As part of the series of lectures during Great Lent, the guest in the Treasury of the Serbian Orthodox Church of Kotor last night was archpriest-stavrophor Gojko Perović, archpriest vicar of Podgorica-Kolašinj who gave a lecture on the topic "What we get from fasting".
Emphasizing that fasting is "a means to see God better", Perović indicated that, as far as some of our achievements are concerned, "we cannot earn anything in fasting".
"Whoever fasts correctly, who fasts sincerely, can only see that at the beginning of fasting and at the end of fasting, he is the same sinful man who cannot: curb his tongue, stop being jealous, stop being annoyed by stupidity, eat less and eat properly, turn off the phone and read prayers before going to sleep and go to sleep peacefully. As they say, pray before going to bed, and now, Lord, let me rest. We read the prayers before going to bed and then open the phone and see what is someone said on Facebook and let's not fall asleep after that, and then we wake up tired", said Perović.
He emphasizes that confession should be made at the beginning and in the middle of fasting.
"As a priest these days, I listen when people come to confession, he says, I started well, but on the fifth day I got angry, on the sixth day I had an argument, on the seventh day I cursed, on the eighth day I lit a cigar and so on, and he almost looks as if it was for nothing, that for him the fast has stopped, because it is not perfect, because he did not fulfill what he thinks he should", said Perović, among other things.
People, he says, perceive fasting as some magical period in which they will be better than ever.
"Then, of course, in such heads, fasting is a purpose in itself. Now I will not do anything for 40 days - I do not smoke, I do not drink, I do not watch television and so on. I will deny myself something and that is the purpose of fasting, and then I hope that I will earn some better quality. I will be a better person in the end. That is why I sometimes hear when I ask people to come to confession on time, and to confess on time means to confess now, Father Nemanja and I are went to confession today, Father Milenko and Father Nenad went to confession today, as we have fasted so far, but people don't like it. They want to go to confession on the last day, so that you can come to Easter without sin. morning when you come in in the church, someone will stop at a place where you thought, and a story starts that is superfluous, that is not needed", said Perović.
So, he underlines, it is much more useful and healthy to go to confession at the beginning of the fast, throw away everything that you feel is superfluous and then continue with the fast as a preparation for Easter, and not, he says, as something that has a purpose, only yourself.
"By doing metania, putting the shroud on the icons, removing the shroud from the icons, celebrating Orthodoxy Sunday, placing the Holy Cross in the middle of the church this very Sunday, Flowers, Lazarus Saturday, Good Friday, all that, the dynamics of fasting is such that it would concentrate us on the most important thing that we need to know, which is that Christ's tomb is empty. Christ is risen, the truth is risen, those are four words that can not touch us. Beautiful, two thousand years ago years, they say that a certain Jesus Christ has risen, it doesn't concern me, I have to go to work tomorrow and the price of oil will go up and so on. It sounds nice that Christ is risen, but what does it have to do with me? That's why fasting and the church are preparing people from afar.
He says that this secret cannot be approached in one day.
"You know the agony of people who never fast, but only on Good Friday. They already fast on Holy Saturday. They endured that day, and that may sometimes be even greater and more significant than this delusion that people who fast for 40 days or more fall into, thinking that God gave fasting so that they would be better people. And now, you see, if you confessed at the beginning of the fast or in the middle of the fast, you knew what you were like even before the fast began, you knew what you lack, and we are all different", Perović stated, among other things,
The organizer is the Serbian Orthodox Church Municipality of Kotor.

The author of the text and photos is Biljana Marković

Radio Kotor