Lent is a period of overhauling of our spiritual system and a time to regain more graces to live the live we are called by God. To us Catholics this period of forty days and nights is a period where each and every one of us in involved in spiritual practices and sacrifices that will earn for us spiritual benefits.
As we all know, it is what we do, the way we do them and how we see the things we do that; that will grant us the graces we need from God. What are these Lenten practices that can help us upgrade our spirituality? One of these is Fasting.
The English dictionary defines fasting as going without food or abstaining from food. Fasting is the practices where by we go without food for a particular period of time for spiritual purposes.
It is no just going with food but accompanying it with some spiritual exercises like prayers and alms giving. Fasting is not sudden for it is well programmed and with defined purposes. It is not a matter of fasting because we lack what to eat but deciding to go without food when we have what to eat.
It is emptying one self of worldly food so as to be filled of spiritual food as mentioned by Jesus when tempted by the Devil, “One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." Mt 4:4.
Therefore when I fast, I do so because I want to create a vacuum in my life for the spirit of God to fill. I fast because I want to subdue my fleshy body by my spiritual body; I want the spirit of God to take control over me in order words I am denying myself. Lk 9:23.
Fasting can also be used for penance, as in the days of Nineveh when Jonah proclaimed to them that Nineveh was to be destroyed; the fasted and wore sackcloth. Seeing this God forgave them and changed his mind and did not destroy them. (Jonah 3) Since Lenten period is a period of reconciliation, fasting can be used to prove our sorrow for our sins against God and man.
In all fasting is for oneself and not for others, it is not a matter of letting the whole world know that you are fasting, it is between you and God. "When you fast, do not put on a miserable face as do the hypocrites. They put on a gloomy face, so people can see they are fasting. I tell you this: they have been paid in full already." (Mt 6,16)
"Because you are not fasting for appearances or for people, but for your Father who sees beyond appearances. And your Father, who sees what is kept secret will reward you." (Mt 6,18) No matter how long you fast, if it is not associated with spirituality it remains barren and bears no fruit.
Many of us misunderstand how to fast and we tend to misunderstand spiritual fasting to worldly fasting. Spiritual fasting is being without food from the moment you get up from sleep to minimum 12 noon. It is not eating before 6 am to eat again at 6 pm. It is so because it is considered that when you get up in the morning, you are dried of physical food and as such can fast with nothing in your stomach. When you eat before 6 am, you are not fasting.
Fasting goes alone with alms giving and caring for the poor, the needy and the orphans as God really indicate in the book of Isaiah 58. (Read it for directives on true Christian fasting.
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