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		Prayer Feasts and Fasts by the Ever-Memorable Metropolitan Philaret of New York We all understand how important prayer is for the spiritual life of an Orthodox Christian. But how are we to pray? Two forms of prayer are evident in the Orthodox Christian life: private prayers said at home and unified Church prayer. Each has certain special characteristics. Our Saviour gave instructions in the Gospel about private prayer: "When you pray, go into your room and shut the door, pray to your Father Who is in secret; and your Father Who sees in secret will reward you openly" (Mt.6:6). Of course, home prayers are basic to us. Prayer is deeply intimate and heartfelt. Everyone who has sincerely searched for heartfelt and moving prayer, knows well how easy and natural it is to pray in solitude, in silence and peace. Moreover, our Lord firmly warns us against hypocritical prayer done for show, to elicit praise from people. When a Christian prays to God, he must strive to contemplate the words of the prayers which he reads, and to concentrate his thought on the content of the prayers. Everyone knows how difficult it is to struggle against the pressure of outside thoughts and images which tiresomely besiege the person who is praying. This comes to us both from our personal distraction and from the indirect action of the evil-one. The task of a Christian is to apply all his powers to persistently shake off all these side thoughts (which are sometimes impure) that torment him, and to pray piously and with concentration. One should remember that an extra pressure of thoughts and images—often vile and blasphemous—comes to us directly from Satan, and the struggle of resisting these thoughts is a direct struggle against evil. Consequently, one receives great benefit from such a struggle. Usually, we pray with Church prayers which we learn from childhood. This is necessary, because they lead us into that prayerful atmosphere by which the Church breathes. In this, one must beware not to slide into an automatic, mechanical reading of prayers without attention and penetration into the sense and meaning of the words of the prayer. To this end, a full reverence and concentration of attention is demanded, so that one actually prays—converses with God. According to the harmonious testimonies of the great ascetics of prayer, in addition to reading the Church prayers, one must add their own prayers in their own words, praying for one's own spiritual needs, and for neighbours and enemies. Often, a Christian cannot fully express his feelings and afflictions in the words of the written prayers. In this case,, a living, sincere prayer in one's own words is more appropriate, together with a confession of one's daily sins and an expressed determination to struggle, with God's help, against those daily sins. Such a prayer will come from the depth of the human soul. Only a person who has developed sincere, penetrating and constant home prayer can fully participate in the public prayers in church. This participation is a firm necessity for every Christian. The Lord Himself said, "Where two or three [members of the Church] are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them." The great preacher and teacher of prayer St John Chrysostom says, "One can, of course, pray at home also: but you cannot pray there as you do in church where so many people are gathered, where a harmonious voice is raised to God: for here is something greater than individual prayer: one-mindedness, a union of love, the prayers of the priest. During public prayers, not only do the people send up their own voices to God, but together with them, the angels and archangels glorify the Master." Thus, church prayer has a preeminently sacred character and it is given this nature by the grace of the Holy Spirit which, as we I know, enlivens our spiritual life, cooperating with our personal spiritual efforts. A priest serves in church; he is not a priest because he receives a theological education, or has a calling to serve the Church. All this only prepares him for pastoral service. He is a priest only because he was consecrated to it by ordination, and enters through the mystery of priesthood into the pastorship, of the Church. So it is that our church is a consecrated temple, with a specially consecrated Holy Table. According to the word of the Holy Scripture, our church is a house of prayer. The Lord gave us an example of the honour due to God's house when, during His earthly sojourn, He twice cleansed it of all disorder and indecency. At the divine services, we repeatedly hear the Holy Church exclaim the petition, "For this holy house and for all those who with faith, reverence and fear of God enter herein, let us pray to the Lord." Each of us must enter a church in this disposition, remembering that here, one stands before the face of the Lord Himself. One of the greatest and most painfully evident deficiencies of our contemporary life is our inability to celebrate our feasts in a Christian manner. Our lives are ordered in such a way that interests of a purely worldly character dominate them. Jobs, worry over income and shallow considerations and impressions of each day—all this fills our time and man does not have time to simply think about his soul, and its demands and needs. Our feasts are windows in our colourless lives of vanity and worldly cares. They teach us that this world is not so empty and impoverished as it seems to us, for above it, there is a different world giving our souls joy and ineffable peace. Who does not know what joy fills the heart of an Orthodox Christian in the days of the greatest feast, Pascha, the Radiant Resurrection of the Lord? How often, though, do days of Christian commemoration and festivity turn out to be days of even greater emptiness and senseless idleness. A feast is a special day of God and should be dedicated as fully as possible to prayer and deeds of Christian mercy. In our tunes though, the feasts are often treated as any other day, and sometimes people even use them as excuses for drunkenness and unseemly partying. How often do we see that people, or even whole clubs, "societies", "institutes" and, God forbid, even parishes and diocesan centres, organize their "balls", dances and entertainments on the eves of major feasts and on the feastdays themselves. How do such persons differ from pagans and atheists? Yet more reprehensible is the way many people view the fasts which the Holy Church has given us. We have many fasts: four lengthy ones, the Great Fast (Great Lent), the Apostles' Fast, the Dormition Fast and the Nativity Fast; and a number of shorter ones. What an amazing and un-Christian relationship so many people now have to these fasts. The fasts are violated by people without a qualm of conscience, as if the matter was about some nonsense which had no significance. The Church, on the other hand, takes a very serious view of the matter, and excludes from Holy Communion those who refuse to keep the fasts without cause. Indeed, St Seraphim of Sarov very pointedly said, "One who does not observe the fasts is not a Christian, no matter what he considers or calls himself ... and you should not pay attention to him, no matter what he says." Fasting is absolutely indispensable for man. From the external aspect, it is a struggle of filial obedience to God, Who has given us the rules of fasting through His Holy Spirit. From the inner aspect, fasting is a struggle of restraint and self-limitation. In this lies the great value and sense of fasting, since a strict observance of fasts tempers one's will and perfects the character of one who is firm in his religious convictions and actions. Let us not forget that Christ Himself fasted, and foretold that His apostles would also fast. We hear people claiming that fasting is harmful to the health. But strict fasting is not required of people who are ill, and they fast only according to their strength. Most important, one should remember that it is only those people who do not fast who speak about the "harm to health" of fasting. But those who do observe fasting will never say this, for they know from personal experience that not only is fasting not harmful, but it is positively beneficial to bodily health. Fasting is not merely a restraining from food. During the days of the fasts, the Church sings, "While fasting bodily, let us also fast spiritually..." True fasting includes deeds of Christian mercy. It is an alienation of the evil-one, a restraint of the tongue, a laying aside of anger, a cutting off of vices and an exposure of falsehood... Thus, for a Christian, fasting is a time of restraint and self-education in all respects, and a real Christian fast gives believers a great moral satisfaction. The great teacher of Christian asceticism Bishop Theophan the Recluse says of fasting: "Fasting appears gloomy until one steps into its arena. But begin and you will see what light it brings after darkness, what freedom from bonds, what release after a burdensome life...." ------------------------------------------------------------ The Rhythm of Life Whether we speak of our jobs, our schooling, our hobbies or "extracurricular" activities such as folk-dancing or sports, one thing which is very important to all our bosses, teachers, co-workers and team members is attendance. Attendance is one of the most basic yardsticks of everything we do, because if we are not in attendance at work or school or practice it's virtually impossible for us to learn, to work or to play — in a word, it's impossible to contribute. When we speak of our commitment to Christ, attendance plays no less important a role — first and foremost, attendance at holy services, and also attendance at parish meetings, social events, etc. 1. It would not be an exaggeration to say that most services in our Churches are scandalously underattended. It's interesting to wonder how lively and active our parishes would be if the faithful treated church attendance with the same seriousness they treat attendance at their job, school, sports team or folk-dance club? (What a beautiful thought!) We heard a call at the last Church Sobor to increase and develop the spiritual life among our faithful. Often we hear, or read, well-intentioned people referring to this "spiritual renewal" and offering suggestions as to how it can be realized, often searching for an "easy fix". It's important to remember that our Lord described the Christian life as a "narrow path", a journey requiring much discipline, sacrifice and courage. To put it simply, there is no easy or painless way to achieve spiritual renewal or growth, either in our Church or in our personal life — but attending the services is the first and foremost step if were truly interested in seeing this growth. As we know, the first Christian feast day was, and still is, Sunday. Before there were any other feast days, Christians celebrated Sunday as the commemoration of the Resurrection. To this day, Sunday morning is the day when the community gathers and we celebrate the "breaking of the bread". Some sects and other Christian faith traditions have in the recent past fallen away from this apostolic practice. Since the second Vatican Council, for example, Catholics have held Saturday evening masses — so that members who have "more important" things to do on Sunday morning can fulfill their "Sunday obligation" and not miss these commitments. Again, this is an innovation, not a part of the authentic Christian tradition. Many (if not most) of the "mainline" Protestant sects are in fact philosophically bereft of any reason for going to Church on Sunday morning. If it is true, as they contend, that all you have to do to be saved is to "accept Jesus as your personal Saviour", this very nicely does away with both the Sunday obligation and any other type of obligation as well! While we are forbidden to judge the souls of others, we can say without hesitation that in contrast to the western denominations, Orthodox Christianity possesses the fullness of the apostolic Christian teaching and practice. The participation of the faithful in the Liturgy is not only a holy obligation but a great privilege which is constitutive of the Church. This is what the apostles taught by word and deed, and this is what we believe. If we wish to have a truly healthy Church, the first step that each and every member of the Church must take is forming in themselves an attitude towards Church attendance which is parallel to their attitude towards job or school attendance. At this point it is important to bring up the subject of feast days in the Orthodox Church. As we all are aware, the calendar of the Church gives us different feasts at different times. Some of them (Pascha and Pentecost, for example) always fall on Sundays. Others (the "immovable" feasts) always fall on the same calendar date, the best known being Christmas — the feast of the Nativity of Our Lord. The vast majority of other Christian faith traditions either do not celebrate, or do not even admit the existence of, these traditional and historic feast days. Even those who retain the traditional calendar of feasts and fasts, such as the Roman Catholic Church, have in most cases given these feasts (and fasts) a strictly symbolic or personal meaning; for example, in the Roman Catholic Church in Canada almost all feast days are "transferred" to the nearest Sunday. I was greatly amused a few years ago when, in a conversation about feast days with a devout Catholic, I was told by him that "we'll be celebrating Ascension Thursday next Sunday" (!!). For uncounted millions of Protestants the current celebration of "Christmas" includes attendance at Church services. They do this only because it's "traditional" — in other words, they have no real philosophical or ideological reason for doing so (after all, it doesn't say anywhere in the Bible that Jesus was born on the 25th of December, nor that we should celebrate Christmas, so if we believe in the Bible and only the Bible what basis do we have for celebrating Christmas on December 25th, or at all?). It should be obvious that the original meaning of the term "holiday" is "Holy day" — a Church feast day. Besides attendance at holy services, one of the traditional ways of marking a holy day is to refrain from work. If we look at the current celebration of "civil" holidays here in Canada, we see that they are generally regarded simply as a day off of work — a Christian hand-me-down to our secular society. Consequently, due to the fact that the festal calendar of the Church has been, to a large degree, suppressed by the western denominations, we live in a society which has almost totally divested itself of any authentic Christian consciousness regarding "holidays". The Orthodox Church has retained the original, apostolic understanding of "Holidays", some of which — the commemoration of the death of martyrs, or the feast of the Resurrection for example — date from the first century. Others — such as the feast of the Protection of the Theotokos (Pokrova) — are of later origin. The development of the Church Calendar, just like the development of Holy Scripture, is witnessed to in the life, history and legislation of the Orthodox Church — we know what we celebrate, when we celebrate, and why we celebrate. And most importantly, the Orthodox Church has never seen fit to ignore or suppress feast days, but sees the celebration of a feast in the same light as She sees the blessing of water or oil or the faithful — as the sanctification of that which God has created for us, in this case the sanctification of time. Understanding this, the celebration of feast days by participation in the Divine Liturgy is for the Orthodox a very important sign of our faith, especially in our Canadian social context. Even more so than attendance at Sunday Liturgy, attendance at Feast-day Liturgies is a sign of real commitment to not just some kind of indistinct "Christianity", but to the true, historical Orthodox Christian Faith of our ancestors. Just as we give of our money and talents for the good of God's Church, we give of our time and our gratitude and our worship. We are called upon to be a worshipping people — and this we do first and foremost in Church on Sundays and Holy days — i.e., the days God has set aside for us to do so. At this point many readers are probably saying, "Yes, Father, but in this day and age it isn't practical to take a day off of work or school to attend services". I remember well a conversation I had a few years ago with a young mother, who was also a school teacher. I had suggested that it might be nice if parents occasionally booked the morning off from work to attend feast-day services with their children. She dismissed this as impractical. I asked her if she took off time for vacations, for doctor's appointments, or just "mental health days". The answer to every question was, "Yes". I then repeated the thought, that it would be nice for parents to take off one morning, even if only once a year, to attend services on a weekday with their children. She looked at me as if I were from Mars! She could understand taking a month of (paid) time off of work for herself or her family, but could not understand taking even 4 (paid) hours, once a year, to worship God with her children on a weekday. Others might say that in the old country people didn't have anything better to do than attend Church services (!!). I personally find the argument extremely amusing. Those who wish to make such amusing comments should spend a year living and working on a farm with no electricity, running water, gasoline engines or social "safety net". Try carrying all your water three, six or nine blocks from a well, or baking all your bread every day in a wood-fired oven from grain you have sown, harvested, threshed, and perhaps even ground. The fact of the matter is that our ancestors had much less "personal" time than we have at our disposal, and certainly no paid vacations. Perhaps they simply had more faith in God? Any priest or pious layperson can give you many theological and practical reasons why the faithful should attend festal liturgies if at all possible. One of the reasons which is often overlooked is that attendance at these liturgies permits us to understand our Faith from another perspective. Attending Liturgy on Holy days permits us to enter into the rhythm of the life of the Church. The rhythm of Church life has three components — the daily, weekly and yearly cycles. The daily cycle for an average Orthodox Christian in the world usually consists of prayers upon arising, before sleep, and before and after meals. This might be expanded by personally reading through one of the shorter services or praying on the prayer rope (chotky). The weekly and yearly cycles, however, require a liturgical participation to truly experience them. While we can speak of "personal" prayer or devotion, it is impossible to speak of a "personal" liturgical experience — the very concept is nonsensical. If the Divine Services truly are important for our salvation, then the faithful must take part in them. This participation is different for everyone — only the monk or nun will be able to participate fully in the daily cycle of services, but the weekly and yearly cycle of worship is accessible to all the faithful who live within a reasonable driving distance from a Church. As we know, music has three basic parts: melody, harmony and rhythm. Rhythm is the basis of all music, the foundation upon which melody and harmony are built. Likewise the life of the Church — which the Orthodox understand is a foretaste of life in Paradise — is built on a concrete rhythm, the rhythm of the Church calendar, of the feasts and the fasts. Beginning with attendance at worship every Sunday, and building up to the attendance at all services throughout the year, we are given a chance to take our lives out of the rhythm of the world — the mundane — and enter into the rhythm of Paradise. Practically speaking, this is one of the important reasons for serving Great Vespers before every feast. It's probably unrealistic to expect all the faithful to take days off to attend Liturgy the morning of every feast day (though it's a lot easier for us to do than we often care to admit). Serving Vespers gives all the faithful the opportunity to experience the rhythm of the Church Year in their lives, even if they can not attend Liturgy. Making time to attend the festal services as a family and as a community will strengthen our faith, our families and our communities more than we can imagine. The Jews have lived their religious life according to a different calendar for millennia. This simple fact exerts an immense influence on their existence — especially in the diaspora. When our Churches are as full every Sunday as they are on Pascha, and when they are as full on Holy days as they are now on Sunday, we will see a spiritual revival in our Church — a revival the scale of which we cannot even imagine right now. As any builder knows, the most important part of the house is the foundation. Our Lord Himself spoke of this, saying that the one who follows His commandments is like the one who builds their house on a rock [Mt. 7:24-8:4]. If the Church truly is Christ's body, as St. Paul says [Col. 1:18, Rom. 12:4, I Cor. 12:12, etc.], then Her commandments are the commandments of Christ. And if we wish to build our lives on a firm foundation, what foundation can be more sure than the mystical and liturgical life of the Church? By making the rhythm of the Church the rhythm of our own personal life, we will certainly see marked spiritual growth in our lives and communities, and upon this foundation we will be able to more deeply experience the melody of prayer and the harmony of true Christian life.