Come to Me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Mt 11.28

His Eminence Metropolitan SABA Archbishop of New York and Metropolitan of All North America         His Grace Bishop Alexander

Pastor: Fr John Vazquez| fatherjohnvazquez@gmail.com | stgeorgealbany.org | 1 St George's Pl Albany

Office Hours: Mon/Fri 10am-5pm/Confessions: After weekly services or by appointment

Parish Council Leadership: Chair—Michella Rizk, Treasurer—Ranya Palmer, Secretary—Daniel Palmer, Vice Chair—Linda Grady

Beloved,

This Saturday we will begin the Nativity Fast—the 40 day fasting period before the Nativity of our Lord on December 25th. I have had some conversations about fasting with a few people recently and want to share a few reasons about why we fast. Before that though—I will say that fasting is not an option for us as Orthodox Christians, our Lord says, when you fast...Mt 6.16—not IF you fast. There are multiple ways to fast as well—we control what we eat (no meat, not dairy etc.), when we eat (no eating in the morning before taking communion) and how much we eat (eating less). 

There are three reasons I want to touch on about why we fast: 

First—If something is precious and important to us we will be willing to do something that is uncomfortable and difficult. We fast in order to prepare for something and show that the something we are preparing for is important. Moses fasted for 40 days when he received the tablets of the Law (Exodus 24.18); Elijah fasted 40 days before he encountered God on the mountain (1 Kings/3 Kings 19.8); Jesus fasted for 40 days before beginning His preaching (Mt 4.2). So, we fast as Orthodox Christians before the birth of Christ and before Pascha because these things are very important and essential for our salvation. 

Second—We fast in order to put things in their proper place. In other words, I fill myself with prayer (Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Mt 4.4) and spiritual food so that I can be united to God and live rather than filling myself with physical food and one day return to the earth in death (Gen 3.19, Gen 18.27, Job 10.9, Ecc 12.7). We want our bodies to have—like a seed—the power of life in them (which is the Holy Spirit) so that when we die and our bodies go into the earth they will rise again as spiritual bodies (1 Cor 15.44). This resurrection cannot happen if we do not seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit and part of that seeking itself is fasting.

Third—We fast in order to enter back into paradise (the garden or the kingdom). The strict fast of the Church is no animal products and this fast puts us in the state where there is no death and no animosity between us and the created order. 

These are just three reasons why we fast. There are more, but I encourage each of you to incorporate fasting into your lives this Nativity as a way to prepare, put things in their proper place and re-enter paradise. Doing this as a community is very powerful. May God bless us.  

With love in Christ,

Fr John