Ashes and Alleluias: The Western Tradition of Fasting in Great Lent
By: The Most Rev. George (Parrish), First Hierarch, The Orthodox Mission in the Americas There is a holy severity to Lent. The Church, like a wise mother, closes the shutters, dims the lamps, and places before her children a simple table. The Alleluia is hushed. The Gloria is veiled. The vestments darken. And the faithful, if they are attentive, begin to feel that they have stepped into a different climate of the soul. In the Western Orthodox tradition, Great Lent has long been marked not only by prayer and almsgiving, but by a disciplined and deliberate fasting. This fasting is not an innovation, nor a medieval eccentricity, nor a quaint pre-Reformation relic. It is ancient. It is catholic. It is biblical. And it is deeply consonant with the ascetical spirit of the undivided Church. To understand Western Lenten fasting, one must first understand what fasting is not. It is not a diet. It is not a cultural aesthetic. It is not a self-improvement project. It is not an act of spiri...