GREAT FAST IS ALMOST HALF OVER!
We in holy Orthodoxy are almost in the middle of the Great Fast which occurs on Sunday of the Holy Cross, which this year is March 15th. With the approaching important elebration one man would say to another, the fast is almost over, and the other responded, seems like it has just begun. This show that our perspectives differ greatly and this depends on our spiritual progress or lack of it. The first is anxious for the fast to end, the latter sees the opportunities and a goal. If we cannot progress toward a real goal during the Great Fast, it will derive little benefit and this will have an effect on our future spiritual outlook concerning everything in our lives following the fast. For the fruit of the fast is drawing nearer to Christ in love and devotion. If anyone has not kept the fast up until now, and begins, there will be no loss for the Lord’s generosity is boundless.
Although the Great Fast is the forty days before Holy Week, each day anticipates the extremely joyful Feast of the feasts, Pascha, wherein all of our joy overflows in huge celebration. However, fasting is meant to be a very personal endeavor in which every pious Orthodox Christian seeks to acquire benefits from the fast. For although we are already in the Kingdom of God, as its citizens our objective in this life is to become worthy to rejoice in the next life on the right hand of the Judge. Thus the fast must be focused on ourselves not being a passive but an active period of time. The fast is much more than the eating certain foods with the absence of others. Fasting is not about self control and self regard, on the contrary it is about changing from self love to love of Jesus Christ.
