BOB ABERNETHY, host: For Eastern Orthodox Christians this is Great Lent, the 40-day period of strict fasting leading up to Easter. The Orthodox are supposed to observe fasts of one kind or another nearly all year; no meat on some days, no dairy or oil on others. Their calendars serve as reminders. The discipline of fasting is supposed to help focus the mind on God and bring the person fasting closer to God. Catherine Mandell of Clearfield, Pennsylvania talked with us about her family’s fasts.
CATHERINE MANDELL: The church generally gives us a calendar to help us track those days that we are to fast and which days we’re allowed not to fast. We have several others fasting periods during the year. If you take all those days together you are fasting for more than half the year….
In my own opinion, one of the shames of the Reformation was the loss of the tradition of fasting and its spiritual value. “Giving up” something like chocolate or soda is really not fasting.
I wonder if my current medical state would count as a perpetual fast. I haven’t had anything solid to eat since a surgery four years ago…
Yes the fasting gets a little old after a while. But it all seems worth it after you commune at the Easter liturgy and then go and join in the giant feast. In our parish Matins begin at around 11 PM on Great and Holy Saturday and then swings right into the Pascha Liturgy. That usually runs till somewhere between 230 and 300 AM though it can run a little longer if they include reading the Gospel in all of the different languages (we skip that part and stick to English). After which the Easter Baskets with all of the goodies are blessed and then everyone heads over to the hall for a giant Break-Fast. The meal runs into the small hours of the morning and we gorge ourselves on all the things we were supposed to be fasting from all through Lent. Needless to say Easter Sunday is a pretty “down” day for most of us after we all get home.
It really is pretty awesome.