 Fasting is the oldest commandment. It was the commandment God gave to Adam, to abstain from eating from a certain tree while eating from all the others And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Genesis 2:16-17  Christ started his ministry with a fast.

That Man did not eat meat except after Noah's Ark- After the flood water subsided, God said to our Father Noah and his sons: "Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.“ (Gen 9:3-4).  Many of the prophets fasted e.g Daniel “Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. (Daniel 9:3), David "I humbled myself with fasting;" (Ps 35:13), Nehemiah “So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. (Nehemiah 1:4)  The Apostles also fasted after the Ascension of our Lord and the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them. (Acts 13:2-3 & 14:23)

But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. Matt 9:15 In His sermon on the mountain Jesus talks to us about the kingdom of Heaven and what the kingdom people should do, we learn that Kingdom people should be compassionate and help the poor we learn that Kingdom people should pray and we also learn that Kingdom people should fast! Jesus said: When you fast….. He did not say If you fast!

Fasting precedes every grace and service: Through fasting, we prepare ourselves to receive every blessing that God offers us. Feasts bear for us certain blessings. This is why fasting precedes every feast. Communion bears for us a special blessing. That is why we fast to be ready for it. Fasting also precedes service: Before the Lord Jesus Christ started His ministry (service). He fasted for forty days, and forty nights spending the time in seclusion and prayers

I- We give up food to FEAST on God to Pray more…. Dieting is NOT fasting! David said: As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? Ps 42:1-2 Fasting has to be accompanied by more prayers and more bible and spiritual readings Being filled with food leads to heaviness of the body and consequently to sleep. Saint Paula the anchorite used to eat only half a loaf of bread at sunset. Some monks used to fast every day until sunset. One of our saint fathers said; "Thirty years have passed by during which the sun has not seen me eating". "how is skipping meals going to help me in life?

II- To HUMBLE ourselves before God Ezra 8: Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions. 22For I was ashamed to request of the king an escort of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the road, because we had spoken to the king, saying, "The hand of our God is upon all those for good who seek Him, but His power and His wrath are against all those who forsake Him." 23So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and He answered our prayer. St. Peter said : 6Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. 1Peter 5:5-6

III- Fasting is the evidence of true repentance Joel 2:12 "Now, therefore," says the LORD, "Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. a- True repentance gives us power over the flesh …… the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Fasting breaks the power of the flesh. So the spirit becomes stronger than the flesh and the spirit wins out! This kind comes only by prayer and fasting. b- Fasting is a spiritual weapon that God expects us to use St. Paul said: For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. 2Cor 10:3-4 Our war against the devil is a spiritual battle and spiritual battles require spiritual weapons! fasting is one of our spiritual weapons.

On the mount of transfiguration The three people, who stood in radiance and glorious light on the Mount of Transfiguration, were people who brought fasting to perfection. For every one of them fasted for forty days and forty nights. These were: Our Lord Jesus Christ, may glory be to Him.(Matt 4:2), Moses (Ex 34:28), and Elijah (1 Kings 19:8 ).

Fasting is the abstinence from food for a certain period of time followed by eating vegetable food, without animal fat or dairy products. Fasting is not just changing food. The spiritual state of the person during the fast is very important. The Coptic calendar starts in September. The first fast of the new year is the Advent fast and the final one is the fast of St. Mary There are nearly 200 days of fasting in the Coptic Orthodox Church each year!

1- Advent Fast (Before Christmas) begins on 25 November and ends on 7 January, a total of 43 days. We fast the forty days to receive the Incarnated Word of God in the person of Christ, just as Moses fasted on the mountain to receive the written Word of God. Christ is the LOGOS the word of God. The additional three days remind us of the miracle of the moving of Al-Mukattam mountain in Cairo by the Patriarch Abraam Ibn Ziraa, the 62nd Pope of the See of Alexandria, in the presence of Saint Simon the Tanner, in the tenth century.

2- Baramoun or preparation is only before Christmas and Epiphany. It’s length varies from 1 to 3 days depending on which day the feast is. e.g. If the Feast is on Sunday the Baramoun is Friday and Saturday If the Feast is Monday the Baramoun is Friday, Saturday and Sunday Otherwise it is only one day We do not eat seafood on Saturday and Sunday of the Baramoun. 3- Nineveh's Fast (Jonah’s fast), three days, precedes lent by fourteen days (has no fixed date), we fast for repentance, as the people of Nineveh fasted when the prophet Jonah called them to repent.

4- Lent (before Easter) lasts for a period of 55 days. It consists of 40 Holy days representing the time when our Lord Jesus Christ fasted on the mountain, plus preparation week and Passion week Has no fixed date, based on Easter Calculation. In the early Church, the Great Lent and the Holy Week were fasted separately. It was later in the Church history, when the Fathers of the Church saw it as spiritually beneficial to join then concurrently, and later added the Preparatory week to enable the faithful to prepare themselves spiritually and bodily to experience the benefits of the fastsGreat Lent

1 st Sunday - Kingdom of Heaven 2 nd Sunday- Temptation on the Mountain 3 rd Sunday- The Prodigal Son 4 th Sunday - The Samaritan Woman 5 th Sunday- The Lame man 6 th Sunday- The Born Blind 7 th Sunday- Palm Sunday 8 th Sunday- Easter Sunday

5- The Apostles Fast begins the day after Pentecost and ends on St. Paul's and Peter's Day (12 July). This fast, for the sake of spreading the kingdom of God through ministry and preaching, varies between 15 days, if the Resurrection Day is late, and 49 days if it is early. 6- The Holy Virgin Mary Fast begins on 7 August, and ends 15 days later on 22 August. This fast is in memory of the Ascension of the Body of the Holy Virgin to heaven.

7- In addition to the above fast days, which occur at specific times of the year, Copts should also fast on Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year, except during the fifty days after the Resurrection, and on Christmas and Epiphany, if they are on a Wednesday or Friday. Wednesday reminds us of the betrayal of Judas Friday reminds us of the great Good Friday, the day of redemption when the Lord of Glory was crucified.

Advent Fast Fast of the Apostles St. Mary’s Fast Baramouns Jonah’s Fast Great Lent Wednesday and Fridays