Fasting and abstinence are a substantial part of the Orthodox tradition. When a person has a medical disability affecting the diet, please consult the priest. When a person has discomfort (without medical disability), the following rubrics are customary.
ABSTINENCE affects only the kind of food and does not reference its quantity. On abstinence days, the faithful abstain from fleshmeat and the juice thereof (chicken broth, etc.). The number of meals and the amount of food may be the same as on other days. All who have attained the age of reason are expected to observe this abstinance.
ABSTINENCE applies to all Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year, except when Christmas falls on a Wednesday or Friday. The following options are available for those who desire a stricter custom. Consult with your priest before increasing your abstinence with the options below.
- Abstain from meat starting the Monday after Sexagesima through Pascha.
- Abstain from dairy starting the Monday after Quinquagesima through Pascha.
- Abstain from meat all of Advent through Christmas Eve
FASTING includes both the kind and the quantity of food. On Fasting days, we abstain from flesh meat. We also limit the number of meals. Eating one full meal a day is customary, and it is not before noon. A collation, or about one-fourth of a meal, is also allowed. Most households have the collation at lunchtime and enjoy a full dinner together in the evening.
- Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays in Advent
- Every day in Lent (Sundays excepted)
- Ember Days, which occur four times a year (viz., the Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays immediately after the first Sunday in Lent, in Whitsun week, immediately after the 14th of September, and immediately after the third Sunday in Advent)
- The vigils of Whitsunday (Pentecost), the Assumption, All Saints, and Christmas. When a fasting day falls upon a Sunday, it is kept on the preceding Saturday.
THE EUCHARISTIC FAST consists of taking no food or drink (except water and medicines) from midnight until the reception of the Eucharist the following day. If the mass is celebrated in the evening, the Eucharistic Fast may be modified as follows: the communicant takes the midday meal as close to noon as possible and then takes no food or drink (except water and medicines) until the reception of the Eucharist.
Explanation of the Vicariate Fasting Norms
These norms are those officially prescribed in the West by various local councils and episcopal decrees in and about the 9th century. The norms we used to publish in the Vicariate were those of the mid-19th century. When the Western Rite began in this country in the 19th century, the 19th-century customs and guidelines were accepted as the rule, and this practice continued until the present. Following discussions by the clergy of the Vicariate at a special meeting in August 2012, Bishop JOHN has asked us to publish the “ancient rule” with the following explanation.
The practice of fasting as a spiritual exercise and discipline, practiced on different prescribed days throughout the year, is a matter of pastoral application. Each parish and each individual are unique in situation and adaptability. The pastor must remember that fasting is a communal discipline in which the individual submerges his will in the community’s customs. As the church and the individual fathers of the church repeatedly caution us, the pastor must find a middle ground that challenges people without discouraging the weakest among them or causing them to despair. Scripture reminds us that God has commanded that the seasons of fasting be times of “joy and gladness and cheerful feasts” (Zech 8.19). The pastor must be very careful that he is promoting this scriptural view of fasting and not binding heavy burdens, grievous to be borne, and laying them on men’s shoulders (Mt 23.4). Individuals need to be careful, each year and during each fasting period, to ask their father confessor for advice on how to observe the fasts. Such a discussion must take into account the context of our own Archdiocese on this continent at this time. It should also take into account our own situation: parish community, Archdiocese, regional diocese, family situation, health, and age.
Our fasting tradition, anciently and until the present, is not the same as that of our Byzantine brothers and sisters. While we respect and honor the legitimate traditions of our Byzantine brethren, we also respect and honor and practice the ancient Orthodox traditions of the West.
Here is an article from Fr. Ed Hughes comparing the fasting practices of the East and West.