How to Be an Orthodox Christian - Fasting: The Second Wing of the Christian Life [EP. 4]

Dcn Seraphim traces fasting back to the first commandment given in Eden — a commandment about food — and shows how the Fall itself was a failure of fasting, answered in the wilderness by the New Adam who refuses to turn stones into bread. Drawing on Basil, Chrysostom, John Climacus, and John Cassian, he distinguishes Orthodox fasting from dieting or self-punishment and presents it instead as the rider's training of the horse: a medicine for the soul whose dose must be fitted to each person through the Church's principle of oikonomia. Then, he walks through the Orthodox fasting calendar — the four great fasts, Wednesdays and Fridays, the approximately forty percent of the year spent in fasting — while pairing Christ's "when you fast" in Matthew 6 with Isaiah 58's warning that a fast without mercy is no fast at all. Practical guidance follows on how to live a fasting day, how cravings become occasions for prayer, and how every act of bodily restraint is oriented toward the Eucharistic table, where food is at last received on God's terms rather than seized on our own. 0:00 - Intro 4:40 – Food as a means for communion 5:50 – Fasting to concur the three categories of temptation 7:10 – Christ fasting in the desert 9:50 – So what is fasting? What fasting is not. 13:30 – What the Lord says about fasting 16:12 – On fasting in the book of Isaiah 18:46 – Fasting with almsgiving 19:43 – Orthodox calendar of fasting 22:43 – Orthodox fast in practice 30:45 – Why and when we fast 34:26 – Fasting before Divine Liturgy 👉 Want more podcasts, daily devotional, and Scripture teachings? Download our app here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ancient-faith-radio-app/id542980935 or here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ancientfaithministries.ancientfaithradio.prod&pli=1 Follow Ancient Faith on Social Media: https://www.instagram.com/ancientfaithministries/?hl=en https://www.facebook.com/ancientfaithministries Find Books and Other Resources from Ancient Faith: https://store.ancientfaith.com/ Support Ancient Faith Ministries: https://www.ancientfaith.com/support/ About us: Ancient Faith Ministries exists to carry out the Great Commission of Jesus Christ through accessible and excellently-crafted publications and creative media that educate, edify, and evangelize, leading to a living experience of God through His Holy Orthodox Church. Ancient Faith Ministries operates with the blessing of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America. #orthodoxchurch #easternorthodox #orthodoxy #ancientfaith #christianity