The Making Disciples Today Blog has reflections to help you grow in your journey of missionary discipleship, reviews on recommended Catholic evangelization resources, and practical insight on how to evangelize in your daily life.
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Practical Suggestions for Fasting
More than a 40 day diet
Fasting is an act of self-denial. Often it refers to food, but broadly speaking it is giving up something that is good for the purpose of deepening our spiritual life and making acts of reparation for our sin or the sin of others.
Deacon Mike Bickerstaff at Integrated Catholic explains:
[Fasting] also serves to be a penance or a sacrifice - for the purpose of strengthening us. When we don't eat, for even a little while, we get hungry. When we get hungry, we have a heightened sense of awareness. If, when we eat too much, we have a sluggish feeling, when we fast, we have a feeling of alertness. Fasting is a wonderful exercise whenever we want to sincerely ask for an important grace from God. It is not that our fasting "earns" God's attention, but by fasting, we clarify our thinking and our feeling. It is purifying and prepares us to pray more deeply.
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FREE Prayer Plan Worksheet
It all Starts with Prayer
Without prayer, our Lenten observances (getting ashes, giving up sweets, abstaining from meat on Fridays, dropping coins in the Rice Bowl) are traditions without meaning.
St. Clement of Alexandria (third century) defined prayer as "conversation with God" - a conversation that never ends. In the Scriptures, St. Paul says: "Pray at all times" (Eph 6:18); "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thess 5:1); and "be constant in prayer" (Rom 12:12). He saw prayer as endless conversation.
Mike Aquilina understands that this call seems a tad unrealistic to many of us:
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While following Christ can sometimes be treated as a primarily mental or seasonal activity, the reality is that discipleship engages the whole person. But effort alone does not make a disciple. Discipline forms us only when it is ordered toward relationship with Jesus Christ.
"The practice of almsgiving is a reminder of God’s primacy and turns our attention towards others."
Benedict XVI, Lenten Message 2010
St. Paul often compares discipleship to athletic training – not to glorify effort, but to clarify intention (cf. 1 Cor 9:24–27).
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- Written by: Burning Hearts Team
While following Christ can sometimes be treated as a seasonal or primarily interior activity, the reality is that discipleship engages the whole person. But effort alone does not make a disciple. Discipline forms us only when it is ordered toward relationship with Jesus Christ.
“Fasting is proposed to us as an instrument to restore friendship with God.”
Benedict XVI, Lenten Message 2009
St. Paul often compares discipleship to athletic training – not to glorify effort, but to clarify intention (cf. 1 Cor 9:24–27).
Weight Training: Fasting
Fasting does not make us powerful. It teaches us how to be free.
Fasting is often compared to weight training. But instead of strengthening physical muscles, it trains our capacity to choose God freely. Fasting does not reject the body or its needs. It teaches us that desire does not have to rule us.
