وجبـــــــة روحيـــــ(†)ــــــــــة يوميـــــــــة

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III









What tires the body is not fasting but eating.

Overeating, indigestion, eating between meals, etc... all leads to bodily exhaustion. Moreover, the body is also fatigued from the extra heat energy generated by foods consumed beyond man's need, and we have discussed this issue before here on st-takla.org in other pages. How great are the sicknesses brought about by overeating.

Therefore, you have to liberate yourselves from the idea that fasting hurts your health.

Nursing mothers incorrectly assume out of their love and concern for the health of their children, that they must be chubby and full. They assume that this is a sign of good health although an overweight person is weaker in health than a slim one.

Wrong motherly affection is used to prevent children from fasting or discouraged. We say that this affection is erroneous because it did not concern itself with the son's soul as it did with his body, as if they are only responsible for their sons' bodies only. In their concern for their children’s bodily health, they neglect the nourishment of their souls.

Despite this, saintly children used to fast.

An example of these is given by Saint Mark, the hermit on Mount Antonius, who started fasting in his early childhood and kept on fasting through out his life.

Likewise was Saint Shenouda, the father of hermits, who at the age of nine, used to give his food away to shepherds and pray standing up while fasting, till sunset.

To the young and old, fasting bestows health and strength. It freed their bodies from their extra fat and water.

Many saintly bodies have kept from decay, all because of God's blessing that preserved them as a reward for their faithfulness. On the other hand, because their bodies had little in the way of fat and dampness, the causes of decay.

Meat can be preserved without decay for a long time if it is exposed to heat which rids it of its water content and dissolves its fat which dries it up and preserve it. To the some extent were the bodies of saints who, through fasting were without fat and excess water. Thus, decay could not touch them.

However, why should we concentrate on the body? Is fasting a virtue for the body alone?

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III





Fasting is not a Mere Bodily Virtue



Fasting is not merely a virtue for the body apart from the soul, because any virtue requires the participation of the soul.



What then is the role of the body in fasting? And what is the role of the soul?

True fasting is a spiritual act primarily taking place inside the heart.

The function of the body in fasting is to prepare the soul or rather to disclose the soul's affection.

The soul rises above the level of materialism and food, and above the level of the body. It leads the body along in victorious procession and spiritual desires. The body expresses this through fasting.

If we confine our definition of fasting to the humiliation of the body through hunger and deprivation of what it covets, we will be adhering to the negative aspect of fasting, ignoring the positive and spiritual ones.

Fasting is not hunger for the body but nourishment for the soul.

Fasting, as some people speculate, is not a bodily torture, martyrdom, or a cross, but it is a way to elevate the body to reach the level of cooperation with the soul. When we fast, our intention is not to torture the body but to shun its behaviour. Thus, one who fasts becomes a spiritual and not a physical person.

Fasting is an ascetic soul which takes the body with it as its partner in asceticism.

Fasting is not a hungry body but an ascetic one.

Fasting is not bodily hunger but bodily elevation and purity. It is not a body that hungers and longs for food, but a body that rids itself of the desire to eat.

Fasting is a time when the soul flourishes and lifts the body up with it.

It rids the body of its loads and burdens and lifts it up so that God may work with it without impediment to the happiness of the spiritual entity.

Fasting is a spiritual time spent together by the body and soul performing a spiritual act, . The body and the soul join in doing the work of the soul, ie. praying, meditating, praising and coming in communion with God.

We do not pray only with a fasting body but also with a fasting soul, mind and heart abstaining from lusts and desires. The soul also abstains from love of the passing world. All for the sake of living with God, nourished and loved by Him.

A fast in this way is the proper vehicle for spiritual deeds, a spiritual atmosphere to live in his heart, spirit, soul, thought, senses, and emotions with God.

Fasting is the bodily expression of abstinence from materialism and the longing for a life with God. Through abstinence, the body joins the soul in its aspects of spiritual work. Through this, the body becomes spiritual in attitude and takes on the appearance of the soul.

In spiritual fast, neither the soul nor the spiritual body, is anxious about bodily wants.

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III







Fasting is not a Mere Bodily Virtue



Fasting is not merely a virtue for the body apart from the soul, because any virtue requires the participation of the soul.

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III








What then is the role of the body in fasting? And what is the role of the soul?

True fasting is a spiritual act primarily taking place inside the heart.

The function of the body in fasting is to prepare the soul or rather to disclose the soul's affection.

The soul rises above the level of materialism and food, and above the level of the body. It leads the body along in victorious procession and spiritual desires. The body expresses this through fasting.

If we confine our definition of fasting to the humiliation of the body through hunger and deprivation of what it covets, we will be adhering to the negative aspect of fasting, ignoring the positive and spiritual ones.

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III







Fasting is not hunger for the body but nourishment for the soul.

Fasting, as some people speculate, is not a bodily torture, martyrdom, or a cross, but it is a way to elevate the body to reach the level of cooperation with the soul. When we fast, our intention is not to torture the body but to shun its behaviour. Thus, one who fasts becomes a spiritual and not a physical person.

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III








Fasting is an ascetic soul which takes the body with it as its partner in asceticism.

Fasting is not a hungry body but an ascetic one.

Fasting is not bodily hunger but bodily elevation and purity. It is not a body that hungers and longs for food, but a body that rids itself of the desire to eat.

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III







Fasting is a time when the soul flourishes and lifts the body up with it.

It rids the body of its loads and burdens and lifts it up so that God may work with it without impediment to the happiness of the spiritual entity.

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III








Fasting is a spiritual time spent together by the body and soul performing a spiritual act, . The body and the soul join in doing the work of the soul, ie. praying, meditating, praising and coming in communion with God.

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III








We do not pray only with a fasting body but also with a fasting soul, mind and heart abstaining from lusts and desires. The soul also abstains from love of the passing world. All for the sake of living with God, nourished and loved by Him.

A fast in this way is the proper vehicle for spiritual deeds, a spiritual atmosphere to live in his heart, spirit, soul, thought, senses, and emotions with God.

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III







Fasting is the bodily expression of abstinence from materialism and the longing for a life with God. Through abstinence, the body joins the soul in its aspects of spiritual work. Through this, the body becomes spiritual in attitude and takes on the appearance of the soul.

In spiritual fast, neither the soul nor the spiritual body, is anxious about bodily wants.