Catholics Explaining To Protestants The Requirements Of Orthodox Lent

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A Lenten Classic

No Weddings For The Next Two Months !

The nine weeks starting with the one before Great and Holy Lent, and stretching all the way up to the Sunday following Easter, are completely wedding-free, and the performance of marriage ceremonies (and other wedding-related activities) is strictly forbidden during this sacred time interval. The same holds true for all other Fasts and Feasts of the Church year.

Happy Valentine's, Everyone !

The Values I Cherish And Admire

Grace. Class. Charm. Style. Elegance. Warmth. Kindness. Soulfulness. And Affection.

Inner beauty will save the world... or -at the very least- redeem the soul it indwells...

My Favorite Trigonometric Function

Apart From Maths, My Other Interests Also Include Waltz and Astronomy...

New Beginnings: When Our Attempts To Start Over Don't Go Quite As Planned

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Starting Off The Year On The Wrong Foot...

On The Virtue Of Hospitality

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On these cold Winter Holidays, let us open our hearts and homes to receive those lost and wandering souls in need of shelter and compassion...

Why The Orthodox Are So Bent On Fasting, Abstinence, And Ascesis

Our Great War is a spiritual war.

Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden in Fight Club

Santa Claus Siding With Muslims In The Arab-Israeli Conflict

Why do so many Americans, especially from Christian-conservative and right-wing (Republican) political circles, feel the need to convert to Eastern Orthodoxy in droves, and flood into the Eastern Church by the hundreds, when even the greatest Orthodox Saints themselves so shamelessly and unapologetically espouse such clearly anti-American politics on the hotly-debated topics of Gaza and Palestine ? Oh, well... I guess we'll never really know -- will we ?...

5. A Muslim man came to Beit Jala to shoot at the Israeli settlement of Gilo. An old man appeared to him, telling him to leave immediately. The man did so. Moments later a shell exploded on the exact spot where he had been standing. The man later identified the person who spoke to him as St Nicholas.


6. Another elderly Muslim man was deeply worried about his son who had been in an Israeli prison for some years. During the night before the man's birthday, an old man appeared at his bedside, telling him his son would return on the next day. When the man asked the visitor who he was and where he was from, he answered: "I am Nicholas, from Beit Jala. If you need to find me, just ask for me, everyone knows me there." The following day, the son returned. The old man set off for Beit Jala to share the good news with the stranger, and to thank him. Confused by the story, no one in Beit Jala could tell him who had visited him. Then the sacristan took the man into the Church of St. Nicholas, where he immediately recognized the icon of St Nicholas as the person who had visited him.

Source

Perhaps it is in moments such as these that the leaders of the Free World should take a brief pause to reflect, and -in all honesty and sincerity- genuinely ask themselves: What Would Saint Nick Do ?...

On My Wit And Intelligence

It Feels So Nice To Finally Be Appreciated...

Why I Can't Just Give Up On Fasting And Abstinence Only Half-Way Through Advent

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Matthew 10:22 But he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

As you can clearly see, I'm deeply involved in the Advent Fast, and I'm taking ascesis very seriously...

Kind Words Of Comfort And Encouragement For Those Who Already Feel Worn Out By All That Fasting And Abstinence, At Only Half-Way Through Advent

Where you are now, you can't even imagine what the bottom will be like...

Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden in Fight Club

I Don't Need To Be "Saved"...

I'm Doing Just Fine, Thank You...

On Long Periods Of Fasting And Abstinence

Orthodox Ascesis 101

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My Original Sin

More information of this topic can be found here.

The Holy Prophet Daniel Encouraging Those Who Are Afraid That Fasting Might Prove Dangerous To Their Health

Daniel 1:5 And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat, and of the wine which he drank: so nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king. 8 ¶But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. 10 And the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel: I fear my lord the king, who hath appointed your meat and your drink: for why should he see your faces worse liking than the children which are of your sort? then shall ye make me endanger my head to the king. 11 Then said Daniel to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: 12 Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink. 13 Then let our countenances be looked upon before thee, and the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the king's meat: and as thou seest, deal with thy servants. 14 So he consented to them in this matter, and proved them ten days. 15 And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat. 16 Thus Melzar took away the portion of their meat, and the wine that they should drink; and gave them pulse.

Of course, it is not the meats and wine (and women) that God created which are defiled, but our own inordinate craving and compulsion towards them. (Genesis 1:25; Acts 10:9-16; Romans 14:20-21; Philippians 3:19; Titus 1:15).

The "F" Word

Fasting.

Protestants As The Real Ascetics !

It seems we were gravely mistaken and severely misguided in our distorted interpretation of their refusal to fast:
May God forgive us all ! Their sincere intentions were apparently holy and pure all along:

127. “It is not pleasure they love, for they stuff themselves with it. What they love is the punishment they inflict on their bodies through excessive pleasure”.

Anthony de Mello, Awakening: Conversations With The Masters

In reality, it is we Orthodox and Catholics that should be simply ashamed of ourselves, taking the easy way out, by shamelessly indulging the sinful lusts and appetites of our stomach with all those light, delightful, and easily-digestible foods, instead of suffering together with Christ on our own spiritual Golgotha for all our heinous sins and hideous offences, by stoically enduring with sheer grace and utter dignity such a martyric self-flagellation as that to which our Evangelical brethren willingly and joyfully subject themselves... As it is written in Scripture, though they came after us, we are unworthy even of unloosing their shoe-latchets (Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:7; Luke 3:16; John 1:27). May God have mercy on us all, for only His grace can save us now: but Protestants shall be saved by their own works of righteousness, for they truly and rightfully were deemed worthy to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven by their own merits and glorious efforts ! (Matthew 11:12).

No Milk-Products For The Next Six Weeks

Though Temptation May Be Strong, We Must Overcome