Spiritual writers throughout the ages have seen fasting as a critical weapon in spiritual
warfare. St. Isaac the Syrian teaches, “… since fasting is a weapon established by God …the human race knew no victory before fasting, and the devil was never defeated by our nature as it is: but this weapon has indeed deprived the devil of strength from the outset… As soon as the devil sees someone possessed of this weapon [fasting], fear straightway falls on this adversary and tormentor of ours, who remembers and thinks of his defeat by the Savior in the wilderness; his strength is at once destroyed and the sight of the weapon given us by our supreme Leader burns him up. A man armed with the weapon of fasting is always afire with zeal. He who remains therein, keeps his mind steadfast and ready to meet and repel all the passions.”
We are about 10 days into the fast and I am definitely starting to feel it now, both in bad ways and good ways. One way I am tempted during each fasting period is through various bad dreams. It happens like clockwork and to be honest I dread it. This week I’ve had three consecutive nights of either being kidnapped or someone I love getting sick and dying, with some combination of also being tempted in my dream. One way to counteract it that I’m remembering just now when writing and honestly kicking myself for forgetting is to put holy water on. Normally I wouldn’t say this, but it honestly works like a charm!
Let me tell you an example: my niece puts on a few drops of holy water each night before bed to prevent nightmares. One night her dad realized they were all out of holy water, so without her knowing he just took regular tap water and put it in the holy water bottle. She wakes up the next morning and says, “Dad, the holy water didn’t work last night! It always works!” D’oh!! Holy water is blessed by the priest, who acts in the role of Christ himself, blessing the water in this instance for us to use as a sacramental.
Upsides: prayer is much more robust. Just a little bit of the Jesus Prayer interspersed throughout the day feels so much more intense. During each fasting period the Melkite Church urges the sacrament of reconciliation. What a grace filled blessing to go this past week and see where my heart needs to focus on growing in holiness and exchange dirt clogs of sin that God will graciously trade for diamonds. If you haven’t gone to confession in the past month, you should absolutely go. God wants to bless you!!! I’ll post a guide to confession in a future post.
At night we’ve been praying St. Symeon the New Theologian’s Supplication to the Holy Spirit, which I will post later this week for your enjoyment and prayer. The focus is also much more intentional – instead of just waking up and it being July, it’s a very intentional way to spend our June. It is also a great way to grow in patience. Foodwise, nothing is unclean for a Christian to eat. The practice is growing in delayed gratification to enjoy at the right time! One analogy I’ve heard is: God created sex to be holy and beautiful. Outside the right context (you know what the right context is), it’s not good. If you can control your appetite and resist certain things, how much better to stay away from sin!
God bless – please pray for me!
More Incense, Less Nonsense! 