The fast unknown to the Holy Fathers
The Dormition Fast in the Internet Era. How to arrange an "information diet" for the mind and why silence is more important than news today.
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The number of fasting days in the year for us ranges from 174 to 212. Most of the year is fasting. The Savior, speaking about demonic possession, said that "this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting" (Matt. 17:21). Our susceptibility to irritation, anger, despondency, and other vices is also a kind of demonic possession. It turns out that we pray every day of God, fast for almost two-thirds of the year, yet we still cannot rid ourselves of this demonic reflection of the soul. This means something is wrong with our fasting and prayer.
The time we live in is very different from the time in which the holy fathers lived, who left us their teachings.
Therefore, they did not know the temptations we know. There was no such excess of information from the beginning of Christianity until our days. There was no internet and endless stream of news, video, and audio entertainment. The human mind is overloaded, events rush by swiftly. Our life increasingly resembles extreme roller coasters, on which we rush at dizzying speed. People have no time to stop, to be alone not only with God but also with themselves for at least a few minutes.
Fasting for the Mind
Two weeks is not a very long period. But what if we try to make our mind fast during these fourteen days? Block all informational inputs, allow the external world to be as it is. When we read the news, we have the illusion that we control the situation. But it's just an illusion. Our knowledge of what is happening does not affect the course of events. But our mind is afraid not to know. This is a fear that is difficult to overcome, but we must try. In two weeks, nothing will happen that could catch us off guard. We will surely learn all urgent and necessary things, we can rest assured of that.
But the experience of thoughtlessness will be very beneficial. Especially if we add silence to it.
God lives in the silence that we do not hear due to the whistling of information flying into our souls.
Then we can compare two life experiences:
- How does the soul feel, accustomed to living in the external world, spending six or more hours a day on the internet?
- What does a person feel who allowed themselves to step away from all this hustle and bustle, to look around and find themselves and themselves in God in silence?
The virtual world has become a vortex that increasingly captures our consciousness and time. People of previous generations did not have this bottomless pit called "internet," where the mind could stick its head at any moment. Trying to fast with the mind so that there are as few thoughts as possible is a very useful experience.
Silence Leads to God
The experience of the desert fathers speaks unequivocally: when the mind falls silent and thoughts cease to disturb us, the heart leads a person to God. We listen to and read words all our lives, but silence leads to God. The Lord responds with grace only in the silence of the heart and mind. He gave us faith to make our soul a paradise, but excessive care and fuss have turned it into an eastern bazaar.
God speaks to a person without the help of words. To hear Him, one must interrupt their own words, stop the endless internal monologues.
The Lord speaks with silence in our heart, while the world screams with fuss directly into the ears of our mind.
Hundreds of thoughts dissolve in silence into the five words of the Jesus Prayer. In the depths of the human heart, there is such silence that even a single thought can seem like a thunderclap. In this silence, there is no "I" and others. Only Christ, who is the fullness that fills all in all.
Leaving Everything for God
God created everything for us, and we need to learn to leave everything for God. Let's try to do this at least for two weeks of fasting. Let's not be like a soap bubble that, in its puddle before bursting, managed to see so much interesting. The world will suck everything out of those who love it to the last drop. The abyss of hell is entered through the gates of despair, and the Kingdom of God through the gates of hope and peace.
The Dormition Fast is dedicated to the Mother of God. She is like a cool spring in the desert of life for us.
She is our joy and our hope. To come to Christ, we must firmly hold onto Her hand. Let the feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos become for us the joy that no one can take away from us.
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