Fasting & Abstinence Rules

Chapter III.—The Principle of Fasting Traced Back to Its Earliest Source. Accordingly we are bound to affirm, before proceeding further, this (principle), which is in danger of being secretly subvert

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While fasting and sitting on a certain mountain, and giving thanks to the Lord for all His dealings with me, I see the Shepherd sitting down beside me, and saying, “Why have you come hither [so] early

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“Learn, therefore, to keep the true fast of God, as Isaiah says, that you may please God. Isaiah has cried thus: ‘Shout vehemently, and do not spare: lift up thy voice as with a trumpet, and show My p

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“Moreover when you fast, don’t be like the hypocrites, with sad faces. For they disfigure their faces, that they may be seen by men to be fasting. Most certainly I tell you, they have received their r

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Chapter II.—Arguments of the Psychics, Drawn from the Law, the Gospel, the Acts, the Epistles, and Heathenish Practices. For, so far as pertains to fasts, they oppose to us the definite days appointe

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Chapter XVII.—Conclusion. “Old” you are, if we will say the truth, you who are so indulgent to appetite, and justly do you vaunt your “priority:” always do I recognise the savour of Esau, the hunter

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Chapter VIII.—Examples of a Similar Kind from the New. We produce, too, our remaining (evidences). For we now hasten to modern proofs. On the threshold of the Gospel, By and by the Lord Himself cons

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Chapter IX.—From Fasts Absolute Tertullian Comes to Partial Ones and Xerophagies. This principal species in the category of dietary restriction may already afford a prejudgment concerning the inferio

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Chapter VII.—Further Examples from the Old Testament in Favour of Fasting. And thus we have already proceeded to examples, in order that, by its profitable efficacy, we may unfold the powers of this

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Chapter XVI.—Instances from Scripture of Divine Judgments Upon the Self-Indulgent; And Appeals to the Practices of Heathens. For even if He does prefer “the works of righteousness,” still not without

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Chapter X.—Of Stations, and of the Hours of Prayer. In like manner they censure on the count of novelty our Stations as being enjoined; some, moreover, (censure them) too as being prolonged habituall

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Chapter XV.—Of the Apostle’s Language Concerning Food. The apostle reprobates likewise such as “bid to abstain from meats; but he does so from the foresight of the Holy Spirit, precondemning already

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Chapter XIII.—Of the Inconsistencies of the Psychics. You lay down a prescription that this faith has its solemnities “appointed” by the Scriptures or the tradition of the ancestors; and that no furt

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Chapter XII—Of the Need for Some Protest Against the Psychics and Their Self-Indulgence. For, by this time, in this respect as well as others, “you are reigning in wealth and satiety”ταπεινοφρόνησις,

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Chapter VI.—The Physical Tendencies of Fasting and Feeding Considered. The Cases of Moses and Elijah. Now, if there has been temerity in our retracing to primordial experiences the reasons for God’s

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Book XXX. Faustus repels the insinuation that the prophecy of Paul with reference to those that should forbid to marry, abstain from meats, etc., applies to the Manichæans more than to the Catholic a

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Canon XV. No one shall find fault with us for observing the fourth day of the week, and the preparation, Balsamon. Conformably to the sixty-fourth Apostolical canon, which decrees that we are not to

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Canon LV. Since we understand that in the city of the Romans, in the holy fast of Lent they fast on the Saturdays, contrary to the ecclesiastical observance which is traditional, it seemed good to th

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Canon LVI. We have likewise learned that in the regions of Armenia and in other places certain people eat eggs and cheese on the Sabbaths and Lord’s days of the holy lent. It seems good therefore tha

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Canon XXIX. A canon of the Synod of Carthage says that the holy mysteries of the altar are not to be performed but by men who are fasting, except on one day in the year on which the Supper of the Lor

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