reflection of divine gnosis.
Empirical reason, crawling over facts like a snake on the ground, cannot understand these facts, since, when analyzing, it decomposes the object into cells, crushes it and kills it. It kills a living phenomenon, but cannot revive it. Religious thinking is synthetic. This is an intuitive penetration into the spiritual realms. Religion is a person’s meeting with God, as well as a person’s meeting with himself. A person feels his soul as a special, living, invisible substance, and not as a function of the body and a complex of biocurrents; feels itself as a unity (monad) of the spiritual and physical, and not as a conglomerate of molecules and atoms. A person opens his spirit like a diamond in a medallion that he always wore on his chest, not knowing what was inside it; discovers himself like a navigator - the shores of an unknown, mysterious island. Religious thinking is an awareness of the purpose and meaning of life.

The goal of Christianity is to overcome one's human limitations through communion with the absolute Divine being. In contrast to Christianity, atheistic teaching is a cemetery religion, which, with the sarcasm and despair of Mephistopheles, says that the material world, having arisen from a certain point and scattered throughout the Universe, like drops of spilled mercury on glass, will be destroyed without a trace and senselessly, gathering again in the same point.

Religion is communication with God. Religion is not only the property of reason, or feelings, or will, it, like life itself, includes the whole person in his psychophysical unity.
And fasting is one of the means to help restore harmony between spirit and body, between mind and feeling.

Christian anthropology (the doctrine of man) is opposed by two tendencies - materialistic and extremely spiritualistic. Materialists try to explain fasting, depending on the circumstances, either as a product of religious fanaticism, or as an experience traditional medicine and hygiene. On the other hand, spiritualists deny the influence of the body on the spirit, divide the human personality into two principles and consider it unworthy for religion to deal with issues of food.

Many people say: to communicate with God you need love. What is the significance of fasting? Isn't it humiliating to make your heart dependent on your stomach? Most often, those who would like to justify their dependence on the stomach, or rather, slavery to the stomach and unwillingness to curb or limit themselves in anything, say this. With pompous phrases about imaginary spirituality, they cover up the fear of rebelling against their tyrant - the womb.

Christian love is a feeling of the unity of the human race, respect for the human person as a phenomenon of eternity, as an immortal spirit clothed in flesh. This is the ability to emotionally experience in oneself the joy and grief of another, that is, a way out of one’s own limitations and selfishness - this is how a prisoner breaks out into the light from a gloomy and dark dungeon. Christian love expands the boundaries of the human personality, makes life deeper and more rich in inner content. The love of a Christian is selfless, like the light of the sun, it does not require anything in return and does not consider anything to be its own. She does not become a slave to others and does not look for slaves for herself, she loves God and man as the image of God, and looks at the world as at a picture drawn by the Creator, where she sees traces and shadows of Divine beauty. Christian love requires a constant struggle against egoism, as against a many-faced monster; to fight egoism - fight passions, like wild animals; to combat passions - the submission of the body to the soul, the rebellious “dark, night slave,” as St. Gregory the Theologian called the body, to its immortal queen. Then spiritual love opens in the heart of the winner - like a spring in a rock.

Extreme spiritualists deny the influence of physical factors on the spirit, although this contradicts everyday experience. For them, the body is only a shell of the soul, something external and temporary for a person.

Materialists, on the contrary, emphasizing this influence, want to present the soul as a function of the body - the brain.

The ancient Christian apologist Athenagoras, in response to a question from his pagan opponent about how a bodily illness can affect the activity of a disembodied soul, gives the following example. The soul is a musician, and the body is an instrument. If the instrument is damaged, the musician is unable to extract harmonious sounds from it. On the other hand, if a musician is sick, then the instrument is silent. But this is just an image. In fact, the connection between body and spirit is immeasurably greater. Body and soul constitute a single human personality.

Thanks to fasting, the body becomes a sophisticated instrument, capable of capturing every movement of the musician - the soul. Figuratively speaking, the body of an African drum turns into a Stradivarius violin. Fasting helps restore the hierarchy of mental forces and subordinate the complex mental organization of a person to higher spiritual goals. Fasting helps the soul overcome passions, extracts the soul, like a pearl from a shell, from the captivity of everything grossly sensual and vicious. Fasting frees the human spirit from amorous attachment to material things, from constant recourse to earthly things.

The hierarchy of human psychophysical nature is like a pyramid, with its top turned down, where the body presses on the soul, and the soul absorbs the spirit. Fasting subjugates the body to the soul, and subjugates the soul to the spirit. The post is important factor preserving and restoring the unity of soul and body.

Conscious self-restraint serves as a means of achieving spiritual freedom; ancient philosophers taught this: “A person must eat to live, but not live to eat,” said Socrates. Fasting increases the spiritual potential of freedom: it makes a person more independent from the outside and helps to minimize his lower needs. This frees up energy, opportunity and time for the life of the spirit.

Fasting is an act of will, and religion is largely a matter of will. Anyone who cannot limit himself in food will not be able to overcome stronger and more refined passions. Promiscuity in food leads to promiscuity in other areas human life.

Christ said: Kingdom Heavenly force is taken, and those who make effort delight him(Matt. 11:12). Without constant tension and feat of will, the Gospel commandments will remain only ideals, shining in an unattainable height, like distant stars, and not the real content of human life.

Christian love is a special, sacrificial love. Lent teaches us to sacrifice small things first, but “great things begin with small things.” The egoist, on the other hand, demands sacrifices from others - for himself, and most often identifies himself with his body.

Ancient Christians combined the commandment of fasting with the commandment of mercy. They had a custom: money saved on food was put into a special piggy bank and distributed to the poor on holidays.

We touched on the personal aspect of fasting, but there is also another, no less important - the church aspect. Through fasting, a person becomes involved in the rhythms of temple worship and becomes able to actually experience events through sacred symbols and images. biblical history.

The Church is a spiritual living organism, and, like any organism, it cannot exist outside of certain rhythms.

Fasting precedes great Christian holidays. Fasting is one of the conditions for repentance. Without repentance and purification, it is impossible for a person to experience the joy of the holiday. More precisely, he can experience aesthetic satisfaction, an increase in strength, exaltation, etc. But this is only a surrogate for spirituality. True, renewing joy, like the action of grace in the heart, will remain inaccessible to him.

Christianity requires us to continually improve. The Gospel reveals to man the abyss of his fall, like a flash of light - a dark abyss that opens up under his feet, and at the same time, the Gospel reveals to man a Divine mercy as infinite as the sky. Repentance is a vision of hell in one’s soul and the love of God embodied in the face of Christ the Savior. Between the two poles - sadness and hope - lies the path of spiritual rebirth.

A number of posts are dedicated to sorrowful events in biblical history: on Wednesday, Christ was betrayed by His disciple, Judas; suffered Crucifixion and death on Friday. Anyone who does not fast on Wednesday and Friday and says that he loves God is deceiving himself. True love will not satiate his belly at the tomb of his beloved. Those who fast on Wednesday and Friday receive as a gift the ability to more deeply empathize with the Passion of Christ.

The saints say: “Give blood, receive spirit.” Submit your body to the spirit - it will be good for the body itself, just as it is for a horse to obey the rider, otherwise both will fly into the abyss. The glutton exchanges his spirit for his belly and gains fat.

Fasting is a universal phenomenon that has existed among all peoples and at all times. But Christian fasting cannot be compared with the fasting of a Buddhist or a Manichaean. Christian fasting is based on other religious principles and ideas. For a Buddhist, there is no fundamental difference between a person and an insect. Therefore, eating meat for him is carrion eating, close to cannibalism. In some pagan religious schools, the consumption of meat was prohibited, since the theory of reincarnation of souls (metempsychosis) led to fears that a goose or goat contained the soul of an ancestor who got there according to the law of karma (retribution).

According to the teachings of the Zoroastrians, Manichaeans and other religious dualists, demonic force took part in the creation of the world. Therefore, some creatures were considered the product of an evil principle. In a number of religions, fasting was based on the false idea of human body as the prison of the soul and the focus of all evil. This gave rise to self-torture and fanaticism. Christianity believes that such fasting leads to even greater disorder and disintegration of the “trimers of man” - spirit, soul and body.

Modern vegetarianism, which preaches ideas of compassion for living beings, is based on materialistic ideas that blur the line between humans and animals. If you are a consistent evolutionist, then you should recognize all forms of organic life as living beings, including trees and grass, that is, doom yourself to death by starvation. Vegetarians teach that plant food itself mechanically changes a person's character. But, for example, Hitler was a vegetarian.

By what principle is food selected for Christian fasting? For a Christian there is no clean or unclean food. The experience of the impact of food on the human body is taken into account here, so creatures such as fish and sea animals are lean foods. At the same time, fast food, in addition to meat, also includes eggs and dairy products. Any plant food is considered lean.
Christian fasting has several types, depending on the degree of severity. The post includes:

- complete abstinence from food(according to the Charter of the Church, such strict abstinence is recommended to be observed on the first two days of Holy Pentecost, on the Friday of Holy Week, on the first day of the fast of the Holy Apostles);

Raw food diet - food not cooked over fire;

Dry eating - food prepared without vegetable oil;

Strict fasting - no fish;

Simple fasting - eating fish, vegetable oil and all types of plant foods.

In addition, during fasting it is recommended to limit the number of meals (for example, up to two times a day); reduce the amount of food (to approximately two-thirds of the usual amount). The food should be simple, not fancy. During fasting, you should take food later than usual - in the afternoon, if, of course, the circumstances of life and work allow.

It must be borne in mind that violation of Christian fasting includes not only eating a modest meal, but also haste in eating, empty conversations and jokes at the table, etc. Fasting must be strictly proportionate to the health and strength of a person. Saint Basil the Great writes that it is unfair to prescribe the same measure of fasting for the strong and for the weak in body: “for some the body is like iron, while for others it is like straw.”

Fasting is made easier: for pregnant women, women in labor and breastfeeding mothers; for those on the move and in extreme conditions; for children and the elderly, if old age is accompanied by infirmity and weakness. Fasting is canceled in conditions where it is physically impossible to obtain lean food and a person faces illness or starvation.
In case of some severe gastric diseases, a certain type of fasting food may be included in the diet of the fasting person, which is necessary for this illness, but it is best to discuss this with the confessor first.

In the press and other media mass media Doctors often spoke out against the fast - with intimidating statements. They painted, in the spirit of Hoffmann and Edgar Poe, a gloomy picture of anemia, vitamin deficiency and dystrophy, which, like the ghosts of vengeance, await those who trust the Church Charter more than the manual on Pevsner’s “Nutritional Hygiene”. Most often, these doctors confused fasting with the so-called “old vegetarianism,” which excluded all animal products from food. They did not take the trouble to understand the elementary issues of Christian fasting. Many of them did not even know that fish is a lean food. They ignored the facts recorded by statistics: many peoples and tribes that eat predominantly plant foods are distinguished by their endurance and longevity; the first places in life expectancy are occupied by beekeepers and monks.

At the same time, publicly rejecting religious fasting, official medicine introduced it into medical practice under the name of “fasting days” and vegetarian diets. Vegetarian days in sanatoriums and the army were Monday and Thursday. Anything that could remind one of Christianity was excluded. Apparently, the ideologists of atheism did not know that Monday and Thursday were the days of fasting for the ancient Pharisees.

In most Protestant denominations, calendar fasts do not exist. Questions about fasting are resolved individually.

In modern Catholicism, fasting is reduced to a minimum; eggs and milk are considered lean foods. Eating is allowed one to two hours before communion.

Among the Monophysites and Nestorians - heretics - fasting is distinguished by its duration and severity. Perhaps common eastern regional traditions are at play here.

The most important fast of the Old Testament Church was the day of “Cleansing” (in the month of September). In addition, there were traditional fasts in memory of the destruction of Jerusalem and the burning of the temple.

Peculiar view During Lent there were food prohibitions that were of an educational and pedagogical nature. Unclean animals personified sins and vices that should be avoided (hare - timidity, camel - rancor, bear - rage, etc.). These prohibitions, adopted in Judaism, were partially transferred to Islam, where unclean animals are perceived as carriers of physical defilement.

In Georgia, the people carefully observed fasts, which is recorded in hagiographic literature. Evfimy Mtatsmindeli (Svyatogorets) compiled a valuable guide about fasting. And in the “Description of Colchis” by the Dominican monk A. Lamberti, it is reported, in particular, that “the Mingrelians follow the Greek custom (that is, Orthodoxy - Ed.) - They observe Lent very strictly, they don’t even eat fish! And in general they eat only once a day at sunset. They observe the ritual of fasting so firmly that, no matter how sick or old or weakened they are, they will in no way eat meat at this time. Some people abstain from food altogether on Fridays: during the last week they do not drink wine, and during the last three days they do not take any food.”

According to the teachings of the Church, physical fasting must be combined with spiritual fasting: abstaining from shows, from empty, and even more so immodest conversations, from everything that excites sensuality and distracts the mind. Fasting should be accompanied by solitude and silence, reflection on one's life and judgment on oneself. According to Christian tradition, fasting begins with mutual forgiveness of offenses. Fasting with malice in the heart is like fasting a scorpion, which can remain without food longer than any creature on earth, but at the same time produces deadly poison. Fasting should be accompanied by mercy and help to the poor.

Faith is the soul's direct evidence of the existence of God and the spiritual world. Figuratively speaking, the heart of a believer is like a special locator that perceives information coming from the spiritual spheres. Fasting promotes a more subtle and sensitive perception of this information, these waves spiritual light. Fasting must be combined with prayer. Prayer is the turning of the soul to God, a mystical conversation between creation and its Creator. Fasting and prayer are two wings that lift the soul to heaven.

If we compare Christian life with a temple under construction, then its cornerstones will be the struggle with passions and fasting, and the pinnacle, the crown, will be spiritual love, which reflects the light of Divine love, like the gold of church domes - the rays of the rising sun.

The purpose of the fasts: subordination of the body to the spirit (restoration of the correct hierarchy of spirit and body), multiplication of love, increased attention to one’s spiritual life, education of the will, concentration of strength in.

Degrees of fasting

There are six degrees of fasting, according to the Charter (given in order of increasing severity of fasting):
1. Abstinence only from meat, all other foods are allowed (this happens for the laity only on cheese week - Maslenitsa).
2. Abstinence from meat, eggs and dairy products, but fish is allowed (and, naturally, hot vegetable foods, vegetable oil, wine).
3. Abstinence from meat, eggs, milk and fish. Hot vegetable food is allowed - “boiling” (i.e., heat-treated food - boiled, baked, etc.) with vegetable oil and wine.
4. Abstinence also from vegetable oil and wine. Hot food without oil is allowed.
5. Dry eating. “Bread and water and the like” are allowed (chapter 35), i.e. raw, dried or soaked vegetables, fruits (in the Typikon, for example, raisins, olives, nuts (chapter 36), figs, i.e. figs are offered) – “one thing every day” (chapter 36), i.e. every time one of these.
6. Complete abstinence from food and drink is what is actually called “fasting” in the Typikon.
Naturally, a less strict regulation allows everything that is possible with a more strict fast. That is, for example, if fish is allowed according to the regulations, then of course you can eat vegetable oil, and if dairy products are allowed, then you can also eat fish.

Stages of accustoming to fasting

You must accustom yourself to fasting gradually and necessarily under the guidance and blessing of your confessor.. However, fasting should in no case be harmful to health. Graduality and moderation not only prevent possible breakdowns, but also serve as a sign of spiritual maturity and purity. Blessing, gradualism, prudence and constancy of effort are the main conditions for successful adaptation to fasting.

As the first stage, designed to develop the skill of mental independence from gluttonous feelings, we can recommend following the following generally accepted rules: healthy image life as a refusal to overeat, too fatty and sweet foods, eating at a late time, etc. Following various types of health-improving diets does not contradict the spirit of Orthodox fasting, if health and beauty are not at the forefront appearance, but the formation of the skill of abstinence. Without successfully completing this preparatory stage one cannot hope to receive the beneficial fruits of fasting in the future.

Having formed the habit of self-control independent of gluttony when choosing food, you can begin to fast, refusing first meat, and then eggs and dairy foods on fasting days.

The time required to get used to fasting, as well as the quality and quantity of food taken, is very individual. “Let everyone establish the daily measure and quantity of food for himself, so that if it turns out to be excessive and the burden is produced, then he would reduce it; and when he sees that the measure he has taken is insufficient to maintain the body, then let him do small addition; and thus, having thoroughly learned through experience, he will prescribe for himself such an amount of food that can support the strength of his body, serving not lust, but true need... It is impossible to legitimize one measure for everyone, because bodies have different degrees of strength and strength, like copper , iron, wax. However, for beginners the best measure is to leave food while you still feel hungry. But even if he is satisfied, he will not sin. When he is full, let him reproach himself. Through this he prevents defeat (from his enemy) and paves the way for himself to victory over him.” (Reverend).

As a temporary measure of a transitional nature at the initial stages, we can recommend various recipes for delicious Lenten dishes. However, it is apparently not worth getting carried away with this, because preparing delicious food takes a lot of time, which is essentially spent on satisfying a gluttonous feeling that is not compatible with the spirit of fasting. This especially applies to Lenten sweets. Abuse of them leads to an absurd result, since during fasting a person gains weight, and fasting, as the monk asserted, “consists not only in eating, but in eating little.” In this case, a person becomes much more receptive to the grace of God, since, in the words of the monk, “grace loves to live in a dry body.”

“One pound of bread is enough for one person’s body, four pounds of bread is enough for another person’s body: he will not be satisfied with less bread. Therefore, the saint says that a faster is not one who consumes a small amount of food, but one who consumes less food than what is required for his body. This is what abstinence is all about.”

The monk wrote about abstinence and the three degrees of satiety:
“You write about food that it is difficult for you to get used to eating little by little, so that after lunch you are still hungry. The Holy Fathers established three degrees regarding food: abstinence - in order to be somewhat hungry after eating, contentment - in order to be neither full nor hungry, and satiety - in order to eat to the full, not without some burden.
Of these three degrees, everyone can choose any one, according to their strengths and according to their structure, healthy and sick.”

Fasting and health

Despite the health benefits of fasting that were obvious to the holy fathers, they never called for fasting for the sake of health. The purpose of fasting has always remained to curb gluttony, and its beneficial effects on health were seen as a beneficial side effect. However, despite the secondary importance of health issues, the holy fathers nevertheless considered them quite important and deserving of some attention.

Fasting and marital relations

“Do not deviate from each other, except by consent, for a time, to practice in fasting and prayer, and then be together again, so that Satan does not tempt you with your intemperance... The time is already short, so those who have wives should be as if they have not.” ().

In this case, as with abstaining from food, it is even more important to observe the principle gradual transition to a new way of life.

You can start by giving up initiative on your part during Lent, following the covenant of the Apostle Paul - “The wife has no power over her body, but the husband does; Exactly, the husband has no power over his body, but the wife does.”().

Fasting and daily moderation in food

And one last thing. One cannot think that receiving the beneficial fruits of fasting depends entirely on how it is carried out. It is also very important how committed we are to the spirit of abstinence before and after fasting. Moderation even during non-fasting times will relieve you from many temptations during fasting and, above all, from ailments associated with a sudden change in diet.

Even more important is the time following the end of the fast. Unfortunately, many people perceive it as an unrestrained permission for anything and everything. This especially applies to the holidays that end each post. Therefore, in the words: “fasting is constant moderation in food with prudent pickiness in it.”

Posts of the Orthodox Church

In the Orthodox Church there are fasts and (liturgical) fasts.

Of the multi-day fasts, we should mention, first of all, Lent, Holy Pentecost, established in memory of the forty-day fast of the Savior in the Judean desert. Adjacent to Lent (translated as a week of suffering), dedicated to the events of the last days of earthly life, His Crucifixion, Death and Burial. Holy Week is the pinnacle of Christian fasting, just as it is the most beautiful crown of all holidays.
The time of Lent depends on the moving holiday of Easter and therefore does not have stable calendar dates, but its duration, together with Holy Week, is always 48 days.

Petrov post(Holy Apostles Peter and Paul) begins a week after the Holy Day and continues until July 12. This fast was established in honor of preaching works and martyrdom.

The number of fasting days in a year ranges from 178 to 212, depending on the day of Easter celebration and, accordingly, the more or less long fast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. Almost every second day of the year is a fast day.

Start and end time of fasting

The posts are calendar-based and begin and end at midnight.

about posts

Many Christians believe that fasting is established only to subordinate the body to the soul. […] However, this is only one side of the post. There is another, even more important one, what the Holy Fathers called “spiritual fasting.”

A person consists of a soul and a body, but in the soul itself one can distinguish two forces that do not merge with each other: the first is an appeal to eternity, to that which stands above the flow of earthly existence - the soul’s ability to communicate with God was called spirit by the Holy Fathers; the second force is an orientation towards the earth, a set of cognitive forces: reason, imagination, memory, as well as sensory drives, emotional experiences and, finally, genetically embedded instincts, without which a person could not exist for a single day.

The main thing in a person is the spirit; in the spirit - the image and likeness of God, the spirit separates man as if by a deep abyss from all other inhabitants of the earth. The spirit contains the target idea of ​​man - the eternal. To the extent that a person lives spiritually, he lives worthy of his destiny; this is the only opportunity to have joy and peace in earthly life, in this sea of ​​suffering. For some Christians, such a trimetric view of human nature (spirit, soul and body) evokes the idea of ​​the soul as something base and unworthy in comparison with the spirit. This is wrong. Without mental abilities, earthly life would be impossible for a person and, consequently, his formation as moral personality for eternal life.

There is nothing bad or base in human nature itself; the bad is a perversion of the will, the destruction of the hierarchy and the correct subordination of human abilities and powers; base and unworthy are passions and sin. In our current, or rather, fallen, state, the body manifests itself as disobedient to the soul, and the soul - disobedient to the spirit.

Therefore, fasting is not only the taming of the body, but above all, the taming of spiritual passions so that the spirit can awaken and act.

Physical fasting means:
1) limitation in;
2) eating a special type of food;
3) rare meals.

A spiritual fast should also include:
1) limitation of external impressions - food of the soul, information that a person is accustomed to receiving daily in huge volumes, similar to the “feasts of Gargantua”;
2) control over information, that is, over the quality of food that the soul receives, excluding what irritates passions;
3) a rare meal, that is, periods of solitude, silence, stillness, being with oneself, which give a person the opportunity to recognize his sins and realize main goal fasting - repentance.

All types of entertainment and entertainment, uncontrolled reading, long conversations, a joking tone, visits to those places and houses where a worldly, unchurch spirit reigns - everything that scatters a person, turns off the mind from prayer, and the heart from repentance are incompatible with fasting.

For our readers: what is fasting? with detailed descriptions from various sources.

An Internet post is an article that someone has published. Usually they post on a blog. A blog is an online diary maintained by some people, who are therefore called bloggers. In this diary they write what new things have happened to them and publish various photographs from their lives. One such article is called a post, and the blog itself consists of several posts.

I don't really understand the meaning of the question. If we are talking about Lent (or another) spiritual fast, then it would be more correct to talk about fasting on the Internet. In this case the answer will be like this:

We are not talking about using the network for work or business purposes, but about mindless hanging, which not only steals our time from God (after all, fasting is a separation for God), but is also completely devoid of benefit for the soul. Aimless surfing, idle chatter on social networks or flirting on dating sites (not to mention porn sites and other unclean activities) fully fall under this concept.

Lent is a time for serious things, truly important and valuable. Meetings with dear friends, but not parties, watching films that are good for the soul, and not stupidly laughing at the next Voronin, good deeds, and not killing time - this is what should distinguish fasting from ordinary time.

And, of course, the main thing. Fasting exists not so much for giving up something as for clearing the path to God. Everything we do in fasting should serve this purpose. In another case, it is simply fasting, and not real fasting.

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A post on the Internet means repair work on your nano-network, lack of connection, technical failures, software replacement, power outages and other situations when access to the Internet is physically impossible or extremely difficult.

An Internet post is your or someone else’s message, comment, or any other information posted for public reading on any forum, social network page, blog, or under some video, for example, on YouTube.

Post on the Internet is a publication, usually on a blog, social network or magazine. Actually English word post, in addition to many other meanings, the main thing that matters is the message.

That is, a post on the Internet is a public message, either purely informational or expressing the author’s personal attitude to an event.

Since the word POST itself is not unambiguous, I think that there are several posts on the Internet))) Such posts are installed in order to limit access to your personal information on your personal page of a certain site!))) You can overcome such a post by entering your personal Password, which in theory should only you know!))) But in lately cases have become more frequent when spies (commonly called hackers) steal other people's information bypassing these posts using their not entirely legal methods....!)))

An Internet post is media content posted on the Internet (text, photo, video, audio).

Post, as a word, most likely comes from the English word post - one of the translations of which into Russian is to post.

That is, information of any kind posted on the Internet is a post.

Post on the Internet– this is any article or entry on an Internet page. The name post comes from the English post, which translated into Russian means to post, publish. True, the English word post can also be translated as mail, post, position.

Believers are probably in a stupor.

In fact, the post on the Internet is not related to the church.

Post is the English word post written in Russian.

You can say it differently: post, note, article, comment.

A post, in English, a post is a banal comment :) That is. you leave a comment on the Internet - this is a post.

But if we talk about the Orthodox meaning of this word, then fasting is abstinence. Not only from food, but from sin, including from entertainment, vanity and idle pastime, and therefore from wasting time on the Internet :)

IN Orthodox countries Long-term and one-day fasts were established. Long-term ones, as a rule, concern almost all believers. But those who do not go to church and do not pray become interested in what fasting is, why it is needed, and sometimes they also want to join.

In order for the event to bring truly spiritual benefit and joy, you need to follow a number of rules. The article is dedicated not only to newcomers to the faith, but also to everyone interested who wants to help themselves become better, learn to love and forgive, humble themselves and rejoice. Please note that the material has been compiled according to numerous responses. Orthodox priests about what fasting is and what it gives to people.

Meaning of the word “fast” in the dictionary

First, let's look at the definition of the word "fasting." It has three meanings in Ozhegov’s dictionary, which are very different from each other.

In the first case, this word means a person’s voluntary abstinence from certain foods, from bodily pleasures and entertainment in the name of God.

The second meaning of the word is workplace a person of some profession related to observations, security, inspection. For example, a customs post, a security post.

The third option is an elite position, for example, in government. We often hear on TV: “He will be elected to the post of vice-president of the country...”, “He will take the post of minister...”.

What does fasting mean in Christianity?

What is fasting in Christianity? In fact, this is not only food restriction and lack of entertainment, but also prayer. That is, a person must force himself, without outside requests and without coercion, to take a step towards God. But to begin communication with the Almighty, you need to throw away everything earthly:

• entertainment;
• joy;
• pleasure;
• fun;
• vanity;
• unimportant concerns;
• evil deeds.

That is, a person must learn to perceive himself, others and God in a new way, become better, spiritually purer (freed from evil thoughts, vanity, learn to forgive and love). That's what fasting is!

First of all, a person must learn to pray and communicate with the Lord. The Church, services in the temple, prayer books help with this. Fasting is always difficult, but at the end of such a feat, real joy and lightness appear in the soul.

How did he appear

Fasting began, as many priests preach, in heaven. As the Bible says, God ordered Adam and Eve to eat any plant, but not to touch one tree that was fraught with evil. This was fasting - eat everything, but do not touch anything that could harm you. Eve did not listen, seduced by the words of the demon, who was hiding behind the guise of a serpent. A tragedy occurred - the world became the way we see it now: suffering, evil, illness and death. But in order for a person to improve, God gave absolutely all people a chance to return to heaven through fasting and prayer.

Before Jesus Christ came into the world, people also limited themselves for the sake of God. But when the Savior was born and began to preach, then the rules changed, which the Orthodox still observe today. Fasting is needed for the people themselves, and not for God.

What restrictions and prayer give

Almost every deeply religious person knows that fasting is a spiritual school of life. Having limited themselves to worldly concerns and entertainment or excluded them completely for a while, Christians suddenly understand that we have completely forgotten that all the vanity that revolves around us and around which we ourselves revolve will pass, it all doesn’t matter. There is a more important thing in life - saving the soul from destruction, from going to hell for sins.

People often ask priests about which fast is considered effective. The answer is clear: voluntary, with the desire to change oneself, leave everything worldly and remember God, why we live, and of course, learn to love and forgive everyone. This feat is considered the most difficult; it is very difficult to part with pride and approach the offender, speaking sincerely about forgiveness. It is also difficult to devote some time to God without being distracted by other matters and concerns.

Having overcome his earthly desires in order to meet the Lord, pray to Him, thank Him, ask for help, a person gains genuine joy, not just a fleeting feeling that arises in connection with pleasant circumstances, but spiritual joy for no apparent reason.

How to start fasting for a beginner

Beginners always wonder when fasting begins and when it will end. The Church has established fast days: one-day (Wednesday and Friday) and multi-day (Rozhdestven, Velikiy, Petrov and Uspensky).

As a rule, in modern calendars It is noted on what days what can be eaten. The dates of major church holidays are also given.

It is advisable to find out in advance how to fast. Below is a summary of the preparation.

What can and should be done

We figured out what fasting is. But how to spend all your days, since it is almost impossible to always devote time to prayer? Indeed, during such a period, Christians try to do something good in the name of the Lord and for the salvation of the soul:

• perform deeds of mercy;
• go on pilgrimage trips;
• read Orthodox literature;
• listen to the sermons of church pastors;
• prepare for the holiday to which the fast is dedicated.

Most often, fasters notice that there is much more time, and it does not run away at a rapid speed. After all, at this moment a contemporary leaves the TV, computer, gadgets. He uses his phone only for business and does not allow himself to say unnecessary words. In addition, you should not communicate with friends if the meeting takes place for the purpose of “just chatting, arguing, having fun.”

How to prepare

Preparation for fasting usually begins with a visit to the temple in order to:

• pray collectively at the liturgy;
• confess your sins to the priest;
• receive communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ;
• listen to the priest's sermon.

Usually people learn in church what fasting is. As a rule, priests remind that physical and spiritual restriction is necessary in order for a person to part with his passions.

After all, everyone will have to get used to new conditions in the afterlife. If a person gravitates towards everything earthly, then in eternity he will unbearably want to go back, but there will be no way back. In addition, a person voluntarily sends himself to hell. To prevent this from happening, posts are given.

Who needs to fast

Until the age of seven, children are not able to be responsible for their actions, they are just learning about life, and perceive absolutely everything that surrounds them. Therefore, they do not need to repent of their sins in confession. And after turning 7 years old, a boy and a girl must learn to realize responsibility for themselves, for their actions, deeds and thoughts, feelings.

The same goes for fasting. It is interconnected with confession. Therefore, children from the age of seven must join their parents. But one should not be forced to limit food and entertainment so that the child loses the desire to be a real Christian. The priests recommend doing everything gradually and if the child is ready, he does not resist.

What to do after finishing

Many are looking forward to the end of Lent in order to quickly return to their usual way of life. But Orthodox elders always said that such a worldview is deceptive: such people do not fast, but simply follow a diet. Such thinking about fasting is dangerous because a person misleads himself. Lent should be a favorite period for a Christian.

It is recommended to observe restrictions and devote more time to prayer according to the fasting calendar. The dates were not invented by chance. They are also a symbol of obedience, that is, a person does not point out something to himself, but obeys a certain law - in this case, the charter of the Orthodox Church.

What conclusions does a person make?

Lent is the longest, and it is also the strictest. Lasts 48 days. It should be noted that strict fasting applies more to monastics. Laymen (people who do not live in monasteries and have not taken monastic vows) are allowed concessions, but only if the priest blesses them. This is also why you should go to church the day before to discuss all the conditions with the priest: what to limit and what can be left as usual. After all, not everyone is able to strictly abstain for one reason or another. For example, due to illness or pregnancy, you should not give up dairy products or meat unless your doctor prohibits it.

So what conclusions does a person who has fasted spiritually and sincerely make? He usually doesn't want to go back to old life. He becomes disgusted with what he used to love to do. I also want to communicate with the Lord more often.

You have learned what fasting is and what it should be. If a person managed to leave his earthly affairs, or at least limit himself, then at the end of this period did not want to return to them, it means that the time was not spent in vain, but with great benefit for the soul.

Posts are messages that are published on forums, online communities, blogs and various websites. Initially, this word was in use only on web forums, and top-level (root) posts were called subjects. Over time, the term began to be used almost everywhere. Many services allow you to use not only text information in posts, but also attach pictures, videos, and music to them. Other users have the opportunity to leave their comments, discuss with the author of a particular post, as well as among themselves.

Secrets of creating good and interesting posts

Almost all social services have a kind of rating - they include better posts per week, month or year. This right is granted to those messages and posts that receive the most views, likes (likes), reposts and comments. That is, those that other users liked the most and interested them in.

The dream of any blogger is to write a post that will be in the TOP. However, this is not easy to do. Hundreds, thousands and even millions of diverse messages are published daily on the Internet, 99% of which remain unread by anyone and are lost in total mass. That’s why it’s worth listening to the advice and recommendations of experienced popular bloggers to find out how best to write and design a new post to attract the attention of the spoiled public.

A bright idea is 50% of your success

At first glance, you may get the impression that there is nothing complicated about this, and, therefore, you don’t need any special skills. It would seem, what could be simpler? I found a suitable topic, got inspired and quickly wrote 500-700 characters on the keyboard. However, only those who have never tried to write and publish posts can think this way. Even the search for an idea can take several weeks, because you need something that can truly excite readers. You can find inspiration anywhere: by looking at the best posts of other users, communicating with people on real life, observing and analyzing various events.

1. Write in simple and understandable language, without complex terms and little-known words. Imagine that you are not writing, but talking to a person in person.
2. In order to convey your opinion and argue for it, give real examples and use comparisons.
3. Try to avoid professionalism and abbreviations - they will confuse the reader.
4. Focus on what new things you can tell people, and how this new things will be useful to those who later read your post.
5. Don't write too long posts. This will bore the reader and force him to simply move on to other posts.

It is important that all the information you use is not only interesting, but also relevant today.

Three pillars on which the post rests

Let's remember school lessons Russian language. A post is essentially a text, a note, a mini-article. This means that it must be logically divided into three parts: beginning, main part and conclusion.

Introduction

The shortest of them, in fact, is the beginning. Essentially, it's a couple of introductory sentences designed to grab the reader's attention. If you fail to “catch” a person’s eye from the very first words, simply no one will read your post. The beginning also has another, not so important function - it helps to do a little warm-up for the mind and tune the reader to the style and manner of presentation.

Main part

The “heart” of the post is the main part. First of all, you should pay attention to the sequence and logic of presentation. Don't contradict yourself. If at the beginning of the text you put forward a certain thesis, stick to it in the future.

If you are proving your point of view on a particular issue, pay attention to the order in which your arguments are presented. It can be either direct - from weak to strong, or reverse - from the strongest to the weaker, additional ones. Ideally, there should be a relationship between them: that is, each next one seems to stem from the previous one. However, you should not be upset if you fail to build such a “train”: in most cases, the arguments are too diverse to be united according to any principle.

Nevertheless, the gradation must be observed in any case: scattered evidence that is in no way connected with each other, even the most convincing, will confuse the reader and leave him with not the best impressions.

Be careful not to “tread water” and not to retell the same thought in different interpretations, changing only its verbal form. Those who should catch your thought will understand everything without it. And frequent repetitions will most likely cause irritation.

Try to write an emotionally rich, vibrant post. This does not mean that you should turn the text into a fountain of contradictory, enthusiastic epithets, however, a dry set of letters, more reminiscent of an excerpt from some university textbook, is unlikely to please anyone. A bit of humor in a text always makes it more interesting for the reader.

Conclusion

Posts that end abruptly, like TV series, at the most interesting point, are disgusting. Moreover, unlike the latter, they most often do not have a continuation, and the thought remains unfinished. That is why, when finishing work on the next post, try to summarize and summarize all of the above. Here you can stimulate discussion by asking the audience a relevant, “pressing” question. In rare cases, it is possible to use a “truncated” model, where there is no conclusion, but this option is quite risky.

Bring your text to life!

Now that you know the meaning of the word "post" and the basics of writing such notes, it's time to talk about their formatting. The latter, by the way, in some cases can play a decisive role.

If the size of your post exceeds 300-400 characters, try, if possible, to break it into paragraphs of 3-4 lines each - gray “sheets” are very tiring for the eye and do not allow you to concentrate on the essence of the text.

Attach a thematic picture to your post. Remember that this is what a person will look at first of all. Therefore, it is advisable to choose some funny drawing, an original demotivator or a comic book - something that will interest a person, make him smile and encourage him to read the entire post.

You can add videos. It is desirable that it be of high quality, shot on a good camera, interesting and informative. Duration also matters - few people are inclined to watch 30-40 minute videos during regular Internet surfing. The optimal duration is up to 5 minutes.

Be sure to consider the features target audience, for which you are writing. After all, it goes without saying that young startup entrepreneurs and mothers on maternity leave literally “live in different worlds", they say in different languages and are interested in completely different things.

As you can see, good posts are a real art with its own rules and secrets. Of course, no one will give you a guarantee that you will be included in the post rating created by LJ (or any other service). Much depends on the mood of the Internet public, fashion trends and other factors that you cannot influence in any way. However, truly interesting posts, on which the authors work especially painstakingly, will always hit the mark and gain popularity. Good luck!

Fast- a polysemantic concept (a number of terms, surname, toponym).

Terminology

• Fast- an appropriately equipped place for monitoring, control or security:
  • Post in military affairs.
  • Traffic control post
  • Catenary sectioning station
  • Electrical centralization station
  • A track post is a type of separate point on a railway line.
  • A film projection post is one of several film projectors included in a film installation designed for continuous film screening of a film consisting of several parts.

• Fasting is a ritual abstinence from eating or dietary restrictions for religious reasons.
  • Fasting in Judaism
  • Fasting in Christianity
• Post is a colloquial name for a position held, official position, place in an institution or enterprise.
• Post (entry) - a separate message in a forum or blog.

Toponym

• The post is a hill within the city of Pyatigorsk.
• Post-Volynsky is a locality in the Solomensky district of Kyiv.
• Post Falls is a city in Kootenai County, Idaho, United States.
• Post is a city in the state of Texas, USA, the administrative center of Garza County.

Surname bearers

• Post, Albert Hermann (1839-1895) - German lawyer and judge, representative of comparative law.
• Post, Albertson Van Zo (1866-1938) - Cuban fencer.
• Post, George Edward (1838-1909) - American botanist, physician and missionary.
• Post, Markie (born 1950) - American television actress.
• Post, Melissa (better known as Nicole Sheridan; genus. 1975) - American porn actress.
• Post, Austin (better known as Post Malone; genus. 1995) is an American hip-hop artist, songwriter and producer.

The rules for observing Orthodox fasting are intended to ensure that believers undergo the necessary preparation for entering the Heavenly Kingdom. This tradition of abstaining from fast food and limiting sexual life is a special form of asceticism that exercises the spirit and leads to the salvation of individual consciousness. Directions for fasting vary depending on the age and health of people.

The meaning of fasting in Orthodoxy

Today, disdain for this tradition is common. Some people think that fasting is only an unpleasant monastic activity that can cause harm to the body. This consideration of the issue is completely wrong, since an Orthodox follower should think about his own soul, and not about his earthly shell.

The meaning of fasting in Orthodoxy

He who raises his consciousness and faith in God rejoices in abstinence and easily endures conventional physical difficulties. The prudent parishioner should make the best use of this time. It is with this that it is customary for true Christians to congratulate on the onset of a period of cleansing from the material and vain.

Important! A simple change in the composition of food is not fasting if the desire to abstain and repent of inevitable sins through sincere prayer does not arise in the mind.

Spiritual limitation stands next to the physical, but rises above it. If a person surrenders completely to the first, the Lord instills the necessary strength to overcome the secondary difficulties of the physical shell. John Chrysostom authoritatively confirms: “Let all parts of your body be involved in fasting through reliance on a strong and persistent mind.”

Lenten cuisine recipes:

Today's life sometimes incorrectly considers the essence of tradition - many people see here only the deprivation of material reinforcement through punishment. Orthodox (and any) fasting is the greatest way to achieve the desired result in serving God. By exhausting his own body, the believer removes the dark veil from the soul and opens a mystical path that makes it easier to approach the Heavenly Kingdom.

Abstinence cannot be called hunger, to which all beings are subjected for certain offenses. This tradition acquires religious value only when combined with exercises for the soul (repentance, destruction of vices through prayer).

Fasting is the thinning of the physical flesh, which allows one to get closer to the effects higher powers and become filled with grace. The Church speaks of abstinence to remind us of the necessary healing of a seriously ill soul, mired in the bustle of everyday life. Certain days in the religious calendar are reserved for such cleansing procedures. They are pure abstinence and balance between the shells, which should restore the primacy of the mind (soul) over the body.

Christ fasted for forty days in the desert

The apostles said that before the advent of fasting, man lost to passions and the devil. Christ set an example of 40 days of abstinence and received the power of the Holy Spirit. Every believer is obligated to follow the example of the Sinless Son and attack his own weaknesses. One who is in fasting has an unshakable mind and is capable of any accomplishment.

Note! The rules for observing Orthodox fasting are described in the Typikon (book of the Divine Rule), Nomocanon (Byzantine collection of church instructions), Menaion and other similar works.

The practice of abstinence is incredibly developed in the Christian world - the number of fasting days sometimes reaches up to 200. The severity of fasting described in these books differs for monks and lay people.

Features of godly abstinence

The feat of repentance and prayerful petition must be accompanied by thoughts about individual sinfulness. The believer must also abstain from pleasure trips, watching inappropriate programs, reading “light literature,” etc. If these categories do not let go of the mind, a person is obliged to make a mental effort and break the bonds of meaninglessness.

Depending on the preparedness of the body and health, abstinence differs into five degrees:

1. For the sick, elderly or beginners, the first type is suitable, avoiding only meat foods.
2. Next comes giving up dairy products.
3. Denial of fish.
4. In the penultimate position is a complete refusal of oil.
5. Fasting without consuming any food at all for a certain period of time is a step accessible to believers with unshakable faith and titanic health.

Important! On days of abstinence, it is indecent to prepare yourself exquisite dishes from permitted products, because in this way voluptuousness and the desire for a special taste are satisfied.

There is no fasting when the believer leaves the place of the meal with a burdened stomach and a feeling of satisfied satiety. There are practically no sacrifices or hardships, which alone give abstinence great value.

Some Orthodox Christians exchange physical abstinence for “spiritual” abstinence, which is understood as restraining irritability, criticism of other people, and all sorts of quarrels. However, such an attitude does not advance the believer towards true righteousness, since goodwill is inherently implied at all times. Therefore, relaxation in food intake is only self-deception, devoid of benefit.

Lenten food

If a person is unable, for health reasons or financial insufficiency, to comply with the traditional rules of fasting, he must give up entertainment, sweets, and abstain at least on Wednesday and Friday. Communion begins with a small thing - the denial of meat.

Interesting! Previously, in Russian families, fasting was extremely revered and performed with a pure heart. Some princes observed the rules of abstinence better than many monks. The monks of Egypt echoed the 40th post of Moses and Christ. The monks of the Optina Hermitage in the Kaluga region ate only grass and were famous for their longevity.

Individual periods of abstinence

In Orthodoxy, there are one-day and multi-day fasts. Believers fast before church holidays or significant days for Orthodoxy.

One-day posts

Weekly fast days include Wednesday and Friday. Fast days have their own symbolic essence, which the Christian soul does not dare to pass by indifferently.

Relaxations exist during the following periods:

• week after Trinity;
• Christmastide period (from Christmas to Epiphany);
• on Maslenitsa (prohibited meat food, maybe dairy products)

There are also special one-day posts:

1. Day of the beheading of John the Baptist (September 11).
2. Exaltation of the Holy Cross (September 27).

Multi-day posts

1. Church opinion

   Religion claims that fasting is an effective method of transforming the Wrath of God into His mercy. Life in asceticism and asceticism is pleasing to the Lord; it is like a pure crystal that has thrown off the shackles of dirty sin and slavery to materiality.

   • Abstinence is practice for a great undertaking. Any action is easier to perform if you pacify your own flesh.
   • By reducing costs for himself, an Orthodox person has the opportunity to put more on the altar of mercy. The food will be more useful to the orphan, widow or homeless person who will pray for salvation.
   • Abstinence allows you to remain with the Church, to commune with the apostles, Christ and the Father. It opens best qualities and brings you closer to the deepest mysteries.
   • However, excessive abstinence is similar to satiety of the belly: there were examples when fanaticism acquired negative qualities and became gluttony. The believer must know own strength and be reasonable.
   • A person should eat as much food as is necessary to maintain bodily functioning. By starting from scratch and falling into fanaticism, the neophyte will harm himself excessively, and for a long time will not be able to realize the right direction.
   • The main condition is not to violate the rules of spiritual fasting if you have to give up the rules of consumption. There were examples when future saints ate modest foods, but their minds did not move away from the contemplation of the greatness of the Lord.
   • If a believer notices exhaustion in the body, an inability to offer prayer, this indicates an incorrect method. The guidance of experienced confessors who have experience in conducting Lent helps here.
   Important! Fasting in Orthodoxy is a means of healing from the ailments of sinfulness. It cleanses the mind from the effects of polluting thoughts, refines the body and brings it closer to the realms of supreme bliss.

   Watch a video about the meaning of fasting in Orthodoxy

In Orthodoxy, fasting is a purposeful, conscious abstinence from food and animal nutrition for the purpose of spiritual and bodily cleansing. Post for Orthodox man- this is a combination of good deeds, sincere prayer, abstinence in everything, including food. Physical fasting is necessary to perform a spiritual fast; both fasts, when combined, form a true fast, which contributes to the spiritual reunification of those who fast with God. Really believer in fasting Orthodox Christian by renouncing some physical pleasures and self-restraints one approaches God, because It is precisely this self-restraint that is the sacrifice to God that He expects from us in the modern world. To fast or not - each person decides for himself.

The basis of fasting is the fight against sin through abstinence from food. It is abstinence, and not exhaustion of the body, therefore everyone must measure the rules for observing fasts with their own strengths, with the degree of their preparation for fasting. Those who wish to observe fasting should consult with an experienced confessor and tell him about their spiritual and physical condition and ask for blessings for fasting. As St. John Chrysostom wrote, fasting is a medicine, but even the most useful medicine becomes useless if the patient does not know how to use it.

Fasting is an ascetic feat that requires preparation and gradualness. For those who begin fasting already in mature age Those who have never fasted before must enter into fasting gradually, step by step, starting at least with abstaining from fasting food on Wednesday and Friday throughout the year. Begin to fulfill the commandments concerning the small, and you will fulfill the commandments concerning the great: the small leads to the great everywhere. Start fulfilling at least the commandment about fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays or the tenth commandment concerning evil thoughts and desires, and you will fulfill all the commandments. He who is faithful in a little is also faithful in much, and he who is unfaithful in a little is also unfaithful in much (Luke 16:10). In order to make our disposition towards fasting strong, we need to accustom ourselves to fasting slowly, carefully, not all at once, but gradually - little by little.

Everyone must determine for themselves how much food and drink they need per day; then little by little you need to reduce the amount of food you eat and bring it to the point where you can no longer reduce your diet, so as not to be weakened, exhausted, and incapable of doing anything.

Everyone embarking on the feat of fasting must know: “Whoever fasts out of vanity or considering that he is doing virtue fasts unreasonably and therefore begins to reproach his brother afterwards, considering himself to be someone significant. And it turns out that he not only did not fast a stone, but he removed two and can destroy the entire wall by condemning his neighbor. But whoever fasts wisely does not think that he is doing a good deed, and does not want to be praised as a faster..." (Reverend Abba Dorotheos).

True fasting is not a goal, but a means - to humble your flesh and cleanse yourself of sins. Physical fasting without spiritual fasting brings nothing to the salvation of the soul. Without prayer and repentance, without abstinence from passions and vices, eradication of evil deeds, forgiveness of insults, abstinence from married life, exclusion of entertainment and entertainment events, watching television, fasting becomes just a diet.

Spiritual fasting is closely connected with physical fasting, just as our soul unites with the body, penetrates it, revives it and forms one whole with it, just as the soul and body make up one living person. And therefore, while fasting physically, at the same time it is necessary for us to fast spiritually: “By fasting, brothers, physically, let us also fast spiritually, let us resolve every union of unrighteousness,” commands the Holy Church.

In physical fasting, the foreground is abstinence from rich, tasty and sweet food; in spiritual fasting - abstinence from passionate sinful movements that delight our sensual inclinations and vices. There - leaving fast food - more nutritious and eating lean food - less nutritious; here is the abandonment of favorite sins and transgressions and the exercise of the opposite virtues.

“During physical fasting,” writes St. Basil the Great, “the belly fasts from food and drink; during mental fasting, the soul abstains from evil thoughts, deeds and words. A true faster abstains from anger, rage, malice and vengeance. A true faster abstains from idle talk. , foul language, idle talk, slander, condemnation, flattery, lies and all slander. In a word, a true faster is one who shuns all evil..."

The essence of fasting is expressed in the following church song: “Fasting from food, my soul, and not being cleansed from passions, we are in vain consoled by non-eating: for if fasting does not bring you correction, then you will be hated by God as false, and will become like evil demons, never eat."

In the Orthodox Church, the number of fasting days according to church calendar in some years it reaches two hundred. These days include four multi-day fasts (Great, Petrov, Uspensky, Rozhdestvensky) and one-day fasts. In accordance with the church charter, during Lent the consumption of “meat” or meat, dairy and other products of animal origin, eggs, is stopped, but you can eat plant foods, including vegetables and fruits, and sometimes fish; With the cessation of fasting or in the “meat-eater”, food consumption is not limited. At the same time, the Church reminds that the sick and people engaged in heavy physical labor, pregnant and lactating women are allowed some relaxation in the severity of fasting. Fasting is for man, not man for fasting.

In Orthodoxy, fasts are divided into one-day and multi-day fasts. To one-day Orthodox fasts include:

Wednesday and Friday installed as a sign that Christ was betrayed by Judas on Wednesday and crucified on Friday. Saint Athanasius the Great said: “By allowing meat to be eaten on Wednesday and Friday, this man crucifies the Lord.” During the summer and autumn meat-eaters (periods between the Petrov and Uspensky fasts and between the Uspensky and Rozhdestvensky fasts), Wednesday and Friday are days of strict fasting. During winter and spring meat-eaters (from Christmas to Lent and from Easter to Trinity), the Charter allows fish on Wednesday and Friday. Fish on Wednesday and Friday is also permitted when the holidays of the Presentation of the Lord, Transfiguration of the Lord, Nativity of the Virgin Mary, Presentation of the Virgin Mary into the Temple, and Dormition fall on these days. Holy Mother of God, Nativity of John the Baptist, Apostles Peter and Paul, Apostle John the Theologian. If the holidays of the Nativity of Christ and Epiphany fall on Wednesday and Friday, then fasting on these days is canceled. On the eve (eve, Christmas Eve) of the Nativity of Christ (usually a day of strict fasting), which happens on Saturday or Sunday, food with vegetable oil is allowed.

Solid weeks means no fasting on Wednesday and Friday. Established by the Church as a relaxation before a multi-day fast or as a rest after it.
There are five continuous weeks:
1. Christmas time - from January 7 to January 18 (11 days), from to.
2. The publican and the Pharisee - two weeks before.
3. Cheese (Maslenitsa) - the week before (eggs, fish and dairy are allowed the entire week, but without meat).
4. Easter (Light) - the week after.
5. Trinity - week after (week before).

One-day posts: Wednesday and Friday throughout the year, with the exception of continuous weeks and Christmastide.

According to the Church Charter, there is no fasting on the feasts of the Nativity of Christ and Epiphany, which occurred on Wednesday and Friday. On Christmas and Epiphany Eves and on the holidays of the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord and the Beheading of John the Baptist, meals with vegetable oil are allowed.

On the feasts of the Presentation, Transfiguration of the Lord, Dormition, Nativity and Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, Her Entry into the Temple, the Nativity of John the Baptist, the Apostles Peter and Paul, John the Theologian, which occurred on Wednesday and Friday, as well as in the period from Easter to Trinity on Wednesday and Friday Fish allowed.

1. (The Eve of Epiphany), the day before the holiday. On this day, believers prepare themselves to receive the great shrine - Agiasma - baptismal holy water, for purification and consecration with it at the upcoming holiday.
2. - . On this day, a fast was established in memory of the abstinent life of the great prophet John and his lawless murder by Herod.
3. - . This day reminds us of the sad event on Golgotha, when “for our salvation” the Savior of the human race suffered on the Cross. And therefore this day must be spent in prayer, fasting, contrition for sins, in a feeling of repentance.

About meals on holidays: According to the Church Charter, there is no fasting on the holidays of the Nativity of Christ and Epiphany, which happened on Wednesday and Friday. On Christmas and Epiphany Eves and on the holidays of the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord and the Beheading of John the Baptist, meals with vegetable oil are allowed. On the feasts of the Presentation, Transfiguration of the Lord, Dormition, Nativity and Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, Her Entry into the Temple, the Nativity of John the Baptist, the Apostles Peter and Paul, John the Theologian, which occurred on Wednesday and Friday, as well as in the period from Easter to Trinity on Wednesday and Friday Fish allowed.