Draft Booklet for Teens
If we have grown up in the Coptic Orthodox Church then we know that there are times through the year, and even every week, when we fast. We know how to fast. Our families will switch over to fasting food. We will try to keep the rules as much as possible. But we can be a youth in the Coptic Orthodox Church and not really know why we fast at all!
There are lots of youth who ask me why we fast. If you are not sure about why we fast, then you are not alone. This little explanation is intended to answer that question in a simple way.
I am going to keep returning to the image of someone getting physically fit for an important athletic competition in my explanation. Our spiritual life as Christians has lots in common with getting fit and staying fit in a physical sense. In fact, it has lots in common with the effort we put into all sorts of human activities, even learning to play the piano, or preparing for an exam. We are used to having to be committed in a practical way if we want to do well in sports, or in our studies, or in any sort of interest we have.
We need to understand that the spiritual life with God, becoming a real Christian who has the love and power of God inside them by the Holy Spirit, also requires a practical commitment. If we have the wrong idea of what it means to be a Christian, then we have a wrong idea about everything else.
We can think that being a Christian means that we have to do things to please God and avoid other things to stop him being angry with us and punishing us. When we think this is what being a Christian is then we can imagine that we have to fast otherwise God will punish us. We might think that if we do not follow the fasting rules of the Church then God will punish us now in one way or another and will perhaps punish us in the future in Hell. But this is not what it means to be a Christian.
We can think that being a Christian means that we have to try to do all the good things we are told to do and avoid all the bad things we are warned against, so that we can get God to bless us and give us good things. We can think that if we want to get a good result in an exam or test, then we need to do things that will keep God happy, otherwise he will make us fail. We might think that if we fast properly then we will receive all the good things we would like. But this is not what it means to be a Christian.
To be a Christian is not about just doing good things and avoiding bad things. It is all to do with being in the closest possible relationship with God, as a real person that we know and love and experience every day, and every moment of every day. All of the things we do in the Orthodox Christian life are designed to help us grow closer and closer to God, and not to please him and prevent him being angry with us. All of the things we do in the Orthodox Christian life are designed to help us grow spiritually fit and healthy so that we are able to experience God’s life and love more and more completely.
If we want to do well in an exam or a test, then we are willing to put in lots of hard work so that we do as well as possible. We will stay up late reading course books, doing practice questions, and making revision notes. The effort we put in to our studies will be for a clear goal. We want to do well. And we know that if we do not make much effort then we will not do as well as we could, and perhaps we will do very badly.
If we want to do well in learning a musical instrument or taking up some other skill, then we will also be willing to put in lots of hard work so that we do as well as possible. If we start learning to play the piano, then we begin with very simple skills that require us to repeat the same scales and the same simple tunes over and over again. It might seem boring, and we might have to force ourselves to keep practicing. But if we stick at it, then we start to be able to play simple tunes quite well, and then we start to play more difficult pieces of music, and eventually, if we keep our commitment and effort going, we are finally able to play the piano. It is this goal, and the little signs of our improvement week by week, that help us make the effort even when it seems most difficult.
And as a final example, if we want to get fit, and compete in a sports competition, then we will begin by doing physical exercise that will make us feel tired at first. Doing lots of exercise might make us feel aches and pains. It might even make us feel less fit than when we started. We could start asking ourselves why we are bothering to put ourselves through so much, especially at first, and when it is difficult. Someone who is seriously training for a sports competition will get up early and could be doing lengths in a swimming pool while everyone else in his class at school is still in bed. Someone who wants to compete in an elite athletics team will give up all of their free time, and every weekend, and every holiday, so that they can concentrate on improving their fitness.
If we want to do well in anything in our human experience, whatever age we are, we have to have a goal, and we have to make a commitment. This is the same whether we are 8 years old or 80 years old. What has this got to do with fasting? It has everything to do with it, because fasting only makes sense when we have a goal in the Christian life and understand how to properly be committed to fulfilling this goal for the Christian life.
Being a Christian doesn’t simply mean doing certain things, even going to Church and reading the Bible. An atheist, someone who absolutely rejects the existence of God, can attend religious services and read the Bible. An atheist, someone who absolutely rejects the existence of God, can try do things which are good and avoid things which are bad. This doesn’t make us a Christian. Nor does knowing lots of Bible stories and things about Christianity. The Lord Jesus himself tells us that even Satan believes in God and he certainly knows lots of Bible stories. Being a Christian doesn’t even mean that we go without food a lot, as if that is what makes us a Christian, since there are millions upon millions of people in the world who have no food and have to struggle with less food than we do even when we are fasting. But just going without food doesn’t make a person a Christian.
A Christian is someone who has been given a new life, life with God, in the waters of baptism. Sometimes this new life begins when we are still a small baby, sometimes it begins when an older person decides they want to become a Christian. But becoming a Christian is everything to do with God’s gift of a new life which he gives us himself. He gives us a new life united with himself and when we are baptised, we are also anointed with the holy oil, or chrism, and in this action, God gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit to be present within us always and to begin to give us strength to grow closer and closer to God.
The whole purpose of the Christian life is to allow us to experience more and more of the Holy Spirit acting in us, and a warmer and more complete experience of knowing God personally. What does this look like and feel like? Imagine not feeling worried about anything. Imagine not feeling lonely. Imagine not feeling that we are not good enough. Imagine not feeling bored all the time. Imagine not being controlled by sinful habits or anger. Imagine feeling that God is with us, protecting us, caring for us,
Just doing a little bit of praying or a little bit of fasting doesn’t mean that all of our problems like this will go away. Just doing a few minutes practice on the piano doesn’t mean that we can suddenly play like someone who has put in a lifetime of effort either. But the Lord Jesus speaks about the abundant kind of life he wants us to have. The Lord Jesus tells us that if we choose the life which he wants us to have with God then we do not need to be worried about anything. We do not need to be afraid. We do not need to let sinful habits control us. We can find peace, and joy, and patience, and increasing trust and hope in God that changes everything for us. There is a wonderful life which can be ours with God.
But just like everything else in our human experience, the life with God requires commitment and effort. This is not to please God, but to experience him more completely. If we take up a sport, then we are not being punished when the instructor tells us to do this exercise for 10 minutes or run around the track so many times. Even if it makes us out of breath, and even if we have aches and pains, what we have been asked to do is not a punishment but is what is necessary for us to become fit. Why do we do it? Why do we stay at school to do sports, or have music lessons, or stay in our rooms doing revision? It is not a punishment. It is not just to please others. It is because we really want to achieve something, and what we want to achieve is really worth all the effort.
We experience the life God wants for us by becoming more and more united with God, growing into a closer and closer relationship with him that fills every day and every moment. The closer we grow to God, the more we find that the Holy Spirit gives us the strength and the power to overcome sin, to find peace and hope, and to cope with all the pressures and stresses of life. It is only when we understand that this is what the Christian life means that we can begin to understand the point of fasting. We can see how all the spiritual practices which we learn at Church are all supposed to help us develop a close relationship with God in every moment, and are not about pleasing an angry God, or earning good behaviour points.
We don’t go to the Liturgy to please God, but we go to actually meet God, and to receive his own life really and truly in the communion, which is the Body and Blood of Christ. We know to bow down at various times in the Liturgy, but it is not to please God who is far from us and away in Heaven. It is because God has actually and really come down on the altar in the room where we are praying, because he wants us to have the closest possible personal relationship with him and receive his life into ourselves to transform and change everything.
We don’t pray prayers from the Agpeya, as best we can, to please God who is far away from us. But when we pray, when we turn our attention towards God, as a real person that hears us and loves us, and prayer actually brings us into God’s presence. This is what prayer is. It is coming into God’s presence, as if we were telephoning someone or making a call across the world to someone, we cannot see but we know is there with us. Every time we pray, whatever age we are, as soon as we give God our attention and the warmth of our heart, then he is there with us, and we are in his presence. That is what prayer is. So, we do not pray to please God but so that we can spend as much time as possible in his wonderful, loving presence that changes our lives and takes away our fears.
And we don’t have to always pray in the words of the Agpeya, or in the words of the Liturgy. We can also pray as often as we are able in our own words. Telling God how we feel. Asking for his help. Thanking him for his kindness and strength and protection. Remembering our family and friends when we are in his presence.
We can also pray the little prayer which has been found very useful to make a spiritual habit. It is called the Jesus Prayer and we can pray it as often as we are able saying in our heart – Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me. And we can read a little portion of the Bible, especially the Gospels of St Matthew, St Mark, St Luke and St John, every day. But we are not doing this to please God, but to allow him to speak to us, and to give us an important message from his own loving heart. We read a little passage of the Gospel, and we begin by asking God to speak to us, and then while we are reading slowly and with attention, we wait to see which words or phrase or sentence or idea springs out at us, or comes alive, or becomes a reflection. This is how God often speaks to us when we read the Bible asking him to make it real for us in our own circumstances.
It is only when we understand things in this way that we can think about why we fast. It is not to please God or make him do things for us. It is to help us in the adventure of becoming as closely united to God as is possible, so that we become truly alive.
We find that fasting is not something that our Egyptian families have introduced, as if it had nothing much to do with our lives, and as if it was just an old-fashioned practice. The Lord Jesus Christ himself says… when you fast, and he doesn’t say, if you fast.
But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. Matthew 6:18
Our Lord Jesus Christ expects us to fast, and it is a matter of when we fast, not if we fast at all. He says something else…
But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days. Mark 2:20
He was speaking here of the time after the return of the Lord Jesus to Heaven, the time in which we now live. The Acts of the Apostles speaks about Christians fasting, and St Paul also describes how he often fasted.
In fact, in the very early Church, while many of the Apostles were still alive, it was decided that just as the Jewish people had always fasted every Monday and Thursday, so the Christian people would fast on Wednesday and Friday every week. And we still practice this weekly fasting after 2000 years. It is something that has always been part of the Christian life from the very beginning, and when we fast, we are following the example of the Lord Jesus himself…
And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Matthew 4:2
There are several reasons in particular why we fast, when we understand it in this way, as something which Christians have always practiced and used to grow closer to God, and more spiritually fit.
#1. What is fasting? In our Coptic Orthodox spiritual way, fasting means that we eat a different range of foods, more limited, avoiding meat, fish and dairy during the strict fasts, and avoiding meat and dairy on the less strict fasts. It means that we try to restrict what we eat on Wednesday and Friday on most weeks during the year, except after the great feast of Pascha or Easter. It also means that we try to eat less as well, depending on what our parents and spiritual fathers advise us. Those who are older might skip breakfast and just have a light lunch a bit later in the afternoon before dinner in the evening. Some people might only choose to have one meal a day in the evening. The main points are that we eat a bit less and we eat more simply, and this requires us to make choices, and make a commitment. But the commitment is that we want to know God more, to become closer and closer to him, and to experience his help and his love in every moment of our life.
#2. What we eat affects every part of us. We know that an Olympic athlete can’t just eat whatever he or she wants. The coach will give a very strict outline of what is to be eaten every day. Just before an important race it will be even more important. The athlete doesn’t consider this a punishment. They will listen very carefully to the advice of their coach and may even have a special nutritionist to give them advice about how they should eat to reach the peak of their fitness. This is because there is a strong connection between what we eat, and how we feel, and how we think. When an older person has a big dinner, they will often fall asleep afterwards. This is because when we eat a lot it takes a lot of energy to digest it. The body has to focus on the stomach, and this leaves less energy for the mind, or for other activity.
But when we eat, we also see an increase in the sugar levels in our blood, and this can make us sleepy. In a person with an illness such as diabetes these levels of blood sugar have to be carefully controlled, but even for a healthy person, we know that if we eat or drink lots of sugary food and drinks then it affects how we feel, and makes us over excited, until we suddenly feel really tired and drained of energy.
So, we have times of fasting, where we are careful what we eat so that we can think and act clearly and towards our goal of growing closer to God. Just like an athlete preparing for a race, or even someone with an illness trying to be healthy. We eat a simple diet of vegetables, and sometimes fish, and this makes a difference to how we feel and how we think. It makes a difference to how we can concentrate for a while on our prayers, on reading the Bible, and in thinking of others.
#3. How we eat teaches us self-disciple. It is easy for us to spend our whole lives just doing what we want, and we get annoyed when our parents ask us to stop and do something else, or something to help in the family. If we carry on in this way, then we will become adults who think only of themselves. We cannot grow close to God if we think only about ourselves all the time. We cannot grow close to anyone if we think only of ourselves. Thinking about an Olympic athlete again, if he or she just does what they want all the time they will never be able to achieve their goal, they will never be able to win the race. They will always come last because they have chosen to do whatever gave them immediate pleasure, instead of doing what leads to success. If the coach says, get a good night’s sleep, have a small meal before the race, concentrate on making sure you have everything you need for the race, what would happen if someone ignored all that, and just decided to stay up very late playing video games, and having a big meal with friends, and then had a big cooked breakfast, and just quickly put a few things in a bag, but without any care? Such an athlete would not do well, and would probably do badly, not because the coach had punished them, but because just doing what you want all the time never leads to success, and cannot build strong relationships with other people, or with God.
We have to learn to say no to ourselves, to become disciplined, if want to succeed in our lives, and if we want to discover what it is like to become very close to God. If we want to do well in our studies at school, then we have to say no to ourselves and choose to do things that are difficult and tiring, instead of just doing what we want. If we want to do well in playing a musical instrument or a sport, then we have to say no to ourselves and choose to do things that are difficult and tiring, instead of just doing what we want. If we want to have good relationship with our friends, then we have to say no to ourselves sometimes and do what they want, otherwise we will end up without many friends at all.
It is just the same in our relationship with God and in our efforts at the spiritual life. If we don’t discipline ourselves, and say no to ourselves sometimes, then we cannot succeed in knowing God, and in learning how to be close to him.
When we fast, we are saying no to ourselves in a little way. We are making choices about what we do, and we are choosing to do something that helps us grow closer to God, more awake, and more spiritually alive. We are not doing it to please God, to stop him being angry, or to make him give us good things. We are doing it, saying no to ourselves, so that we can say yes to God. This has so many important benefits to us, because we become less selfish just by making the effort to fast. It helps us have better relationships with other people because we are learning not to think of ourselves all the time, and it helps us have a better relationship with God because saying no to what we want, and wanting different food during the fast is normal, means that we are learning to choose God above ourselves.
#4. Fasting makes time for God. When we are not thinking of what we are going to eat all the time, when we have a simpler way of eating during the fasts, then we do have more time for God. This does require a commitment though. It would be easy to spend all our time thinking about food in the fast, especially if we don’t know why we are fasting. That is no help to us. But if we know that we are fasting because we want to use every opportunity to grow closer to God, and to become more alive in every way, then we don’t spend all our time thinking about food, and this gives us time to turn to God.
If someone is preparing for an important athletic event and is following a strict diet under the instruction of their coach, they are not thinking all the time about what food they are not supposed to be eating. Their thoughts will be on the race or event which is in the future and with which they are completely occupied. This is what we need to try to do, and if we understand all the wonderful blessings that we experience as we grow closer to God, then we will understand that fasting is as useful tool, a way for us to make time for God, for our own sake, and not as if we had to keep God happy.
At lunch time, we should try to find a way to have a few moments with God. In the evening we should certainly spend a little longer meeting God in prayer, thanking him for all the things he has given us, asking him to forgive the mistakes we have made, and to give us strength to overcome every sinful habit. If we give God a little more time during the fasts, we will discover that we have a deeper experience of knowing God at this time, because eating more simply and saying no to ourselves gives us a spiritual alertness we do not have at other times.
#5. Fasting gives power to our prayers. If we followed the diet which an Olympic athlete had been given, it would not make us an Olympic athlete. And an Olympic athlete doesn’t win medals simply by following the diet sheet they have been given. Nor can they win as many medals as they hope if they just exercise and train but carry on eating the wrong food. What is required for an athlete is both the proper diet AND all of the commitment to exercise and training which is always necessary.
This is the same for us all in the Christian life, whatever age we are. If we just pray a little bit but don’t make the effort of fasting, then we will not see as great a change in our life as we could hope. We will still find ourselves overwhelmed by worries, anger, sin and bad habits. But if we just try to do the fasting and we don’t pray much at all, then we will also not see any results in our lives.
We don’t need to know exactly how prayer and fasting go together, but in lots of passages in the Bible and in the teaching of the Lord Jesus, we find that they are connected together. When we fast because we want to grow closer to God then it means that our heart is filled with a desire to know God better than we already do. This warms up our hearts and our prayers, like a small spark catching alight and burning with a bright flame. When we turn to God in prayer, however simply we pray, then we find ourselves in God’s presence, which is what prayer is, and God is like a fire, and just to be in his presence warms our heart. And so, when these two sources of warmth come together, the warmth of our desire to know God, and the warmth of his own presence, great changes can take place in our lives, and our prayers are filled with power, with the power of the presence of God.
This is why we fast. It is not to please God, or to make him do things for us. It is so that we can become more awake in every aspect of our life, in our body, our mind, and our spirit. It is so that we can learn self-discipline and control ourselves better by saying no to ourselves in this simple way, and yes to choosing the opportunity of growing closer to God. Fasting helps us to concentrate a little bit more on God, even if we are young, and to give a warmth to our heart and to our prayers that makes a difference to us and changes us in a wonderful way.
Everything we do in our life should be done with God’s help, and to help us grow closer to God. Fasting is one of the ways that God has given us in the Church, in our Christian life, to do this, to experience more of God every day. When we fast we should say to ourselves, and to God, I am fasting to become more aware of God and to know him better, I am not fasting because I am afraid I will be punished, or because I want God to reward me, but just so that I can grow closer to him.
God hears such a prayer and rewards us more than we could imagine when we fast in this way, because he gives us himself. The effort and commitment which is required of us is the same effort and commitment required of us to succeed and be fruitful in any activity. But this activity, actually growing in our relationship with God so that we are filled with his own life, is worth so much more than anything else. Our fasting, which is just one part of our spiritual fitness training, is such a small thing compared to this life changing relationship with God.
If we have grown up in the Coptic Orthodox Church then we know that there are times through the year, and even every week, when we fast. We know how to fast. Our families will switch over to fasting food. We will try to keep the rules as much as possible. But we can be a youth in the Coptic Orthodox Church and not really know why we fast at all!
There are lots of youth who ask me why we fast. If you are not sure about why we fast, then you are not alone. This little explanation is intended to answer that question in a simple way.
I am going to keep returning to the image of someone getting physically fit for an important athletic competition in my explanation. Our spiritual life as Christians has lots in common with getting fit and staying fit in a physical sense. In fact, it has lots in common with the effort we put into all sorts of human activities, even learning to play the piano, or preparing for an exam. We are used to having to be committed in a practical way if we want to do well in sports, or in our studies, or in any sort of interest we have.
We need to understand that the spiritual life with God, becoming a real Christian who has the love and power of God inside them by the Holy Spirit, also requires a practical commitment. If we have the wrong idea of what it means to be a Christian then we have a wrong idea about everything else.
We can think that being a Christian means that we have to do things to please God and avoid other things to stop him being angry with us and punishing us. When we think this is what being a Christian is then we can imagine that we have to fast otherwise God will punish us. We might think that if we do not follow the fasting rules of the Church then God will punish us now in one way or another and will perhaps punish us in the future in Hell. But this is not what it means to be a Christian.
We can think that being a Christian means that we have to try to do all the good things we are told to do and avoid all the bad things we are warned against, so that we can get God to bless us and give us good things. We can think that if we want to get a good result in an exam or test, then we need to do things that will keep God happy, otherwise he will make us fail. We might think that if we fast properly then we will receive all the good things we would like. But this is not what it means to be a Christian.
To be a Christian is not about just doing good things and avoiding bad things. It is all to do with being in the closest possible relationship with God, as a real person that we know and love and experience every day, and every moment of every day. All of the things we do in the Orthodox Christian life are designed to help us grow closer and closer to God, and not to please him and prevent him being angry with us. All of the things we do in the Orthodox Christian life are designed to help us grow spiritually fit and healthy so that we are able to experience God’s life and love more and more completely.
If we want to do well in an exam or a test, then we are willing to put in lots of hard work so that we do as well as possible. We will stay up late reading course books, doing practice questions, and making revision notes. The effort we put in to our studies will be for a clear goal. We want to do well. And we know that if we do not make much effort then we will not do as well as we could, and perhaps we will do very badly.
If we want to do well in learning a musical instrument or taking up some other skill, then we will also be willing to put in lots of hard work so that we do as well as possible. If we start learning to play the piano, then we begin with very simple skills that require us to repeat the same scales and the same simple tunes over and over again. It might seem boring, and we might have to force ourselves to keep practicing. But if we stick at it, then we start to be able to play simple tunes quite well, and then we start to play more difficult pieces of music, and eventually, if we keep our commitment and effort going, we are finally able to play the piano. It is this goal, and the little signs of our improvement week by week, that help us make the effort even when it seems most difficult.
And as a final example, if we want to get fit, and compete in a sports competition, then we will begin by doing physical exercise that will make us feel tired at first. Doing lots of exercise might make us feel aches and pains. It might even make us feel less fit than when we started. We could start asking ourselves why we are bothering to put ourselves through so much, especially at first, and when it is difficult. Someone who is seriously training for a sports competition will get up early and could be doing lengths in a swimming pool while everyone else in his class at school is still in bed. Someone who wants to compete in an elite athletics team will give up all of their free time, and every weekend, and every holiday, so that they can concentrate on improving their fitness.
If we want to do well in anything in our human experience, whatever age we are, we have to have a goal, and we have to make a commitment. This is the same whether we are 8 years old or 80 years old. What has this got to do with fasting? It has everything to do with it, because fasting only makes sense when we have a goal in the Christian life and understand how to properly be committed to fulfilling this goal for the Christian life.
Being a Christian doesn’t simply mean doing certain things, even going to Church and reading the Bible. An atheist, someone who absolutely rejects the existence of God, can attend religious services and read the Bible. An atheist, someone who absolutely rejects the existence of God, can try do things which are good and avoid things which are bad. This doesn’t make us a Christian. Nor does knowing lots of Bible stories and things about Christianity. The Lord Jesus himself tells us that even Satan believes in God and he certainly knows lots of Bible stories. Being a Christian doesn’t even mean that we go without food a lot, as if that is what makes us a Christian, since there are millions upon millions of people in the world who have no food and have to struggle with less food than we do even when we are fasting. But just going without food doesn’t make a person a Christian.
A Christian is someone who has been given a new life, life with God, in the waters of baptism. Sometimes this new life begins when we are still a small baby, sometimes it begins when an older person decides they want to become a Christian. But becoming a Christian is everything to do with God’s gift of a new life which he gives us himself. He gives us a new life united with himself and when we are baptised, we are also anointed with the holy oil, or chrism, and in this action, God gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit to be present within us always and to begin to give us strength to grow closer and closer to God.
The whole purpose of the Christian life is to allow us to experience more and more of the Holy Spirit acting in us, and a warmer and more complete experience of knowing God personally. What does this look like and feel like? Imagine not feeling worried about anything. Imagine not feeling lonely. Imagine not feeling that we are not good enough. Imagine not feeling bored all the time. Imagine not being controlled by sinful habits or anger. Imagine feeling that God is with us, protecting us, caring for us,
Just doing a little bit of praying or a little bit of fasting doesn’t mean that all of our problems like this will go away. Just doing a few minutes practice on the piano doesn’t mean that we can suddenly play like someone who has put in a lifetime of effort either. But the Lord Jesus speaks about the abundant kind of life he wants us to have. The Lord Jesus tells us that if we choose the life which he wants us to have with God then we do not need to be worried about anything. We do not need to be afraid. We do not need to let sinful habits control us. We can find peace, and joy, and patience, and increasing trust and hope in God that changes everything for us. There is a wonderful life which can be ours with God.
But just like everything else in our human experience, the life with God requires commitment and effort. This is not to please God, but to experience him more completely. If we take up a sport, then we are not being punished when the instructor tells us to do this exercise for 10 minutes or run around the track so many times. Even if it makes us out of breath, and even if we have aches and pains, what we have been asked to do is not a punishment but is what is necessary for us to become fit. Why do we do it? Why do we stay at school to do sports, or have music lessons, or stay in our rooms doing revision? It is not a punishment. It is not just to please others. It is because we really want to achieve something, and what we want to achieve is really worth all the effort.
We experience the life God wants for us by becoming more and more united with God, growing into a closer and closer relationship with him that fills every day and every moment. The closer we grow to God, the more we find that the Holy Spirit gives us the strength and the power to overcome sin, to find peace and hope, and to cope with all the pressures and stresses of life. It is only when we understand that this is what the Christian life means that we can begin to understand the point of fasting. We can see how all the spiritual practices which we learn at Church are all supposed to help us develop a close relationship with God in every moment, and are not about pleasing an angry God, or earning good behaviour points.
We don’t go to the Liturgy to please God, but we go to actually meet God, and to receive his own life really and truly in the communion, which is the Body and Blood of Christ. We know to bow down at various times in the Liturgy, but it is not to please God who is far from us and away in Heaven. It is because God has actually and really come down on the altar in the room where we are praying, because he wants us to have the closest possible personal relationship with him and receive his life into ourselves to transform and change everything.
We don’t pray prayers from the Agpeya, as best we can, to please God who is far away from us. But when we pray, when we turn our attention towards God, as a real person that hears us and loves us, prayer actually brings us into God’s presence. This is what prayer is. It is coming into God’s presence, as if we were telephoning someone or making a call across the world to someone, we cannot see but we know is there with us. Every time we pray, whatever age we are, as soon as we give God our attention and the warmth of our heart, then he is there with us, and we are in his presence. That is what prayer is. So, we do not pray to please God but so that we can spend as much time as possible in his wonderful, loving presence that changes our lives and takes away our fears.
And we don’t have to always pray in the words of the Agpeya, or in the words of the Liturgy. We can also pray as often as we are able in our own words. Telling God how we feel. Asking for his help. Thanking him for his kindness and strength and protection. Remembering our family and friends when we are in his presence.
We can also pray the little prayer which has been found very useful to make a spiritual habit. It is called the Jesus Prayer and we can pray it as often as we are able saying in our heart – Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me. And we can read a little portion of the Bible, especially the Gospels of St Matthew, St Mark, St Luke and St John, every day. But we are not doing this to please God, but to allow him to speak to us, and to give us an important message from his own loving heart. We read a little passage of the Gospel, and we begin by asking God to speak to us, and then while we are reading slowly and with attention, we wait to see which words or phrase or sentence or idea springs out at us, or comes alive, or becomes a reflection. This is how God often speaks to us when we read the Bible asking him to make it real for us in our own circumstances.
It is only when we understand things in this way that we can think about why we fast. It is not to please God or make him do things for us. It is to help us in the adventure of becoming as closely united to God as is possible, so that we become truly alive. There are several reasons in particular why we fast, when we understand it in this way.
#1. What is fasting? In our Coptic Orthodox spiritual way, fasting means that we eat a different range of foods, more limited, avoiding meat, fish and dairy during the strict fasts, and avoiding meat and dairy on the less strict fasts. It means that we try to restrict what we eat on Wednesday and Friday on most weeks during the year, except after the great feast of Pascha or Easter. It also means that we try to eat less as well, depending on what our parents and spiritual fathers advise us. Those who are older might skip breakfast and just have a light lunch a bit later in the afternoon before dinner in the evening. Some people might only choose to have one meal a day in the evening. The main points are that we eat a bit less and we eat more simply, and this requires us to make choices, and make a commitment. But the commitment is that we want to know God more, to become closer and closer to him, and to experience his help and his love in every moment of our life.
#2. What we eat affects every part of us. We know that an Olympic athlete can’t just eat whatever he or she wants. The coach will give a very strict outline of what is to be eaten every day. Just before an important race it will be even more important. The athlete doesn’t consider this a punishment. They will listen very carefully to the advice of their coach and may even have a special nutritionist to give them advice about how they should eat to reach the peak of their fitness. This is because there is a strong connection between what we eat, and how we feel, and how we think. When an older person has a big dinner, they will often fall asleep afterwards. This is because when we eat a lot it takes a lot of energy to digest it. The body has to focus on the stomach, and this leaves less energy for the mind, or for other activity.
But when we eat, we also see an increase in the sugar levels in our blood, and this can make us sleepy. In a person with an illness such as diabetes these levels of blood sugar have to be carefully controlled, but even for a healthy person, we know that if we eat or drink lots of sugary food and drinks then it affects how we feel, and makes us over excited, until we suddenly feel really tired and drained of energy.
So, we have times of fasting, where we are careful what we eat so that we can think and act clearly and towards our goal of growing closer to God. Just like an athlete preparing for a race, or even someone with an illness trying to be healthy. We eat a simple diet of vegetables, and sometimes fish, and this makes a difference to how we feel and how we think. It makes a difference to how we can concentrate for a while on our prayers, on reading the Bible, and in thinking of others.
#3. How we eat teaches us self-disciple. It is easy for us to spend our whole lives just doing what we want, and we get annoyed when our parents ask us to stop and do something else, or something to help in the family. If we carry on in this way, then we will become adults who think only of themselves. We cannot grow close to God if we think only about ourselves all the time. We cannot grow close to anyone if we think only of ourselves. Thinking about an Olympic athlete again, if he or she just does what they want all the time they will never be able to achieve their goal, they will never be able to win the race. They will always come last because they have chosen to do whatever gave them immediate pleasure, instead of doing what leads to success. If the coach says, get a good night’s sleep, have a small meal before the race, concentrate on making sure you have everything you need for the race, what would happen if someone ignored all that, and just decided to stay up very late playing video games, and having a big meal with friends, and then had a big cooked breakfast, and just quickly put a few things in a bag, but without any care? Such an athlete would not do well, and would probably do badly, not because the coach had punished them, but because just doing what you want all the time never leads to success, and cannot build strong relationships with other people, or with God.
We have to learn to say no to ourselves, to become disciplined, if want to succeed in our lives, and if we want to discover what it is like to become very close to God. If we want to do well in our studies at school, then we have to say no to ourselves and choose to do things that are difficult and tiring, instead of just doing what we want. If we want to do well in playing a musical instrument or a sport, then we have to say no to ourselves and choose to do things that are difficult and tiring, instead of just doing what we want. If we want to have good relationship with our friends, then we have to say no to ourselves sometimes and do what they want, otherwise we will end up without many friends at all.
It is just the same in our relationship with God and in our efforts at the spiritual life. If we don’t discipline ourselves, and say no to ourselves sometimes, then we cannot succeed in knowing God, and in learning how to be close to him.
When we fast, we are saying no to ourselves in a little way. We are making choices about what we do, and we are choosing to do something that helps us grow closer to God, more awake, and more spiritually alive. We are not doing it to please God, to stop him being angry, or to make him give us good things. We are doing it, saying no to ourselves, so that we can say yes to God. This has so many important benefits to us, because we become less selfish just by making the effort to fast. It helps us have better relationships with other people because we are learning not to think of ourselves all the time, and it helps us have a better relationship with God because saying no to what we want, and wanting different food during the fast is normal, means that we are learning to choose God above ourselves.
#4. Fasting makes time for God. When we are not thinking of what we are going to eat all the time, when we have a simpler way of eating during the fasts, then we do have more time for God. This does require a commitment though. It would be easy to spend all our time thinking about food in the fast, especially if we don’t know why we are fasting. That is no help to us. But if we know that we are fasting because we want to use every opportunity to grow closer to God, and to become more alive in every way, then we don’t spend all our time thinking about food, and this gives us time to turn to God.
If someone is preparing for an important athletic event and is following a strict diet under the instruction of their coach, they are not thinking all the time about what food they are not supposed to be eating. Their thoughts will be on the race or event which is in the future and with which they are completely occupied. This is what we need to try to do, and if we understand all the wonderful blessings that we experience as we grow closer to God, then we will understand that fasting is as useful tool, a way for us to make time for God, for our own sake, and not as if we had to keep God happy.
At lunch time, we should try to find a way to have a few moments with God. In the evening we should certainly spend a little longer meeting God in prayer, thanking him for all the things he has given us, asking him to forgive the mistakes we have made, and to give us strength to overcome every sinful habit. If we give God a little more time during the fasts, we will discover that we have a deeper experience of knowing God at this time, because eating more simply and saying no to ourselves gives us a spiritual alertness we do not have at other times.
#5. Fasting gives power to our prayers. If we followed the diet which an Olympic athlete had been given, it would not make us an Olympic athlete. And an Olympic athlete doesn’t win medals simply by following the diet sheet they have been given. Nor can they win as many medals as they hope if they just exercise and train but carry on eating the wrong food. What is required for an athlete is both the proper diet AND all of the commitment to exercise and training which is always necessary.
This is the same for us all in the Christian life, whatever age we are. If we just pray a little bit but don’t make the effort of fasting, then we will not see as great a change in our life as we could hope. We will still find ourselves overwhelmed by worries, anger, sin and bad habits. But if we just try to do the fasting and we don’t pray much at all, then we will also not see any results in our lives.
We don’t need to know exactly how prayer and fasting go together, but in lots of passages in the Bible and in the teaching of the Lord Jesus, we find that they are connected together. When we fast because we want to grow closer to God then it means that our heart is filled with a desire to know God better than we already do. This warms up our hearts and our prayers, like a small spark catching alight and burning with a bright flame. When we turn to God in prayer, however simply we pray, then we find ourselves in God’s presence, which is what prayer is, and God is like a fire, and just to be in his presence warms our heart. And so, when these two sources of warmth come together, the warmth of our desire to know God, and the warmth of his own presence, great changes can take place in our lives, and our prayers are filled with power, with the power of the presence of God.
This is why we fast. It is not to please God, or to make him do things for us. It is so that we can become more awake in every aspect of our live, in our body, our mind, and our spirit. It is so that we can learn self-discipline and control ourselves better by saying no to ourselves in this simple way, and yes to choosing the opportunity of growing closer to God. Fasting helps us to concentrate a little bit more on God, even if we are young, and to give a warmth to our heart and to our prayers that makes a difference to us and changes us in a wonderful way.
Everything we do in our life should be done with God’s help, and to help us grow closer to God. Fasting is one of the ways that God has given us in the Church, in our Christian life, to do this, to experience more of God every day. When we fast we should say to ourselves, and to God, I am fasting to become more aware of God and to know him better, I am not fasting because I am afraid I will be punished, or because I want God to reward me, but just so that I can grow closer to him.
God hears such a prayer and rewards us more than we could imagine when we fast in this way, because he gives us himself. The effort and commitment which is required of us is the same effort and commitment required of us to succeed and be fruitful in any activity. But this activity, actually growing in our relationship with God so that we are filled with his own life, is worth so much more than anything else. Our fasting, which is just one part of our spiritual fitness training, is such a small thing compared to this life changing relationship with God. fffffffffffff
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