Fasting is a very large subject, so we’ll break it down into a number of smaller topics.

The spiritual benefits which fasting brings are very great. Fasting, along with prayer and almsgiving, constitutes a basic Christian spiritual practice. Our Lord indicated the importance of fasting when He joined it with prayer and almsgiving in the Sermon on the Mount (see Mt 6.16-18).

Fasting strengthens prayer. Because our bodies are not weighed down with food and we are free from the sluggishness that often comes with eating, our senses and our minds are more alert and concentrated. Better concentration helps to promote attentive prayer, which is the best kind.

In addition, fasting deprives the body of some of those things which stimulate it and the carnal passions. With the body weakened a bit, we are less bothered by it and its carnal desires.

Further, according to our Lord, some of the passions (demons) are driven out only by prayer and fasting (see Mt 17.21).

The Orthodox Church recognizes the great benefits of fasting and asks us to fast according to the established fast days and seasons. We do not fast according to our own whims and desires, but rather when the Church calls us to it. By observing the fasts of the Church, we learn obedience, which helps to restore our fallen, disobedient nature.

Fasting is not easy, especially at first. Very often you will fail to fast as you ought (which is to say, according to your ability). When this happens, you learn humility and you recognize how much you need to depend on God. When, in our failures, we empty ourselves of ourselves, we make room in our hearts for God to come in.

It must be said, however, that fasting by itself has no spiritual benefit. Fasting must be joined with prayer and right conduct to bear its fruit. As the Lord says through the Prophet Isaiah:

Fasting is only a part of a life lived according to the Gospel, albeit a very important part, and if it is taken out of its proper context, it does no good.

The quotation from Isaiah also suggests that we ought to curb our recreation and entertainment during fast days and seasons, since they are inconsistent with the spirit of the discipline in which we are engaged. That includes turning off the television and the radio and other kinds of electronic entertainment as much as we are able.

Fasting has to do with the amount of food you eat. Abstinence deals with the kinds of food you eat. So, for example, we fast if we eat only one meal a day, but we abstain if we do not eat certain foods, e.g. dairy products and meat. That means it is possible to fast without abstaining from anything in particular, just as it is possible to abstain from certain foods without fasting. In the Orthodox Church, whenever we fast, we also abstain.

The Orthodox fast means eating only one meal a day, preferably in the late afternoon, and not eating until you are full. The Fathers say you have eaten too much if you do not feel like praying when you get up from the table.

Fasting is taxing for those unaccustomed to it. Do not try to undertake strict fasting if you have never done it before. Persons with medical conditions where diet plays a factor should not fast except with a doctor’s consent. Pregnant women should not fast; nor should the very elderly nor the very young. Children may begin to be introduced to fasting at about age seven or eight, many as early as age five.

In order that you do not try to fast beyond your means, or do too little, you need to talk about fasting with your spiritual father and follow his recommendations.

Orthodox fasting is always coupled with abstinence from certain foods. These are the foods from which we abstain when we fast:

• Meat: beef, veal, pork, poultry, and fish. (Fish is allowed only on two days during Great Lent: Annunciation [March 25] & Palm Sunday.)
• Dairy products: eggs, milk, cheese, etc.
• Olive oil.
• Wine and all other alcoholic beverages.

Certain days of the year have modified fasts. These are days of special solemnity or festivity, like major Feasts or the feast day of the patron Saint of the church. We won’t cover those days here.

What foods are allowed on fast days?

• Fruits.
• Vegetables.
• Grains.
• Nuts.
• Shellfish.

Some very good vegetarian cookbooks can be purchased at trade bookstores. Be sure to check through them to see that most of the recipes don’t call for dairy products. Also, some regional cuisines offer a wide variety of vegetarian dishes, e.g., Mexican and Oriental. Greek, Arabic, and Slavic cuisines also have a great many vegetarian dishes. Since the populations have been Orthodox for so long, they have developed diets that conform to the fasts.

Fasting meals should not be fancy, extravagant affairs, but plain and simple meals. Many of the recipes you find will reflect this aspect of fasting.

Many prepared and pre-packaged foods do not meet Orthodox standards for fasting foods. It is worth checking labels.

There is one other aspect of abstinence which cannot go unmentioned. Orthodox fasting includes not only abstinence from certain foods, but abstinence from marital relations as well. Married couples should abstain from sexual relations on fast days and throughout fasting seasons. This practice goes back to the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai, when the people of Israel were to sanctify themselves for three days and to abstain from marital relations as a part of the sanctification (see Exodus 19.14-15). This is also what St. Paul means when he says that couples should not "refuse one another" for a time, that they may give themselves to fasting and prayer (1 Cor. 7.5). This stipulation is, admittedly, burdensome. If you are not able to keep this part of the fast strictly, then abstain as much as possible. You will find, however, that a few days of not eating meat and animal products does help.

The reason we abstain from the particular foods listed above is that, with the exception of olive oil and wine, they are animal products. Eating meat and other animal products has a way of arousing the passions, particularly anger and the carnal ones. The Fathers recognized this fact, and since part of the spiritual life consists of overcoming the passions, animal products were forbidden during fasts. Monastics, who are devoted to a life of overcoming the passions, avoid meat altogether. Further, in imitation of the life our first parents lived in Paradise, we also abstain from animal products.

Because of these considerations, which are the spiritual reasons for abstaining from meat and dairy products, it is okay to substitute vegetable products for an animal one. For example, margarine can be used instead of butter without breaking "the spirit of the fast."

The Great Fast, or Great Lent, as it is sometimes called, is the most important fast of the year because it precedes and prepares us for the joy of Pascha. Converts in the early Church spent this time intensely preparing to be baptized on Pascha. To embrace the course of this fast is a great spiritual joy which will become most fully manifest when we sing "Christ is risen!" on Pascha night. Those who have prepared for the Resurrection of Christ by fasting to the best of their abilities can testify to this joy.

The Great Fast is complex. Here are the rules on how to do it:

1. Two weeks before the Great Fast begins is Meatfare Week, the last week in which meat may be eaten. Wednesday and Friday of Meatfare Week are regular fast days, like the other Wednesdays and Fridays of the year. Meatfare Week ends on Meatfare Sunday, also called the Sunday of the Last Judgement. This is the last day that meat is allowed until Pascha.

2. The week before the Great Fast is Cheesefare Week. During this week, no meat is allowed, but all dairy products are permitted, even on Wednesday and Friday, which nevertheless remain fast days. That means we eat only once on Wednesday and Friday of Cheesefare Week, but we can have dairy products at that meal. In this way the Church gradually prepares us for the rigors of the Fast. Cheesefare Week ends on Cheesefare Sunday, the last day on which dairy products may be eaten until Pascha. Cheesefare Sunday is also called Forgiveness Sunday, for at Vespers on Sunday evening everyone asks forgiveness of everyone else in the church. At this service, the Great Fast begins.

3. The first week of Great Lent is kept very strictly. Monday, the first full day of the Fast, is called Clean Monday. On this day we eat nothing at all, if possible. If not, we eat something simple (perhaps uncooked) in the evening. Some people keep the first week of Great Lent by not eating cooked food at all.

After Clean Monday, the ordinary fasting rule applies: one meal a day, preferably in late afternoon or evening.

4. People who intend to receive Holy Communion at the Liturgy of the Presanctified should fast all day and take their meal after the Liturgy. Those people who are not able to go that long without eating should to get permission from their spiritual father to take a small, simple meal earlier in the day to maintain their strength. It is not good fast or a good preparation for Communion to eat breakfast and lunch and then have a late dinner after the Presanctified.

5. On the Saturdays and Sundays of the Fast, the fasting rule is relaxed, but the rule of abstinence remains. That means on Saturdays and Sundays, you can eat as much and as often as you want, but without eating meat or dairy. We can have wine and olive oil on Saturdays and Sundays of Great Lent.

6. On two days of Great Lent fish is allowed: the Feast of the Annunciation (March 25) and on Palm Sunday.

7. If the parish feast day (for us, St Innocent’s day, 31 March) falls on a weekday of Lent, wine and oil are allowed. Wine and oil are not allowed, however, if the feast comes during the first week of Lent or during Great Week (Holy Week).

8. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Great and Holy Week, the usual fasting rule obtains.

9. Great Thursday is a fast day, but wine and oil are allowed.

10. On Great Friday, nothing at all should be eaten. This observance is in accordance with the words of our Lord: "But the days will come when the Bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then they shall fast in those days" (St. Mark 2.20). If someone cannot last the whole day without eating, they may take something simple, e.g. bread and tea or fruit juice, toward evening.

11. On Great Saturday, many people continue to avoid all food. For those that do eat, one meal is permitted, and wine, but not oil, is allowed. Curiously, this is the one Saturday of the year when oil is not allowed.