Church Fasts - Saint Nektarius of Ægina

 An Historical Study Concerning the Church-Appointed Fasts

 by Saint Nektarius of Ægina

 download pdf of full article

 https://app.box.com/s/hrmisj8k0dk905p39h165dl4qrelm7xw

This is an uncompleted work by St. Nektarius discovered after he reposed in 1920.   HOMB of HOCNA made an English translation available in 2008.  That was before their fall into the Name-Worship heresy which, I think, was 2012.  I've scanned this article from True Vine magazine #42. 

 

p.13 of my scan has a typo in footnote 1.  Surely the editor means Mon and Thurs, (not Mon and Tues).  I can't get a correction to stay on the scan I uploaded.  I make the correction, then it disappears when I download a corrected copy.  I give up.

The work is most valuable to us in all ways:  It is sobering, enlightening, and inspiring.  Truly this is a gift to us from heaven.  One of the minor points in the work stands out to me — I want to emphasize that this is the least of the benefits we gain from reading this work.  But it is important to me, because I am watching helplessly as my friends & family are suffering/dying because of the "American diet."  In the last paragraph our saint mentions the benefit I want to stress.  So I'm copying the concluding paragraph here:

     From the above we can understand how far our present rule — or lack of rules — is from the canonical norm for the fasts of the Great Lent and of the Wednesdays and Fridays of the whole year, the only fasts specified in the Holy Canons.  Nowadays, the fast is broken at any hour of the day and not with a diet of dry foods.  There should be only one light evening meal during the full fast; two light and simple meals in a partial fast, without the many unhealthy, costly, and luxurious dishes, which defeat the purpose of fasting, which is to draw closer to God, and to ask for His mercy through prayer and greater almsgiving, made possible by the savings from the cost of food.    Besides, many foods are harmful to health, because the many salty and oily dishes, especially the fried foods and such, cause ill health and sicknesses, while green, legumes, and fish, if eaten in moderation and not to satiety, are greatly beneficial to our health.   Of course, the purpose of fasting is mainly spiritual, by giving us the opportunity and preparation, through complete abstinence, or even a dry and light diet, for the spiritual works of prayer and the study of divine writings; yet it is beneficial also to the health of the body, because abstinence and frugality of life are necessary rules and conditions for health and longevity, as dietary science teaches.

Just how harmful is the daily eating of the American diet?   Our Mother-Church has all along had the answer to heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, type II diabetes, enlarged prostate, Alzheimer's, all the autoimmune diseases and many cancers.  These diseases can be prevented by following the Church fasts as it is intended, i.e.,"no oil" means no any-kind-of oil, — not just no olive oil.  And for people who are already sick/dying, the Church strict fast is often the cure.  100% of type II diabetics are cured by the McD diet — yes, 100% — each and every patient is cured 100% in less than 2 weeks.  https://www.drmcdougall.com   The list of other doctors includes Caldwell Esselstyn, a heart surgeon who took 20 go-home-and-die patients whom the doctors had given up on . . . some of them had had several bypasses already and the doctors said there was nothing more they could do except go home and die.  Each one of the 20 patients who stuck with the program ended up free from heart disease.  And Dr. Dean Ornish who recently (2025) published a study showing that Alzheimers can be reversed by a whole foods, no-oil, plant-based diet.  And see Dr. Michael Greger   https://nutritionfacts.org

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