Rules of fasting: what is possible and what is impossible to do
In fact, lent is a time of cleansing – people must exclude from their diet animal products, alcoholic drinks and so on. The only relief can be red wine, which is consumed in small quantities and in strictly certain days. To making love during lent all the more complicated – because sex between legal spouses is not a sin. The priests in response to this veiled claim that the Bible points to the negative effects of satiety and adding life abstaining.
Under the abstinence of the clergy involves not only food restrictions, but also sexual relations.
However, most of the monks do not share a common point of view in this matter. Some are convinced that sex married life of Christians is free, and no tradition can not interfere in it. The monks emphasize that, according to Church canons, to abstain from sex should still be – the night before the baptism or Liturgy. Other priests claim that the execution of marital debt in the days of fasting are sinful, because lent is a kind of victory of man over a weak physical body, and indulging his desires to ruin this victory.
Sex and the spiritual life
It is believed that lent is saving days through which God calls people to struggle with their infirmities and harmful passions. Because of limiting thoughts, actions and habits of the person becomes stronger and more resistant to various temptations. If the lack of sex is carried heavily, you should confess and repent in the Church, God will give you strength to fight and forgive human weakness. Subsequently, you need to keep yourself with prayer to withstand the post with dignity, a proper man of God.
Muslims, in contrast to the Orthodox people, it is not forbidden to make love in Ramadan, however, is permissible only to patients, wandering or living in a foreign country.
The Orthodox Church explains the necessity of abstinence for lent, the taming of the flesh with the purpose of improvement of spiritual life. The weakness of the flesh can turn a man into an animal, driven by some instinct – such people, according to Orthodox notions, go to hell. Therefore, fasting and just sympathetic clergymen recommend fasting days to abandon low-lying thoughts and surrender to the cleansing spiritual and physical body.