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Nothing should be taken for granted. We should say thank you every day to God and to each other for all that is provided for us. This is one reason why fasting is such an important spiritual discipline. Not just fasting from food, but also fasting from cars, shopping centres, the news - whatever we have an inordinate attachment to. Fasting can help re-kindle our gratitude for all that we have been given.
- Glen Argan
(What will you be fasting from this Lent?)
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Is 58:1-9a; Psalm 51:3-4, 5-6ab, 18-19
Mt 9:14-15
The disciples of John approached Jesus and said,
“Why do we and the Pharisees fast much,
but your disciples do not fast?”
Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn
as long as the bridegroom is with them?
The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast.”
USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Scripture
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“When the day comes that the Groom is taken away, then they will fast.” —Matthew 9:15
We are on the third day of forty days of fasting in imitation of Jesus. Fasting is one of the major ways we defeat the devil (Mt 17:21, NAB). It is one of the most important means the Lord has chosen to convert the world to His Gospel.
The international effects of fasting begin with its individual, personal effects. When we change, the world begins to change. Fasting brings to the surface those things in the deep recesses of our hearts. Fasting does not cause irritability or compassion but surfaces what is already deep in our hearts. Sometimes a day of fasting will end in “quarreling and fighting, striking with wicked claw” (Is 58:4). We will manifest a
selfish preoccupation with our “own pursuits” (Is 58:3). We will place unreasonable expectations on others (Is 58:3). At other times, fasting will end in true freedom, deep compassion for the poor, and light from the Holy Spirit (Is 58:6-8).
At the end of a day of fasting, we thank the Lord for the good that has surfaced and repent of the evil that has come forth. We should ask for forgiveness and healing. If we do this every day for the forty days of Lent, our hearts will be purified, and out of the abundance of our hearts we will win the world for Christ (see Lk 6:45).
Prayer: Father, when I fast, may my stomach growl and my heart wrench in repentance.
Promise: “Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer, you shall cry for help, and He will say: Here I am!” —Is 58:9
Presentation Ministries
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Abandonment to Divine Providence
- by Jean-Pierre de Caussade
BOOK II,
CHAPTER IV. CONCERNING THE ASSISTANCE RENDERED BY THE FATHERLY PROVIDENCE OF GOD TO THOSE SOULS WHO HAVE ABANDONED THEMSELVES TO HIM
SECTION V. Nature and grace are the instruments of God.
The less capable the soul in the state of abandonment is of defending itself, the more powerfully does God defend it.
Only grace can impress this supernatural character, which is appropriate to, and adapts itself to each person. This is never learnt from books, but from a true prophetic spirit, and is the effect of a special inspiration, and a doctrine of the Holy Spirit. To understand it one must be in the highest state of abandonment, the most perfect freedom from all design, and from all interests, however holy. One must
have in view the only serious business in the world, that of following submissively the divine action. To do this one must apply oneself to the fulfilling of the obligations of one's state; and allow the Holy Spirit to act interiorly without trying to understand His operations, but even being pleased to be kept in ignorance about them. Then one is safe, for all that happens in the world can work nothing but good for souls perfectly submissive to the will of God.
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