His Holiness Pope Kyrillos the 6th wrote to one of his spiritual sons saying:

Because it is a fact of life that a man will go through different temptations and spiritual wars, God arranged Fasting to deal with temptation and spiritual wars. As God commanded his people in the Old Testament to fast, He also commanded us in the New Testament to fast as the Lord said, “And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards He was hungry” (Matt. 4:2) The faithful is a soldier in the spiritual wars, our weapon, we the Christians is prayer and fasting.

As a horse got a bridle, the body also has to overcome its lusts and pleasures. This is what the apostle says, “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if the Spirit leads you, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.” (Gal. 5:16-24)

A Beautiful Story of Repentance

The book of Jonah the prophet is full of wonderful spiritual contemplation. How beautiful is the Church’s choice! She chose this book to be the prelude of the forty days of Lent.

A beautiful story of repentance and fasting precedes the Great Lent by two weeks that we may approach the holy forty days with a clean heart attached to the Lord.

The Chosen Weak Put to Shame the Mighty

In the book of Jonah, God wants us to know an important fact: that the prophets were not of a different nature, but were ordinary people “with nature like ours” (James 5:17), having weaknesses, shortcomings and faults, and it was possible for them to fall like us. It was not their power, but the power of the Holy Spirit working to aid them in their weaknesses, that the power may be of God not of us, according to the Apostle’s word (2 Cor.4: 7).

Most of what is known about the life of Anthony comes from the Life of Anthony, written in Greek around 360 by St. Athanasius of Alexandria. Sometime before 374, it was translated into Latin by Evagrius of Antioch. The Latin translation helped to spread the concept of monasticism, particularly in Western Europe.

His Early Life

This righteous man was born in the year 251 A.D. in the city of Qimn El-Arouse, Egypt to wealthy landowner Christian parents who loved the church and the poor. They raised him up in fear of the Lord. When he was twenty years old, his parents departed, and he had to take care of his little sister.

Once, he entered the church and heard the words of the Lord Christ in the Gospel, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasures in heaven; and come, follow Me." (Matthew 19:21) He returned to his house, decided to fulfill this commandment and considered it directed to him personally. He gave his wealth to the poor and needy, reserving a little however for his sister's sake. And again as he went into the church, hearing the Lord say in the Gospel, “be not anxious for the morrow,” he could stay no longer, but went out and gave those things also to the poor. Having committed his sister to known and faithful virgins to be brought up, he henceforth devoted himself outside his house to discipline, taking heed to himself and training himself with patience.

At that time, monasticism had not yet been established. All those who wanted to live a solitary life went and lived on the outskirts of the city. This was what St. Anthony did as he dwelt alone, worshiping and living an ascetic life.

The Baptist

John the Baptist is an intriguing person. He is the last prophet and he is the first one crying in the New Testament. He is the greatest among those born of women. But he who is least, is greater than he, a sign to Jesus Christ who in the flesh is six months younger than John the Baptist (Matthew 11:11). The son of the priest, but he never practiced his priesthood in the temple. He is the only prophet about whose service prophecies were written (Isaiah 40:3-5; Malachi 3:1; 4:5) due to the importance of his role.

This voice crying in the wilderness had to come before the Christ who does not cry or shout and whom no one in the streets heard him. He is the connection between the Old and New Testament. He was the only prophet who saw the fulfillment of his prophecy of Our Christ. His final task was to witness to the true light. “There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This man came for a witness to bear witness of the light, that all through him might believe” (John 1:6-7). For this reason, his role was not to prepare the minds by explaining old commandments, but to prepare hearts to see the true light and recognize it.

St. Ambrosious says, “Many regard John the Baptist as a symbol to the law, it can rebuke sin, but not forgive it."