According to the calendar, the Christmas fast is the last multi-day fast. It starts on November 15 in the old style (new style – November 28) and lasts until December 25 (new style – January 7). It covers a period of forty days. According to the church tradition, this fast is also connected with the day of commemoration of Philip the Apostle (14th century BC, newly – November 27).
Christmas Lent is a period of preparation for the feast of Christ. Leon the Great writes: “We have to observe Lent at all four times of the year, so that throughout the year we are aware of our constant need for purification;
so that in our negligent life we may always strive by fasting and almsgiving to expiate the sin which abounds in the weakness of the flesh and impure intentions.”
In the words of Leo the Great, the Christmas fast is a sacrifice made to the Lord for the fruits of the year. “As the Lord has abundantly blessed us with earthly fruits,” writes the saint, “we should also be generous and merciful to the poor during this fasting.”
In the words of Simeon of Thessalonica, “the fasting of Christmas symbolizes the fasting of Moses, who after fasting for forty days received from the Lord two stone tablets on which the words of the Lord were engraved. And we, as a result of fasting for forty days, will see and receive from the all-holy Virgin Mary the living word, which this time is not engraved on stones, but incarnated and born in the flesh, whose divine blood and flesh we partake of.
The Christmas fast is established in order to purify ourselves with repentance, prayer and fasting for the celebration of Christ, so that with a holy heart, soul and body we can approach the Son of God who appeared in this world with fear; In addition to the usual gifts and sacrifices, let us dedicate our sacred hearts to him.
“One monk asked Gabriel monk – what is fasting?
I will explain it to you now, Father Gabriel told him and listed to him his sins committed since childhood. He remembered all the sins: if you did this and if you did that. Later this monk said: I didn’t know what to say because of shame. I burst into tears and could not remember anything. She suddenly changed, got a smiling face and said to me: Come, eat food and let’s have a good time together.
I told him I couldn’t because I got really sick. And then I got a complete answer to the question:
– This is fasting – when you are sorry for your sins and do not remember food.
If you don’t give mercy in the fast, with what you can, even with a kind word, with a good advice, if you don’t see the hardship of your neighbor, will the Lord sacrifice such a fast?
