Fasting and Its Spirituality
On the occasion of the arrival of the Holy Great Forty-Day Fast, we would like to speak about fasting, its spirituality, and its effectiveness in our lives.
Fasting and Its Spirituality
Holy periods in life:
The period of fasting is a holy period, not like other ordinary days.
And although our whole life ought to be holy, yet God has designated for us holy days and certain periods, so that they may have a special sanctity and a special consideration more than other times.
We give special attention to these days, conduct ourselves in them with greater care, and reap from them spiritual benefits.
This reminds me that when we were young men, they used to give us a spiritual exercise called “the ideal day exercise.” It was required that our whole life be ideal. But we might not be able to do this practically, so we trained ourselves on ideal days: ideal in their worship, in their prayers, in their readings, in their watchfulness, in their exercises.
Among the days that the Lord asked us to sanctify are the Sabbaths…
The Lord said in the Ten Commandments: “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy” (Ex. 20:8). And currently the Lord’s Day has become Sunday. And although our whole life ought to be holy, yet the Lord’s Day has a special spiritual character. We dedicate it to the Lord. We do no work in it, but only what concerns the Lord alone.
The days that the Lord asks us to sanctify are of types:
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The first type is weekly sanctification: a day for the Lord every week. God gives you a week of life, and says to you: separate from it one day for Me. Dedicate it to Me. Sanctify it. Do not preoccupy it with matters of the passing world.
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The second type of holy days is feasts and seasons: the Scripture said, “These are the feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations… these are My feasts” (Lev. 23:2,4,27).
He also asked that these be dedicated to Him; we do no work in them… we rejoice in the Lord and offer Him sacrifices and offerings. -
The third type is periods of fasting. And they differ from the previous two types in that they are periods of humility, repentance, and contrition.
All these are holy days to the Lord, dedicated to Him, having their own spirituality, despite their difference in type. And it is as though God, in dedicating and sanctifying these days to Him, says to each of us:
Share Me in your life. Dedicate to Me days from it, if you cannot give Me all. Remember Me in them in a special way…
Your whole life is Mine. But at least, give Me this part. As I ask from your money the firstfruits, the tithes, the vows, and the offerings, likewise I ask from your life the Sabbaths, the feasts, and the fasts. Remember Me in them more than in the rest of the days; sit with Me in them; experience My companionship; and taste My love in a deeper and more concentrated manner than in the rest of the days…
These days were designated by the Lord Himself. And He appointed public fasts since the Old Testament, to be for the Lord.
Your feelings during fasting:
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The first feeling that comes to you is that the period of the day is a divine spiritual period with a special character, and sin within it is more dangerous and deeper.
Truly sin is sin, but in the period of fasting it is more defiling and hideous, because it implicitly carries contempt for the sanctity of the fasting days and their spirituality, and indicates carelessness regarding the agreement between us and God during the fast—that we should live for Him, according to the spirit and not according to the flesh. -
During fasting we remember the saying of Scripture: “Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly” (Joel 2:15). And sanctification is accomplished only by the work of the Holy Spirit.
Sanctifying a person, sanctifying a church, or icons, or vessels… is done only by the Holy Spirit. Likewise, the sanctification of the fast… The meaning of “Sanctify a fast” is: be filled with the Spirit. Give an opportunity for the Holy Spirit of God to sanctify you and sanctify your fasts. Surrender to the work of the Spirit in you. Do not resist the Spirit. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not hinder the work of the Spirit in you.
Join your will with the work of the Spirit, so that you may enter into the fellowship of the Holy Spirit during the fast, and your fasting may be sanctified.
You remember in the Great Fast that it is a Lordly fast, because the Lord Himself fasted it, abstaining from food and drink forty days and forty nights, in an unspeakable mystery… And in that fast He fasted on our behalf, on behalf of humanity in His fasting, because He had no need to fast. So at least let us fast for our own sake…
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The period of fasting for the beginner is a period of humility and hardship. But for the spiritual, it is a period of spiritual delight.
It is a period of devotion to the Lord, in which the son tastes the sweetness of companionship with the Father, without any obstacles from the flesh and its desires. In it is the taste of the Spirit, and the work of the Spirit, and walking in the Spirit, and fellowship with the Spirit, and enjoyment of positive spiritual work, and not merely refraining from food. -
The period of the fast is a period of reconciliation with God…
In it a person says to the Lord: Behold, I begin to walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh… It is a period in which the spirit of a person joins with the Spirit of God, in work far from matter, far from the control of the flesh, the disturbance of the flesh and its rebellion, and the extreme demands of the flesh. -
It is therefore a non-carnal period, in which a person rises above the level of carnality in every respect…
He rises above the carnal level with regard to food, with regard to sexuality, with regard to bodily comfort, with regard to bodily desires, their thoughts and practices. And he walks in deep spiritual conduct. Thus the matter is not merely refraining from food or replacing animal food with vegetable food… Rather, it is a spiritual period, in which the fasting of the body is only an expression of spiritual conduct. -
From here the fast became a period of spiritual nourishment for the person…
For it is unreasonable that you live a spiritual period without giving the spirit its nourishment. If you want to go out from the domain of the desires of the body and its control, the spirit must grow strong through what you offer it of spiritual means…
Thus you begin to review all your spiritual resources… and work on strengthening them:
If your spiritual readings are few, they should not remain few in the Great Fast. If your meditations are weak, their weakness should not continue in the Great Fast. If you are negligent in your prayers, or your confession, or your communion, or any spiritual discipline, or any virtue, you must take advantage of the Great Fast to remedy all this… -
The days of the Great Fast are a period of spiritual storage for the whole year:
With all the effects of this fast—its mournful tunes, its readings, its prostrations, its meditations, its memories, its liturgies that begin in the afternoon and are more profound and impactful… And as St. Isaac said: one prayer that you pray while fasting and hungry is deeper than a hundred prayers you pray while filled with food…
A person during fasting is humbled in the body. And with the humbling of the body, the spirit is humbled.
The weak, hungry, tired body is broken before God, and it grants the spirit broken thoughts, and the person becomes more humble, feeling his weakness, praying from his exhaustion and need with greater depth.
Your exercises in fasting:
I want you in this fast to have spiritual exercises from which you come out with practical benefit in your lives. For if in every Great Fast you came out with one spiritual benefit, we could count many benefits that you gained during past fasts.
If only every person during the fast would put before him a specific goal and focus all his energies, all his spiritual striving, and all his prayers on eliminating a particular fault in his life, or a certain deficiency or weakness, or a controlling habit, or an unrestrained temperament…
Sit, then, with yourself, and review with great accuracy the points of weakness in you that need treatment, and make them the goal of the entire Great Fast, or focus on one of them—with all your will, with all determination, with all prayer and supplication, with all practical means, and with all your inner feelings, with all your prostrations, with all your tears…
Your goal may be to eliminate a specific sin, or the goal may be positive—meaning to obtain a certain virtue you lack.
You may lack love, or humility, or faith, or endurance, or meekness, or kindness, or calmness and peace…
Meditate on what you lack and focus on it. Look for the common points in all your confessions which you have not yet overcome. And say to yourself: This is the message of the Great Fast of this year. If I got rid of this alone, or trained myself in this one virtue alone, that would be enough for me…
Make this matter the subject of your struggle with God and your struggle with yourself throughout the Great Fast.
Say to the Lord in contrition: I do not want to say only “My sin is ever before me,” but I want to place my sin before You at all times, moistened with my tears, presented with my prayers, so that You may save me from it, that You may give me a power by which I can overcome it, for without You I cannot escape it. Yes, struggle thus with God and say to Him:
Jacob struggled with You one night, saying, “I will not let You go unless You bless me.” But I will struggle with You throughout the forty days and forty nights, and I will not let You go unless You deliver me from this sin…
I will not leave my prayer, nor my fasting, nor my tears, nor my prostrations, until I obtain a special power from You, or obtain from You a promise that You will stand with me in my struggle, or feel inner comfort and assurance regarding my eternity and regarding Your dwelling in my heart, and feel certain that You will wash me and I shall become whiter than snow.
The period of the Great Fast, my brothers, is not only a period of struggle with oneself to get rid of its evil desires, but it is more so a period of struggle with God…
A struggle with God so that a person may receive a blessing, receive help, receive salvation… Cry before God and say: “Woe to me, for my sojourning has become long…” Years have passed and I am still in these falls, or still in this struggle without benefit. But this time I must receive—trusting in the faith of the wide mercies of God.
Scripture says, “Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly.” And perhaps by this it points to the benefit of solitude during the fast.
Fasting undoubtedly suits solitude, whether physically or spiritually… Solitude gives calm and rest to the body that hunger and little food have fatigued. And solitude gives calm to the spirit and to the mind, and frees one for divine work far from many preoccupations, reactions, and conversations.
The Lord Christ was alone on the mountain in solitude throughout the forty days…
The devils fought Him, then the angels came and ministered to Him. And you likewise during the fast, the devils will fight you to prevent you from your holy work, and the angels will minister to you: driving away the devils from you and strengthening you in your spiritual struggle. And we trust in this battle that those who are with us are more than those who are against us.
Rather, in all our spiritual battles we trust that the battle is the Lord’s, as Scripture says, and that God is able to overcome with few or with many…
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Article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – Al-Keraza Magazine – Year Six (Issue Twelve) 21-3-1975
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