What is fasting? What Catholics teach…
In the famous Sermon on the Mount Jesus speaks of the three important spiritual exercises: fasting, prayer and almsgiving. Here I want to write about fasting. And over the many centuries that the Catholic Church has existed, there has been development in the teaching based on experience.
Jesus’ teaching on fasting is this:
*Fasting is an extremely important means –not an ends– of resisting sin and the threat of hell.
*Fasting is practiced as a memorial of Christ’s death on Good Friday; it ought to be practiced each Friday but the Church only requires fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
*Fasting is intimately linked to prayer and almsgiving as spiritual exercises.
In paragraph of 2043 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, quoting the Code of Canon Law, states, “The fourth precept (“You shall observe the days of fasting and abstinence established by the Church”) ensures the times of ascesis and penance which prepare us for the liturgical feasts and help us acquire mastery over our instincts and freedom of heart.”
Our Church still believes that fasting is not only helpful, but is required because it forms and reforms a sense of faith, hope and charity. Serious Christians will not abandon the practice of fasting, especially before significant events in life like baptism, confirmation, marriage, ordination, etc. So what does the Church believe about fasting? Fasting means…
*There are two fast-days on which we are allowed but one full meal but person can have one full meal, take two other meatless meals, to maintain strength, according to one’s needs. Taken together these two meatless meals should not equal another full meal.
*All people over 18 and under 59 years of age, and whose health and occupation will permit them to fast. (Abstinence begins for those who are 14.) The Church, showing mercy, does excuse certain persons from the obligation of fasting on account of age, health, work, or the circumstances in which they live. Children, from the age of seven years, and persons who are unable to fast are bound to abstain on days of abstinence, unless they are excused for sufficient reason. If questions persist, please find a parish priest for consultation.
*Fast-days occur during Advent and Lent, on the Ember days and on the vigils or eves of some great feasts. A vigil falling on a Sunday is not observed.
Fasting is often seen by some people as antiquated, harmful, or a waste of time. To think that fasting is only about the legal requirements of the faith, is a serious reduction of the practice of religion to ideology. Moralism is shallow and gets us no where. I will say, fasting is an essential part of being formed in the Catholic faith, adhering closely to Christ. No one who takes seriously their faith can dispense themselves without good reason from fasting as Christ fasted. Yes, it is hard and yes it is annoying but the pay-off is profound because it opens the body, the heart and the mind to grace. Fasting allows us to see more deeply and clearly the conversion we are called to work on, and to be less satisfied with the status quo. Fasting assists our restlessness in tending towards God by stripping away sin (and a little weight comes off, all the better).
I have to say there is a beauty in fasting because it is a method in emptying myself of that which weighs me down either with food –which makes me sluggish and at time incapable of listening to the movements of the Holy Spirit in my life– or fasting from sinful tendencies which can also make me sluggish but there is a significant risk in not fasting from sin because sin leads away from God and from the heart of the Church, the sacrament of Christ on earth.
Saint Katharine Drexel
Ever-loving God, You called Blessed Katharine Drexel to teach the message of the Gospel and to bring the life of the Eucharist to the African American and Native American peoples. By her prayers and example, enable us to work for justice among the poor and the oppressed, and keep us undivided in love in the eucharistic community of Your Church.
A homage to Saint Katharine can be viewed here.
Read last year’s entry for Saint Katharine.
Saint Aelred of Rievaulx
2010 marks the ninth centenary of the birth of Saint
Aelred of Rievaulx, an extraordinary English monk of the twelfth-century. At Ampleforth Abbey, a noted English Benedictine abbey, today marks the saint’s birthday; and since I like Aelred and have a friend at Ampleforth, I am mentioning the saint again this year to mark his anniversary. (As an aside, his year of birth is variously noted as 1109 or 1110.) In Saint Aelred’s time and location priestly was not universal, even if some scholars try to
posit such a thought. Aelred’s father and grandfather were both proprietary
priests of Hexham in Northumberland. Aelred joined the newly founded abbey of
Rievaulx, and because of his many gifts and influential friends (St Bernard of
Clairvaulx and King David of Scotland and England whose mother was St Margaret, starters), he became the
abbey’s third abbot in 1147 after serving as abbot of Revesby Abbey. He was abbot for twenty years. Rievaulx became the mother
house of other Cistercian monastic houses which fostered the Benedictine reform
in England and Scotland. As abbot, Aelred was responsible for vast holdings of
property and an abbey with 600 lay brothers and choir monks. In the Cistercian system
of governance, abbots are required to be the Father-Immediate (an official
visitor) to other communities in order to maintain the monastic way of life as established in the Charter of Charity (their constitution). The amazing
part of Aelred’s life became even more amazing when you consider that he was an
author many works, most notably Christian Friendship (also called On Spiritual Friendship, which some say is a Christianized version of Cicero’s De Amicita) and The Mirror of Charity
written at the command of St Bernard and in-print today. Father David Knowles, OSB, called Aelred the “St Bernard of the North.” Rievaulx Abbey no
longer exists except in magnificent ruins located not far from Ampleforth
Abbey.
Saint Aelred died on January 12, 1167. His feast day is January 12.
Archbishop Chaput speaks at Houston Baptist University
Yesterday, Archbishop Charles Chaput, OFM, Cap, Archbishop of Denver, spoke to Houston Baptist University. His talk, “The Vocation of Christians in American Public Life,” is read and/or watch it here.
He gets it right….
Cardinal George’s address to BYU
Cardinal Francis E. George, OMI, Archbishop of Chicago and President of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, spoke to more than 12,000 people at BYU in Salt Lake City on February 23, 2010. His full address, “Catholics and Latter-Day Saints: Partners in the Defense of Religious Freedom,” is found here: Cardinal George to BYU 2010.pdf.
Lent in the Western Syriac Tradition: Blessed are your guests, beautiful city of Cana
Archimandrite Manuel Nin, rector of the
Lent in the Western Syriac tradition is preceded by a tradition that begins with the Fast of the Ninevites, which has as its reference and model the people of Niniveh who converted after hearing the Prophet Jonah’s preaching.
In these days of fasting the deceased -priests, foreigners and faithful– are commemorated and this means that the Church and Western Syriac liturgical tradition are closely bound to pilgrimages to the holy places and the tombs of martyrs.
The Lenten Liturgy begins with what is called the “Monday of oil” and one of the hymns of St Ephrem gives us the key to its interpretation: “stained bodies are anointed with sanctifying oil with a view to expiation. They are purified but not destroyed. They descend marked by sin and arise as a child.”
This was originally a rite of anointing for catechumens that was later extended to all the faithful: the Liturgy also links it to the anointing at Bethany: “How gentle is the voice of the sinful woman when she says to the perfumer: “Give me the oil and tell me the price; give me the best quality oil and with it I shall mingle the sorrow of my tears, the better to anoint the first-born of the Most High; I trust in the Lord that through this oil he will forgive me my sins. The Lord see her faith and forgives her.”
The six Sundays of Lent take the name of the Gospel passage that is read: the miracle of
The miracle of Cana of Galilee begins the series of miracles contemplated in Lent to indicate mercy, forgiveness, salvation and life, which are given to us by Christ, the physician of humankind.
At Vespers of the First Sunday of Lent this aspect is developed at length: “Good Physician who heals all through repentance, Lord, sovereignly good and the First Physician, source of life and fount of healing, who heals our souls through our physical illness. You who have been called our true Samaritan and who, to deliver us from the wounds of our sins, have poured upon them mysterious oil and wine. You, Doctor of hearts and Healer of suffering, have marked us with the sign of the Cross, sealed with the seal of the holy oil, nourished with your Body and your Blood; embellish our souls with the splendor of your holiness; protect us from every fall and every blemish and bring us to the blessed inheritance reserved for those who have done acts of penance.”
Furthermore, the Syriac tradition sees in the miracle of
St Ephrem sings: “Blessed are your guests, beautiful city of
The new wine that unites the fellow guests at the banquet is a symbol of the precious Blood that unites us with Christ himself: “You who, as the promised Spouse redeem the Church with your Blood, you who gladden the wedding guests of
On all the Sundays in Lent prior to the celebration of the Lord’s Passion, death and Resurrection, the Western Syriac tradition wishes to celebrate the miracles with which the Savior desired to manifest his divine mission among human beings. The Morning Office of all the Sundays in Lent contains this prayer:
“Merciful Lord, who came down to earth, in your compassion for human nature, you who purified the leper, opened the eyes of the blind and raised the dead, obtain that our souls may be purified and bodies sanctified; that the eyes of our hearts may be opened to understand your teachings so that, with repentant sinners, we may raise our praise.”
The miracles recounted and celebrated on these Sundays lead us to contemplate the wonders of divine grace in human souls; thus many of the liturgical texts of Lent always end with the same conclusive refrain:
“We, too, Lord pray to you: touch our spirit and purify it from every stain, from every impurity of sin, and have mercy on us.”
Luigi Giussani, led by Christ –recalls Archbishop Prendergast for Communion & Liberation-Canada
Around the world in past 2 weeks Communion and Liberation’s Schools of Community have been praying for the good of Communion and Liberation while remembering the fifth anniversary of death of Monsignor Luigi Giussani. In the Archdiocese of Ottawa last Monday (February 22) Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, SJ celebrated Mass for CL-Ottawa and here is a portion of his homily. One of the touching points in His Grace’s homily is the phrase, “to follow Christ.” The same phrase I used for my coat of arms; see above.
Five years ago today, Don Luigi Giussani, the founder of a movement that came to be known as Communion and Liberation was called home to God by the Lord Jesus Christ. Cardinal Ratzinger, our present pope was sent by Pope John Paul II as his legate to the funeral ceremony in Milan. On that occasion, he testified to the way in which Don Giussani had allowed himself to be led by Christ in a loving relationship from his earliest years, just as Peter had from the moment of his first encounter with Jesus: “This love affair with Christ, this love story which is the whole of his life, was however far from every superficial enthusiasm, from every vague romanticism. Really seeing Christ, he knew that to encounter Christ means to follow Christ. This encounter is a road, a journey, a journey that passes also-as we heard in the psalm-through the ‘valley of darkness.’ In the Gospel, we heard of the last darkness of Christ’s suffering, of the apparent absence of God, when the world’s Sun was eclipsed. He knew that to follow is to pass through a ‘valley of darkness,’ to take the way of the cross, and to live all
the same in true joy.”
St. Francis Xavier expressed this in a lovely poem, “O Deus, Ego Amo Te,” translated touchingly by his brother Jesuit, the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins:
O GOD, I love thee, I love thee-
Not out of hope of heaven for me
Nor fearing not to love and be
In the everlasting burning.
Thou, thou, my Jesus, after me
Didst reach thine arms out dying,
For my sake sufferedst nails, and lance,
Mocked and marred countenance,
Sorrows passing number,
Sweat and care and cumber,
Yea and death, and this for me,
And thou couldst see me sinning:
Then I, why should not I love thee,
Jesu, so much in love with me?
Not for heaven’s sake;
not to be out of hell by loving thee;
Not for any gains I see;
But just the way that thou didst me
I do love and I will love thee:
What must I love thee, Lord, for then?
For being my king and God. Amen.
Blessed Agnes of Prague
Let us rejoice and shout for joy, because the Lord of all things has favored this holy and glorious virgin with his love.
Heavenly Father, You drew blessed Agnes away from the pleasures of royalty, and through the lowly way of the cross led her on the path of perfection. Grant that in imitation of her we may depreciate transitory things and always strive after those of heaven.
Blessed Agnes is known for her poverty and humility. She was an obedient daughter of the Franciscan charism.
A portion of Blessed Agnes’ life and deeds can be read here.
Friars of the Renewal profess vows today
May the Lord grant you His peace!
Great news echoes in the heavenly courts: 16 Franciscan Friars of the Renewal novices professed temporary vows (poverty, chastity and obedience) today at Saint Antoninus Church (Newark, NJ). Newly elected Community Servant (Fr. Provincial) Father Mariusz Koch received the vows. A reception followed at the novitiate of the Most Blessed Sacrament Friary also in Newark, NJ. Bishop Emmanuel Cruz, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Newark was present. Here are some pics of the community.
The Friars also invested 10 new men as novices on Saturday. Names are always fun, especially when you think, “where did they get that name from?” Read the new names:
Br Frantisek Marie Chloupek, Br Vittorio Maria Pesce, Br Jude Thaddeus Boyden, Br. Tobias Marie Redfield, Br Simeon Mary Lewis, Fr. Maximillian Mary McGoldrick, Br Seamus Mary Laracy, Br Mark-Mary Maximilian Ames, Br Angelus Immaculata Montgomery, Fr Felipe Immaculee Casadia.
May Saints Francis and Clare bless the new friars abundantly!