Beginning of the Fast

Before we proceed, let us be the first to ask forgiveness of all for any offense we have committed, any sin in which we've engaged which has caused you harm or grief.  Know that we forgive all.

I've been reading "Everyday Saints" when time will allow.  This evening, I found the following passage in the book, and it seems to be written specifically for this time - the beginning of the Great Fast:

"It is remarkable but true that if one secludes oneself in prayer and limits oneself in food, sleep, and interaction with people, while not allowing any idle thoughts to enter the mind, nor any passionate feelings to enter the heart, then very quickly one discovers a truth: besides oneself and other people in this world there is also Someone Else.  And this Someone is patiently waiting to see whether we will pay attention to Him during our endless race through life.  He is simply patiently waiting, because God never forces Himself on anyone.  But if one continues to pray properly (here I must stress "properly", in other words, without arrogance, and under the supervision of an experienced guide), then before one's spiritual gaze remarkable phenomena and images begin to appear."

The wealth of the imagery of what this passage presents to us as we enter the Fast is also phenomenal.
1) Secluding oneself in prayer - Our daily prayer regimen should step up as we enter the fast.  Prayer strengthens our struggle against the body, just as fasting strengthens our desire and ability to pray.
2) Limiting our food - We know the rules, and yet we all too often rationalize, justify small cheats against the fullness of the fast, and in so doing, we do no harm to God, but rather we harm our reign over the body.  We allow the body to rule the soul, as opposed to the other, the 'proper' way around.
3) Limiting our sleep - This doesn't mean we need to "deprive" ourselves of sleep.  Rather, it urges us to guard against excess.  The issue arose in the book "Everyday Saints" in response to an urging to the young monk to pray at night, who was admonished by his elder to "remember the commandment of Saint Joseph of Volokolamsk - 'the day is for work, and the night is for prayer'."  Take some 'extra' time in the evenings to pray!
4) Interaction with people - For us, this is an admonishment against gathering to 'party' with others, or worse, to gather with others when the agenda of the gathering is to gossip.  Doing this negates any gain we might otherwise make in the Fast.
5) Not allowing idle thoughts to enter the mind - In short, keep busy.  Do good.  Give alms.  If you have 'spare time', use it to pray.  Don't allow time to become 'spare'!  Make all time "God's time".
6) Not allowing passionate feelings to enter the heart - Passionate here does not mean thoughts of lust (only).
'Passions' for this purpose are those feelings which rouse us to worldliness, to eat, to drink, to play, to follow the crowd when it leads away from God and toward the world.

If we do these things in purity of heart, even if we fail in small ways, Someone Else knows our hearts, and He will answer all those extra prayers we've labored so very hard to offer - for our friends, for those in need, for our enemies, and for ourselves.

May this Great Fast fill us all with such purity of heart, with the most sincere repentant hearts, and with changing our lives so that Someone Else has a home with us and in us.