After Prayer, fasting is the second ascetic practice you should begin as part of an Orthodox way of life. Of course if you do not have sufficient faith to participate in the regular worship services, to participate in the sacraments, or time for daily prayer, fasting will not be of much help to you. Fasting is a practice that was shown to us by Jesus as well as the prophets of the Old Testament. Jesus fasted for 40 days and we are told “he ate nothing.” The Prophet David fasted “I ate no delicacies, no meat or wine, no did I anoint myself.“ (Daniel 10:3) Ester instructed Mordicai, “ Go, gather all the jews... and hold a fast on my behalf and neither eat nor drink for three days, night and day. I and my maids will also fast as you do.” (Ester 4:16) Paul engaged in a three day absolute fast following the encounter with the living Christ (Acts 9:9). Moses and Elijah fasted for forty days. (Deut 9:9, 1Kings 19:8)

Jesus also asked us to fast. He said that we can overcome the devil only through “prayer and fasting”. (Matt 17:21) In Matt 6:16 Jesus says “When you fast.…” He did not say "If you fast." He assumes that you will fast and gives instruction on how to do it properly. The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. (Matt 9:15)

To be effective fasting must center on God. As we fast we discover the things that control us. David writes, “I humbled my soul with fasting (Ps 69:10).” Fasting reminds us that it is not food that sustains us, but God. It also helps us develop the discipline that is necessary for our spiritual growth.

The Church in her wisdom has provided for us fasting periods. These are times through out the year where we can focus on our spiritual life and double our efforts in prayer and worship.

On the outward level fasting involves physical abstinence from food and drink, and without such exterior abstinence a full and true fast cannot be kept; yet the rules about eating and drinking must never be treated as an end in themselves, for ascetic fasting always has an inward and unseen purpose. Man is a unity of body and soul, 'a living creature fashioned from natures visible and invisible.' Our ascetic fasting should therefore involve both these natures at once. The tendency to over-emphasize external rules about food in a legalistic way, and the opposite tendency to scorn these rules as outdated and unnecessary, should be rejected. In both cases the proper balance between the outward and the inward has been impaired.

Fasting is not a mere matter of diet. It is moral as well as physical. In the words of St. John Chrysostom, it means “abstinence not only from food but from sins”. “The fast”, he insists, “should be kept not by the mouth alone but also by the eye, the ear, the feet, the hands and all the members of the body”: the eye must abstain from impure sights, the ear from malicious gossip, the hands from acts of injustice. It is useless to fast from food, protests St. Basil, and yet to indulge in cruel criticism and slander: “You do not eat meat, but you devour your brother”.

Scripture references: Matthew 6:16-18, Matthew 9:14-15, Luke 18:9-14
1 Samuel 7:5-6, Ezra 8:21-23, Nehemiah 9:1-3, Joel 2:15-16, Jonah 3:5-10, Acts 27:33-37

 

When to Fast

Weekday Fasts

There is the weekly fast of every Wednesday and Friday.  We also fast on the day before Christmas and Theophany, on the feast days of the Exaltation of the Cross (Sep 14) and the Beheading of John the Baptist (Aug 29).

Fast periods

Then there are five fasting periods.

1. Great Lent, which lasts for fifty days. Adherence to monastic traditions also calls for a partial fast during the week preceding the beginning of Lent.

2. Holy Week. A lesser fast is observed on the Saturday of Lazarus and Palm Sunday. A strict fast is observed from Holy Monday through the Paschal Vigil.

3. Fast of the Apostles begins on the Monday after the Sunday of All Saints and ends on June 28, the eve of the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul the Apostles. The duration of this fast depends on the date of Pascha; however, in modern usage this fast is not observed with strictness.

4. Fast of the Dormition of the Theotokos (August 1-14).

5. Fast of the Nativity of Christ (November 15-December 24). In modern usage a strict observance of this fast commences after December 12. (The celebration of the Marriage Service which is generally prohibited during fasting periods is permitted between November 15 and December 12).

 

 

How to Fast
There are different degrees of fasting that have been passed down to us . Remember these are not laws or rules that we are to blindly follow but are proven practices that can help us come closer to God. Orthodoxy is not legalistic or rule oriented. The rules or guidelines that have been established for us are there for our spiritual benefit. We have to use them with the appropriate attitude to receive the benefit. In this matter be sure to follow the guidance of your spiritual father. We must beware of putting too much attention on the physical aspects before we have matured in our inner work because this can lead us to thinking that we do all the work and then forget that is the grace of God that we are trying to come in union with and to follow. We can become proud of our physical achievements and lose our contact with God because of our sinfulness aamd self-centeredness. Fasting is not a contest but it is an important self-discipline that will help us come closer to God when practiced with the proper attitude.

Levels of Fasting
The most strict way of fasting to to abstain from all food. The next level is to abstain from all animal products such as meat and dairy products along with oil and wine. Then the next level is to allow wine and oil. Then to allow fish. The most common fast today is to abstain from the eating of meat. But this is not what the tradition of the church suggests we do. But it may be a starting point as we are so attached to eating of meat in our current culture compared to the earlier periods of Church history when eating meat was considered a luxury. So for us today this may be a difficult first step to take but don’t end here.

Begin your practice of fasting by starting the practice of the weekly fast on Wednesday and Friday. This will make you think during the week about you purpose to come closer to God. It will reinforce you prayer life. It will also prepare you for participating in the sacrament of Holy Communion each Sunday which will further support your spiritual growth.

The Church publishes a calendar which has the traditional guidelines for each day on fasting. Once you have succeeded in abstaining from meat on these days then you can look at this calendar and make your fast more strict.

Regulations During Great Lent

Saint John Chrysostom on Fasting

Fasting is a medicine. But medicine, as beneficial as it is, becomes useless because of the inexperience of the user. He has to know the appropriate time that the medicine should be taken and the right amount of medicine and the condition of the body which is to take it, the weather conditions and the season of the year and the appropriate diet of the sick and many other things. If any of these things are overlooked, the medicine will do more harm than good. So, if one who is going to heal the body needs so much accuracy, when we care for the soul and are concerned about healing it from bad thoughts, it is necessary to examine and observe everything with every possible detail
Fasting is the change of every part of our life, because the sacrifice of the fast is not the abstinence but the distancing from sins. Therefore, whoever limits the fast to the deprivation of food, he is the one who, in reality, abhors and ridicules the fast. Are you fasting? Show me your fast with your works. Which works? If you see someone who is poor, show him mercy. If you see an enemy, reconcile with him. If you see a friend who is becoming successful, do not be jealous of him! If you see a beautiful woman on the street, pass her by.

What if you are ill?

If you cannot go without eating all day because of an ailment of the body, beloved one, no logical man will be able to criticize you for that. Besides, we have a Lord who is meek and loving (philanthropic) and who does not ask for anything beyond our power. Because he neither requires the abstinence from foods, neither that the fast take place for the simple sake of fasting, neither is its aim that we remain with empty stomachs, but that we fast to offer our entire selves to the dedication of spiritual things, having distanced ourselves from secular things. If we regulated our life with a sober mind and directed all of our interest toward spiritual things, and if we ate as much as we needed to satisfy our necessary needs and offered our entire lives to good works, we would not have any need of the help rendered by the fast. But because human nature is indifferent and gives itself over mostly to comforts and gratifications, for this reason the philanthropic Lord, like a loving and caring father, devised the therapy of the fast for us, so that our gratifications would be completely stopped and that our worldly cares be transferred to spiritual works. So, if there are some who have gathered here and who are hindered by somatic ailments and cannot remain without food, I advise them to nullify the somatic ailment and not to deprive themselves from this spiritual teaching, but to care for it even more.

Articles
Preparing for Great Lent
Preparing for Great Lent - Why Fast??
Preparing for Great Lent - How Do We Fast?
Upholidng the Pascal Tradition by Pseudo Athanasius
John Chrysostom on Fasting
Meaning of the Great Fast by Mother Mary and Bishop Kallistos Ware in The Lenten Triodion - an excellent overview of the history, purpose and traditional guidelines for the fast of Great Lent.
Fasting From Our Iniquities and Foods by Rev. George Mastrantonis
On Fasting by Bishop Maximos
Why do we Fast?
And Then They Will Fast by Bishop Isaiah of Denver
Nativity Fast
Fasting Can Mean Good Health

Website of the Orthodox Christian Information Center
Many excellent articles on fasting.

Prayer and Fasting with Metropolitan Demetrios of Vresthena and Rev. Dr. Theodore Stylianopolis