“Lent has come, O mother of chastity. What was the time before this day? A time of fornication. The soul fornicated with all that struck its eye as pleasant — both with people and with things: more fully, with sinful passions. Everyone has his passion which he pleases in all he does. It is
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FAST OF THE HOLY APOSTLES PETER AND PAUL
The Podvig of the Apostles’ Fast is less strict than during Great Lent: We abstain from eating meat and dairy products throughout the Fast. The Church ustav also provides that, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays during the Apostles’ Fast, we abstain from consuming fish, wine and oil; on the other days of the week, Tuesday
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Sunday of the Prodigal Son – Involuntary Fasting
By now you know that we are firmly in the Pre-Lenten period. We are only two short weeks away from the start of the awesome and wondrous struggle that we call Great and Holy Lent. Here during this time before the great fast, the Church gives us of her milk in order to prepare us
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MIRACLE ON ATHOS: INCORRUPT BODY OF ASCETIC FOUND
A miracle has occurred on Mt. Athos—the body of a deceased monk has been found to be without any signs of corruption and not emitting any foul smell, a month and a half after his repose. The deceased monk Fr. Stephen labored in the skete of Kavsokalyvia for forty years. Fr. Stephen led an
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HOW TO SPEND THE TIME OF THE FAST ?
The rules of abstinence prescribed by the Church to follow during the Christmas Fast are similar to those prescribed during the Apostles’ Fast. It is clear that during the Fast we must abstain from meat and dairy products. Besides that, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays of the Nativity Fast consumption of fish, oil and wine
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WHY FAST? BECAUSE THIS KIND GOES OUT ONLY BY FASTING AND PRAYER
Many Orthodox Christians, do not understand why we fast. This is why we as a people fast so poorly. So many Orthodox Christians barely follow the fast or follow the fasts when they’re convenient, forget to fast, things like this. We fast because of what the Scripture tells us today. We fast because of this
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The Way of Spiritual Transformation – #7
7. On Getting Out of Ruts How can Fr. Isaaky’s words not inspire us toward spiritual transformation? What hinders us from growing unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, as St. Paul says (Eph. 4:13)? It is our egos, our passions, that hinder us. Many of us get stuck in a
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“You have no faith”
In today’s gospel (St. Matthew 17:14-23) we are witnesses to another encounter of Jesus with a family that has suffered. A father has just brought his son to the Lord Jesus because he is an epileptic who “suffers terribly”. This father has to bring his son to Jesus Christ because the Lord’s disciples had failed to
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A History of the Apostle’s Fast
“The Apostles almost always fasted.” Saint John Chrysostom (Sermon 57 on the Gospel of Matthew) Patristic Testimony Concerning the Fast The fast of the holy Apostles is very ancient, dating back to the first centuries of Christianity. We have the testimony of St. Athanasius the Great, St. Ambrose of Milan, St. Leo the Great and
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Fasting – Stir the Pot Within
Our Lord Jesus made it clear that sin comes from within our hearts. Jesus tells us that the food we eat enters the stomach, not the heart, so the food we eat doesn’t make us unclean. Fasting from food doesn’t cleanse the heart, but fasting can allow us to become more clearly aware of what
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