Homilies from the Menaion for Every Day of the Year: September 29

 

The Month of September

Day 29

30. How the Saints of God Spent the Holy Forty-Day Fast

(From the Life of Venerable Kyriakos the Hermit*)

When Great Lent arrives, those who love worldly comforts and those who indulge the flesh immediately begin to say: “Ah, this fast! I do not know how I will get through it! Lenten food is harmful to me, and I have to stand through long services and make so many prostrations.” Are the complaints of those who love worldly comforts justified? Certainly not. And even less so because, in reality, most of them observe hardly any fast at all, do not stand through the Church services, and do not make prostrations. What, then, should we say to such people for their instruction? How can we turn them away from their empty complaints? How can we encourage them to undertake the labors of the fast without complaining and with zeal? We will try to do what we can for those who love worldly comforts in the following way: first, we will show them how the holy servants of God generally spent Great Lent, and then how some of them spent it in particular.

In the monasteries of Palestine, the rule was as follows. During the first week of the fast, the priest celebrated the Divine Liturgy, and all the monks received the Body and Blood of Christ. Then, after eating a little Lenten food, they went again to the church and prayed fervently and for a long time, with prostrations. Afterwards, they kissed one another and the abbot, and asked the latter for his blessing to spend the fast outside the monastery in the wilderness. At that time the monastery gates were opened, and the monks, with the exception of the two who remained in the monastery for the divine services, all went out from the monastery into the wilderness while Psalm 26 was being sung: “The Lord is my light and my Savior; whom shall I fear?” Each one took with him as much food as he could and as much as he wished. One took bread with him, another dates, a third figs, a fourth soaked grain, while others took nothing at all. When hunger compelled the latter, they subsisted only on grains.

When the monks crossed the Jordan River, they separated from one another, and each fasted and struggled as he wished. In order to preserve silence, whenever the monks happened to meet, they rather tried to go farther away from one another. And each one, it is said, “lived alone, always singing to God, and ate very little food at the appointed time.” On Palm Sunday, the monks gathered again at the monastery, and no one asked another how he had spent the fast or what ascetic struggles he had undertaken. Each had God and his own conscience as his judges.

Now let us see how the holy servants of God, in particular, spent Great Lent.

Venerable Gerasimos and Venerable Kyriakos, called the Hermit, likewise withdrew into the deepest wilderness for the entire fast. Every Sunday they received the Holy Mysteries, remained in the silence of the wilderness until Palm Sunday, and returned to the monastery with great spiritual benefit to their souls.

Saint Symeon the Stylite at first ate food once a week. But afterward, wishing to become accustomed to the strictest fasting, he shut himself in a narrow cell for forty days, and although bread and water were there with him, he did not touch them. From that time onward, he continually spent the Holy Forty-Day Fast without food or drink.

Saint Makarios of Alexandria spent Great Lent eating only once a week. Venerable Gerasimos annually abstained from all food throughout the entire Forty-Day Fast and sustained himself only by receiving the Holy Mysteries. Finally, the Venerable Ammon and Theodore the Great of Sykeon spent Great Lent without food, and at times they fasted for forty days even without anything besides food.

What, then, brethren, after all this, are the complaints of those who love worldly comforts and indulge the flesh about the fast justified? You can now see for yourselves how justified they are. Let them finally understand that they are not going to spend their entire lives in feasts and banquets. At some time, they must also crucify their flesh with its passions and desires, and serve God through fasting, vigil, and prayer.

They will, of course, repeat to us again: “Even so, this is difficult!” Yes, we will answer them, without the grace of God it is difficult, but with the grace of God it is very easy, for it is stronger than the strongest will. Therefore, in order that the fast may also become easy and pleasant for those who love worldly comforts, let them first call upon the grace of God for help through fervent prayer. And once they become accustomed to prayer, without even noticing it themselves, they will become accustomed to fasting as well. And once they become accustomed to fasting and prayer, they will afterward be amazed at what they had grumbled about and complained about. Amen.

Questions for Discussion 30:

1. For what did the monks of the Palestinian monasteries ask the abbot for his blessing?

2. What is the name of the 26th Psalm, during the singing of which the monks went out from the monastery into the wilderness?

3. What did Venerable Gerasimos and Venerable Kyriakos the Hermit do every Sunday during Great Lent?

4. Through what should we serve God?

5. Why is it easy, with the grace of God, to serve God through fasting, vigil, and prayer?

 

Source: The Cheti-Minei: Homilies for Every Day of the Year (Book 1: September, October, November) by Archpriest Viktor Guryev. Publication of the Russian Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos, 1896. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.  

 

* Translator's Note: The Russian title Отшельник literally denotes one who lives in solitude or seclusion and is conventionally rendered in English as “the Hermit.” It should be distinguished from the Greek ἀναχωρητής (anachōrētēs), more precisely rendered “Anchorite,” which denotes an ascetic who has withdrawn from the world. Although the two terms overlap in meaning and are sometimes used interchangeably in translation, they reflect distinct terms in the Greek and Russian ascetical traditions. The present translation retains “the Hermit” because it follows the terminology of the Russian original.