We're in our second week of Lent. How did your first week go? I have to say that I could have done better in my Lenten practices.
It's easy for me to abstain from meat on Fridays (or any time, for that matter) because I like pasta and rice better than meat. So that part went well. But as for other fasting, I wasn't quite as successful.
Did you know that the Church requires fasting only on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday? The rest of our Lenten fast is on our own. There are many different ways to fast. We can fast from eating food between meals. We can fast from a particular type of food or drink. We can fast from activities that get in the way of our relationship with God and with other people. You can even fast from different things each week. For example, during the first week of Lent, you might fast from drinking all that Coke; through the second week of Lent, you could fast from playing so many video games; through the third week of Lent, you could fast from potato and other kinds of chips; and so on.
We have to remember, however, that fasting isn't an end in itself. We have to reflect on the reason for our fast. We may fast from food and drink to offer a sacrifice in alignment with Jesus' fast in the desert. We may fast from food and donate the money we might have spent to Operation Rice Bowl or another organization that feeds the hungry. We may fast from certain activities so that we can read more from the Bible or pray more or spend more time with our families. The action of simply fasting is good, but it becomes a spiritual practice when we consider the reasons behind the fast.
So what are you fasting from this Lent and why?
