Hieromonk Job (Gumerov)
Rating: 8,7|Votes: 6
Why don’t we observe the Wednesday and Friday fast during the week of the Publican and the Pharisee? Christ tells the parable of the Pharisee and the publican in the temple. The Pharisee says that he does this and that, including that he fasts two days out of the week. Tell me, please, what days of the week were these, and why were they fast days? Who are the Pharisees?
Although we are called to practice proper human behavior both in and out of the time of fasting, intensifying it during this holy time affirms that fasting is a comprehensive state in which the human person bows to God's desire, is led by His teachings, prays to Him intensely, spreads love, renounces hatred and rancor and expels the whispering of Satan, aided by the spiritual power that results from approaching God through the fast that gives a mystical dimension to the Christian believer.
Archpriest Vladislav Tsypin
Having cast out the unclean spirit from the demon-possessed youth, the Lord said to His disciples who had tried before Him to heal the unfortunate one but couldn’t: This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting (Mt. 17:21), by this setting forth fasting as a means of spiritual warfare on the same level as prayer.
Priest Nicholai Bulgakov
Rating: 8,5|Votes: 6
Fasting is a time of purification, repentance; a time that helps us leave this vain world in which we live from day to day without often thinking about what is most important. Time goes by and we are in the same place; the soul has not changed. So it would be good for us to make friends with fasting. After all, it gives us the most important thing—spiritual transformation.
Priest Dimitry Shishkin
Rating: 10|Votes: 5
The main joy of the fast, strange as it sounds, consists in the possibility for our change and transformation. It is in the possibility to become something different.