Mark Your Calendar

 A day of prayer is asked for the people involved in this war between Israel and Hamas.  I love this man's name--Pizzaballa--Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa. He was just made a cardinal. He is the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. It would be so good for us to join the Catholics and Christians of the Holy Land in this prayer wherever we are . . .

"The newly created cardinal who is also the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem is calling on Christians to pray and fast for peace in the Holy Land.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa has asked that on Tuesday, October 17, “everyone hold a day of fasting, abstinence, and prayer.”

The cardinal, who just returned to Jerusalem after spending some time in Italy, issued a letter Wednesday on behalf of himself and other bishops of the Holy Land, in response to the escalating war between Israel and Hamas, the Islamic political organization that runs the Palestinian territory of Gaza."

Snip.

"But, the patriarch said, in order not to “remain helpless,” it is important to pray, “to turn our hearts to God the Father.”

“Only in this way we can draw the strength and serenity needed to endure these hard times, by turning to Him, in prayer and intercession, to implore and cry out to God amidst this anguish,” Cardinal Pizzaballa said.

As president of the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land, he issued an invitation to “all parishes and religious communities to a day of fasting and prayer for peace and reconciliation.”

“We ask that on Tuesday, October 17, everyone hold a day of fasting, abstinence, and prayer,” he wrote. “Let us organize prayer times with Eucharistic Adoration and with the recitation of the Rosary to Our Blessed Virgin Mary.

Blessed with Pizza

Friday's I get weighed in, in TOPS.  So I don't eat until after I get weighed.  Weigh-ins are at noon.  So I fast until then.  No big whoop.  Well, I've decided to fast all day on Friday for religious reasons.  Fasting always has been a spiritual discipline. I take my thoughts of food and feelings of hunger and offer them up as prayers.  I'm suffering like Jesus.  I'm transposing my pains for greater unity with Jesus.

But I'm not one of those who "show-off" that I'm fasting.  I don't announce it to the world.  So when Judy, who was doing the program in TOPS, today, talked about the nutritional value of eggs and gave us all an egg to eat, I ate it.  I also thanked God for this blessing.

The blessings continue.  Hubby came home tonight with a pizza.

Thank you, Jesus!

Catholics Urged to Fast, Pray for Peace; Plans Novena for Nation

Me too.  I've dedicated Wednesday as my day of fast--no computer and only one meal.  I offer my sacrifice for my country to be drawn closer to God's will and peace for the world. Catholics urged to fast, pray for peace; group plans novena for nation: MANCHESTER, N.H. (CNS) -- Bishop Peter A. Libasci of Manchester is urging Catholics to pray and fast for peace in response to the ongoing violence in the U.S. and around the world.

Fasting

When you read the Old Testament, the Hebrews are always fasting.  They seem to do it mostly for preparation or atonement, i.e., preparing for battle, penance.  Whatever.  Fasting is done to get closer to God, because you started to drift away, because you are in danger and will need help, just in case.  For sure, fasting involves turning away from something and turning towards God.  Just the action doesn't do it.  That's faking.  You have to mean that you want to get closer to God.

The same is true for any kind of fasting.  If you fast from salt because your doctor told you to, you won't last too long with just your good intentions.  You have to mean it.  You have to sincerely want  to be healthy.

Hence, the purpose of fasting is conversion.  If fasting is for spiritual reasons then you need to convert your heart.  If fasting is for health reasons then you need to convert your bad habits.

Either way, that conversion requires self discipline.  And there's the rub.  That's what it all comes down to.  Have you got what it takes?  Spiritually, it's the age old battle between soul and body.  Our bodily "wants" can drive us crazy.  And unfortunately, the desires sometimes win.  The trick is perseverance.  Losing one battle does not lose the war.  Victory is achieved by overcoming the losses.  Those bodily cravings constantly want control.  Who's the boss?  You or your body?  Every time you try to fast, you win.  You may give in, but the fact that you wanted to fast, that you are not going to get discouraged, that you are going to try again, makes you the winner.  Saying "no" to the body help you to assert dominance.  Your "will" will be strengthened and you will be freer.  Only death will make you completely free, but until then you must dominate.  Keep at it. And this struggle, and the need for perseverance applies to both the body and the soul.

Dieting v. Fasting

Finally, I understand "fasting." A couple of confirmandi in my RCIA class did their presentation on "fasting," today.  I had always understood fasting as dieting, which wasn't giving up something for God, but more for one's own health.  So what good was it?

Others tried to explain to me that "fasting" will bring you closer to God.  I couldn't see it.  How?  How does having a headache, and fighting off nausea, bring you closer to God?

Michael and James explained "fasting" requires one to fill up the area that "fasting" left.  Giving up food, nowadays, isn't considered "fasting."  The secular world tells you to give up food for dieting, for cleansing, and/or for some other health reason.  The kind of fasting Jesus wants is the kind that is for spiritual health.  Giving up a favorite TV show would be good because you would now have time to do some spiritual reading, praying, and/or an examination of conscience.

Remember Jesus going out to the desert to pray, for 40 days.  His fasting included leaving behind his ministry schedule and all its demands, and replacing that with praying and meditation.  Part of His "fasting" was leaving and separation.  But He wasn't dieting; He had to eat and definitely drink.  He modified His diet and prayed.  All His meditation and prayer prepared Him to resist temptation.  Satan didn't have a prayer of tempting Jesus.  Jesus just went through 40 days of spiritual preparation. Physically, Jesus may have been weak, but spiritually, He was at His prime.  What a time for Satan to pick!

We in the RCIA class decided to "fast" in one small way, for one week.  I've decided to cut down my surfing the "net," time.  I'll fill up that time to doing something for my family.  After a week of "fasting," from time spent on the internet, I'll assess what good the "fasting" accomplished.

Authentic Fasting

I have a guest blogger, today.  My friend, Marina, is an associate professor of philosophy at Boston College.  She's also a favorite with my "cloistered brothers."  In this post she is looking at "fasting."  She's talking about the real thing:

"This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly,

untying the thongs of the yoke;
Setting free the oppressed,
breaking every yoke;
Sharing your bread with the hungry,
sheltering the oppressed and the homeless;
Clothing the naked when you see them,
and not turning your back on your own.
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your wound shall quickly be healed."(Isaiah 58:6-9a)

Isaiah speaks about the difference between superficial fasting and authentic fasting. God, he says, does not want fasting where people "afflict themselves" but rather a fasting that sets others free in some way. Isaiah's wisdom is that even fasting can be self-centered. In this reading, the people are fasting in order to receive something from God. But genuine fasting, Isaiah suggests, is for others' sakes. 

Many years, the Dominicans fast at Lent. But to fast for the sake of others in a prison, where one already has limited meals (and very limited money) is challenging. One year the guys fasted by giving up the coffee they drank at Sunday and Wednesday community meetings. The money used to purchase the coffee was donated to others. The sacrifice involved in not drinking coffee is much more substantial in that context than in ours, as coffee is one of the few "extras" allowed. It was also a community sacrifice, since some prisoners have no money at all—not even enough for a bottle of shampoo—if they have been completely abandoned by family outside. The funds for coffee is pooled community money, and so is the donation. That year, their action reminded me of the example of the poor widow who puts in her two small coins, and Jesus notices her faith. 

If we ignore the poor in Lent, we are not really "doing" Lent. Augustine puts it directly:

"First and foremost, clearly, please remember the poor, so that what you withhold from yourselves by living more sparingly, you may deposit in the treasury of heaven. Let the hungry Christ receive what the fasting Christian receives less of. Let the self-denial of one who undertakes it willingly become the support of the one who has nothing. Let the voluntary want of the person who has plenty become the needed plenty of the person in want." (Sermon 210)

Isaiah's words are about being "hands-on": not only cutting a check to help others, but being present to those who are "poor" in some way. Sharing bread, breaking bread with another; clothing those in need whom we see.

Isaiah writes, "then your wound shall quickly be healed." How? Because the deepest wounds we have are those that separate us from one another:  not missing out on a new shirt, not doing without a cup of Starbucks, not even a little genuine hunger. One of the greatest wounds in our society is the division between the rich and the poor. Lent is an opportunity to overcome that division through genuine fasting that puts us back in solidarity with one another.