www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West Confused about fasting for Ukrainian Catholics and the East

I just started to attend the Ukrainian Catholic Church by my home. I am a Latin Catholic and I have questions about the Fasting and Abstinence practices of the East. I have read several articles about the Great Fast in the spring but all the articles are causing me some concern. In the west we are "bound" under pain of sin to do what the law prescribes. Fast Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, all Fridays of Lent. Other Fridays unless a solemnity or replaced with some pious penitential practice.

What is the practice of the East? Is there a minimum all are bound to? With all the reading I have done it seems to be something in the East you are bound to, but you make your personal practice by what you and your spiritual Father deiced you can handle.

So if this is correct then I need to sit down with my priest and discuss this matter before any of the fasting periods start.

In Him who is our help.

If you are attending the Ukrainian Church all the time now - as a Latin Catholic you are bound by the RC [ Latin ] teaching on fasting but you are perfectly at liberty to follow the practice of the UGCC - and yes it is different.

Most ' newcomers ' are eased into fasting and I would strongly urge you to talk with the pastor about it .

If I may ask which church in the Detroit area

St Micheal the Archangel on Chase in Dearborn.

Well, you do have Advent coming up, and in the Eastern Church, this, too, is a fasting period that you will have to get used to.

The most important thing is to remember why we fast, not to obsess over how we fast.

If you want a general description of Orthodox lenten fasting practice, I recommend highly that you read the first chapter of the Lenten Triodion, entitled "The Meaning of the Great Fast."

I also agree with StuartK that one should not obsess over fasting, but to seek counsel from a priest or spiritual director.

Exactly. I do keep to my canonical Latin fasting traditions, but at the same time, I also learn to respect the fasting periods of the Eastern Rite, and try to abide as much as I can (since I do worship part-time in the Byzantine Church, not to take away from Latin Catholicism completely). So I compromise between the two traditions, and only fast based on the major tradition, yet maybe show SOME abstinence during the Eastern fast periods that are not Lent/Great Fast (during Lent I hail to the Great Fast traditions, yet abstain and fast on Good Friday and Ash Wednesday).

as I'm reading "Shown to Be Holy," it warns of slipping into minimalism. At the same time, we can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. And, very importantly, as brother StuartK put it, we have to remember why we fast.

Toward that end it is beneficial to read Isaiah 58:5-9a:

Is such the fast that I choose,
a day to humble oneself?
Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush,
and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?
Will you call this a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD?
6Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
7Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and to bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them
and to not hide yourself from your own kin?
8Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator shall go before you,
the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
9Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer;
you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.

Well, let's say it more like this...

While I do agree that the Latin form of fasting and abstinence are a lot more lenient than the Eastern form, nor do the Latin Rite Catholics fast that much outside of Lent, if at all, I think it's a good idea that even if you are Latin Rite, that you should at least realize why the Eastern Rite has more fasting periods, why they fast the way they do, and try to do what you can to work some forms of this into practice. This will hopefully put everyone in both Rites on the same page, I feel. Heck, I even only had a Lobster Bisque and a side salad for lunch, while having tilapia dinner yesterday, so that shows that Fridays outside of Lent should also be days of abstinence in most cases.