10 prohibitions in Lent

One of the most significant fasts preparing Christians for Easter is Great Lent. It lasts almost 7 weeks. It would be a mistake to treat it like some kind of diet, when the Orthodox refuse certain foods.

The purpose of fasting is to correct your heart. An angry person should become meek, a cruel person should become philanthropic, an envious and greedy person should get rid of these passions.

Without spiritual work on oneself, constant prayer, reading special literature, everything else is meaningless.

10 Do not eat food of animal origin

During fasting, a person devotes himself to spiritual labors. It is desirable that it is the soul that controls the body. This is easier to achieve if you give up animal products and limit the amount of food.

John of Kronstadt wrote that drunkenness, overeating and worldly worries cut off the wings of the soul, bring us closer to the earth.

During fasting, you should not eat animal products: milk and any dairy products, meat and meat products, fish and eggs. There is a small exception. On Palm Sunday and the Annunciation, fish dishes are allowed.

Believers can eat cereals, herbs, vegetables and fruits, nuts, dried fruits, etc. If a person is sick, he may not fast as strictly. any disease also humbles the flesh. The same rule applies to pregnant women, those who are forced to work or study hard.

9. Consume alcoholic beverages

Christians should not drink vodka, beer, or cognac, not only during Lent, but at other times as well. drunkenness is condemned by the church.

During Great Lent, believers can drink some dry unfortified wine on Sundays. Before use, it must be half diluted with water, and drink no more than 300 g per day. From such an amount of alcohol, a person will not get drunk, but he will have the strength to pass the post.

8. You can’t get married

It is advisable not to arrange a wedding in Lent. It is worth giving up all entertainment, and festive festivities, a plentiful table will be inappropriate.

In addition, the registration of relationships implies marital intimacy. And during this period, it is advised to refrain from it. For the same reason, newlyweds are not married during Lent. But sometimes, if there is a good reason, young people can be blessed for marriage.

7. Recreational activities should be limited

In fasting, you need to pray more, go to church more often. It is advisable to avoid leisure activities that can lead to sin: drunkenness, sloth and idleness. Some priests advise against watching feature films at this time as well. it is also entertainment.

And believers face another task – to work on their spiritual development. Refusing TV and other entertainments, you can leave time for reading books. And it is not necessary to choose only spiritual literature, you can also read high-quality classics.

As for holidays, such as birthdays or anniversaries, supermarkets now have such a rich selection of products that you can set a rich table without breaking the fast.

6. You can’t spend a lot of time aimlessly reading news on the Internet and discussing social networks.

It is not written in the canons of the Church that it is worth abstaining from a computer during fasting. But only because when they were written, there was no such technique. Many elders warned against verbosity and talked about how useful prudent silence is.

After the prayer, in order to maintain the resulting tender mood, it is advisable not to talk to anyone. Silence helps prepare the soul for prayer. Therefore, at least in the post, you should refrain from reading newspapers and magazines, from constant communication in social networks. So a person is drawn into worldly vanity.

This does not mean that you can not approach the computer. The Internet is not only entertainment. If you need to check your mail or find the necessary information, you not only can, but also need to use a computer or phone.

5. You can’t be angry and irritable

During fasting, touchiness and irritability appear more often than usual. When a person cannot receive joy from a meal, he does not have a feeling of fullness, a certain vacuum is formed. It needs to be filled. It should be prayer or worship or reading. This is the point of the post.

When we simply refuse food, we suffer from hunger, tension appears, and, as a result, irritability.

4. To offend and condemn loved ones

During fasting, it is not allowed to swear, to enter into conflicts and quarrel with anyone. The meaning of fasting is self-improvement, i.e. a person cultivates in himself kindness, meekness, patience, piety, etc. If he still experiences anger and irritation, then something in his spiritual development is going wrong.

3. To exalt themselves over them, to be proud of their “lean successes”

It also happens that a person is proud of his “achievements”, that he can hold a post. In this case, it turns out to be useless. In order to receive spiritual fruit, the prayer of repentance is necessary.

A person who does not see his sins or considers them insignificant will not fight with them. And realizing his sinfulness, he will understand that there is nothing special to be proud of, there is a lot of work to be done on himself.

2. despond

Often, especially at the end of a fast, temptations appear. The believer more and more often begins to think about what he would like to get rich or become famous, etc.

And, as a result, sadness and sorrow are born. To cope with it, deep prayer is needed, which a person must do every day. When God’s grace descends on him, he will begin to understand himself better, see his sins, correct himself, and despondency will recede.

1. Marital intimacy not allowed

According to tradition, these days, spouses should not enter into marital intimacy. But this should be discussed between husband and wife, and everything should be done by mutual agreement. If both spouses or one of them cannot abstain for so long, then you can make concessions.

What is really unacceptable is quarrels about this, a break in relations, or even treason. If a husband or wife cheats, then both will be guilty of sin.

Kissing while fasting is allowed. If a couple has a sense of proportion, they can kiss, showing their love and tenderness in this way.