On February 22,1999, began The Great Lent, the Holy Quadragesima, an excellent and exalted period in the liturgical year. The seven weeks of Great Lent are a time of abstinence. Man is an extremely complex being. Neither carnivore nor herbivore, he is not programmed to consume any specific type of food, and, accordingly, is readily able to alternate between a vegetable and an animal diet. Regardless of what food we eat, our consumption of food is a communion, a communion with the fruits of nature.
Bread is the the body of grain.
Any food is the body of a plant or of an animal, fish, fowl, or game. Through food, we commune with nature, and nature enters into us. Abstinence from certain types of food, even only a temporary abstinence, is unquestionably a good work. Any type of abstinence is a spriritual effort. When engaged in reading a spiritual book, when reflecting, discussing, meditating and praying, we stand before the Eternal One.