48- Other Spiritual Drills

 

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a. Train yourself in spiritual readings:

Religious readings are numerous and limitless. However, sacred fasting days, should not be used to read books that increase your knowledge as much as the ones of worship. Concentrate on spiritual books that inflame your heart with God's love, stimulate you, leading you to prayer, and urge you to repent and lead a life of purity. Such should be your reading material to stimulate you in a spiritual way. As for other religious books, I do not forbid you to use them. However, they come second in a fast, while spiritual books and biographies of saints take priority.

b. Train yourself in church hymns and melodies:

This is especially so in hymns and melodies that have the spirit of prayer, in which you feel you are communicating with God, which you recite from the heart and the soul, and which touch your emotions and affect your heart.

Try to memorise the hymns that move you and repeat them often.

c. Train yourself also in prostration:

If you neglect it at other times, be careful to observe it while fasting.

Prayer Drills

The Spirituality of Fasting Books by H. H. Pope Shenouda III

Drills in certain virtues