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Fasting and the Impacts on Our Spiritual Life

Fr. Hugh Gillespie, SMM

T he practice of fasting has been with us since the beginning of our faith.

The Gospel read before the Homily is about fasting. It is a practice we can easily get wrong! It’s a practice that has been around for thousands of years. Yet, it’s a practice that one would think we would know how to do it by now. And still, often, we get it wrong!

There are two dangers with this practice that begins in the heart. First, fasting can be an external only practice. During the Lenten season “I give up the same thing”. It becomes a habit. We may think we are doing good by giving something up…by fasting. But does it challenge oneself? We may be careful in performing the fast, such as giving up eating meat on Fridays. We may be focus on the external component of the practice, but miss out on the most important part of the practice. We miss out on the internal components: a change of heart, a change of attitude and a change in behavior.

Find out more about the practice of Fasting and its Impact on Our Spiritual Life in this 18 minute audio.

Christ (Fasting) in the Dessert: Russian Painter: Ivan Kramskoi: 1872

The painting is sometimes called, Christ in the Wilderness.

Fasting and the Impacts on Our Spiritual Life

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