Nativity Fast Begins November 15th
| One of four major fasting periods throughout the Eastern Orthodox Christian ecclesiastical year, the Nativity Fast (also known as Advent in the Western World) begins November 15th and concludes on December 24th. For Orthodox Christians, it is a time to prepare for the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the Flesh, on December 25th. During the Nativity Fast, Christians are asked to abstain from meat, fish, dairy products, olive oil, and wine, and are encouraged and called to focus more deeply on prayer and almsgiving. According to the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, the primary goal of fasting is to make us conscious of our dependence upon God. |
Epistle Reading for the Beginning of the Nativity Fast
Colossians 2:13-20
Brethren, you who were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, Christ made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, having canceled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him. Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath. These are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, taking his stand on visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world?
Gospel Reading for the Beginning of the Nativity Fast
Luke 14:1, 12-15
At that time, Jesus entered the home of a certain ruler of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread. And he said to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your kinsmen or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” When one of those who sat at table with him heard this, he said to him, “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!”
Tampa Bay Area Churches Holding Services for the Beginning of the Nativity Fast
- St. John Greek Orthodox Church, Tampa, FL: Monday, November 15th, 9:00 AM Orthros, 10:00 AM Divine Liturgy. See church calendar.
