The period of Pre-Lenten Sundays in the Orthodox Church prepare us for the coming of Great Lent.

Thanksgiving day is upon us! What a beautiful day in the year where we are all invited to hit the collective pause button, come together in community to be with one another, and offer thanks to God for all we have been given. Well, that’s the rosey way of looking at the holiday; however, this Thursday of thanks can also come with a heaping side of stress, temptations to overindulge, and pressure to capitalize on the following day’s materialistic theme. Well, the Church offers an alternative perspective here.

Feasting is not the absence of discipline, but a most joyful application of the fruits of our Lenten spiritual labors: namely, an acute awareness of God through the everyday act of eating, a deeper understanding of the link between how we treat our bodies and the spiritual consequences, and a more sincere gratitude for His gift of Creation.

As we round the corner into Holy Week, the timing of this year’s Earth Day grants us the opportunity to apply the spirit of gentleness and gratitude we have been cultivating during Lent towards our Earth.

Many times, when I introduce clients to the idea of plant-based meals, the dishes are inevitably viewed as missing something. Where’s the meat?! We are very accustomed to meat as the main course, the center-point of the meal, and the dominant source of flavor. But there are some simple steps we can take to make our plant-based meals taste flavorful and satisfying. Don’t forget the secret ingredient!

Raise your hand if you’re starting to feel those physical effects of fasting...hungry, a little tired, maybe even irritable? We call it being snippy in our household. When we strip away the excess comforts of life, fasting from food and other pleasures, feasting on prayer and silence, our latent sinful tendencies start to bubble up. There’s a reason “hanger” is a thing!

Hunger, the basic desire or need for food, is not always as “basic” or straightforward as its definition makes it sound. We feel it all the time or maybe hardly at all, we blindly obey it or frequently fight it, we confuse it with other needs, and ultimately, it lets us down.

In the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church, fasting is a spiritual discipline that has been passed down through Holy Tradition and includes limiting certain types of food and the amount of food eaten for a designated period of time. 

According to Fr. Schmemann (in his book Great Lent: Journey to Pascha), the Orthodox faith teaches two different modes of fasting rooted in Scripture and Tradition: total fast and ascetical fast.

Everything in moderation! We have heard that many times...usually as an antidote to strict diet suggestions. But by distilling temperance down to this singular phrase lacking a context, it loses its usefulness. It strips it of its rich meaning.

In Part 2, we explored many ways in which God’s gift of food can be a source of goodness in our life. So, if there exists “good food,” as Fr. Hopko pens in his maxim, is there “bad food?”

It’s the beginning of a new school year. I am a recent graduate of Cornell University, sitting in the basement of the religious studies building on campus at our weekly Orthodox Christian Fellowship (OCF) meeting, our small but mighty group of six brainstorming possible speakers to bring to our university for the school year.