“And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us” (Ps 90:17): 3. Saint John

 

Lo, Thy care for thy flock in its sojourn prefigured the supplication which thou dost ever offer up for the whole world. Thus do we believe, having come to know thy love, O holy hierarch and wonderworker John. Wholly sanctified by God through the ministry of the all-pure Mysteries and thyself ever strengthened thereby, thou didst hasten to the suffering, O most gladsome healer, hasten now also to the aid of us who honor thee with all our heart. (Troparion to St. John, Tone 5)

In March of 2018, six months after hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico and my family was evacuated off the island, I finally received a transfer and was able to move to Wisconsin and reunite with my family.

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“He was afterward an hungered.” (Matt 4:2)

At the beginning of the Nativity Fast, it seemed appropriate to offer to my parishioners a few encouraging words about fasting. Being quite busy at the time, I decided to look over some of my previous posts on fasting and send out a link. After all, Christians have been fasting for two millennia (and humans in general for much longer than that). Why should there be a new blog post every time? What new thing can I say that has not already been said?

Having looked over my previous posts–alas!–I found nothing that I myself thought meaningful. It is not that there were no good points or pious-enough exhortations in those posts.  But nothing seemed to quite hit the mark. Over the past two weeks, since the beginning of the fast, I have browsed the internet in search of something profound to edify myself and the flock, but found more of the same. To be sure, this likely, at least in part, points to some of my personal unanswered questions, rather than a lack of homiletic talent of the various authors who toil in the virtual vineyard. And yet, since the esteemed pastors and theologians find the need to continue to write and speak on this matter, perhaps someone else is struggling with the same questions, answers to which I find sorely lacking in the contemporary pastoral approach to fasting.