Fasting

In his chapter on “The Tools for Good Works” St. Benedict gives us the following tools: “Renounce yourself in order to follow Christ, discipline your body, do not pamper yourself, but love fasting” (RB 4:10-13). The reason why fasting is something that can be good for us, and therefore lovable, becomes clearer in his chapter on “The Observance of Lent”:

During these days, therefore, we will add to the usual measure of our service something by way of private prayer and abstinence from food or drink, so that each of us will have something above the assigned measure to offer God of his own will with the joy of the Holy Spirit. In other words, let each one deny himself some food, drink, sleep, needless talking and idle jesting, and look forward to holy Easter with joy and spiritual longing. (RB 40:5-7) Fasting helps educate my desire for Easter, that is, to meet Christ’s living Presence in my life- to experience what nobody else but the Christian can experience- the experience of the resurrection. Christ himself said his disciples will fast when the bridegroom (Christ) is absent. Therefore, when I fast I am praying with my body, Come, Lord Jesus! If I fast with this longing for the Bridegroom then indeed it will be permeated with joy. Like the lover in the Song of Songs I go out to seek Him who seeks me. Joy is the fruit of this belonging.

SUGGESTIONS:

• However you fast, freely take it up and remember why. If it feels like an imposition and just a duty to get through, stop and ask yourself why you are fasting. Ask for the Holy Spirit to enter into your fasting. To remind you for Whom you long in your fast. Pray, Come Holy Spirit. • Fast on Good Friday. The Church particularly has us fast on the day of our Lord’s death. It is a day of great longing to see Him who is so hidden from our sight in the incomprehensibility of the passion, when man (we) killed God whom he did not know. • The norms below from the USCCB articulate the basic requirements, but of course one can do more. St. Benedict recommends seeking counsel from a superior first, to curb the possibility of “presumption and vainglory” (RB 49:9). • “For members of the Latin Catholic Church, the norms on fasting are obligatory from age 18 until age 59. When fasting, a person is permitted to eat one full meal, as well as two smaller meals that together are not equal to a full meal. The norms concerning abstinence from meat are binding upon members of the Latin Catholic Church from age 14 onwards. • Members of the Eastern Catholic Churches are to observe the particular law of their own sui iuris Church. If possible, the fast on Good Friday is continued until the Easter Vigil (on Holy Saturday night) as the “paschal fast” to honor the suffering and death of the Lord Jesus, and to prepare ourselves to share more fully and to celebrate more readily his Resurrection.” • Fast on Wednesday. Wednesday is a traditional day of fast because it is the day Judas betrayed our Lord. It is a day on which Christ’s full divinity and humanity was veiled from us and we long to see Him as He truly is. • Move breakfast to lunch each day. Breakfast is whenever you break-fast. Consider making lunch your first meal of the day. • Do not eat outside of communal times. In his chapter concerning “Brothers on a Short Journey” (RB 51)

St. Benedict essentially tells the brothers: don’t eat out (unless it is a special circumstance determined by the

Abbot) on pain of excommunication. Why? Because where and with whom we eat expresses the place and people we belong to. If we are not longing for the Bridegroom with all of our being- body, soul, and spirit- how will we recognize Him when he arrives? Similarly, it has been said that if you do not know how to fast you will not know how to feast.