Maybe you are feeling pretty good about yourself; maybe as the second week of Great Lent (first for the Orthodox) winds down you have succeeded in whatever sacrifice you have undertaken, made real progress.
Lest you succumb to pride, let me share this with you, the traditional rules of fasting from the Orthodox Church in America website (I have highlighted the more humbling passages):
On weekdays in the first week, fasting is particularly severe. According to strict observance, in the course of the five initial days of Lent, only two meals are eaten, one on Wednesday and the other on Friday, in both cases after the Liturgy of the Presanctified. On the other three days, those who have the strength are encouraged to keep an absolute fast; those for whom this proves impracticable may eat on Tuesday and Thursday (but not, if possible, on Monday), in the evening after Vespers, when they may take bread and water, or perhaps tea or fruit-juice, but not a cooked meal. It should be added at once that in practice today these rules are commonly relaxed. At the meals on Wednesday and Friday xerophagy is prescribed. Literally this means ‘dry eating’. Strictly interpreted, it signifies that we may eat only vegetables cooked with water and salt, and also such things as fruit, nuts, bread and honey. In practice, octopus and shell-fish are also allowed on days of xerophagy; likewise vegetable margarine and corn or other vegetable oil, not made from olives. But the following categories of food are definitely excluded:On weekdays (Monday to Friday inclusive) in the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth weeks, one meal a day is permitted…
Holy Week. On the first three days there is one meal each day, with xerophagy; but some try to keep a complete fast on these days, or else they eat only uncooked food, as on the opening days of the first week. On Holy Thursday one meal is eaten, with wine and oil (i.e., olive oil). On Great Friday those who have the strength follow the practice of the early Church and keep a total fast. Those unable to do this may eat bread, with a little water, tea or fruit-juice, but not until sunset, or at any rate not until after the veneration of the [Plashchanitsa] at Vespers. On Holy Saturday there is in principle no meal, since according to the ancient practice after the end of the Liturgy of St. Basil the faithful remained in church for the reading of the Acts of the Apostles, and for their sustenance were given a little bread and dried fruit, with a cup of wine. If, as usually happens now, they return home for a meal, they may use wine but not oil; for on this one Saturday, alone among Saturdays of the year, olive oil is not permitted.
This is followed by a reminder that fasting is not legalistic, and advice to use common sense. Indeed, I have a friend, a fellow letter carrier, who attempted a strict fast during Lent one year. They found him on the route, passed out. Still, it is hard for me to conceive of this sort of rigorous fasting, and it helps keep my efforts in perspective.
But perhaps this is not your problem; perhaps you have already succumbed to that sausage pizza or second cup of coffee, or whatever it is you had promised to sacrifice. In that case, remember that it is better to spend Lent eating steak and cake in humility than to take pride in your feats of self denial.
Icon by Matthew Garrett
I once heard a midwife say that if you ate a small handful of spinach a hundred years ago it was packed densly with nutrients. Now you would have to eat a large salad bowl filled to the brim to get the same amount of vitamins and minerals. That’s how much the soil has been depleted. I think that it was probably “easier” in this respect to fast eating only a little food a long time ago.
On the other hand we live in a society overly adverse to any sort of suffering and Lenten fasting is definitly way to easy at least in the West. . . .
It may have been easier to get the needed nutrients, but I bet the hunger pangs weren’t any easier!
We eat raw food the first week of Lent, as much as possible anyway. I find that after that experience, even the most simple vegetable soup tastes like a feast. We try this again during Holy Week. The rest of Lent we do our best, observing Wednesday and Friday as vegan. I find I thrive on a diet of vegetables, dried fruit and nuts, lots of water and guacamole with hot sauce. Go figure.
[...] Roman Catholics who announce that they “love Lent” crack me up. “Of course you love Lent,” I think, “You gave up freaking chocolate.” Not that Catholics never practice austerity; my friend Maclin gave up coffee. I mean, really. I can do without meat, but I don’t like it. Abstaining from dairy? Even harder, but doable. Marital relations? Hardest of all, given my bride’s great beauty and sweetness. (And no, these are not matters of great ascetiscm). [...]