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The Church Fathers described fasting as a means of prayer, saying: “The first substance of prayer is hunger.” Moses, fasting for many days, saw God face to face on the mountain and talked with Him, just as an ordinary person talks with his friend. While fasting, the prophet Elijah saw God in the breath of a quiet wind, and was also honored to ascend above the earth, thereby clearly prefiguring the Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ from earth to Heaven. Christ himself, fasting in the desert, defeated the common tempter, destroyed his power directed against people and crushed his evil dominion, freeing man. Do you see what the gifts of fasting are? Do you see how many great benefits a person receives through fasting? Even the passions opposite to abstinence, that is, gluttony and depravity, clearly show the benefits that fasting brings to a person. Pleasure is the cause not only of sin, but also of wickedness. And vice versa, fasting and abstinence help not only in virtue, but also in worship of God, which should always be close to fasting and abstinence. When a person is filled beyond measure, this prevents his soul from grieving for God about his sins and being in tenderness, which helps the firm repentance necessary for salvation. After all, without a contrite heart it is impossible to truly repent. What crushes the heart and makes one grieve over one’s sins is limiting oneself in food and sleep, as well as purifying one’s feelings. The rich man about whom Christ talks in the Gospel said to himself this way: “You have much goodness, eat, drink, be merry” (Luke 12:16–21). With these words, he made himself not only worthy of eternal punishment, but also unworthy even of this earthly life. Let us, brothers, tell ourselves the opposite words: “Let us abstain and fast, watch and be collected, humble ourselves and suffer for the sake of our salvation.” By fasting and praying, let's remove from our souls all the evil that we have against someone. Let's give ourselves completely to love. Let's try to understand each other as best as possible. Let us be inspired by love and kindness, speaking kindly of each other. Let us think only about what is good before God and people. Then our fast will be impeccable and worthy of praise before God, and our petitions to Him during fasting will become favorable to Him. The devil often tries with all his might to make our fast useless, inspiring us to be selfish, trying to make us like the Gospel Pharisee, who, although he fasted and prayed, found himself without Divine help. Let us pray and fast with a contrite heart, knowing that every proud person is unclean and the Lord does not accept him. Let us recognize our debt to the Lord for His many and great benefits. Then our fast will become truly pure and pleasing to God. If we keep just such a fast: spiritual and physical - and at the same time pray, then the flame of carnal lust will go out in us, anger will be tamed like a lion, and we will be able to attack the full force of the enemy. Fasting gives you a lot. Any other virtue, such as prayer, meekness or chastity, adorns either the soul or the body. Fasting and abstinence tames bodily uprisings. It quenches the frenzy of anger and lust, makes thought pure and cloudless, since it cleanses it of the fumes that come from a lot of food and the heaviness that it causes. By fasting and abstinence the outer man is humbled, while at the same time the inner man is renewed. Somewhere it is said: “A fat belly does not give birth to a subtle mind.” When the stomach becomes thin through fasting and abstinence, the mind also cannot help but become thin. Fasting and abstinence are a double fence, and the one who lives in fasting and abstinence enjoys abundant peace. So, striving towards these virtues, let us avoid gluttony, love abstinence and kiss the coming days of fasting. Fasting makes the body's hearing sensitive to the soul, it purifies thoughts. And then a person rushes to God with love. The Apostle Paul says about himself that he spent a lot of time in hunger and thirst and fasting. For you, brother, fasting does not last forever. You abstain from food and water only until sunset 2. So isn’t fasting on the days determined by the Church within the power of almost every person – to the best of his or her own ability? Or do you feel sorry for your flesh and avoid fasting, believing that it leads to exhaustion? No, in fact, fasting leads to the opposite result. Saturation, by its nature, causes pain in the joints, many other diseases occur from intemperate nutrition, a person who abuses food feels very bad. But fasting, on the contrary, is the parent of health. A glutton destroys his body, making it weak and painful. All the senses are involved in intemperance. Let us fast with all our senses. If you are fasting, abstaining from simple dishes, then be attentive to the thoughts that appear in the depths of your soul, to curiosity and ill will. Let your ears be closed to the judgments of other people and all kinds of evil whispers. Otherwise, the anger that you avoid by limiting one feeling with abstinence can penetrate your soul through another feeling. We consist of soul and body. True fasting is one in which all senses participate, which cleanses and heals the whole person. Healing the soul by fasting, brothers, is truly a philanthropic deed. That is why the Fathers of the Church encourage us to fast on these holy days. During fasting, those who fast are attacked by evil visible and invisible animals. The desire for food and bodily pleasure openly attacks. Vanity, pride and hypocrisy secretly attack. Fasting and intemperance are in relation to each other in the same position as life and death. Fasting is a commandment of life, and this commandment was given to the first man. God commanded Adam to fast in paradise in order to preserve life and the Divine grace given to him from God. The devil, wanting to push Adam and Eve out of life and make them alien to Divine grace, slyly whispers advice not to abstain. God did not create death, He does not take pleasure in the fact that people die. So who wants to receive life and grace from God? Let such a person avoid deadly intemperance and resort to idolizing fasting and abstinence in order to return to heaven again, rejoicing. Fasting for forty days on the mountain, the holy prophet Moses soared to the heights of vision of God and received from God the tablets of piety. And at this very time, the Jewish people, feasting and drinking under the mountain, falling into wickedness, created a calf idol in the image of the Egyptian god Apis. And if Moses had not turned out to be an intercessor to God for his people, then God would not have had any mercy on his fellow tribesmen. Therefore, if we also need the mercy of God, then we will not get drunk and burden ourselves with satiety, since this will be followed by fornication and wickedness. And the God-seer Elijah also cleansed himself beforehand by fasting. Let us fear that we too, having given ourselves over to gluttony, will fall away from the blessing of God. Let us commit ourselves to true fasting. Our Lord Jesus Christ, having taken on flesh, becoming Man for our sake and fasting, showed us the way by which victory over the devil is achieved. Thus he defeated the tempter, who rose up against him in every possible way. The Lord said this to His disciples about the dumb and deaf demon: “This generation does not proceed except by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:21). Let us not be carried away by the insatiability of the belly and the pleasure of the larynx. We will put food away from ourselves before we have eaten enough. Let a person eat what he has, according to his weakness, without adding excess to what is necessary. Let a person be content with food, avoiding pleasure, be content with proportionality, avoiding intemperance and abuse. The purpose for which fasting was established among Christians was the purification of the soul. If you are able, give your excess comfort food to the needy. After all, now you feed yourself with abstinence; do not put off the excess for tomorrow. Satisfy the one who is hungry. Add intense prayer to your fast. The saints practiced prayer and fasting more than all other virtues. When all the members of our body suffer during fasting, they will cry out to the Lord in prayer with one voice. And in a fair way this prayer will become favorable before God, who will fairly reward those who, of their own free will, devote themselves to the work of fasting. The church charter on fast days prescribes not only abstaining from fast food, but also eating fast food no earlier than a certain hour.