On Fasting...

Dear All,

In keeping with the season I’ve been dipping in to some reading about fasting.

Where did fasting go?

How can I talk about it without sounding like a hypocrite? 

For those of you who attended a service on Ash Wednesday you would have heard these words: “Brothers and sisters in Christ, since early days Christians have observed with great devotion the time of our Lord’s passion and resurrection and prepared for this by a season of penitence and fasting.

By carefully keeping these days, Christians take to heart the call to repentance and the assurance of forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel, and so grow in faith and in devotion to our Lord.

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy word.”

It’s pretty clear that the liturgy of the Church (yes, the good old understated Anglican Church) still encourages the traditional Christian ascetic practices and exhorts us to fast.

Is it a bit like money? Something we don’t talk about in polite circles?

When Jesus warned against making a show of fasting and other pious practices he was warning those with a tendency to aggrandise themselves by acting ‘holier than thou’ (Matthew 6:16-18). I don’t think he meant that we couldn’t discuss the practices of our faith and learn about them

Neither do I think he meant that we weren’t to encourage one another to seek the Lord by trying out some of our time-hallowed spiritual disciplines.

Fasting isn’t just something for gloomy, pale-faced Roman Catholics (a cliché, I know); neither is it the preserve of intense, sturdy Slavonic Orthodox types; fasting is for every Christian, even Anglicans.

The Book of Common Prayer calls for the following as ‘days of fasting and abstinence’: Every Friday of the year except Christmas Day if it falls on a Friday, the forty days of Lent and Certain days in the four seasons of the year (Ember days and Rogation days) which call for penitence and prayer.

Common Worship calls for 'days of discipline and self-denial' in the 'weekdays of Lent and every Friday in the year' excluding Principal Feasts and Festivals outside Lent and Fridays in Eastertide. 

And one of the Books of Homilies (a series of 16th century sermons developing the authorised reformed doctrines of the Church of England) contains references to fasting being an abstinence from 'meat, drink, and all natural food'.

My apologies if you are reading this with your tummy growling because you are into your 3^rd week of Lenten abstinence. This is not directed at you.

Neither is it intended to come across as a lecture. I’m not scolding anyone, believe me. I went years in my Christian walk with very little attention to the practice of fasting.

I wouldn’t quite go as far as to describe myself as practicing ‘Christianity-Lite’ (as some writers have coined the phrase) but let’s just say that the self-denial aspect of Christianity wasn’t near the top of my happy-go-lucky agenda!

So I hope you will read this as an encouragement to try it out. There are various ways to do it and a quick Google search will point you in the right direction and I have put a couple of links below.

Failing that you are very welcome to talk to me.

You could be selective if you don’t feel able to cut back on food (not a good idea for people with health issues or nursing mums). You could abstain from sugar? How about alcohol? Social media? TV?

A final thought: don’t forget that fasting and abstinence can be a joy. Yes, you read that right!

Many people who fast describe a feeling of peace and a lightness of spirit. A calming of the mind and a certain cheerfulness of heart. They also report a deeper, more abiding sense of the Presence of God and His consolation.

Here’s an example from an eminent Orthodox theologian: "rather than weakening us, fasting makes us light, concentrated, sober, joyful, pure." (Alexander Schmemann, Great Lent: Journey to Pascha)

God bless you all.

 

If you fancy exploring a little more in depth click here: Catechesis of Fasting

If you’d like to know more about the health benefits of fasting click here: What is intermittent fasting?

(The picture is Christ in the Wilderness - also known as Christ in the Desert - by Russian artist Ivan Kramskoi - 1872)