Fasting and the Immune System

An article in Tech Times dated June 7, 2014, presents a case for an unintended side-effect of fasting, namely the "re-generating" of stem cells.  

"Damaged and older cells" were destroyed in the process.  The article states that "This process is akin to recycling for the immune system."

The process is held to be particularly valuable for persons undergoing chemo-therapy.

The Tech Times article can be accessed here. 

Orthodox Christians undertake fasting for its spiritual values, but given the Church's traditional inclusion of the body within our ascetic practices, it seems that the spiritual blessings derived from integral fasting are extensive indeed.

+Bishop Sergios

A Word from Saint Gregory Palamas Regarding "Names and Energies"

The much-condemned early 20th century heresy of Name Worship[1] has recently snagged new partisans from among the ranks of the Synod of the Holy Orthodox Church in North America (HOCNA).[2]  Despite the significance of the fact that among the most fervent apostles of this latter day heresy were Father Pavel Florensky and Father Sergei Bulgakov (both of whose sophiological speculations were to be condemned as heresy, and whose support for Name Worship certainly should have raised warning flags) HOCNA’s recent converts to Name Worship heedlessly forge ahead nonetheless.[3]

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A Red Herring from the Green Patriarch?

By Bishop Sergios of Loch Lomond

Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and his Synod have issued a special Encyclical for the Sunday of Orthodoxy [Protocol #213] in which he takes vehement issue with those whose opposition to the contemporary phenomenon of syncretist ecumenism is based, he claims, on their opposition to dialogue and to the reunion of Christians. 

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