Obey the husband or please God?
Some questions from qahana.am website My friend is not so pious, she even does not attend the church services and the Divine Liturgies, and nevertheless, she is about to keep the Great Lent. Is not it senseless? Fasting pursues a certain goal dictated by the Holy Church. The sense of fasting is refusing sins. If someone keeps fasting pursuing other goals he can do it at any other time as such behavior is not related to the Great Lent. The Holy Church considers all Sundays of the period of Great Lent special and has special exhortations in relation to each Sunday. Without following those exhortations and instructions fasting is senseless. All information concerning the Sundays of the period of Great Lent is available in "Feasts". With blessing, Fr. Smbat Sargsyan My confessor advised me to obey my husband and to have sexual relations with him during the period of Great Lent in order to preserve peace in the family. My friend’s confessor advised her just the contrary saying that she should first of all please God and only then - her husband. Which kind of behavior is correct? Your confessor is right. Talk to your husband, and if he does not agree to keep fasting together with you, follow your confessor’s advice. Do not be interested whom what is told or forbidden. All of us have various spiritual diseases and appealing to various doctors (priests) we certainly various receive instructions for being healed. With blessing, Fr. Smbat Sargsyan What to do with the willow branches blessed the last year as soon is the Feast of Palm Sunday and we will bring home new branches? You can simply burn them and sprinkle the ash on the earth under trees or flowers. With blessing, Fr. Shahe Hayrapetyan Is it necessary on Holy Thursday to paint and eat eggs according to the number of family members? Church Fathers teach us to keep fasting strictly during the whole period of Great Lent. If on Holy Thursday fasting is not kept, all efforts of keeping the Great Lent are in vain. With blessing, Fr. Shahe Hayrapetyan
