Why don’t we fast on Saturdays and Sundays?
Are marital relations allowed during Lent?
During Great Lent we abstain from all kinds of meat, cheese and everything that comes from animals… and likewise on Wednesday and Friday of every week throughout the year: on Wednesday in memory of the Lord’s betrayal, and on Friday in memory of his crucifixion.
We do not fast on Saturdays:
because Saturday also carries something of the meaning of Pascha;
because Saturday (the Sabbath) is the day God rested after creating the universe, as one of the Ten Commandments says: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God” (Exodus 20:8-10).
And we have no right to break the Lord’s commandment.
So we mark the breaking of the fast on Saturday by eating breakfast in the morning, while still not eating meat or cheese as usual.
Sundays
are days of resurrection (expressing our joy at Christ’s resurrection), so the full fast does not apply to them. On every Sunday of the year we abstain from food from midnight and take nothing, in preparation for the morning Divine Liturgy in which we receive the most pure Body and Blood of the Lord.
After Communion and the end of the Sunday Liturgy, the faithful may eat breakfast, of course without meat, cheese or their by-products.
Fish is allowed only on two feasts: the Annunciation and the Sunday of Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday), since these are feasts of the Lord.
Orthodoxy, as it received from the early Church, still keeps the meaning and character of Saturday and Sunday.
Are marital relations allowed during Lent?
The marital relationship is pure, not impure, and the Church does not forbid sexual relations between spouses.
It is better for husband and wife to agree to abstain from relations and devote themselves to fasting and prayer, with the guidance of their spiritual father.
For the whole fast is a training of our material self to obey our spiritual self, so that we may be, soul and body, obedient to God.
Fr. Boutros Zein
