BODILY FASTING FOR THE SOUL’S BENEFIT

The Nativity fast begins on November 14/27, and lasts forty days. The Nativity fast is not as strict as Great Lent or the Dormition fast, and can be compared to the Apostle’s fast. It was instituted by the Church so that we would worthily greet the feast of the Nativity of Christ after having cleansed our hearts by prayer and repentance.

A HOMILY FOR THOSE REJOICING IN THE NATIVITY FAST

Our Mother the Church, dear reader, has the custom of preparing her children, well in advance of the actual holy day, for extraordinary events which the central axle of both earthly and eternal existence. Beyond a doubt, the feast of Nativity of Christ, the appearance of God in the flesh, belongs to this very category.

The whole history of humankind, which began with the fall of our forefather and mother, Adam and Eve, the continuation of history through their descendants, the history of peoples and kingdoms (especially the history of ancient Israel), all led up to and arrived at Bethlehem, to the mysterious cave, where Christ the Savior of the world manifested His wondrous infant countenance to us.

THE NATIVITY FAST: A TIME OF PREPARATION

The Fast of the Nativity is the Church's wise solace and aid to human infirmity. We are a forgetful people, but our forgetfulness is not unknown to God; and our hearts with all their misconceptions and weakened understandings are not unfamiliar to the Holy Spirit who guides and sustains this Church. We who fall far from God through the magnitude of our sin, are called nonetheless to be close to Him. We who run afar off are called to return. Through the fast that precedes the great Feast of the Incarnation -- which itself is the the heart and substance of our calling -- the Church helps draw us into the full mystery of what that call entails.