👉🏽👉🏽👉🏽 #Qebela
(Part 1)
Dear followers of the Orthodox teachings on the, we greet you in the name of the Lord. Today, based on the topic mentioned above, we present to you the following important teaching. May each of you read, learn, and benefit from it.
✍🏾The Meaning of Qebela
“Qebela” means preparing oneself to fast. Preparation includes readiness of both spirit and body.
Fasting is practiced by
👉🏾 Strengthening the spirit through prayer
👉🏾 Training the stomach through abstinence
According to the interpretation of Saint Yared, fasting is not only refraining from food, but also avoiding all forms of evil:
👉🏾 Seeing evil
👉🏾 Speaking evil
👉🏾 Hearing evil
👉🏾 Touching evil
👉🏾 Walking toward evil
True fasting is guarding all these spiritual senses.
The eve of the fast is a time to welcome the fast with thanksgiving and joy, preparing the soul to enter the season of blessing. It is not a time to indulge in uncommon or excessive foods and drinks “because the fast is coming.” Such practices have no spiritual or religious basis.
✍🏾What Does Semune Qebela Mean?
Meaning of the Word “Qebela”
The word Qebela comes from the Gë`ëz term “Tekebele”, which means:
to receive
to welcome
to accept
✍🏾Meaning of “Semune Qebela”
Semune Qebela refers to the week of preparing ourselves to receive the fast. It is the period when the faithful ready their bodies and souls before the official beginning of the fast.
It is a time of:
staying spiritually awake
preparing the body through discipline
preparing the soul through repentance and prayer
getting ready to enter the fast with reverence
Just as someone cleans and arranges their house to welcome an honored guest, a Christian prepares his or her heart to welcome the great “guest,” which is the fast itself.
✍🏾The True Purpose of Qebela
Although Qebela is meant to be a week of spiritual readiness, unfortunately, many activities seen today such as noise, unnecessary celebrations, eating and drinking in excess, and general distraction do not reflect the true meaning of Qebela.These behaviors do not prepare the soul to meet the fast.
Originally, Qebela existed because Christians desired to meet the fast properly, just as one receives a noble visitor with honor and cleanliness of heart.
According to the teachings of the Apostles, fasting is:
The foundation of Christian life
A sign of imitating God
A life of self-control and moderation
Fasting is therefore not just avoiding food, but ordering one’s entire life toward God.
Accepting the fast improperly is itself a mistake. God desires everything to be done decently and in order (1 Corinthians 14:40). The fast should be welcomed with guidance from a priest, with proper internal and external preparation.
This includes:
seeking guidance from one’s priest
preparing both outwardly and inwardly
entering the fast with repentance, prayer, and humility
Fasting is not something to be avoided or taken lightly. It is a gift that requires readiness, respect, and spiritual awareness.
Continues 👇🏾