Traditional Byzantine Lenten Fast

[Apotheoun]

[b]The Lenten Fast[/b]

Great Lent is the longest and strictest fasting season of the year.

[i]Week before Lent ("Ch[color="#000000"]ee[/color]sefare Week"):[/i] Meat and other animal products are prohibited, but eggs and dairy products are permitted, even on Wednesday and Friday.

[i]First Week of Lent:[/i] Only two full meals are eaten during the first five days, on Wednesday and Friday after the Presanctified Liturgy. Nothing is eaten from Monday morning until Wednesday evening, the longest time without food in the Church year. (Few laymen keep these rules in their fullness). For the Wednesday and Friday meals, as for all weekdays in Lent, meat and animal products, fish, dairy products, wine and oil are avoided. On Saturday of the first week, the usual rule for Lenten Saturdays begins (see below).

[i]Weekdays in the Second through Sixth Weeks:[/i] The strict fasting rule is kept every day: avoidance of meat, meat products, fish, eggs, dairy, wine and oil.

[i]Saturdays and Sundays in the Second through Sixth Weeks:[/i] Wine and oil are permitted; otherwise the strict fasting rule is kept.

[i]Holy Week:[/i] The Thursday evening meal is ideally the last meal taken until Pascha. At this meal, wine and oil are permitted. The Fast of Great and Holy Friday is the strictest fast day of the year: even those who have not kept a strict Lenten fast are strongly urged not to eat on this day. After St. Basil's Liturgy on Holy Saturday, a little wine and fruit may be taken for sustenance. The fast is sometimes broken on Saturday night after Resurrection Matins, or, at the latest, after the Divine Liturgy on Pascha.

Wine and oil are permitted on several feast days if they fall on a weekday during Lent. On Annunciation and Palm Sunday, fish is also permitted.

[Ziggamafu]

Wow. If you had to take on honest guess based on personal experience, what percentage of Eastern Christians do you think actually stick to the rules? Also, are the rules interpreted as "grave obligations" in some way similar to the Latin tradition?

[zunshynn]

Why is the fast kept on Sundays?

[Marie-Therese]

Wow. I wish I had the stamina to keep to such a fast, but I confess my weakness. I do well to remember not to eat meat on Fridays.

I can imagine Eastern Catholic diabetics being in dire straits during Lent. Is there a dispensation for age and illness, such as we have in the Roman rite?

[zunshynn]

And what is the significance of Monday to Wednesday of the first week that no food is taken then?

[Apotheoun]

[quote name='Ziggamafu' date='04 February 2010 - 12:23 PM' timestamp='1265311408' post='2051231']
Wow. If you had to take on honest guess based on personal experience, what percentage of Eastern Christians do you think actually stick to the rules?[/quote]
Sadly many of the Eastern Catholic Churches (especially in the United States) have replaced the traditional fast with a fast more like that of the modern Roman Church. But the traditional fast is still kept in lots of Eastern Orthodox Churches (e.g., ROCOR). I really do not know what percentage of Eastern Christians keep the traditional fast.

[quote name='Ziggamafu' date='04 February 2010 - 12:23 PM' timestamp='1265311408' post='2051231']
Also, are the rules interpreted as "grave obligations" in some way similar to the Latin tradition?[/quote]
No, there is no concept of "grave obligation" in the Byzantine tradition. Fasting is not a canonical reality, but is a spiritual exercise, and different people are at different levels in the spiritual life.

[Apotheoun]

[quote name='zunshynn' date='04 February 2010 - 06:13 PM' timestamp='1265332423' post='2051377']
Why is the fast kept on Sundays?[/quote]
It is kept on Sundays because Great Lent lasts exactly 40 days without any breaks in the Byzantine tradition. It begins on Clean Monday and ends on the friday before Lazarus Saturday.

Lazarus Saturday is the beginning of the Great and Holy Week Fast. In other words, Great Lent and Great and Holy Week are held to be two different liturgical seasons in the Byzantine Churches.

[quote name='Marie-Therese' date='05 February 2010 - 11:24 AM' timestamp='1265394280' post='2051635']
I can imagine Eastern Catholic diabetics being in dire straits during Lent. Is there a dispensation for age and illness, such as we have in the Roman rite?
[/quote]
The Church discourages fasting by the young, pregnant women, and anyone with medical problems. Fasting is not about harming the body; rather, it is a spiritual exercise intended to help a person grow in faith and love through ascesis.

[Apotheoun]

[quote name='zunshynn' date='05 February 2010 - 11:56 AM' timestamp='1265396205' post='2051651']
And what is the significance of Monday to Wednesday of the first week that no food is taken then?
[/quote]
Beginning Great Lent on a Monday (i.e., the Monday following Forgiveness Sunday, a.k.a., Ch[color="#000000"]ee[/color]se-Fare) simply allows for a full 40 days fast prior to Great and Holy Week.

[Apotheoun]

[quote name='zunshynn' date='05 February 2010 - 11:56 AM' timestamp='1265396205' post='2051651']
And what is the significance of Monday to Wednesday of the first week that no food is taken then?
[/quote]
Sorry, I initially misunderstood your question.

The strict fast from Monday to Wednesday at the beginning of Great Lent is about purification, i.e., it is about beginning the forty day fast with an act that cleanses both mind and body, and which is brought to an end only after the first pre-sanctified liturgy of that most holy season on Wednesday night.

[laetitia crucis]

This is just amazing...

So..is this fast restricted only to those in the Byzantine Churches?

[Apotheoun]

[quote name='laetitia crucis' date='06 February 2010 - 08:02 AM' timestamp='1265468561' post='2051937']
This is just amazing...

So..is this fast restricted only to those in the Byzantine Churches?
[/quote]
It is simply the traditional fast of the Eastern Churches of the Byzantine Rite.

[Resurrexi]

The Latin Church used to have a very strict Lenten fast as well.

[tinytherese]

Has anyone read this? http://www.amazon.com/Questions-Answers-Eastern-Catholic-Churches/dp/0809144417/ref=pd_cp_b_1

I've been growing curious to know more about the other lung.

[HisChild]

[quote name='tinytherese' date='06 February 2010 - 08:51 PM' timestamp='1265514695' post='2052287']
Has anyone read this? http://www.amazon.com/Questions-Answers-Eastern-Catholic-Churches/dp/0809144417/ref=pd_cp_b_1

I've been growing curious to know more about the other lung.
[/quote]


I JUST got this book last week.

I've been attending the Byzantine Liturgy. As I also attended the Byzantine Church back in 2008 during Great Lent and tried to keep the fast for most of Lent (and have been seeing the priest for direction) I've been given permission to keep the full fast this year. (Originally he instructed me to only fast on Wednesdays and Fridays with the exhortation, of course that obedience is better than sacrifice.)

I'm SO looking forward to my first full Great Lent with the Byzantine traditional fasting.

[HisChild]

Is anyone else reading The Ladder of Divine Ascent for Great Lent?