According to our tradition, there is, as I have shared with you, no celebration of the Eucharist on fasting days because the celebration is one continuous movement of joy. Think about this. In our Church every weekend celebrates the Resurrection of our Lord. Every weekend we sing one of the eight tones that are the prayers of Bright Week (the days after Easter). The Church sees the week from Easter to St. Thomas Sunday, called Anti-Pasch, as the only week that is comprised of eight days. This signals the beginning of the new creation which Christ’s death and resurrection initiated. Each day of this eight-day week we use a new tone, that is a set of special prayers. This is where we get the eight tones we use during the year.

Further, from Easter to Pentecost,   Sunday is considered the first day of the week. During ordinary time, that is the rest of the liturgical year, Sunday is actually considered the last day of the week.

Just as the visible Christ has ascended into heaven yet is invisibly present in the world, just as Pascha is celebrated once a year yet its rays illumine the whole life of the Church, just as the Kingdom of God is yet to come but is already in the midst of us, so too with the Eucharist. As the sacrament and the celebration of the Kingdom, as the feast of the Church, it is incompatible with fasting and is not celebrated during the Great Fast. As the grace and the power of the Kingdom which are at work in the world, as our supplier of the essential food and the support for our life’s journey, it is at the very center of the Great Fast, is indeed the heavenly manna that keeps us alive in our journey through the desert of Lent.

Again, why should we practice this since many parishes do not. In not doing it they are not doing something wrong. Keeping this practice, however, helps us to more fully to understand our tradition. Our tradition is well thought out, coherent and quite comprehensible. It fits perfectly with our theology. So in choosing to observe this tradition we have an opportunity to   comprehend the Eastern approach to religion and worship of God.

Our synod of Bishops, under our new Patriarch, has encouraged all of our parishes to embrace our tradition. Our tradition, I believe, makes our religious practice much more intelligible and provides us with a more dimensional understanding of one of the greatest mysteries of faith, namely the presence of Christ in the Eucharist.