All of the great spiritual insight of the holy fathers and mothers of the Church must be accepted with discernment.  The insight into the human psyche (soul) is eternal—human beings are human beings whether it is the fourth century or the twenty-first.  However, the specific acetic practices and disciplines that work very well in one context might not work well at all in another.  This applies not merely to the differences between monastic life and family life, but it applies also to the differences of culture and lifestyle among people who live in the world

 

For example, I know someone who lived in a city in the southern U.S. and ate as a vegan all year around.  She did this for no reason other than it seemed a more globally sustainable life-choice and she didn’t like the idea of killing animals unnecessarily (and, perhaps—and this may just be my cynicism—also because it was a socially cool choice that also helped her keep her weight under control).  However, when she married a farmer and moved to the Canadian prairies things changed.  Fresh vegetables and fruit were pretty expensive a lot of the year, and meat and eggs were basically free (at least on her farm).  Now when this woman was in her vegan stage, lenten fasting was almost no sacrifice whatsoever.  Fresh fruits and vegetables were cheap and easily available all winter, so there was basically no change in her diet during the fast.  However, on the Canadian prairies, keeping a lenten fast costs quite a bit more.  First, it represents a radical change of diet.  Those of us who have kept a strict lenten fast and then feasted on the paschal lamb know what kind of suffering one can undergo switching from a diet high in animal protein to a diet high in plant-based protein, and back again. Second, it cost a lot more money to buy fresh fruits and vegetables imported from halfway around the globe, and consequently, there is much more reliance on high carbohydrate (read: fattening) foods.  Thus it becomes very hard to keep from gaining several pounds during the still very cold days of lent on the Canadian prairies.