What sacred fast lasts 7 weeks. Posts of the Orthodox Church. When was the Petrov Post established?
What date will be Petrov post in 2020? In 2020, Petrov fast lasts from June 15 to July 11.
In whose honor is it named? What is the history of its origin? Read all this and more in our article.
The emergence of Peter's post
7 days after the holiday (Pentecost) begins, in memory of the two most revered apostles Peter and Paul.
The establishment of Peter's fast - earlier it was called the fast of Pentecost - dates back to the very first times of the Orthodox Church. He especially established himself when, in Constantinople and Rome, St. equal to ap. Constantine the Great (d. 337; commemorated May 21) erected churches in honor of Sts. Chief Apostles Peter and Paul. The consecration of the church in Constantinople took place on June 29 (according to the old style; that is, July 12 according to the new style), and since then this day has become especially solemn both in the East and in the West. This is the end day of the fast. Its initial border is mobile: it depends on the day of the celebration of Easter; therefore, the duration of fasting varies from 6 weeks to a week and one day.
Among the people, Petrov fasting was simply called “Petrovka” or “Petrovka-hunger strike”: at the beginning of summer, there was little left of the last harvest, and the new one was still far away. But why post all the same Petrovsky? Why Apostolic is understandable: the apostles always prepared themselves for the service by fasting and prayer (remember how when the disciples asked why they could not cast out demons, the Lord explained to them that this kind comes out only by prayer and fasting (see Mark 9, 29), and therefore the Church calls us to this summer fast, following the example of those who, having received the Holy Spirit on the day of the Holy Trinity (Pentecost), “in labor and weariness, often in vigil, in hunger and thirst, often in fasting” (2 Cor. 11, 27) were preparing for the worldwide preaching of the Gospel, and calling the fast "Peter and Paul" is simply inconvenient - too cumbersome, it so happened that when naming the apostles, we pronounce the name of Peter first.
The holy apostles were so different: Peter, the elder brother of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called, was a simple, uneducated, poor fisherman; Paul is the son of wealthy and noble parents, a Roman citizen, a student of the famous Jewish law teacher Gamaliel, "a scribe and a Pharisee." Peter is a faithful disciple of Christ from the very beginning, a witness to all the events of his life from the moment he started preaching.
Paul is the worst enemy of Christ, who kindled hatred for Christians in himself and asked the Sanhedrin for permission to persecute Christians everywhere and bring them to Jerusalem bound. Peter, of little faith, denied Christ three times, but contritely repented and became the beginning of Orthodoxy, the foundation of the Church. And Paul, who fiercely resisted the truth of the Lord, and then just as ardently believed.
An inspirational layman and a passionate orator, Peter and Paul personify spiritual strength and intelligence, two much-needed missionary qualities. After all, how, if not a call to missionary work, should the arrival of Petrovsky respond in us, i.e. Apostolic post? The Lord sent the apostles into the world in order to teach all nations: “Go, therefore, teach all nations… teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19; 20). “If you do not want to teach and admonish yourself in Christianity, then you are not a disciple and follower of Christ, the apostles were not sent for you, you are not what all Christians were from the very beginning of Christianity ...” (Metr. Moscow Filaret. Words and speeches: in 5 vols. T. 4. - M., 1882. Ps. 151-152).
Questions and answers about Peter's post
What is the date of Petrov post in 2020?
When was the Petrov post established?
The establishment of Peter's fast refers to the first times of the Orthodox Church.
The church establishment of this fast is mentioned in the apostolic decrees: “After Pentecost, celebrate one week, and then fast; justice requires both rejoicing after receiving gifts from God, and fasting after the relief of the flesh.
But this fast was especially confirmed when churches were built in Constantinople and Rome, which had not yet fallen away from Orthodoxy, in the name of the supreme apostles Peter and Paul. The consecration of the church in Constantinople took place on June 29 (July 12 according to the new style), and since then this day has become especially solemn both in the East and in the West. The preparation of pious Christians for this holiday through fasting and prayer has become established in the Orthodox Church.
Since the 4th century, the testimonies of the Church Fathers about the apostolic fast have become more and more frequent, it is mentioned by St. Athanasius the Great, Ambrose of Milan, and in the 5th century - Leo the Great and Theodoret of Cyrus.
St. Athanasius the Great, describing in his defensive speech to Emperor Constantius the disasters caused to Orthodox Christians by the Arians, says: “The people who fasted in the week following St. Pentecost, departed to pray in the cemetery.
Why does Peter's fast follow the day of Pentecost?
The Day of Pentecost, when on the fiftieth day after His coming out of the tomb and on the tenth day after His ascension, the Lord, who sat at the right hand of the Father, sent down the Most Holy Spirit on all His disciples and apostles, is one of the greatest holidays. This is the fulfillment of a new eternal covenant with people, about which the prophet Jeremiah foretold: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; that My covenant they broke, though I remained in union with them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their inwardness, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they will be My people. And they will no longer teach one another, brother to brother, and say, “Know the Lord,” for all themselves will know Me, from the smallest to the greatest, says the Lord, because I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sins no more” (Jer 31:31-34).
The Holy Spirit, who descended on the apostles, the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, instead of Sinai, inscribed the new Zion law, not on tablets of stone, but on fleshly tablets of the heart (2 Cor. 3, 3). The place of the Sinai law was replaced by the grace of the Holy Spirit, who gives laws, gives strength to the fulfillment of the Law of God, who pronounces justification not by works, but by grace.
We do not fast on Pentecost because the Lord was with us during those days. We do not fast, because He Himself said: Can you force the sons of the bridal chamber to fast when the bridegroom is with them? (Luke 5:34). Fellowship with the Lord is like food for a Christian. So, at Pentecost we feed on the Lord, who deals with us.
“After the long feast of Pentecost, fasting is especially necessary in order to purify our thoughts and become worthy of the gifts of the Holy Spirit through its feat,” writes St. Leo the Great. -A real feast, which the Holy Spirit sanctified by His descent, is usually followed by a nationwide fast, beneficially established for the healing of soul and body, and therefore requiring that we spend it with due goodwill. For we do not doubt that after the apostles were filled with the power promised from above, and the Spirit of truth dwelled in their hearts, among other mysteries of the heavenly teaching, at the suggestion of the Comforter, the teaching was also taught about spiritual continence, so that the hearts, cleansed by fasting, would become more capable to the acceptance of grace-filled gifts, ... it is impossible to fight the forthcoming efforts of persecutors and the furious threats of the wicked in a pampered body and fattened flesh, since what delights our external person destroys the internal one, and on the contrary, the rational soul is purified the more the more the flesh is mortified.
Therefore, the teachers, who enlightened by example and instruction all the children of the Church, marked the beginning of the battle for Christ with holy fasting, so that, going out to battle against spiritual corruption, they would have a weapon in abstinence for this, with which it would be possible to kill sinful desires, for our invisible opponents and disembodied enemies will not overcome us if we do not indulge in carnal lusts. Although the desire to harm us is constant and invariable in the tempter, it remains powerless and inactive when he does not find in us a side from which he can attack ...
For this reason, an unchanging and saving custom has been established - after the holy and joyful days that we celebrate in honor of the Lord, who has risen from the dead and then ascended to heaven, and after receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, to go through the field of fasting.
This custom must also be diligently observed in order that the gifts that are now communicated to the Church from God remain in us. Having become temples of the Holy Spirit and, more than ever, having been made to drink of Divine waters, we must not submit to any desires, we must not serve any vices, so that the habitation of virtue is not defiled by anything ungodly.
With the help and assistance of God, we can all achieve this, if only, purifying ourselves with fasting and alms, we will try to free ourselves from the defilements of sin and bear abundant fruits of love. Next, St. Leo of Rome writes: “Of the apostolic canons that God Himself inspired, the primates of the Church, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, were the first to set that all feats of virtue should begin with fasting.
They did this because the commandments of God can be fulfilled well only when the army of Christ is protected from all temptations of sin by holy abstinence.
And so, beloved, we must practice fasting primarily at the present time, in which fasting is commanded to us, after the end of the fifty days that have elapsed from the resurrection of Christ until the descent of the Holy Spirit and have been spent by us in special solemnity.
This fast is commanded to prevent us from being careless, which is very easy to fall into due to the long-term permission to eat that we have enjoyed. If the cornfield of our flesh is not cultivated unceasingly, thorns and thistles easily grow on it, and such a fruit is brought forth that is not gathered into the granary, but doomed to be burned.
Therefore, we are now obliged with all diligence to keep those seeds that we have received into our hearts from the heavenly Sower, and beware that the envious enemy does not somehow spoil what God has given, and the thorns of vices do not grow in the paradise of virtues. This evil can only be averted by mercy and fasting.
Bl. Simeon of Thessaloniki writes that fasting was instituted in honor of the apostles, “because through them we were vouchsafed many blessings and they were for us leaders and teachers of fasting, obedience ... and abstinence. This, against their will, is also testified by the Latins, honoring the apostles with fasting in their memory. But we, in accordance with the apostolic decrees drawn up by Clement, after the descent of the Holy Spirit, celebrate for one week, and then, with the next one, we honor the apostles who betrayed us to fast.
Why are the apostles Peter and Paul called the chief?
According to the testimony of the word of God, the apostles occupy a special place in the Church - everyone should understand us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God (1 Cor. 4:1).
Clothed equal force from above and with the same authority to absolve sins, all the apostles will sit on twelve thrones near the Son of Man (Matt. 19:28).
Although some of the apostles are distinguished in Scripture and Tradition, such as Peter, Paul, John, James and others, none of them was the main and even superior honor of the others.
But since the Acts of the Apostles mainly tells about the labors of the apostles Peter and Paul, the Church and the holy fathers, reverent at the name of each of the apostles, call these two supreme.
The Church glorifies the Apostle Peter as the one who began from the face of the apostles to confess Jesus Christ as the Son of the living God; Paul, as if he labored more than others and was numbered among the highest of the apostles by the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 11:5); one for firmness, the other for bright wisdom.
Calling the two apostles supreme in the primacy of order and work, the Church inspires that her head is Jesus Christ alone, and all the apostles are His servants (Col. 1:18).
The Holy Apostle Peter, who before his calling bore the name Simon, the elder brother of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called, was a fisherman. He was married and had children. In the words of St. John Chrysostom, he was a fiery, unlearned, simple, poor and God-fearing man. He was brought to the Lord by his brother Andrew, and at the first glance at a simple fisherman, the Lord foretold him the name Cephas, in Syrian, or in Greek - Peter, that is, a stone. After choosing Peter among the apostles, the Lord visited his miserable house and healed his mother-in-law from a fever (Mark 1:29-31).
Among His three disciples, the Lord honored Peter to be a witness of His Divine glory on Tabor, His Divine power at the resurrection of the daughter of Jairus (Mark 5:37), and His human humiliation in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Peter washed away his renunciation of Christ with bitter tears of repentance, and was the first of the apostles to enter the tomb of the Savior after His resurrection, and the first of the apostles was honored to see the Risen One.
The apostle Peter was an outstanding preacher. The power of his word was so great that he converted three, five thousand people to Christ. According to the word of the Apostle Peter, those convicted of a crime fell dead (Acts 5, 5, 10), the dead were raised (Acts 9, 40), the sick were healed (Acts 9, 3-34) even from the touch of one shadow of the passing apostle ( Acts 5:15).
But he did not have the primacy of power. All church affairs were decided common voice apostles and presbyters with the whole Church.
The Apostle Paul, speaking of the apostles, revered as pillars, puts James in the first place, and then Peter and John (Gal. 2:9), but ranks himself among them (2 Cor. 11:5) and compares with Peter. The Council sends Peter to the work of ministry in the same way as other disciples of Christ.
The Apostle Peter made five journeys, preaching the Gospel and turning many to the Lord. He completed his last journey in Rome, where he proclaimed the faith of Christ with great zeal, multiplying the number of disciples. In Rome, the Apostle Peter exposed the deception of Simon the sorcerer, who pretended to be Christ, turned two wives loved by Nero to Christ.
By order of Nero, on June 29, 67, the Apostle Peter was crucified. He asked the tormentors to crucify themselves head down, wishing by this to show the difference between their sufferings and the sufferings of their Divine Teacher.
Wonderful is the story of the conversion of the holy Apostle Paul, who before that had the Hebrew name Saul.
Saul, brought up in Jewish law, hated and tormented the Church of Christ, and even asked the Sanhedrin for the power to find and persecute Christians everywhere. Saul tormented the church, entering houses and dragging men and women, he gave them to prison (Acts 8, 3). One day, “Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, came to the high priest and asked him for letters to Damascus to the synagogues, so that he would find those who followed this teaching, both men and women, by binding, to bring to Jerusalem. As he was walking and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven shone on him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him: Saul, Saul! why are you chasing me? He said: who are you, Lord? The Lord said: I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It's hard for you to go against the pricks. He said in trembling and horror: Lord! what will you tell me to do? and the Lord said to him, Get up and go into the city; and you will be told what you need to do. The people who were walking with him stood in a daze, hearing the voice, but not seeing anyone. Saul got up from the ground, and with his eyes open, he saw no one. And they led him by the hand, and brought him to Damascus. And for three days he did not see, nor eat, nor drink” (Acts 9:1-9).
The stubborn persecutor of Christianity becomes a tireless preacher of the Gospel. Life, deeds, words, letters of Paul - everything testifies to him as a chosen vessel of the grace of God. Neither sorrow, nor oppression, nor persecution, nor famine, nor nakedness, nor danger, nor the sword, could weaken the love of God in Paul's heart.
He made incessant journeys to different countries to preach the gospel to the Jews and especially to the Gentiles. These journeys were accompanied by extraordinary preaching power, miracles, vigilant labor, inexhaustible patience and high holiness of life. Paul's work as an apostle was unparalleled. He spoke of himself: he worked harder than all of them (1 Cor. 15:10). For his labors, the apostle endured untold tribulations. In the year 67, on June 29, at the same time as the Apostle Peter, he was martyred in Rome. As a Roman citizen, he was beheaded with a sword.
The Orthodox Church venerates the Apostles Peter and Paul as enlightening the darkness, glorifies Peter's firmness and Paul's mind and contemplates in them the image of the conversion of sinners and those who are corrected, in the Apostle Peter - the image of one who rejected the Lord and repented, in the Apostle Paul - the image of those who resisted the preaching of the Lord and then believed.
How long does Petrov fast last?
Peter's fast depends on whether Easter happens sooner or later, and therefore its duration is different. It always begins at the end of Triodion, or after the week of Pentecost, and ends on July 12th.
The longest fast is six weeks, and the shortest is a week and one day.
Patriarch Theodore Balsamon of Antioch (XII century) says: “Seven days or more before the feast of Peter and Paul, all the faithful, that is, laymen and monks, are obliged to fast, and let those who do not fast be excommunicated from the message of Orthodox Christians.”
Petrov post: what can you eat?
The feat of Peter's Lent is less strict than the Four Days ( great post): during Peter's Lent, the charter of the Church prescribes weekly - on Wednesdays and Fridays - to abstain from fish. on saturdays, Sundays this fast, as well as on the days of the memory of a great saint or the days of a temple holiday, fish is also allowed.
In the Orthodox Church, there are one-day and many-day fasts. One-day fasts include Wednesday and Friday - weekly, except for special cases specified in the Charter. For monks, a fast is added in honor of the Heavenly Forces on Mondays. Two holidays are also connected with the fasts: the Exaltation of the Cross (September 14/27) and the beheading of John the Baptist (August 29/September 11).
Of the multi-day fasts, first of all, Great Lent should be mentioned, consisting of two fasts: Holy Fortecost, established in memory of the forty-day fast of the Savior in the Jewish desert, and Holy Week, dedicated to the events last days earthly life of Jesus Christ, His Crucifixion, Death and Burial. ( Holy Week translated into Russian - a week of suffering.)
Monday and Tuesday of this week are dedicated to the recollections of the Old Testament types and prophecies about the Cross Sacrifice of Christ the Savior; Wednesday - the betrayal committed by the disciple and apostle of Christ, giving his Teacher to death for 30 pieces of silver; Thursday - the establishment of the Sacrament of the Eucharist (communion); Friday - Crucifixion and death of Christ; Saturday - the presence of the Body of Christ in the tomb (in the burial cave, where, according to the custom of the Jews, the dead were buried). Holy Week contains the main soteriological dogmas (the doctrine of salvation) and is the pinnacle of Christian fasts, just as Easter is the most beautiful crown of all holidays.
The time of Great Lent depends on the passing feast of Easter and therefore does not have stable calendar dates, but its duration, together with Holy Week, is always 49 days.
Peter's fast (the holy apostles Peter and Paul) begins a week after the feast of Holy Pentecost and lasts until June 29/July 12. This post was established in honor of the preaching work and martyrdom of the disciples of Jesus Christ.
Dormition fast - from August 1/14 to August 15/28 - established in honor of Mother of God whose earthly life was a spiritual martyrdom and empathy for the suffering of her Son.
Christmas post– from November 15/28 to December 25/January 7. This is the preparation of believers for the feast of Christmas - the second Easter. AT symbolic meaning it indicates the state of the world before the coming of the Savior.
Special positions may be appointed church hierarchy on the occasion of social disasters (epidemics, wars, etc.). It is a pious custom in the Church to fast each time before the Sacrament of Communion.
AT modern society questions about the meaning and meaning of fasting cause a lot of confusion and disagreement. The teaching and mystical life of the Church, its Charter, rules and rituals still remain as unfamiliar and incomprehensible to some of our contemporaries as the history of pre-Columbian America. Temples with their mysterious, like hieroglyphs, symbolism, aspiring to eternity, frozen in a metaphysical flight upwards, seem to be shrouded in an impenetrable fog, like the icy mountains of Greenland. Only in last years society (or rather, some part of it) began to realize that without solving spiritual problems, without recognizing the primacy of moral values, without religious enlightenment, it is impossible to solve any other tasks and problems of a cultural, social, national, political, and even economic nature, which suddenly turned out to be tied in a Gordian knot. Atheism is retreating, leaving behind it, as on a battlefield, destruction, the collapse of cultural traditions, the deformation of social relationships, and, perhaps, the worst thing - flat, soulless rationalism, which threatens to turn a person from a person into a biomachine, into a monster made up of iron structures. .
A religious feeling is inherent in a person - a feeling of eternity, as an emotional awareness of one's immortality. This is the mysterious evidence of the soul about the realities of the spiritual world, which is beyond the limits of sensory perception - the gnosis (knowledge) of the human heart, its unknown forces and capabilities.
A person brought up in materialistic traditions is accustomed to consider the data of science and technology, literature and art to be the pinnacle of knowledge. Meanwhile, this is an insignificant part of knowledge in comparison with the huge information that a person possesses as a living organism. Man owns the most complex system of memory and thinking. In addition to the logical reason, it includes innate instincts, the subconscious, which captures and stores all of its mental activity; superconsciousness - the ability of intuitive comprehension and mystical contemplation. Religious intuition and synthetic thinking are the highest form of knowledge - the "crown" of gnosis.
AT human body there is an incessant exchange of information, without which not a single living cell could exist.
The volume of this information in one day is immeasurably greater than the content of books in all the libraries of the world. Plato called knowledge "remembrance", a reflection of divine gnosis.
Empirical reason, crawling over the facts like a snake on the ground, cannot understand these facts, because, when analyzing, it decomposes the object into cells, crushes and mortifies. Kills a living phenomenon, but cannot revive it. Religious thinking is synthetic. This is an intuitive penetration into the spiritual realms. Religion is the meeting of man with God, as well as the meeting of man with himself. A person feels his soul as a special, living, invisible substance, and not as a function of the body and a complex of biocurrents; feels itself as a unity (monad) of the spiritual and the corporeal, and not as a conglomerate of molecules and atoms. A man opens his spirit like a diamond in a locket, which he always wore on his chest, not knowing what was inside him; discovers himself as a navigator - the shores of an unknown, mysterious island. Religious thinking is an awareness of the purpose and meaning of life.
The goal of Christianity is to overcome its human limitations through communion with the absolute Divine being. In contrast to Christianity, atheistic teaching is a cemetery religion, which, with the sarcasm and despair of Mephistopheles, says that the material world, having arisen from a certain point and scattered throughout the Universe, like drops of spilled mercury on glass, will be destroyed without a trace and senselessly, gathering again in the same point.
Religion is communion with God. Religion is not only the property of the mind, or feelings, or will, it, like life itself, includes the whole person in his psychophysical unity.
And fasting is one of the means to restore harmony between the spirit and the body, between the mind and the senses.
Christian anthropology (the doctrine of man) is opposed by two trends - materialistic and extremely spiritualistic. Materialists try to explain fasting, depending on the circumstances, either as a product of religious fanaticism or as an experience traditional medicine and hygiene. On the other hand, spiritualists deny the influence of the body on the spirit, dismember the human personality into two principles, and consider it unworthy for religion to deal with questions of food.
Many people say that communion with God requires love. What is the significance of the post? Isn't it humiliating to make your heart dependent on your stomach? Most often, those who would like to justify their dependence on the stomach, or rather, slavery to the stomach and unwillingness to curb or limit themselves in anything, say this. With grandiloquent phrases about imaginary spirituality, they cover up the fear of rebelling against their tyrant - the womb.
Christian love is a feeling of the unity of the human race, respect for the human person as a phenomenon of eternity, as an immortal spirit clothed in flesh. This is the ability to emotionally experience in oneself the joy and grief of another, that is, a way out of one's limitations and selfishness - this is how a prisoner breaks out into the light from a gloomy and dark dungeon. Christian love expands the boundaries of the human personality, makes life deeper and more saturated with inner content. The love of a Christian is selfless, like the light of the sun, it demands nothing in return and considers nothing to be its own. She does not become a slave of others and does not look for slaves for herself, she loves God and man as the image of God, and looks at the world as at a picture drawn by the Creator, where she sees traces and shadows of Divine beauty. Christian love requires an unceasing struggle against selfishness, as against a multifaceted monster; to fight against egoism - the fight against passions, as with wild animals; in order to fight against passions - the subordination of the body to the soul, the rebellious "dark, night slave", as St. Gregory the Theologian called the body, to his immortal queen. Then spiritual love opens in the heart of the conqueror - like a spring in a rock.
Extreme spiritualists deny the influence of physical factors on the spirit, although this is contrary to everyday experience. For them, the body is only a shell of the soul, something external and temporary for a person.
Materialists, on the contrary, emphasizing this influence, want to present the soul as a function of the body - the brain.
The ancient Christian apologist Athenogoras, in response to the question of his pagan opponent about how a bodily illness can affect the activity of a disembodied soul, gives the following example. The soul is a musician, and the body is an instrument. If the instrument is damaged, the musician is unable to extract harmonic sounds from it. On the other hand, if a musician is sick, then the instrument is silent. But this is just an image. In fact, the connection between body and spirit is immeasurably greater. The body and soul make up a single human personality.
Thanks to fasting, the body becomes a refined instrument capable of capturing every movement of the musician - the soul. Figuratively speaking, the body of the African drum turns into a Stradivarius violin. Fasting helps to restore the hierarchy of spiritual forces, to subordinate the complex mental organization of a person to higher spiritual goals. Fasting helps the soul to conquer passions, extracts the soul, like a pearl from a shell, from the captivity of everything grossly sensual and vicious. Fasting frees the spirit of a person from loving attachment to the material, from constant appeal to the earthly.
The hierarchy of the psychophysical nature of a person is like a pyramid, topped down, where the body presses on the soul, and the soul absorbs the spirit. Fasting subdues the body to the soul, and subdues the soul to the spirit. Fasting is an important factor in maintaining and restoring the unity of soul and body.
Conscious self-restraint serves as a means of achieving spiritual freedom, ancient philosophers taught about this: “A person must eat in order to live, but not live in order to eat,” said Socrates. Fasting increases the spiritual potential of freedom: it makes a person more independent of the external and helps to minimize his lower needs. At the same time, energy, opportunity and time for the life of the spirit are released.
Fasting is a volitional act, and religion is largely a matter of will. He who cannot limit himself in food will not be able to overcome stronger and more refined passions. Lechery in food leads to licentiousness in other areas human life.
Christ said: The kingdom of heaven is taken by force, and those who use force take it by force(Matthew 11:12). Without constant tension and feat of will, the Gospel commandments will remain only ideals, shining in an unattainable height, like distant stars, and not the real content of human life.
Christian love is a special, sacrificial love. Fasting teaches us to sacrifice small things first, but “great things begin with small things.” The egoist, on the other hand, demands sacrifices from others - for himself, and most often identifies himself with his body.
The ancient Christians combined the commandment of fasting with the commandment of mercy. They had a custom: to put aside the money saved on food in a special piggy bank and distribute it to the poor on holidays.
We have touched on the personal aspect of fasting, but there is another, no less important, church aspect. Through fasting, a person is included in the rhythms of temple worship, becomes able to really experience the events of biblical history through sacred symbols and images.
The Church is a spiritual living organism, and, like any organism, it cannot exist without certain rhythms.
Fasts precede the great Christian holidays. Fasting is one of the conditions for repentance. Without repentance and purification, it is impossible for a person to experience the joy of the holiday. Rather, he can experience aesthetic satisfaction, an upsurge of strength, exaltation, etc. But this is only a surrogate for spirituality. True, renewing joy, as an action of grace in the heart, will remain inaccessible to him.
Christianity requires us to continually improve. The Gospel reveals to man the abyss of his fall, like a flash of light - a gloomy abyss that opens up under his feet, and at the same time the Gospel reveals to man the infinite, like heaven, Divine mercy. Repentance is a vision of hell in your soul and the love of God, embodied in the person of Christ the Savior. Between the two poles - sadness and hope - there is a path of spiritual rebirth.
A number of fasts are dedicated to the mournful events of biblical history: on Wednesday Christ was betrayed by His disciple Judas; on Friday he was crucified and died. Anyone who does not fast on Wednesday and Friday and says that he loves God is deceiving himself. True love will not satisfy his belly at the tomb of his beloved. Those who fast on Wednesday and Friday receive as a gift the ability to empathize more deeply with the Passion of Christ.
Saints say: "Give blood, receive spirit." Subdue your body to the spirit - it will be good for the body itself, as for a horse - to obey the rider, otherwise both will fly into the abyss. The glutton exchanges the spirit for the womb and acquires fat.
Fasting is a universal phenomenon that existed among all peoples and at all times. But a Christian fast cannot be compared with a Buddhist or Manichean fast. Christian fasting is based on other religious principles and ideas. For a Buddhist, there is no fundamental difference between humans and insects. Therefore, eating meat for him is corpse-eating, close to cannibalism. In some pagan religious schools the use of meat was forbidden, since the theory of the reincarnation of souls (metampsychosis) made one fear that the goose or goat contains the soul of an ancestor who got there according to the law of karma (retribution).
According to the teachings of the Zoroastrians, Manichaeans and other religious dualists, a demonic force took part in the creation of the world. Therefore, some creatures were considered a product of an evil inclination. In a number of religions, fasting was based on a false idea of the human body as a dungeon of the soul and the center of all evil. This gave rise to self-torture and fanaticism. Christianity believes that such a fast leads to even greater frustration and disintegration of the “human trimeria” – spirit, soul and body.
Modern vegetarianism, which preaches the ideas of compassion for living beings, is based on materialistic ideas that blur the line between man and animal. If, however, to be a consistent evolutionist, then one should recognize as living beings all forms of organic life, including trees and grass, that is, doom oneself to starvation. Vegetarians teach that plant foods in themselves mechanically change a person's character. But a vegetarian was, for example, Hitler.
On what basis is food selected for Christian fasting? For a Christian there is no clean or unclean food. This takes into account the experience of the effects of food on the human body, so creatures such as fish and marine animals are lean food. At the same time, besides meat, fast foods also include eggs and dairy products. All plant foods are considered lean.
Christian fasting has several types - depending on the degree of severity. The post includes:
- perfect abstinence from food(According to the Charter of the Church, such strict abstinence is recommended to be observed on the first two days of Holy Forty Days, on Friday of Passion Week, on the first day of the fast of the Holy Apostles);
Raw food - food not cooked on fire;
Dry food is food cooked without vegetable oil;
Strict post - without fish;
A simple fast is the consumption of fish, vegetable oil and all types of plant foods.
In addition, during fasting it is recommended to limit the number of meals (for example, to two times a day); reduce the amount of food (to approximately two-thirds of the usual norm). Food should be simple, not fancy. During fasting, food should be taken later than at the usual time - in the afternoon, unless, of course, the circumstances of life and work allow.
It must be borne in mind that the violation of Christian fasting includes not only eating fast food, but also haste in eating, empty talk and jokes at the table, etc. Fasting must be strictly proportionate to the health and strength of a person. Saint Basil the Great writes that it is unfair for a strong and weak body to prescribe the same measure of fasting: “for some, the body is like iron, while for others it is like straw.”
Fasting is facilitated: for pregnant women, women in labor and breastfeeding mothers; for those on the road and caught in extreme conditions; for children and the elderly, if old age is accompanied by infirmity and weakness. Fasting is canceled in those conditions when it is physically impossible to get lenten food and a person is threatened with illness or starvation.
In case of some severe gastric diseases, a certain type of quick food necessary for this disease may be included in the fasting diet, but it is best to discuss this with the confessor beforehand.
In the press and other media, doctors often spoke out against fasting - with frightening statements. They painted, in the spirit of Hoffmann and Edgar Allan Poe, a gloomy picture of anemia, beriberi, and dystrophy, which, like ghosts of vengeance, await those who trust the Church Charter more than Pevsner's guide to Food Hygiene. Most often, these physicians confused fasting with the so-called "old vegetarianism", which excluded all animal products from food. They did not take the trouble to sort out the elementary questions of Christian fasting. Many of them did not even know that fish is a lean food. They ignored the facts recorded by statistics: many peoples and tribes that eat mainly plant foods are distinguished by endurance and longevity, the first places in life expectancy are occupied by beekeepers and monks.
At the same time, while publicly rejecting religious fasting, official medicine introduced it into medical practice under the name of “fasting days” and vegetarian diets. Vegetarian days in sanatoriums and the army were Monday and Thursday. Everything that could remind of Christianity was excluded. Apparently, the ideologists of atheism did not know that Monday and Thursday were the fasting days of the ancient Pharisees.
In most Protestant denominations, there are no calendar fasts. Questions about fasting are decided individually.
In modern Catholicism, fasting is reduced to a minimum; eggs and milk are considered lean foods. Eating is allowed one to two hours before communion.
Among Monophysites and Nestorians - heretics - fasting is distinguished by its duration and severity. Perhaps, common eastern regional traditions have an effect here.
The most important fast of the Old Testament Church was the day of "Purification" (in the month of September). In addition, there were traditional fasts to commemorate the destruction of Jerusalem and the burning of the temple.
Food bans, which had an educational and pedagogical character, served as a peculiar type of fasting. Unclean animals personified sins and vices that should be avoided (hare - timidity, camel - vindictiveness, bear - rage, etc.). These prohibitions, accepted in Judaism, were partly transferred to Islam, where unclean animals are perceived as carriers of physical filth.
In Georgia, the people carefully observed fasts, which is recorded in the hagiographic literature. Evfimy Mtatsmindeli (Svyatogorets) compiled a valuable guide on fasting. And in the “Description of Colchis” by the Dominican monk A. Lamberti, in particular, it is reported that “the Mingrelians follow the Greek custom (that is, Orthodoxy - Auth.) - They observe Lent very strictly, they don’t even eat fish! And in general they eat only once a day at sunset. They observe the rite of fasting so firmly that, no matter how sick or old or relaxed they may be, they will not eat meat in any way at this time. Some on Fridays do not eat at all: on last week they do not drink wine, and in the last three days they do not take any food.
According to the teachings of the Church, bodily fasting should be combined with spiritual fasting: abstaining from spectacles, from empty, and even more immodest conversations, from everything that arouses sensuality and dispels the mind. Fasting should be accompanied by solitude and silence, reflection on one's life and judgment on oneself. Post by Christian tradition begins with mutual forgiveness of insults. Fasting with malice in the heart is similar to the fast of a scorpion, which can go without food longer than all creatures on earth, but at the same time produces a deadly poison. Fasting should be accompanied by mercy and help to the poor.
Faith is a direct evidence of the soul about the existence of God and the spiritual world. Figuratively speaking, the heart of a believer is like a special locator that perceives information coming from the spiritual spheres. Fasting contributes to a more subtle and sensitive perception of this information, these waves of spiritual light. Fasting should be combined with prayer. Prayer is the turning of the soul to God, the mystical conversation of creation with its Creator. Fasting and prayer are two wings that lift the soul to heaven.
If we compare Christian life with a temple under construction, then its cornerstones will be the struggle with passions and fasting, and the peak, the crown - spiritual love, which reflects the light of Divine love in itself, like the gold of church domes - the rays of the rising sun.
The Orthodox Church determined all fasts in honor of the greatest church holidays and the most significant biblical events. Fasts are different both in their duration and in the severity of abstinence. The most important and lengthy fasts are multi-day fasts. The Church also encourages all believers to fast on the days of one-day fasts, including Wednesdays and Fridays.
Multi-day fasts of the Orthodox Church.
This fast is the most important and oldest of all the fasts that exist in Orthodoxy. It is commemorated in honor of our Creator, who for forty days, despite the temptation of the devil, did not eat anything. With His forty days of fasting, God determined the path of our universal salvation.
Great Lent lasts for seven weeks. He takes his beginning from the Forgiveness Sunday and lasts until Holy Pascha.
This post has its own characteristics. In increased severity, believers must fast in the first week and in Passion Week. On all other days, the degree of abstinence is determined by specific days of the week:
- Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays are given to dry eating;
- Tuesdays and Thursdays are reserved for hot food without butter;
- Saturdays and Sundays are days of easy relaxation, it is allowed to add oil to food.
The days when fish is allowed include Palm Sunday and the Annunciation. Holy Mother of God. And on Lazarus Saturday, believers can eat a little fish caviar.
Peter's fast (Apostolic) was previously announced by the fast of Pentecost. This fast should be observed in memory of the apostles Peter and Paul, who received the grace of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost and prepared themselves through fasting and frantic prayers for the universal and great preaching of the Gospel.
This fast begins on Monday of the week of All Saints (a week after the feast of the Holy Trinity), and ends on July 12. The duration of this fast may vary, as it depends on the day of Easter.
Petrov fast is considered less strict compared to Great Lent:
- food without oil is provided on Mondays;
- on Tuesdays, Thursdays, as well as Saturdays and Sundays, it is allowed to eat fish, cereals, vegetable oil and mushrooms.
- Dry eating is set on Wednesdays and Fridays.
The Assumption Fast is dedicated to the Assumption of the Mother of God. By observing this fast, we follow the example of the Theotokos Herself, for before her death she was in the strictest fasting and unceasing prayers.
Each of us, more than once in his life, turned to the Mother of God Herself for help, which means that we all should honor Her and fast during the Dormition Fast.
The fast dedicated to the Mother of God is short, it lasts for only two weeks (from the 14th to the 27th of August). This fast implies strict abstinence and allows:
— dry eating on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays;
- hot food without oil on Tuesdays and Thursdays;
- food with butter only on Saturdays and Sundays.
On the Transfiguration of the Lord and on the Dormition (if it falls on Wednesday or Friday), the use of fish is allowed.
The Nativity fast is timed to coincide with the Day of the Nativity of Christ. It starts on November 28 and ends on January 6. This post is necessary for us to cleanse our souls before the great birthday of our Savior.
The charter of eating during this fast until December 19 (the day of St. Nicholas) coincides with the charter of the Apostolic Lent.
From December 20 to January 1, believers are allowed to:
- eat hot food without oil on Mondays;
- add oil to food on Tuesdays and Thursdays;
- stick to dry eating on Wednesdays and Fridays;
— eat fish on Saturdays and Sundays.
- dry eating on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays;
- hot food without oil on Tuesdays and Thursdays;
- adding oil to food on Saturdays and Sundays.
On Christmas Eve, the first meal is allowed only after the first star appears in the sky.
One-day fasts of the Orthodox Church.
January 18 - Epiphany Christmas Eve. Fasting serves as a preparation for purification and consecration with water during the celebration of Epiphany.
11 September - The Beheading of John the Baptist . Fasting serves as a reminder of the death of the prophet John.
September 27 - Exaltation of the Holy Cross . Fasting serves as a reminder of the suffering that the Savior endured on the cross in the name of our common salvation.
Posts on Wednesdays and Fridays.
Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year should also be days of fasting, for these days are a reminder of our Savior. On Wednesday he was vilely betrayed by Judas, and on Friday he was crucified.
Peter's Fast, or Apostolic Fast, depending on the year, lasts from 8 to 42 days. He is dedicated in Orthodoxy to the two supreme apostles - Saints Peter and Paul, on the feast in whose honor July 12 always ends the fast. Lent begins seven days after Trinity.
The history of the post
The church establishment of Peter's fast is mentioned in the apostolic decrees: “After Pentecost, celebrate one week, and then fast; justice requires both rejoicing after receiving gifts from God, and fasting after the relief of the flesh. Fasting was confirmed when temples were built in Constantinople and Rome in the name of the Apostles Peter and Paul. The consecration of the church in Constantinople took place on June 29 (according to the new style - July 12), and since then this day has become especially solemn both in the East and in the West, and in the Orthodox Church it has become established to prepare for this holiday by fasting and prayer.
Christians observed Peter's fast from the first centuries of the existence of the Church. There is a mention of this fast in the "Apostolic Tradition" of the 3rd century, left by Saint Hippolytus of Rome. Then this fast was considered “compensatory”: those who could not fast during Great Lent before Easter “let them fast at the end of the festive row” (from Easter to Trinity), and was called the Pentecost (Trinity) fast. Later, the fast became "Peter's" so that Christians would liken themselves to the apostles, who, by fasting and prayer, were preparing for the worldwide preaching of the Gospel.
Apostolic fasting was called in honor of the apostles Peter and Paul, who always prepared themselves for the service by fasting and prayer “in labor and exhaustion, often in vigilance, in hunger and thirst, often in fasting” (2 Cor. 11, 27) and prepared for World Preaching of the Gospel. And calling the post "Peter and Paul" is too difficult, so they began to call it by the name of the apostle, which is pronounced first.
Why did the people call Petrov fasting petrovka-hunger strike?
Among the people, the Petrov post was simply called “Petrovka” or “Petrovka-hunger strike”, since at the beginning of summer there was already little left of the last harvest, and it was still far from the new one.
How to eat right during the days of Peter's fast?
Petrov fast is considered one of the easiest multi-day fasts throughout the year. According to church canons, strict fasting should be observed only on Wednesdays and Fridays. On Mondays of Petrov Lent, hot food without oil is allowed, and on all other days, fish, seafood, vegetable oil, and mushrooms are allowed to be eaten.
On Saturdays, Sundays of this fast, as well as on the days of the memory of a great saint or the days of a temple holiday, fish is also allowed.
Food calendar for Petrov post - 2016
- June 27, 2016, Monday
- June 28, 2016, Tuesday
- June 29, 2016, Wednesday- dry eating (strict fasting).
- June 30, 2016, Thursday
- Friday 1 July 2016- strict post.
- July 2, 2016, Saturday
- July 3, 2016, Sunday
- July 4, 2016, Monday- hot food without oil is allowed.
- July 5, 2016, Tuesday- dishes from fish, mushrooms, food with oil are allowed.
- July 6, 2016, Wednesday- dry eating (strict fasting).
- July 7, 2016, Thursday- It is allowed to eat fish and seafood.
- July 8, 2016, Friday- strict post.
- July 9, 2016, Saturday- the church allows you to eat fish, mushrooms, dishes with vegetable oil.
- July 10, 2016, Sunday- It is allowed to eat food with butter and fish.
- July 11, 2016, Monday- hot food without oil is allowed.
- July 12, 2016, Tuesday - Feast of Peter and Paul. Petrov post ends.
Why the restriction in food lasts eight weeks, and Great Lent consists of six, what each week of fasting is dedicated to, and how it happened that we read the Great Penitential Canon of St. Andrew of Crete twice, says Ilya KRASOVITSKY, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Practical Theology, PSTGU:
The structure of Great Lent is formed primarily by its Sundays - "weeks", in the terminology of liturgical books. Their order is as follows: The Triumph of Orthodoxy, St. Gregory Palamas, Adoration of the Cross, John of the Ladder, Mary of Egypt, Palm Sunday.
Each of them offers us its own themes, which are reflected in the liturgical texts of Sunday itself and the entire following week (in Church Slavonic - weeks). The week can be named after the previous Sunday - for example, Holy Cross Week after Holy Cross Sunday, the third Sunday of Lent. Each such memory has a well-defined history of occurrence, its own causes, sometimes even seeming historical accidents, and, in addition, different time occurrence. Undoubtedly, the liturgical life of the Church could not be arranged without the hand of God, and we must perceive it as a whole as a church tradition, as an experience of spiritual life in which we can participate.
To understand the structure of Great Lent, you need to understand how many Sundays it contains. There are six of them in Lent, and the seventh Sunday is Easter. Strictly speaking, Great Lent lasts six weeks (weeks). Holy Week is already an "Easter Lent", completely separate and independent, the services of which are performed according to a special scheme. These two posts merged in ancient times. In addition, the last preparatory week known since ancient times, Cheese (Shrovetide), adjoins Great Lent. A week before the start of Lent, we already stop eating meat, i. food restriction lasts eight weeks.
The most important strictness and liturgical feature of Great Lent is the absence of a daily full Liturgy, which is celebrated only on "weekends": on Saturdays - St. John Chrysostom, on Sundays (and also on Holy Thursday and Holy Saturday) - St. Basil the Great, which was the main festive Liturgy in ancient Constantinople. However, now the prayers of the Liturgy are read secretly and we almost do not catch the difference between the two liturgical orders. On weekdays, usually on Wednesdays and Fridays, the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is served.
Gospel Readings
The liturgical themes of the Sundays of Great Lent come from various sources. First, from the Gospel Readings Sunday Liturgy. And, interestingly, the texts of these readings and the Sunday services themselves are usually not thematically related. How did it happen? In the ninth century, after the victory over iconoclasm, a significant liturgical reform took place in Byzantium, affecting many aspects of liturgical life. In particular, the system of Gospel readings at the Liturgy has changed, but the services themselves have remained the same - corresponding to the more ancient system of Gospel readings. For example, on the second Sunday of Lent (St. Gregory Palamas), an excerpt from the Gospel of Mark about the healing of the paralytic is read, and the texts of the service itself are stichera, troparia of the canon, and other hymns besides the theme of St. Gregory, are dedicated to the parable of the prodigal son, since until the 9th century this particular passage was read at the Sunday Liturgy. Now the reading of this parable has been postponed to one of the preparatory weeks, but the service has remained in its old place. The thematic structure of the first Sunday of Lent is even more complex, one might even say confusing. The Gospel of John is read about the calling of the first apostles - Andrew, Philip, Peter and Nathanael, and the service itself is partly dedicated to the Triumph of Orthodoxy (that is, the victory over the iconoclasts), partly to the memory of the prophets, since in ancient Constantinople, before fixing the feast of the Triumph of Orthodoxy on the first calendar, The Sunday of Lent was the commemoration of the prophets.The system of Gospel readings until the 9th century was harmonious and logical: the first Sunday of Lent is about almsgiving and forgiveness, the second is the parable of the prodigal son, the third is the parable of the publican and the Pharisee, the fourth is the parable of the Good Samaritan, the fifth is the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the sixth is the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem. The last reading is devoted to the holiday and has never changed. All of these parables are now said to raise "problematic" topics. That is, through them the Church shows us which way for a Christian is saving and which is disastrous. The rich and Lazarus, the merciful Samaritan and the negligent priest, the prodigal son and the respectable, the publican and the Pharisee are contrasting. Chants on the themes of these ancient Gospel readings we hear on our church services during Great Lent.
Sunday themes
Let's analyze in more detail the historical reasons for the emergence of certain liturgical themes of the Sundays of Great Lent.The first two Sundays are devoted to the history of the establishment of Orthodox dogmas. First Sunday - The triumph of Orthodoxy. This memory was established in honor of the final victory over the terrible heresy that worried the Church for more than a century - iconoclasm and is associated with the establishment of Orthodoxy in 843. The second Sunday is dedicated to another important historical event, also the victory over heresy and is associated with the name St. Gregory Palamas. The heretics taught that the Divine energies (Divine grace) have a created origin, that is, they were created by God. This is heresy. The Orthodox teaching is that Divine energies are God Himself not in His Essence, which is unknowable, but in the way we see, hear, and feel Him. Grace is God Himself in His energies. He led the victory over the heresy of St. Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki, in the 14th century. We can say that the second Sunday of Lent is the second Triumph of Orthodoxy.
Third Sunday - Cross worship- historically associated with the categorical system. Great Lent is not only preparation for Easter, earlier it was also preparation for baptism.
In ancient times, baptism was not a personal affair of the person and the priest who baptizes him. It was a matter for the whole church, a matter for the entire community. Baptized in the ancient Church only after a long course of catechumens, which could last up to three years. And this most important event in the life of the community - the arrival of new members - was timed to coincide with the main church holiday - Easter. In the minds of Christians of the first millennium, Pascha and the Sacrament of Baptism were closely connected, and the preparation for Pascha coincided with the preparation for the baptism of a large group of new members of the community. Great Lent was the final and most intensive stage of education in the catechumens schools. The veneration of the Cross is associated not only with a historical event - the transfer of a particle of the Life-Giving Cross to a particular city, but, above all, with the announcement. The cross was carried out specifically for the catechumens, so that they could bow to it, kiss it and strengthen themselves at the last and most crucial stage of preparation for the acceptance of the great Sacrament. Of course, along with the catechumens, the whole Church worshiped the Cross.
Over time, the system of announcement was reduced. There were simply no unbaptized adults in the Byzantine Empire. But Great Lent, which was also formed thanks to this system, often reminds us of it. For example, Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts almost all of it is built from catechumens: the readings of the Old Testament, the blessing given by the priest, concern first of all the catechumens. "The light of Christ enlightens all!" The word "enlighten" is the key here. The catechumens are also associated with the singing of the great prokeimon “Yes, my prayer will be corrected.” And, of course, the litanies, which are proclaimed during the entire Lent, are about the catechumens, and in the second half - about the enlightened. The enlightened are those who will be baptized this year. The litany for the enlightened begins strictly from the second half of Lent. And not on Sunday, but from Wednesday, that is, clearly from the middle. The readings at the sixth hour and the readings at Vespers are also linked to the system of catechumens.
The Holy Week of Lent is the middle week. A lot of poetic images are dedicated to her by the Lenten Triodion. It is said, for example, that this establishment is like weary travelers walking along some very difficult path and suddenly on the way they meet a tree that gives shade. They rest in its shade and with renewed vigor easily continue on their way. “So now, in fasting times, and a sad path and feat, planted in the midst of the saints, the father of the Life-Giving Cross, give us weakness and cooling” ...
The fourth and fifth Sundays of Great Lent are dedicated to the memory of the saints - Mary of Egypt and John of the Ladder. Where did they come from? Everything is very simple here. Prior to the advent of the Jerusalem Rule, and the Russian Orthodox Church has been living and serving according to the Jerusalem Rule since the 15th century, saints were not commemorated on weekdays of Great Lent. When Great Lent was formed, church calendar, from a modern point of view, was almost empty, the memory of saints was a rare occurrence. Why were holidays not celebrated on weekdays of fasting? For a very simple reason, it is not a fasting thing to celebrate the memory of saints when you need to cry about your sins and indulge in ascetic deeds. And the memory of the saints is for another time. And secondly, and more importantly, there is no Liturgy served on weekdays of Lent. And what kind of memory of a saint is this when the Liturgy is not served? Therefore, the memory of the few saints who did happen was transferred to Saturdays and Sundays. The calendar commemorations of Mary of Egypt and John of the Ladder fall on the month of April. They were moved, and they were assigned to the last Sundays of Great Lent.
Lenten Saturdays
The Saturdays of Great Lent are also special days. First Saturday - Commemoration St. Fyodor Tiron, carried over like some others. Second, third, fourth Saturdays - parental when the dead are commemorated. But the fifth Saturday is especially interesting - Saturday Akathist or Praise of the Most Holy Theotokos. The worship of this day is unlike any other. There are several reasons for establishing this holiday. One of them is that the celebration was established in honor of the deliverance of Constantinople from the invasions of the Persians and Arabs in the 7th century through the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos. At the same time, many texts are dedicated to the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos. This is because before the celebration of the Annunciation on April 7 was fixed, this holiday was transferred to the fifth Saturday of Lent.Finally, one more day of St. Fortecost, which cannot be passed by. This is Thursday of the fifth week of Great Lent - standing prp. Mary of Egypt. On this day, the Great Penitential Canon of St. Andrew of Crete. The reading of the canon was fixed on the day of memory of the earthquake that took place in the 4th or 5th century in the East. The commemoration day of this earthquake very organically fit into the structure of Lent. How should a natural disaster be remembered? - With repentance. Over time, the earthquake was forgotten, but the reading of the canon remained. On this day, in addition to the Great Canon, the life of St. Mary of Egypt as an instructive reading. In addition to the catechumen of St. John Chrysostom for Easter and the Life of St. Mary, no other edifying readings have been preserved in modern practice.
In the first week, the Great Canon is divided into 4 parts, and in the fifth, the entire canon is read at one time. One can see a certain meaning in this. In the first week, the canon is read in parts, “for dispersal”, and in the second half of Lent, the reading is repeated, taking into account the fact that the work of fasting and prayer has already become habitual, people have “trained”, become stronger and more resilient.
Prepared by Ekaterina STEPANOVA
