### fasting, rite, office
fasting Fast - as a phenomenon of religious life - is known and made obligatory for believers by other monotheistic religions as well, for example, the Islam. In concert with Christian teaching this means self-restraint from food so as to control bodily desires, express repentance and lift the soul. The ban usually referred to consuming meats (this is why fish-breeding was an important activity in the Middle Ages, since eating fish was not prohibited), and the number and quality of meals (for example, three meals a day, one eating fill). Children, elderly and sick people were exempt form these. Besides the regular fats of the church year (the 40-day fast preceeding Easter and the so-called cantor-fasts connected to the seasons, the fasts day in each quarter of the year) there was a compulsory fast before each bigger celebration and significant church events or ceremonies, for example, before canonisation ceremonies, when the remains of the saint were lifted from the tomb, and before red-hot iron testimonies. SZK rite The order of ceremony of the service, which shows significant differences already in the earliest periods of Christianity. By 1054, when Byzantine and Roman Christianity were divided into Greek and Latin churches, the order of ceremonies of the service in the two branches had been very dissimilar to each other. SZK office The other form of public service besides the mass. The official, chorus-like prayer of the priests, which was divided into praying hours of definite number at definite times a day. Secular priests and monks are both obliged to perform this duty. The schedule was regulated according to monk St Benedict's regulations: there are a matutinum, laudes, prima, tertia, sexta, nona, vesperare and completorium. The hours of prayer consist of psalms, hymns, payers and readings. The service book, which contains the texts of these praying hours, is called breviary or office book since the 13th century. The two main types of the office of priests are the chathedral and monastic practice. SZK