The Great Fast and Great and Holy Week
How important is it to observe?
Are there exemptions for old or sick people?
What is even the point of abstaining from Non-Great Fast food?
Many view The Great Fast and Great and Holy Week, as nothing but the refusal to eat certain foods, but this is a very superficial point of view. We often forget the spiritual aspect of The Great Fast and Great and Holy Week. A person has two natures-we have a body and a soul, we belong to two worlds, the earthly and heavenly worlds.
The Great Fast and Great and Holy Week is not just physical abstention, but spiritual abstention, holding one’s tongue, that is, avoiding condemning others, avoid idle chatter, gossip, quarrels. This is even more important than physical fasting.
Saint John Chrysostom said:
If mankind refrains from meat but devour our neighbors,
This is a mockery of the fast!
The real intention of fasting during the 4 penitential periods of the Church's Liturgical Year is when we have physical restraint and keep our spirit away from temptation. You asked about old and sick people. The Great Fast and Great and Holy Week is for healthy people. Its goal is to weaken our flesh, which, enfeebled, is less prone to fall prey to temptations.
That is why a seriously-ill person (if you sneeze a couple of times, that’s not being seriously ill), when there is some chronic sickness-that is, suffering the sickness is already like observing The Great Fast and Great and Holy Week one is not obligated to observe The Great Fast and Great and Holy Week strictly.
But in the spiritual sense, observing The Great Fast and Great and Holy Week is mandatory for both the healthy and the sick. Even more so for those who are old or seriously sick, when a person may be on the threshold of the next world, for they need to think about their soul.
The Great Fast and Great and Holy Week is a genuine voyage,
And interesting, event-filled voyage!
Is any one among you suffering? Let him pray.
Is any cheerful? Let him sing praise.
Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church,
And let then pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord;
And the prayer of faith will save the sick man,
And the Lord will raise him up; And if he has committed sins
He will be forgiven!
Therefore confess your sins to one another, that you may be healed.
The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects.
The Epistle of Saint James Chapter 5 Verses 13-16
Everything in this life passes away:
Only God remains, Only He is worth struggling towards.
Mankind has a choice: to follow the way of this world,
Of the society that surrounds us, And thereby find ourselves outside of God;
Or to choose the way of life, to choose God Who calls us
And for Whom our heart is searching!
Hiermonk + Seraphim Rose
When mankind becomes incorruptible and immortal and attain to:
The blessed state of conformity with Christ, We shall be ever with the Lord,
Gaining fulfillment in the purest contemplations of His visible
{Resurrection,}
Which will illuminate us with its most brilliant rays,
Just as it illuminated the disciples at the time of the most divine Transfiguration.
This is the light of God, as Saint John The Apostle has said in his Revelation,
And such is the opinion of all the saints!
Saint Gregory Palamas
Holy and Great Wednesday
On Great and Holy Wednesday, The Byzantine Catholic Church commemorates the act of contrition and love of the sinful woman who poured precious myrrh-oil on our Savior's head, and, though she did not know it, "prepared Him for burial."
And in contrast we hear of the dark act of Judas, whose greed led him to betray his Master.
All the readings and hymns of the day warn us to beware of greed and love of money, which even tempted a disciple of Christ. We too can betray Him, if we let greed and selfishness get hold of us, while every deed of humility and love at once brings us near to Him.
Concerning these incidents recorded in the Holy Gospels, The Synaxarion has the following account:
Two women — say the more discerning interpreters of the Gospel — anointed the Lord with myrrh; the one, a long time before His Passion; the other, a few days before. The one was a harlot and sinner; the other, chaste and virtuous.
The Church commemorates this reverent act today. While mentioning herein the person of the harlot, it also mentions Judas' betrayal; for, according to the account in Matthew, both of these deeds took place two days before the Passover, on Wednesday.
That woman, then, anointed Jesus' head and feet with very precious myrrh, and wiped them with the tresses of her hair. The disciples, especially the avaricious Judas, were scandalized, supposedly because of the waste of the myrrh. Jesus reproved them and told them not to trouble the woman. Indignant, Judas went to the high priests, who were gathered in the court of Caiaphas and were already taking counsel against Jesus.
On agreeing with them to betray his Teacher for thirty pieces of silver, Judas sought from that time opportunity to betray Him (Matt. 26:14-16). Because the betrayal took place on Wednesday, we have received the tradition from Apostolic times to fast on Wednesday throughout the year.
It is on this day also that one of the most beautiful and compunctionate hymns ever composed is chanted in the Holy Church. This hymn, composed in the early part of the ninth century by the nun Cassiane, has as its theme the anointing of our Savior's feet by the harlot:
The Troparion of Cassiane
O Lord, the woman who had fallen into many sins perceived Thy divinity, and taking upon herself the duty of a myrrh-bearer, with lamentation she bringeth Thee myrrh-oils before Thine entombment.
Woe unto me! saith she, for night is become for me a frenzy of licentiousness, a dark and moonless love of sin. Receive the fountain of my tears, O Thou Who gatherest into clouds the water of the sea. Incline unto me, unto the sighings of my heart, O Thou Who didst bow the Heavens by Thine ineffable condescension.
I shall kiss Thine immaculate feet and wipe them again with the tresses of my head; those feet, at whose sound Eve hid herself for fear when she heard Thee walking in Paradise in the cool of the day.
As for the multitude of my sins and the depths of Thy judgments, who can search them out, O Savior of souls, my Savior? Do not disdain me, Thy handmaiden, O Thou Who art boundless in mercy!
The Kontakion for this day continues the theme of contrition and remorse, and confronts us with our unworthiness before God:
The Kontakion
Though I have transgressed more than the harlot, O Good One, I have in no wise brought forth streams of tears for Thee; but in silence I supplicate Thee and fall down before Thee, kissing Thine immaculate feet with love, so that, as Master that Thou art, Thou mayest grant me the forgiveness of debts, as I cry to Thee, O Savior: From the mire of my deeds do Thou deliver me.
On Great and Holy Wednesday, the Byzantine Catholic Church administers the Mystery of the Holy Unction for the bodily and spiritual health of the participants. At this Mystery, the oil is consecrated by prayer and the clergy anoint the people.
The Lord's descent into hell
What is happening? Today there is a great silence over the earth, a great silence, and stillness, a great silence because the King sleeps; the earth was in terror and was still, because God slept in the flesh and raised up those who were sleeping from the ages. God has died in the flesh, and the underworld has trembled.
Truly he goes to seek out our first parent like a lost sheep; he wishes to visit those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. He goes to free the prisoner Adam and his fellow-prisoner Eve from their pains, he who is God, and Adam's son.
The Lord goes in to them holding his victorious weapon, his cross. When Adam, the first created man, sees him, he strikes his breast in terror and calls out to all: 'My Lord be with you all.' And Christ in reply says to Adam: ‘And with your spirit.’ And grasping his hand he raises him up, saying: ‘Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.
‘I am your God, who for your sake became your son, who for you and your descendants now speak and command with authority those in prison: Come forth, and those in darkness: Have light, and those who sleep: Rise.
‘I command you: Awake, sleeper, I have not made you to be held a prisoner in the underworld. Arise from the dead; I am the life of the dead. Arise, O man, work of my hands, arise, you who were fashioned in my image. Rise, let us go hence; for you in me and I in you, together we are one undivided person.
‘For you, I your God became your son; for you, I the Master took on your form; that of slave; for you, I who am above the heavens came on earth and under the earth; for you, man, I became as a man without help, free among the dead; for you, who left a garden, I was handed over to Jews from a garden and crucified in a garden.
‘Look at the spittle on my face, which I received because of you, in order to restore you to that first divine inbreathing at creation. See the blows on my cheeks, which I accepted in order to refashion your distorted form to my own image.
'See the scourging of my back, which I accepted in order to disperse the load of your sins which was laid upon your back. See my hands nailed to the tree for a good purpose, for you, who stretched out your hand to the tree for an evil one.
`I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side, for you, who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side healed the pain of your side; my sleep will release you from your sleep in Hades; my sword has checked the sword which was turned against you.
‘But arise, let us go hence. The enemy brought you out of the land of paradise; I will reinstate you, no longer in paradise, but on the throne of heaven. I denied you the tree of life, which was a figure, but now I myself am united to you, I who am life. I posted the cherubim to guard you as they would slaves; now I make the cherubim worship you as they would God.
"The cherubim throne has been prepared, the bearers are ready and waiting, the bridal chamber is in order, the food is provided, the everlasting houses and rooms are in readiness; the treasures of good things have been opened; the kingdom of heaven has been prepared before the ages.
Priorities
We all need to set sensible priorities,
Making sure we pay attention to our health, our family, and
Our spiritual life within the Byzantine Catholic Church!
We must not let our life be so full of work that we don’t allot time to focus on the things that bring us joy. We may think we don’t have time to visit an art museum, have lunch with a friend, or take a day hike with our children, but lasting fulfillment requires time for play, for fun, and for spiritual contemplation.
Focusing only on work can lead to a restless sense that something is missing in our life.
Thoughts of where we’d rather be living, or the job we’d rather have, displace any joy that could be ours. Most of us, if we really think about it, already have everything we need for happiness right in front of us. We mustn’t wait to enjoy what you already have!
We are a microcosm of the universe
With this Great Fast and Great and Holy Week Journey upon us it is good to contemplate the profound nature of our earthy struggle. This life is not about all the temporal things that often consume our energy and attention, but about those things that impact eternity.
Mankind is a microcosm of the whole universe because we have within ourselves the entire material world, and with it the noetic powers of the cosmos. Created as we were for immortality, it is our fallen nature that has separated us from that which God had intended.
When mankind avails ourselves to the transformational healing that comes with repentance,
Mankind shall see the Kingdom of God, Which is within each and everyone of us!
Since illnesses are cured by their opposite remedies, as we had been put to death by the wicked counsel of the evil one, we were made alive again by the good counsel of the good Lord. The deadly counselor had at his disposal pleasure, glory and comfort, which enchanted mankind and dragged it down.
So the Counselor of true life Himself led the way along the strait and narrow way which leads to life above and guided us in it.
Strive – He saith: to enter in at the strait gate, and strait and narrow is the way that leads to life, for wide and broad is the way that leads to destruction.
Elsewhere He warns more clearly against that path, saying:
Woe to you who are rich! Woe to you who are full!
Woe to you when all men shall speak well of you,
Thus declaring wretched all lovers of glory, pleasure and money!
Saint Gregory Palamas
Annunciation: Today is revealed the mystery!
Every year during The Churches Liturgical Year, we celebrate the Great Feast of the Annunciation to the Most-Holy Theotokos on March 25.
This beautiful “festal interlude” allows us to again marvel before the great mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God. At His conception “without seed” the “Word became flesh.” He will be born in nine months time, but the actual incarnation is marked when He entered the womb of the Virgin Mary—when she was “overshadowed” by the Holy Spirit.
Since her Son is the pre-eternal Son, Word and Wisdom of God, she becomes The Theotokos—literally, the “God-bearer”. In an extraordinarily fine passage, Saint Nicholas Cabasilas explains the role, not only of the Holy Trinity in this great mystery, but also that of the Theotokos, thus revealing to us the meaning of synergy, or of cooperating with God.
The incarnation of the Word was not only the work of Father, Son and Spirit—the first consenting, the second descending, the third overshadowing—but it was also the work of the will and the faith of the Virgin.
Saint Nicholas writes.
Without the three divine persons this design could not have been set in motion;
But likewise the plan could not have been carried into effect
Without the consent and faith of the all-pure Virgin.
Only after teaching and persuading her does God make her His Mother
And receive from her the flesh which she consciously wills to offer Him.
Just as He was conceived by His own free choice,
So in the same way she became His Mother voluntarily and with her free consent.
Feast Days are not just theological ideas. They are days of worship, because it is in worship that we actualize and participate in the reality being commemorated:
Today is revealed the mystery that is from all eternity:
The Byzantine Catholic Church sing on the Great Feast of the Annunciation.
We celebrate the Feasts Days of the Church liturgically so that we can gather as the Body of Christ and rejoice together over the saving events that manifest God’s mercy and grace to the world. On this feast let us praise God for the awesome mystery of the Incarnation.
Christ Is Risen! Indeed He Is Risen!
Christos Voskrese! VoistinnuVoskrese!
Today we witness to the Glorious Resurrection of Jesus Christ! The empty tomb is Christ’s victory over the sources of sin and death. Our Byzantine Catholic Church is radiantly filled with joyful chants.
The festive spirit of the faithful all gives expression to this glorious event that takes place! We have all shared in the mysteries of the past several days in God’s plan for us in Christ.
The deeply moving Liturgical Services of our Venerable Byzantine Catholic Church have led us through the battle fields of self-sacrifice until the eyes of our spiritual understanding have been enlightened. We have shared in the intimate moments of Jesus with His disciples and became united with Him in the Mystical Supper.