Fasting and Abstinence in the eastern churches

[jimmy]

I wanted to start a thread to give people knowledge of the fasting traditions in the Eastern Catholic Churches. I will start with the Maronite tradition. If anyone has any info they want to post on the other traditions fasting then they can post it here. Here is the Maronite fasting tradition.

The practise of fast and abstinence was regulated by the Maronite synod of 1736

Fast: eating and drinking forbidden until midday

Abstinence: abstaining from eating all meat, oil, wine and animal products (eggs, milk, cheese etc.) http://www.redemptorists.org.uk/red/images/transpac.gif

1. Great Lent from Quinquagesima to Easter abstinence every day; fasting every day except on Sundays and Saturdays (with the exception of Holy Saturday) http://www.redemptorists.org.uk/red/images/transpac.gif

2. Apostles Lent abstinence four days 25th - 28th June http://www.redemptorists.org.uk/red/images/transpac.gif

**3. Assumption Lent **abstinence eight days 7th - 14th August http://www.redemptorists.org.uk/red/images/transpac.gif

**4. Christmas Lent **abstinence twelve days 13th - 24th December http://www.redemptorists.org.uk/red/images/transpac.gif

5. Abstinence every Wednesday and Friday except: from Christmas to Epiphany, the Friday before Great Lent, from Easter to Pentecost, June 24th and 29th; August 6th and 15th http://www.redemptorists.org.uk/red/images/transpac.gif

6 Forbidden food Like most oriental Christians, the Maronites kept the Mosaic ban on eating blood, suffocated animals and certain animals considered impure; and which Oriental Church Councils have many times renewed.

Now, this tradition is not enforced and it isn’t even encouraged that much. Over the last fifty years they have basically supported the Latin tradition of fasting on only the fridays of lent and Ash Wednesday. But that is not our tradition. The bishops have said that they support those who wish to follow the traditional fast. It is a very good and beneficial thing to follow the fasts as well as you can.

 

[wannabee]

With a caveat of course that fasting MUST be discussed with your SF /Priest first.

Of course any medical condition may require the Fast to be mitigated .

Likewise there are other reasons where your priest may mitigate it - but that’s between you and him.

 

[wynd]

Like most oriental Christians, the Maronites kept the Mosaic ban on eating blood, suffocated animals and certain animals considered impure; and which Oriental Church Councils have many times renewed.

Is there a reason for this? Whenever I hear about this I always think of Mark 7:19.

 

[jimmy]

Is there a reason for this? Whenever I hear about this I always think of Mark 7:19.

I am not sure really. The only thing I can think of is the reference in Acts15 about drinking blood still being banned. I would like to see what yeshua has to say about it.

 

[jimmy]

With a caveat of course that fasting MUST be discussed with your SF /Priest first.

Of course any medical condition may require the Fast to be mitigated .

Likewise there are other reasons where your priest may mitigate it - but that’s between you and him.

Yes, it would probably be a good thing to discuss things with your priest.

 

[yeshua]

Is there a reason for this? Whenever I hear about this I always think of Mark 7:19.

Peace,

Bear in mind that the Syriac tradition (as well as other Oriental traditions) carry more Semitic roots that their Byzantine and Latin counterparts. While Christ made all foods clean, also realize that it is Semitic belief that blood is symbolic of an organism’s life. This stems from the Semitic practice of sacrificing animals, which was an offering of the life of the creature to God. Oriental Christians, from their Semitic backgrounds, carry this ban from consuming blood (or the life) of an animal.

Such traditions carry over, while the ban on others commonly umbrellaed under Mosaic law do not. Another example is circumcision, still practiced theologically by the Ethiopian Orthodox and some Syriac communities.

Peace and God Bless!

 

[wynd]

Peace,

Bear in mind that the Syriac tradition (as well as other Oriental traditions) carry more Semitic roots that their Byzantine and Latin counterparts. While Christ made all foods clean, also realize that it is Semitic belief that blood is symbolic of an organism’s life. This stems from the Semitic practice of sacrificing animals, which was an offering of the life of the creature to God. Oriental Christians, from their Semitic backgrounds, carry this ban from consuming blood (or the life) of an animal.

Such traditions carry over, while the ban on others commonly umbrellaed under Mosaic law do not. Another example is circumcision, still practiced theologically by the Ethiopian Orthodox and some Syriac communities.

Peace and God Bless!

Thanks for the info Yeshua. What foods exactly come under this rule? I know you said in an earlier post, but are there common foods that are made from suffocated animals? What about pork?

 

[Pani_Rose]

Fast & Abstinence, Reasons why
In the Melkite Church there are four major periods of fast & abstinence: The Great Fast (or Lent) which precedes the Pascha of the Lord, the Fast of the Holy Apostles after the feast of the Ascension, the Fast of the Theotokos during the first 2 weeks of August, and the Pre-Christmas Fast.

Throughout the Old and New Testaments, God clearly reveals to His people the need for fasting. Jesus Our Lord, in the Gospel, taught that after He would ascend into heaven, His disciples must fast. The Holy Apostles clearly kept every Wednesday and Friday as days of fast and abstinence, as mentioned in the book of Acts.

Fasting is not extraordinary - for the Christian it is a regular aspect of the spiritual life.

Fasting is depriving the body of food from midnight till noon. For the Christian the hunger that results is a real call to be mindful of our thirst for God. It is a call to identify with the poor, whom God loves especially. It is a way for us, as mature men and women to take charge of our body and of our needs, rather than to allow the body, its needs and passions to rule over our life.
Fasting is also a beautiful opportunity to express our solidarity and communion with Christians all over the world. There are many deeply moving stories of our brothers and sisters who observed the periods of fasting during harsh famines and wars. Imagine the power and the grace that is filling the world during this time of darkness and cold, as men, women and children, rich and poor, virtuous and sinful alike, together offer up penance for the sins of the world and in anticipation of the Coming of Christ!

Abstinence refers to the practice of foregoing all foods that come from animals (meats, poultry, dairy products, eggs).
From the creation of our Parents in Paradise to the time after the great flood, people ate only fruits, grains and vegetables. This is the food of paradise! The practice of abstinence reminds us of our high calling to manage all creation in the Name of the Lord. Our hunger for meat and other rich food serves as a reminder of the enmity that exists in creation as a result of sin. Especially during this holy season when the liturgy reminds us of the role that the stars, the angels, the earth itself, the beasts of the field, the ox and the *** all played in receiving the Savior of the world, abstinence calls us to set aside our enmity even with the animals in order to restore peace on earth.
Thus, we fast to experience hunger and, realizing our emptiness and dependence, to seek the One who alone satisfies our needs.

We abstain in order to strive for peace, to cleanse ourselves body and soul to worthily receive Our Lord.
Remember: ** the Church does not impose. Rather, as a loving Mother, She proposes.*
melkite.org/lent.htm#FastAbstinence
*

 

[bpbasilphx]

It is understood that the fasting rules are for normal healthy people doing normal healthy things. One of the purposes of fasting is to humble the flesh.

To the extent your flesh is humbled by disease or serious medical condition, the fast it mitigated. This should be discuess with your Spiritual Father. Don’t presume to dispense yourself.

And in this case, more use should be used of the other spiritual weapons: almsgiving and prayer.

 

[Joab_Anias]

Is there a reason for this? Whenever I hear about this I always think of Mark 7:19.

Mar 7:15 There is nothing from outside the man, having entered into him, which is able to defile him. But the things going out from him, those are the things defiling the man.

We are no longer bound under the Mitzvot (Mosaic laws) in the new covenant. If this were the case we could not partake of the eucharist.

Act 11:9 But a voice answered me the second time out of the heaven, What God has cleansed, you do not make common.

However, its common knowlege that animal born diseases can be past to a human through its blood so its inadvisable to drink animal blood or eat any food not properly prepared.