Simple (and completely Lenten) Hummus

Русский здесь

This hummus is very simple and ‘fully’ Lenten–it uses no added oil at all.

2 cups of cooked garbanzo beans (I cooked my own in a pressure cooker, but canned would work just the same)

1/4 cup of tahini

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin

1-2 cloves of garlic

Juice from 1 lemon (I also put lemon pulp in my hummus after taking out the seeds)

Enough water to make it creamy

Add any other spices you like.

Put everything into a food processor, mix and enjoy on bread or a a dip for raw vegetables!

  

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Fasting during the First Week of Great Lent

“On the first day of the first week of the the holy and great forty-day [Lent], that is to say, on Monday, one is not supposed to eat at all, and it is the same on the second day. On Wednesday, after the completion of the Presanctified, a meal is served, and we eat warm bread, and of warm vegetable food, and wine mixed with water, and honey drink [1]. Those who cannot keep the first two days, eat bread and drink kvass [2] after vespers on Tuesday. The elderly do the same. On Saturdays and Sundays we allow oil and also wine. In other weeks, we fast until evening for five days, and eat uncooked food [3], except on Saturdays and Sundays. And may we not dare to eat fish for all of the forty-day [Lent], except on the feast of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos and Palm Sunday. <…> If a monk spoils the holy forty-day [Lent] through his gluttony and eats fish, except on the feast of the Annunciation and Palm Sunday, let him not partake of the Holy Mysteries on Pascha, but repent for two weeks and make 300 prostrations each day and each night.”

Типикон, сиесть устав. Киев, 1997, гл. 32. Trans. Fr. Sergei Sveshnikov

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Translator’s notes:

1–“оукропъ съ медомъ”–Usually, ‘оукропъ’ is wine mixed with water, but in this particular phrase, rather than ‘wine mixed with water and honey drink,’ the phrase could potentially mean ‘a mixed honey drink,’ that is to say, water mixed with honey. The reason for keeping ‘wine’ in the translation is that on days when the Liturgy is served, a small amount of wine mixed with water is given to communicants after partaking of the Holy Mysteries.

2–kvass is a fermented drink made with grains and/or berries

3–xerophagy: bread and uncooked vegetables

Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete (pdf)

Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete (pdf)

The Great Canon is read on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of the first week of Great Lent.

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See also:

What to watch during Lent

Fasting for Non-Monastics

 

What to watch during Lent

Here are some videos to watch during Lent. I will keep adding new ones as I find them.

Also, check out the new post, “What to watch during Lent 2”

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Dr. Jay Gordon: No one needs meat for health

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Following up on one of the most influential documentaries of all time, Forks Over Knives, comes Forks Over Knives – The Extended Interviews. This video includes never-before-seen footage from the film’s expert interviews, covering several themes in greater depth and addressing important issues that weren’t touched on in the movie. Forks Over Knives – The Extended Interviews covers more than 80 topics.

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In this fiery and funny talk, New York Times food writer Mark Bittman weighs in on what’s wrong with the way we eat now (too much meat, too few plants; too much fast food, too little home cooking), and why it’s putting the entire planet at risk.

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Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn argues that heart attacks, the leading cause of death for men and women worldwide, are a “food borne illness” and explains why diet is the most powerful medicine.

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Celebrated Cornell University professor T. Colin Campbell Phd, presents the overwhelming evidence showing that animal protein is one of the most potent carcinogens people are exposed to.

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Olympic gold medal winner Carl Lewis describes how his best athletic performances came after he eliminated all animal products from his diet.

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He’s VEGAN — James “Lightning” Wilks, an MMA fighter best known to many for winning The Ultimate Fighter TV challenge, US vs. UK. James holds a Black belt in Tae Kwon Do and a Brown belt in Brazilian Jui Jitsu. Listen to James relate decision to go 100% plant-based.

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A fateful blizzard on a drive to Tahoe led to a conversation about food and nutrition, which inspired bodybuilder Joshua Knox, a Google employee, to go vegan for a week. One week turned into a 1.5 year lifestyle experiment with bodybuilding and diet.

Study Notes: 19 FEB 2015

“Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession…Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Study Notes: 13 FEB 2015

…and yet, Cain killed Abel. One may suppose that since Cain’s sacrifice of the fruits of his labors had not been accepted, he may have decided to offer a greater, human one–his younger brother. What is really interesting in this story is that God points out Cain’s sin (Gen. 4:7), and Cain immediately goes and slaughters Abel (8). Was this in a horrifically-mistaken effort to atone for his sin? Clearly, God saw this act as a great sin and cursed Cain in much the same way that He had cursed Cain’s father (12 cf. 3:17, 23).

Abraham’s sacrificing of Isaac probably would have been expected or even required in the land from which he hailed (Ur of the Chaldees). Abraham may have mistakenly thought that Sarah’s barrenness was due to some sin, and that if they were to have many children, a human sacrifice for that sin was required. According to some rabbinical as well as modern scholars, God’s demand of offering Isaac as the sacrifice may have been not so much a thundering voice from heaven as a religious duty that Abraham would have felt in his heart. (This, of course, is not the common interpretation of many of the Church Fathers.) God again showed that He did not require a human sacrifice, that a sacrificial lamb is not a replacement for human sacrifice, but an icon of the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world.

Both Abel and Isaac are biblical icons of Christ.

Study Notes: 4 FEB 2015

Notes on bioethics:

“There are two misunderstandings about marriage which should be rejected in Orthodox dogmatic theology. One is that marriage exists for the sole purpose of procreation. What, then, is the meaning of marriage for those couples who have no children? Are they advised to divorce and remarry? Even in the case of those who have children: are they actually supposed to have relations once a year for the sole purpose of ‘procreation’? This has never been a teaching of the Church. … Another misunderstanding about marriage is that it should be regarded as a ‘concession’ to human ‘infirmity’: it is better to be married than to commit adultery (this understanding is based on a wrong interpretation of 1 Cor. 7:2-9). Some early Christian sectarian movements (such as Montanism and Manicheanism) held the view that sexuality in general is something that is unclean and evil, while virginity is the only proper state for Christians. [Needless to say, they have since died out.–S.S.] The Orthodox tradition opposed this distortion of Christian asceticism and morality very strongly. In the Orthodox Church, there is no understanding of sexual union as something unclean or unholy.” —Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeev)