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“It is good,” said the archangel Raphael Tovitam, “prayer with fasting, almsgiving and righteousness” (Tov. 12:8). A great blessing - such a post! It is good for sinners as the only door for leaving the carnal state, for entering the saving pasture of repentance and for a non-existent stay in this saving pasture. He is a great blessing not only for sinners: he is a great blessing for the righteous, a great weapon in their hands. Throughout their earthly journey they do not leave him; they keep themselves pure and sacred. They base their fasting on mercy; They consider their fasting to be the basis of prayer; through the prayer of faith (James 5:15) they receive everything they ask for (Mark 11:24). Our flesh, says St. Mark 66, is taken from the earth and in its properties is similar to earth: it requires cultivation. Just as seeds sown in a field not cultivated with agricultural tools are lost without bearing any fruit, so prayer remains fruitless if the flesh is not prepared for it, the heart is not prepared through fasting. Entertainment and aggravation of thoughts, coldness, hardness of heart, vain and sinful dreams, constantly arising in the imagination, destroy the prayer of the satiated. And vice versa, just as in a field carefully cultivated with agricultural tools, but not sown with useful seeds, tares grow with particular force, so in the heart of a fasting person, if he, being satisfied with one physical feat, does not protect the mind with a spiritual feat, that is, prayer, the tares of conceit and arrogance grow thickly and strongly. High wisdom and conceit in a reckless, rigid faster are always combined with humiliation and condemnation of one’s neighbor, with a special ability to be tempted, and finally with self-delusion, pride, and destruction. Fasting, this powerful weapon - when it is left to itself, when from a weapon it is already transformed into, as it were, the goal of life, the goal of vanity - becomes an instrument of suicide for the ascetic. The Pharisees fasted like this, and they fasted a lot, they fasted to their own detriment (Matthew 9:14). “I did not choose fasting,” says the Lord, “if you wear a hat like your sickle, and put on sackcloth and ashes, then you will call fasting pleasant.” This is not the kind of fast I have chosen, says the Lord: but resolve all unrighteousness, destroy the debts of violent exactions, release the contrite into freedom, and tear up every unrighteous scripture. Break your bread for the hungry, and bring the bloodless beggars into your house: if you see a naked person, clothe him, and do not despise those of your tribe. Then your light will open early, and your healing will quickly shine forth: and your righteousness will come before you, and the glory of God will embrace you. Then you will cry, and God will hear you, and while I am speaking your prayer, he will say, “Behold, I have come” (Isaiah 58:5–9). The Prophet demands that fasting be preceded and accompanied by mercy; he makes a promise that the prayer of an ascetic who combines fasting with mercy will be immediately heard, that such an ascetic will be honored with a gracious visit from God. And everywhere the Holy Spirit establishes the law of combining fasting with prayer. “Turn to Me with all your heart,” the Lord calls to sinners through the mouth of another prophet, exhorting and encouraging them to repentance, “with fasting and weeping and mourning, and rend your hearts, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God... Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify the fast, preach celibacy” (Joel 2:12-15). The repentant Ninevites demonstrated the power of fasting and prayer. God had already spoken the decree against them, it had already been announced to them by the prophet Jonah; Already the prophet, having retired outside the city, looked intently at the city and hourly expected the fulfillment of the formidable prophecy. But the Ninevites resorted to repentance, proving the genuineness of repentance by abandoning evil deeds, intensified fasting, and intensified prayer - “and God repented of the evil that he said to do to them, and did not do it” (John 3:10). In the New Testament, the Lord announced that fasting would become a common feat of all His disciples, “when the heavenly bridegroom is taken away from them” - the Lord, by ascension into heaven (Luke 5:35). And how can the disciples of the Lord Jesus not fast on earth, how not to weep on it, how not to put on the garment of sorrow, when their Treasure, the only Treasure, is far from them, when the path to Him is full of difficulties - slandered by thieves terrible both in number and in malice! All the saints of God spent their earthly lives in fasting and prayer. Thus, according to the testimony of the Gospel, Saint Anna, the prophetess, daughter of Phanuel, did not leave the church, serving God with fasting and prayers day and night (Luke 2:37). The Holy Scripture tells about the great Judith that she “fasted all the days of her widowhood,” had an experienced understanding of prayer, knew its power, through prayer achieved a living faith in God, and by faith accomplished a wonderful feat (Judith. 8:6). “I covered my soul with fasting” (Ps. 68:11), says the inspired David, so strong is this feat; “Humble my soul with fasting” - this is how this feat counteracts self-satisfaction and pompousness, which arise from satiety! Through fasting, “my prayer will return to my bosom” (Ps. 34:13); without him, she is a sad victim of mental entertainment, inseparable from satiety. The Holy Apostle Paul, counting the signs of true servants of God, among these signs mentions being in fasting (2 Cor. 5:5) and prayer (Rom. 12:12; Col. 4:2). He testifies about himself that he spent his earthly life in constant exploits, hardships and sorrows; he mentions both the hunger and thirst to which he was subjected by coincidence of circumstances, and that arbitrary incessant fasting with which he tamed and enslaved his body (2 Cor. 11:27; 1 Cor. 9:27). Evangelist Luke, describing in the Acts the collective stay in Jerusalem of the holy apostles, after the ascension into heaven of our Lord Jesus Christ, with the Most Holy Virgin Mother of God and other wives who followed the Lord during His earthly pilgrimage, says: “These you endured with one accord in prayer and supplication” (Acts 1:14). From these words it is clear that their prayers were very long and incessant, which is impossible to accomplish without the help of fasting. Such was the life of the apostles! Such was the life of the martyrs! such is the life of the monks! It was and is the combination of unceasing prayer with constant fasting. Their mercy and love for their brethren, for those who love and those who hate, was divine, as exceeding human nature, as borrowed from the breasts of the Lord Himself. They not only had compassion for everyone in need of mental and physical needs, not only did they forgive all insults and grave insults; They joyfully laid down their souls for the salvation of their neighbors, for the salvation of their enemies. In important circumstances and difficulties of life, before the beginning of great deeds, and during the onset of great sorrows, the saints of God intensified their fasting and their prayers. Our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, showed us an example of both. Before His descent, to preach and save mankind, the Lord withdrew into the desert, where he fasted for forty days and forty nights. “He fasted,” says Blessed Theophylact, “deigning to show us that fasting is a great weapon both during temptations and against demons. Just as the increase of food is the beginning of every sin, so abstinence is the beginning of every virtue.”67 The leader for the feat of fasting and for the feat against the devil is the Holy Spirit 68. Before the election of the twelve apostles, who were destined to capture the universe in faith and salvation, the Lord ascended to a secluded mountain and remained in prayer all night (Luke 6:12); Before the resurrection of Lazarus, the Lord turned to thank the Father for hearing His prayer. “I knew,” He said, “that you always obey me, because the will of the Father and the Son is one Divine will, but for the sake of the people standing around, I decided that they would have faith, because you sent me” (John 11:42). In the same way, before the election of the apostles, the Lord had no need for prayer, but turned to prayer and remained in it the whole night, showing, according to the mind of the holy fathers, 69 by his actions an image for our actions, showing us that God accepts our short prayer, but that before important occasions and undertakings, especially long and especially intense prayer is useful, necessary, necessary for us. Before suffering and death on the cross, which the Lord deigned to submit to for the redemption of mankind, He came to the Garden of Gethsemane, to the place where the tradition was to take place, revealing within Himself a voluntary sacrifice offered according to the one indivisible will of the Father and the Son. By this He showed us that we must accept every misfortune sent down to us from above as our integral part, accept it with self-sacrifice, with submission to the will of God, with faith in Almighty God, Who vigilantly watches over us, from Whom all our hair is counted, from Whom “my bone is not hidden,” as the prophet said, “thou hast created secretly, and my composition is in the depths of the earth” (Ps. 139:15). The Lord showed us a means by which we can and must strengthen the weakness of human nature during the onset of adversity. He turned to intense prayer. To the disciples overcome by sleep, He commanded: “Watch and pray, so that you do not fall into misfortune” (Matthew 26:41). So that the attack that comes does not seize a person, does not take possession of him, does not consume him, prayer is necessary. During adversity, what is needed to overcome adversity is that spiritual strength, that Divine unshakable peace that is brought through prayer. To defeat Satan, who strives with thoughts of sadness, hopelessness and despair to shake and destroy a person who has been subjected to adversity by God’s definition, so that our faith does not become weak during adversity, prayer is needed. We need it so that in the midst of the sorrow itself we can feel, according to the apostle’s testament, “all the joy that he commanded us to have when we fall into various temptations” (James 1:2). The gracious consolation of prayer can only be received by those who have been purified by fasting, and can only be preserved by those who maintain their purity by fasting. The Lord's true servants have followed and will continue to follow the example of the Lord. Even in the Old Testament, led by the Spirit of Christ, Saint David, in especially difficult life circumstances, intensified his fasting and his prayers (2 Sam. 12:16; Ps. 34:13). Like him, the holy prophet Daniel, realizing from the book of the prophet Jeremiah that the number of years appointed by God for the stay of the captive Jews in Babylon had come, that the time had come for their return to Jerusalem, turned with intense prayer to God for the deliverance of the Jews, intensifying the prayer with fasting: “I breathed in,” he says, “my face to the Lord God, to seek prayers and petitions in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes. And I prayed to my Lord and confessed” (Dan. 9:3–4). The state into which fasting and prayer bring a person is especially capable of receiving God's blessings and Divine revelations. Thus, the alms, prayers and fasting of Cornelius the centurion appeared before God and brought him the greatest benefit: the knowledge of Christ. “I ran fasting and praying at the ninth hour in my house,” the centurion told the Apostle Peter about himself, “and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothes.” It was an angel (Acts 10:30). Thus, a great shroud appeared to the praying and hungry Apostle Peter, descending from heaven, forming the pagan world, accepted by God to faith in Christ and to salvation in Christ (Acts 10:11). Thus, “to those who served the apostles of the Lord and to those who fasted” (Acts 13:2), the Holy Spirit revealed that He chose Paul and Barnabas to preach Christianity to the pagans, and commanded them to be separated and sent to this service. The apostles, having heard the command of the Holy Spirit during prayer and fasting, before fulfilling this command, again resorted to fasting and prayer, so that the command received with the assistance of fasting and prayer would be fulfilled with their assistance. “Then having fasted and prayed and laid hands on her, she sent them away” (Acts 13:3), says the writer of the Apostolic Acts. Everyone knows how successful the ministry of Paul and Barnabas was! It culminated in the spread of Christianity throughout the then known universe. There are countless proofs and examples that all the saints of God are then honored with Divine revelations when they renounce themselves by fasting from matter, and through pure prayer, with naked minds, not clogged by any dream, not entertained by any extraneous thought, they appear in deep reverence and peace to the invisible and unknown God. Beloved brothers! Having learned the meaning and power of spiritual weapons - almsgiving, fasting and prayer, let us hasten to gird ourselves with these weapons. Let us acquire mercy, let us be clothed in goodness, according to the instruction and conviction of the apostle (Col. 3:12). Let mercy be a distinctive feature of our character, a constant distinctive feature of our behavior. Outside of mercy, let us not seek truth 71. Mercy coming from damaged human nature is contrary to truth; The mercy pouring out from the commandments of the Gospel, despite its abundance, is in inextricable union with the righteousness of God and serves as its expression (Ps. 84:11–14, 89:15). Not only during the holy fasts appointed by the Holy Church, let us humble our bodies with moderate consumption of food, food of a certain quality, but at other times we will also use food wisely, in proportion to essential needs, to maintain bodily strength and bodily health. Having enslaved the body to the spirit through fasting, having made our spirit angel-like in goodness, let us inspire it with prayer: may our spirit acquire the blessed skill of quickly and often reclining to God and asking for God’s blessing on our endeavors, God’s help for our actions 72 . We will not be slow to see God as an assistant, as the ruler of our activities. This is not enough! Often ascending in thought to God, we will gradually clear our moral path from all lawlessness, not only gross, but also subtle, committed in thoughts and sensations. Who, calling on God for help, dares to call on Him to help a vicious cause? Who, submitting his petition to the view of the King of kings, does not first take care that the petition is worthy of the Royal and Divine gaze, penetrating into the inmost places of the heart and seeing with equal clarity everything visible and invisible? “If we ask anything according to his will,” only in that will he “listen to us” (1 John 5:14), said the apostle. Who, turning to God every hour, does not acquire the conviction and feeling that he lives under the eyes of God, that his every deed, every movement of his soul is seen by the all-seeing and omnipresent God? This belief and feeling is a necessary consequence: the spiritual success of a Christian. May the merciful Lord grant us this success for the glory of His name and for our salvation. Amen. Word 7th. About fasting and humility Interpretation of bl. Theophylact on Luke. 4 Interpretation of Blessed Theophylact Saint Isaac of Syria. Word 1st Saint Isaac of Syria. Word 56th This soul-saving advice belongs to the Monk Barsanuphius the Great. Answer 261 You might be interested in: