On the Angelic Banquet
- OCCM Secretary
- Mar 2
- 3 min read
Written Anonymously
March 1, 2026
O Blessed St. Athanasius the Apostolic! You who have led all of the world in your love for Christ
and His Church! You have given us this beautiful saying regarding the physical act of fasting. An
act that does not merely end with physical hunger, but rather invites us to a spiritual fulfillment
that cannot be tasted elsewhere. May the Lord guide us as we read your words.
“Devils take great delight in fullness, and drunkenness and bodily comfort.”
We are at a constant war with evil, it permeates our life. The world we live in is full of evil, but
the most dangerous of this evil is that of which we ourselves do not notice. It is the evil that is
right under our noses. This evil is the evil of comfort, complacency, and fullness. How many
times do we commit to ourselves that we will pray, fast, read the Bible, pray our Agpeya, attend (real attention, not just a physical appearance) Liturgical prayers, but never follow through with it? How often do we start Godly habits, only to replace them with fleshly evil ones later? How often do we look into the mirror of our hearts, examine ourselves, and demand a change, only to complacently let go of this change? Laziness, drunkenness of the mind, and comfort destroys the drive that God wove into us at our birth. How can we then partake of this Angelic Banquet if we forget ourselves in these lusts and pleasures? It is only through His grace and abundant mercy that we are able to partake of these holies.
O Holy One, enter into the dark crevices of our sinful hearts and fill them with Love for you, so we might be able to be your Light.
“Fasting possesses great power and it works glorious things.”
The immense power of fasting is unexplainable. In the Coptic Church, there is a fraction of
great beauty speaking about the power of fasting when it is coupled with prayer. They hold the power to cast out demons, to save from the lion’s den, to grant divine inspiration of this age and the age to come. Glorious is the work of fasting which the Ninevites were forgiven by and the mountain, Mokattam, was moved by. Inasmuch the mountains in our lives may be moved through this vigorous act of fasting and prayer. Controlling one's external desires for food and water, quenches the desire for the worldly temporal things of the inner man: pride, lust, and complacency. These mountains are easily moved by the presence of fasting and prayer. However, this journey is not a simple one– it is uncomfortable. What is this uncomfortability? It is not merely an uncomfortable diet of beans instead of meat. Rather it is a discomfort of change. Changing and treading in a direction of Spiritual Awakening within one’s soul.
O You who fasted on our behalf for 40 days and 40 nights, give me the spirit of Moses who also fasted for You, who through His immense love for God was given strength to continue his fast to be prepared to receive Your word. Allow me also to be prepared through the rest of this blessed Lent for the reception of your Resurrection.
“To fast is to banquet with angels.”
Banquet: a royal meal, pristine in nature and beyond the understanding of mere men. Angelic: belonging to the heavens, otherworldly. These words, St. Athanasius uses to describe the blessing of fasting. Imagine sitting in the parks of heaven, and behold the angelic creatures are before you, feasting with you, partaking in breaking bread with you. Yes, you! How amazing is this! That we, the Church, are one with the Victorious Church of the heavenly. Especially in this season of Lent, we spend an immense amount of time in prayer; if we understood the blessings of the constant liturgical worship, we would “collect even the dust from the floor of the Church to wash our faces with it” (St. Gabriel, the fool for Christ). We would approach this season (and all seasons of the Church) with a level of seriousness that is fitting of this Angelic Banquet.
O the Almighty One, lead me to Your kingdom and grant me a Spiritual seriousness to seek you in all things at all times. Allow my eyes to be opened to see the glorious creatures of your heavens in the midst of us mere mortals. Grant me O God to see with my eyes and hear with my ears, unlike the Pharisees. Entrust me O Lord to see your blessings in my life and to partake of your Angelic Banquet through this fast. Amen.
