The weeks before Great Lent
Question:
Hello Father! I have a question. I was looking on the liturgical calendar and noticed the fast free week of Feb. 9-14, the beginning of the Triodion. Could you please explain why that week if fast free? Thank you.
Answer:
In preparation for the Great Lent before Pascha the Church has prescribed 3 preparatory weeks: one fast-free week, one normal-fasting week and on week where cheese and eggs are allowed every day.
At the end of the second week there is the meatfare when we give up meat, then, at the end of the third week there is the Cheesefare when we give up additionally to meat also diary and eggs.
The reason for the first fast-free week is that we might not boast in keeping the fasting "rules," and as a reminder that fasting is only a means, an aid on the path to salvation; it is not a ticket to heaven.
The next week we return to the wise moderation of the Church's discipline, observing the usual Wednesday and Friday fasts. It is called Meat-fare Week, because at the end of that week, on Sunday, we stop eating meat for the duration of Great Lent.
The following week, Cheese-fare week, it is customary to eat "cheese fare," i.e., milk products and eggs. Cheese-fare week is popularly regarded as a week of entertaining and indulging in the butteriest foods. But the church services for this week recall the fall of Adam and Eve-the result of indulgence. Also on Cheese-fare Saturday, the Church commemorates "all the righteous who shone forth in the ascetic life"-in fasting and prayer. It is a week to use up what dairy products we have in the house before Great Lent, to begin paring down our food intake, not to stuff ourselves as if we were going to starve for the next forty days.
Immediately following these three weeks of preparation there is the first week of Lent, a week of very strict fasting starting on Clean Monday, the first day of Great Lent. The name "Clean Week" refers to the spiritual cleansing each of the faithful is encouraged to undergo through fasting, prayer, repentance, reception of the Holy Mysteries and begging forgiveness of his neighbor.
Throughout this week fasting is most strict. Those who have the strength are encouraged to fast completely, eating only on Wednesday and Friday evenings, after the Presanctified Liturgy. Those who are unable to keep such a strict fast are encouraged to eat only a little, and then only xerophagy (uncooked food) once a day. Meals are served on Saturday and Sunday, but these are fasting meals at which meat and dairy products are forbidden.
These preparatory weeks lead us gradually towards a stricter abstinence, helping our bodies to adjust to the fasting period ahead. In Her wisdom the Church has prescribed this to help our whole being, body and soul, adjust to the strictness of the Great Lent.