In liturgical language, the name of bodily fasting means abstinence from meat, milk, sweet foods, bodily voluptuousness, drunkenness, and other bodily sins and lusts [3]. A fasting person should eat even vegetable food in moderation in order to conquer bodily passions and avoid the power of the demon of gluttony [4].

The Lord, desiring our salvation, commanded us to constrict the belly and abandon the passions of the flesh, in order to make all the bodily members instruments of righteousness and to stop the carnal prodigal cries [5].

In order to subordinate the flesh to the spirit, a person must at times exhaust the flesh, humble the bodily passions, and vigorously and tirelessly resist them [6]. It is better to endure the struggle with the passions than to submit to them and then suffer from the slavery of carnal lust, like the biblical Samson, who clung to the Philistine Delilah [7].

Bodily fasting weakens the bodily lustful burning and flame and allows the spirit to dominate passion. A limited and light diet refines and humbles the flesh, extinguishes lust in it, and brings a person out of the state of servility to the belly. The fasting man girds up his loins with chastity, as if crucifying the members of the body with fasting, and dies of voluptuousness. He is pure to the Saviour, who seeks complete purity in people [8].

The joyful acceptance of the Lenten testament does not allow the larynx to be pleased with its favorite viands and wines, and obliges us to guard our sight, hearing, and tongue from sin. He who fasts with contempt for the sweets of earthly life tears himself away from sin and receives from the Savior the highest spiritually grace-filled consolations in His illumination of grace. Instead of idolizing the belly and lust, he hates gluttony and violent fornicatory incontinence [9]. Fasting, he follows the Saviour and enlightens his bodily movements by passion-killing.

Lenten food and quenching thirst with water do not drive any of the people to madness. On the contrary, intemperance in food and the use of wine make people enemies of the Lord's Cross. Thus, the intoxication of wine once exposed even the righteous Noah and plunged Lot into wandering [10].

Summarizing all of the above, we come to the following definition of bodily fasting:

The soul-corporeality of a human being makes both fasting and people twofold. In addition to bodily fasting, every Christian is obliged to submit to a special regime of spiritual fasting. We will talk about this later.

2. SPIRITUAL FASTING

Only two spiritual and superficial passions are weakened by bodily fasting - fornication and gluttony. Deeper than them in the soul lie greed and pride with all manifestations of evil.

Hence, the true and God-pleasing fasting of the soul is the laying aside of varieties of pride and self-interest, that is, anger, rage, deceit, contempt for others, flattery, lies, abuse, slander, perjury, avarice, and the cessation of all malice, quarrelsomeness, envy, temptation to sin and injustice.

Whoever, by fasting bodily, does not cleanse his soul of passionate thoughts, carnal thoughts, sinful feelings, desires and deeds, rejoices in vain at his imaginary fast. He is a liar before God and is like evil demons who never eat [12]. The beginning of spiritual fasting is supposed to be the removal from the consciousness of harmful thoughts about sinful things [13]. Feelings and desires of a passionate nature, having no support in the firm mental images of a person, inevitably die out [14].

The one who fasts spiritually directs himself to the right path and, like Adam before his fall, eats the fruits of the fulfillment of every commandment of God [15].

He manifests a great correction of himself in humility, mercy to others, a quiet countenance, quiet customs of spiritual order, and mentally always stands before the Crucified Christ, himself crucified by Him [16]. The ousting of passionate thoughts from the consciousness of the fasting person is achieved by keeping an unceasing warm heartfelt prayer to God.