{"id":579,"date":"2014-02-24T13:26:09","date_gmt":"2014-02-24T18:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=579"},"modified":"2014-02-24T12:46:09","modified_gmt":"2014-02-24T17:46:09","slug":"a-vibrant-parish-lives-the-great-fast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=579","title":{"rendered":"A Vibrant Parish Lives the Great Fast"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A vibrant parish is one that truly lives the Great Fast because it sees the Fast as an opportunity to grow in the faith. Members of a vibrant Parish <i>voluntarily<\/i> embrace ascetical practices. The Great Fast begins in just eight days. It starts on <i>Monday, March 3rd<\/i>. Here are some thoughts for observing this special time.<\/p>\n<h2><b><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Recommended Minimal Effort <\/span><\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Abstain from meat and dairy products on the first day of the Fast (<i>March 3)<\/i> and Good Friday (<i>April 18<\/i>)<\/li>\n<li>Abstain from meat on <b><i>All Fridays <\/i><\/b>of Lent and Holy Saturday (<i>April 19<\/i>)<br \/>\n<i>In order to enter into the spirit of Lent this minimal effort is highly recommended. <\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">A Strict Lenten Tradition<\/span><\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Abstain from <i>meat <\/i>and <i>dairy<\/i> products all the days of the Fast, even on weekends, from <i>March 3<\/i> until after Easter services (<i>April 20<\/i>)<\/li>\n<li>Meat eliminated beginning the day\u00a0\u00a0 after Meatfare (<i>February 24<\/i>)<\/li>\n<li>Dairy Products eliminated the day after Cheesefare (<i>March 2)<\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Modified Strict Lenten Tradition<\/span><\/b><\/h2>\n<p>A <i>modified version <\/i>of the strict tradition calls for us, in addition to the <i>minimal effort <\/i>suggested, to <i>abstain from meat <\/i>on all Wednesdays and Fridays of Lent and all the days of Great and Holy Week.<\/p>\n<h2><b><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">What is Really Important<\/span><\/b><\/h2>\n<p><i>\u00a0What is really important about the Great Fast is that we live it. The Church urges us to incorporate <b>fasting<\/b> into our efforts since she has found, over the centuries, that it can be an extremely helpful tool to help us focus our attention on our spiritual growth. <b>What is more important, however, is that we voluntarily elect to engage in some definite activities that can support our spiritual growth and prepare us for the celebration of Easter<\/b>. We should do whatever we think can encourage personal change! If fasting is not something that will help, then don\u2019t fast BUT find something you can consistently do during the 40 days to help you grow in your awareness of God within you. You are encouraged to attend at least one Presanctified Liturgy.\u00a0 <\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A vibrant parish is one that truly lives the Great Fast because it sees the Fast as an opportunity to grow in the faith. Members of a vibrant Parish voluntarily embrace ascetical practices. The Great Fast begins in just eight &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=579\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,31,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-being-a-vibrant-parish","category-great-lent","category-parish-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=579"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":580,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579\/revisions\/580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}