A Quote

A friendofmine askedmewhy the Orthodox Churchfasts. I told him that the main reason I fast is because the Church says fast. That is all I need to know. But there really are reasons for the fasting we do, which is really so easy, but my flesh still resents it. One reason for the fasts of the Orthodox Church is to wean us off of the attachments of this world, that we will stop loving it, so that, like Lot, we can flee its certain destruction (and each of us will face a personal cataclysm when our hearts stop beating.) without looking back. This reminds me of something written by the Anglican J.I. Packer:

"Love of the world is egocentric, acquisitive, arrogant, ambitious, and absorbing, and leaves no place for any other kind of affection. Those who love the world serve and worship themselves every moment. It is their full-time job. And from this we see that anyone whose hopes are focused on gaining material pleasure, profit, and privilege is booked for a bereavement experience, since as John says, the world will not last. Life's surest certainty is that one day we will leave worldly pleasure,profit, and privilege behind. The only uncertainty is whether these things will leave us before our time comes to leave them. God's true servants, however, do not face such bereavement. Their love and desire centre on the Father and the Son in a fellowship that already exists and that nothing can ever disrupt." J.I. Packer, Hot Tub Religion