Time to "Buck Up!" It's the Nativity Fast !

What Father Seraphim Passed On To Us!

We Orthodox Christians seem to be out of touch with what is happening. I certainly thank God for that. Today was Thanksgiving for the Orthodox Christians in the United States of America. Already for over a week or more we have been subjected to Christmas advertisements of every kind.

From now until Saint Herman's Day (December 12/25) those in the West will work themselves into a froth having Christmas Party after Christmas Party. One for the office crew, one for each of our children at their school, one for the married, one for the boys, one for the girls, one at the place that we worship ... the list can seem endless. Each will be accompanied by eating sweet and rich foods. Everyone everywhere will be eating in abundance all the foods that True Orthodox Christians are abstaining from. People will ask us if we are "on our diet" or if we are "starving ourselves again."

It will build in a frenzied state until December 25 (new style) and then it will suddenly ... stop! There will be a hallow feeling and then many will feel as if they are in a vacuum or as if they were lost in space. As soon as Western Christmas arrives a desolation is often felt. When this happens we Orthodox still have almost two weeks left in our fast. There is so much we Orthodox learn by fasting not only from food but from our sins and from the commercialism of these days. We can place ourselves in the position of those who lived before the incarnation of God the Word and we can count down the days to the Orthodox Nativity Season. We do not party until the Lord Jesus Christ is made manifest to us in God taking flesh from the Virgin and dwelling among us. Let us, The Orthodox celebrate as only we Orthodox can celebrate the 12 days of the Nativity as described below:

Count the Days!

Day One
December 20/January 2
Forefeast of the Nativity of Christ
Repose of Saint John of Kronstadt

Day Two
December 21/January 3
Forefeast of the Nativity of Christ
Virgin-martyr Juliana

Day Three
December 22/January 4
Forefeast of the Nativity of Christ
Great-martyr Anastasia of Rome

Day Four
December 23/January 5
Forefeast of the Nativity of Christ
Holy Ten Martyrs of Crete:
Theodulas
Saturninus
Euporus
Gelasius
Eunician
Zoticus
Pompeius
Agathopus
Basilides
Evaristus

Day Five
December 24/January 6
The Eve of the Nativity of Christ
The Royal Hours
Nun-martyr Eugenia of Rome

Day Six
December 25/January 7
The Nativity according to the Flesh
of Our God and Saviour Jesus Christ
The Adoration of the Magi: Melchior, Caspar, and Balthasar.
Commemoration of the shepherds in Bethlehem who we watching their flocks and
Came to See the Lord.

Day Seven
December 26/January 8
Second Day of the Feast of the Nativity
Synaxis of the Most Holy Theotokos

Day Eight
December 27/January 9
Third Day of the Feast of the Nativity
The Holy Protomartyr and Archdeacon Stephen

Day Nine
December 28/January 10
Afterfeast of the Nativity of Christ
The 20,000Martyrs of Nicomedia

Day Ten
December 29/January 11
Afterfeast of the Nativity of Christ
The 14,000 Infants (Holy Innocents) slain by Herod at Bethlehem

Day Eleven
December 30/January 12
Afterfeast of the Nativity of Christ
Virgin-martyr Anysia at Thessalonica

Day Twelve
December 31/January 13
Afterfeast of the Nativity of Christ
Saint Melania the Younger, nun of Rome

These then are the True Orthodox 12 Days of The Nativity (Christmas).

Let us, The Orthodox, rejoice and prepare ourselves as Our Blessed Father Seraphim taught us below:

"While most Orthodox Christians are perhaps aware of the general rule of fasting for Great Lent and the Dormition Fast (wine and oil allowed only on Saturdays and Sundays, except for a few feast days and vigils), many are probably not familiar with the precise rule governing the less severe fast of the Nativity and Apostles’ Fast. Therefore, we shall quote this rule, from Chapter 33 of the Typicon:

“It should be noted that in the Fast of the Holy Apostles and of the Nativity of Christ, on Tuesday and Thursday we do not eat fish, but only oil and wine. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we eat neither oil nor wine… On Saturday and Sunday we eat fish. If there occurs on Tuesday or Thursday a saint who has a Doxology, we eat fish; if on Monday, the same; but if on Wednesday or Friday, we allow only oil and wine. If it be a saint who has a Vigil on Wednesday or Friday, or the saint whose temple it is, we allow oil and wine and fish… But from the 20th of December until the 25th, even if it be Saturday or Sunday, we do not allow fish.”

In these two fasts, the fast for laymen is the same as that of many Orthodox monasteries, where Monday throughout the year is kept as a fast day in honor of the fleshless ones, the Angels.

This rule of fasting, to be sure, is not intended to be a “straight-jacket” for Orthodox believers, nor a source of pharisaical pride for anyone who keeps the letter of the Church’s law. It is rather the rule, the standard, against which each is to measure his own practice, and towards which one must always strive, according to one’s strength and circumstances. Whenever, for sickness or any other reason, one falls short of the rule, he applies to himself the spiritual medicine of self-reproach and strives to enter more fully into the spirit and discipline of fasting, which is indeed of great spiritual benefit to those who sincerely strive to follow it."

AMEN! And may we do well and receive that for which we strive in the next Forty Days.