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Information on Fasting
Jesus told us that when we fast not if we fast, we are not to make a show of it, as hypocrites do. We go to our personal desert and sustain fasting with prayer. Jesus himself entered the desert of fasting and prayer for us, to prepare for his ministry and his death. Fasting is different from a hunger strike or starvation. A hunger strike is a public act used to shine a spotlight on injustice. A fast is a personal act of devotion to God. During a religious fast, we eat but are abstaining from certain foods. Traditionally, people have fasted by eliminating luxury items from their diets, such as meats. Contemporary fasts eliminate chocolates or sweets. We forgo the physical pleasure of food in the hopes of finding the spiritual nourishment and fellowship that come from intimacy with God. Orthodox Christians recognized five levels of fasting: · 1st. Abstaining from meat · 2nd. Abstaining from meat, eggs, milk, butter, and cheese · 3rd. Abstaining from meat, eggs, milk, butter, cheese, and fish · 4th. Abstaining from meat, eggs, milk, butter, cheese, fish, oil, and wine · 5th Abstaining from everything except bread, water, juices, honey, and nuts. Note that the fifth and strictest level describes John the Baptizer’s diet. It may very well have been the fast that Jesus undertook for forty days in the wilderness. Our Lord went up to the mountain and prayed all night. When was the last time you prayed for ten minutes? Jesus fasted forty days and forty nights to prepare for His ministry. When was the last time you skipped lunch to spend the time with God?
The normal fast called for by the church is “one large meal, two small meals, and nothing between meals. Also, it is not appropriate to fast on Sundays or great feast days.” A Lenten fast lasts 40 days. The purpose is to draw us away from food to draw closer to God.
Fasting is more than self-control. It is a personal devotion to God and an aid to prayer. It is the most powerful spiritual discipline of all the Christian disciplines. It is intended to replace pangs of hunger with hunger for God. According to John Vianney, someone who overeats becomes drowsy and cannot pray. Fasting demonstrates to us and to God how serious our prayer is. The other powerful advantage of fasting is that it can be a very simple gesture that gives us greater understanding of the poor of the earth, who often have very little more than some rice and beans each day. Powerful things happen, when we think about those people in the world who have so much less than we do. Fasting is an intense act of personal devotion that has been done for centuries. And, it's a great cure for self-pity. Through fasting, the Holy Spirit can transform your life. When Jesus did it for forty days in the desert he became stronger because of it. What we seek is to include fasting as our personal cross to carry for 40 days. The ancient church fasted on Wednesdays and Fridays, because they believed that Jesus commanded them to observe those days as fast days; Wednesday to commemorate His betrayal and Friday to commemorate His crucifixion. However we choose to accomplish this devotion, we pray it will be successful in the eyes of our Lord. A quote regarding fasting from St. John Cassian “…(it is) first about control of the stomach, the opposite of gluttony, and about how to fast and what and how much to eat. I shall say nothing on my own account, but only what I have received from the Holy Fathers. They have not given us only a single rule for fasting or a single standard and measure for eating, because not everyone has the same strength. Age – illness - or delicacy of body create differences, but they have given us all a single goal: to avoid over-eating and the filling of our bellies….A clear rule for self-control handed down by the Fathers is this: stop eating while still hungry and do not continue until you are satisfied.” Stop eating while still hungry. Don’t continue until you are full! Let this rule turn into a hunger for God’s word and an awareness of those who hunger for nourishment. SUGGESTIONS FOR FASTING: 1st Follow the ancient Christian custom of morning and evening prayer. Have a nice, long chat with God first thing in the morning and in the late evening. Reflect on your fasting successes and failures of the day. If you have a habit of taking a daily walk, you could resolve to talk to God during that entire walk, to talk things out and seek strength. 2nd Allow your appetite to act as a prayer alarm. Fast whenever you need intensive prayer. Instead of eating your usual treat, you pray. That keeps you focused all day long and enhances your devotion. 3rd Stop eating while you’re still hungry, not continuing until you are full. Use that time to write in your journal or diary about how this makes you feel. Joan Chittister, O.S.B., in her book The Rule of Benedict: Insights for the Ages summarizes: “Lent is the time for trimming the soul and scraping the sludge off of a life turned slipshod (or careless). Lent is about taking stock of time, even religious time. Lent is about exercising the control that enables us to say no to ourselves so that when life turns hard of its own accord we have the stamina to say yes to its twists and turns with faith and with hope.... Lent is the time to make new efforts to be what we say we want to be.” Fasting is about the condition of the heart, not the number of days or the intensity of your fast. Remarkable strength can be released through you as you fast, by the enabling of the Holy Spirit. True spiritual fasting focuses on God. Center your total being on Him, your attitudes, your actions, your motives, desires, and words, so that your prayers may be powerful and effective. |