Fast in the Syro Malabar Church

Approved by the Canadian Conference of Orthodox Bishops. Prison Inmates who identify as Eastern Orthodox, or who convert to the Orthodox faith have complex needs. This document will serve as a guide to Chaplains and those managing Prisons in Canada, to ensure that Eastern Orthodox prisoners receive the spiritual services they have a right to while incarcerated.

Hamdard Islamicus, 2016

Though the ritual of fasting is common to most of the known religious traditions, its practice and symbolic value may vary considerably. This paper aims to compare the meaning and significance of this ritual with special reference to the three Semitic religions, namely, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Some exciting similarities and dissimilarities in this connection are noted. It is discerned that fasting is often observed in these religions to commemorate certain events of religious significance during specific days of the year. Moreover, feasts and festivals that occur before or after various fasting periods in the selected religious traditions remind us of this ritual's social significance. However, sometimes fasting also signifies the spontaneous individual expression of thankfulness to or repentance before God. It is observed that fasting in these religions is envisioned to facilitate self-control, invoke mercy and sympathy for others, create a sense of bondage, establish and assert religious identities, and release negative feelings like guilt consciousness. In the final analysis, it is maintained that fasting does not necessarily imply the negation of the body or society as a form of asceticism. Instead, by facilitating self-control and freedom from one's inner fears and other emotional weaknesses, it can also lead to a more resounding affirmation of the self and greater integration into society.

Dharmaram Publications, Bangalore, 2016

After the General Introduction this book is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is devoted to an overview of the unity of Christian initiation in the New Testament, in the East Syrian tradition and among the St Thomas Christians in India until the sixteenth century. The second chapter considers the gradual separation of the sacraments of Christian initiation, namely baptism, confirmation and the Eucharist in the West, as well as the imposition of the new discipline on the Eastern Catholic Churches in general, especially after the Council of Trent. The third chapter focuses on the complete separation of the sacraments of Christian initiation among the St Thomas Christians in India, after the arrival of the Western missionaries at the dawn of the sixteenth century. The fourth chapter examines the re-establishment of the theological principle of the unity of Christian initiation by the Second Vatican Council and its realization in the post-conciliar liturgical books of the Latin Church. Then some important magisterial and canonical documents are explored with the intention of demonstrating the progressive awareness about the inseparability of Christian initiation. The last chapter evaluates the endeavours of the Syro-Malabar Church to restore the Eastern sacramental liturgy and discipline, including the joint celebration of the sacraments of Christian initiation.