For Orthodox believers, Lent is a long-awaited period in which a person thinks about spirituality. The entire fast is considered strict, and the first week of Lent is marked by separate instructions for abstaining from certain foods, as well as the statutory rules for the performance of services.
The answer to the question of how to fast in the first week of Great Lent consists of two main components. It is necessary to understand that fasting is not just a diet caused by the refusal of a person from food of animal origin (meat, eggs, milk and derivatives). In addition to the bodily component of abstinence, there is an equally important spiritual aspect.
To begin with, we will consider the practical recommendations of the Church regarding what dietary rules are provided for in the first week of Holy Forty. Many people are afraid of this very point in keeping posts.
The bodily component
The bodily component can be understood as the “menu calendar” of a person in the first week of Lent. The church charter provides for strict fasting in the early days. On the first day, many monks refuse food altogether, on the second they eat bread and water, on the third, fourth and fifth days they eat dry food. This practice is rarely applied to people living in the world. Therefore, the Church recommends an Orthodox person to take food in the form of dry food in the first five days of fasting in the amount necessary to maintain a person's vital activity (many Orthodox need to eat in order to have the strength for physical labor, because work can be different).
In any case, during the first week of fasting (in the first five days), you should not eat animal products. In addition, fish, vegetable oil and boiled food are prohibited: these prohibitions just apply to dry eating. In the early days, you can eat vegetables and fruits, nuts, food that is not boiled. At the same time, it is permissible to eat baked food without vegetable oil, for example, baked potatoes.
If a person has health problems, it is necessary to talk to the priest so that the latter, if necessary, would give a blessing for eating boiled food and vegetable oil.
On Saturday and Sunday of the first week of Lent, relaxation in food abstinence is expected. It is allowed to eat boiled food with vegetable oil. On Saturday of the first week, kolivo is consecrated in churches - boiled rice with honey mixed with dried fruits, marmalade and other lean sweets.
Spiritual component
The spiritual component of Great Lent is no less important. By itself, abstinence in food does not give a person anything. Only comprehensive abstinence in food and spiritual exploit can be understood as the correct keeping of the fast.
In the first week of the Lent, a believer needs to devote more time to prayer, reading the morning and evening rules, the Holy Scriptures. It is important to try to leave various amusements: watching TV, computer games and gambling. You must try to fight your passions and vices, because without this there is no fasting.
The very word "fasting" can be interpreted as finding a believer at the post of keeping his soul and body from all filth and sin, just as soldiers stand at the post of guarding the borders of the state from the invasion of enemies.
During the first week of Lent, it is very important to attend special Lent services. From Monday to Thursday, the great canon of repentance of St. Andrew of Crete is read in churches, at which the Church recommends the presence of an Orthodox person, offering prayers of repentance to the Lord.
The spiritual component of the first week of Great Lent is determined by the preparation of a Christian for the sacraments of confession and holy communion. You can partake of the holy Body and Blood of Christ on Saturday or Sunday at the liturgy, and the night before to test your conscience for the presence of sins, followed by repentance in the sacrament of confession.
We must not forget that during Great Lent it is necessary to try to be in peace with neighbors, to avoid disputes, quarrels, insults, profanity, fornication and adultery, as well as other practical manifestations of human sinfulness.
