March 30--Day of Fasting and Prayer

The United States Bishops have asked us to add fasting and prayer to our abstinence from meat this coming Friday, March 30th, 2012 for the intention of religious freedom in the United States. I've talked a lot on The Well about the intense need for prayer and activism regarding the Obama Administration's HHS mandate, forcing religious schools and charities to pay for abortion, sterilization and birth control.

Something else interesting has recently come to light.  Fr. John Hollowell recently posted an article on Facebook and Twitter that tells of another March 30th Day of Fasting.  This was March 30, 1863 and the proclamation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln.  It reads in part:

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!

It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

Please join with the United States Bishops to fast and pray for religious freedom in the United States. We are at a time where religion is being persecuted as never before in this, a free country. Our rights are being taken away one by one. We need to make our voices heard, both to our politicians and as we cry out to God.

Preparing for Christmas--The Nativity Fast

I've written before about the Nativity fast kept by our Eastern Christian brethren.  From November 15th to December 12, Eastern Christians fast from meat, dairy and eggs.  On December 13th, they add to that list, fish, olive oil and wine and continue that until Christmas Eve.

In some ways, our Western practice of Advent, with its penitential violet vestments, reflects this, but we have given up the practice of fasting during this time.

With Christmas being a largely secular, money-making holiday today, the idea of fasting during what most people consider the "Christmas Season" is horrifying.  In fact, the Christmas Season begins on December 24th and lasts until at least January 6th, the feast of the Epiphany (Thus, "The 12 Days of Christmas").

Fasting before the great feasts of the year is a way to focus our attention on what is important in preparation for marking a spiritually important part of our lives.

What can we fast from in this time of preparation before Christmas?  Television?  The internet?  News? Cynicism? Hatred? Prejudice? Fatty or sugary foods?  Eating out?

What should we feast on as we celebrate Thanksgiving in the U.S?  Thankfulness is the obvious thing that comes to mind.  Mindfulness is another.  Try reading the daily readings either at Universalis or, my favorite, Divine Office.  There is nothing like ending the day crying out to God with David and the Church through the psalms.

Give it some thought before the 15th, and before the start of Advent in the Western Church.  How will you prepare for the birth of Christ this year?





 

The Pre-Christmas Fast--some insights from Fr. Stephen

Beginning this Sunday, November 15, the eastern Church starts their pre-Christmas fast, lasting until Christmas Eve.  Father Stephen at Glory to God for All Things has a very insightful post on fasting, and its purpose.  You hear, in Christian circles that fasting is not a diet.  Yet, in our culture it is almost impossible not to think of it that way.  It is a bit like someone saying "don't think of a pink elephant".  Dieting is everywhere in our culture, as is eating.

Father Stephen has a different take on the "purpose" of Christian fasting.  First of all, he says, the cornerstone of fasting is inner silence and communion with God through ceaseless prayer.  It is about longing for God and hungering after Him in all humility.  If that is learned by a 'failed' fast, then that is a blessing.

Father Stephen had another correlation having to do with the spiritual purpose of fasting that I have never thought of.  A person who is near death often refuses all food.  This is a natural part of the process of letting go of this world and moving on to the next.  Studies show that the dying who are allowed to forgo food experience less pain.

Fasting, in the Christian sense, then, is about dying to self and dying to the world.  It is about moving on to the world for which we were created.  It is about living as though we were dying because in dying, we are born to eternal life.

Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos

In the Eastern Church, the period between August 1, and August 14 is a time of fasting and penance in preparation for the Feast of the Dormition (the "falling asleep") of the Theotokos (Mary--literally "God bearer").  August 15 is the Feast of the Dormition in the Eastern Church.  In the west, it is the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin.

The traditional virtue for August is diligence--perseverance, persistence, long suffering.  The Blessed Virgin was the primary example of persistence.  She  "kept all these things and pondered them in her heart." ~Luke 2:19.  Even when she was troubled, she persevered in her belief in the Father's love for her and continued to think and meditate about all that was happening in her world.

Perhaps these 2 weeks prior to this major marion feast can be a time of meditating on God's providence, taking some time to treasure and keep all that God has put in our path, and by fasting and penance, open our hearts to the future that God has in mind for each of us.

Upcoming Ember Days

Wednesday, Friday and Saturday of this week are the traditional autumn Ember Days. This is a tradition of fasting (now voluntary) before the 4 changes of the seasons in the year to focus on God through His creation.

Traditionally, during each quarterly period of Ember Days, the faithful were called on to focus on a different virtue and repent of a vice as the reason for their fasting. Blessed Jacopo de Voragine, in the 13th century told of the focus of each Ember Day period. Here are some of his thoughts on the Ember Days that occur in Autumn.

In harvest (we ought to fast) to repress the drought of pride...because...in this time the fruits be gathered and we should render to God the fruits of good works. In harvest we (also) fast to refrain melancholy. In September...we fast to the end...that the earth of coldness and the darkness of ignorance...be attempered to us... and that we be ripe by attemperance. We fast to make amends for all that we have failed in all these four times.

So the Michaelmas Embertide (the Ember Days following the Feast of the Holy Cross in September before the Feast of St. Michael) are to focus on thanking God for the gift of the harvest, to make amends for all our sin, and to fast from pride and from melencholy.

I think it is a good idea, at this harvest time, before our the annual "holiday season" overtakes us, to stop and thank God for all His blessings, and to pray especially for the strength to overcome our tendancy towards pride (and melancholy as the days grow shorter) and to focus our spiritual energies towards having an appropriately godly focus to our upcoming months of feasting.

Let us thank God for his rich blessings!

An Ember Day Haiku

I feel the coolness
in the quiet harvest night
and offer thanks

Fasting

Man has practiced fasting since pre-historic times. Fasting usually refers to abstaining from some or all food or drink for a prescribed period of time. Fasting is still practiced by modern day members of the Bahá’í faith, Buddhist monks and nuns, Hindus, Muslims, observant Jews and many Christian denominations.

For Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans and some Protestants, the upcoming holy season of Lent is a time of prayer, fasting and almsgiving.

The following information on Christian fasting is from Wikipedia:

For Roman Catholics, fasting is the reduction of one's intake of food to one full meal (which may contain meat) and two small meals. Complete abstinence is the avoidance of meat for the entire day.

For Catholics in the United States the only fast days are Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Eating between meals is not permitted, but liquids, including milk and fruit juices, are allowed. The days for abstinence from meat are Ash Wednesday, the Fridays of Lent, and Good Friday. Also, we are to do more penances of our own choosing especially on Fridays throughout the year, since Jesus gave his life for us on a Friday, and during Lent, when we recall what the Lord suffered for us.

[The above paragraph from the Daughters of Saint Paul website.]

For Orthodox Christians, there are five fasting seasons, which include Nativity, Meatfast, Great Lent & Holy Week, Apostles' Fast and Dormition. Fasting during these times refers to abstention from animal products, olive oil (or all oils, according to some Orthodox traditions), wine and spirits.

Perhaps some of us who come from traditions which don't require much fasting, will feel called this Lent to extend the scope of our Lenten fast voluntarily. The Orthodox fast resembles a Vegan diet with food being cooked in water instead of oil of any kind.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops also suggests that we fast from sin. Fasting from such things as gossip, negativity, gluttony and laziness are great ways to spend a holy Lent. A cleansing confession is a wonderful way to start this off.

A new way to celebrate Friday?

The Church has given us times and seasons to use for our spiritual benefit.

Today is Friday and technically, a day of penance in the Catholic Church. Choose something to give up today, (traditionally meat) or something extra to do. Perhaps saying a Rosary in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux uses the image of giving up overindulgence in food as a way to illustrate the need for inner purification. In today's culture, we all need spiritual and emotional purification.

Follow the example of Mary. Let go and let God.