This Lent I've resolved to take the fasting rule more seriously, which means eating less. No meat on Wednesdays and Fridays and daily, one very light meal around Noon and a light meal in the evening. Also, for me, no rice, pasta or bread, which is hard because I love all that, and the list goes on, just cut right back on food; no wine either except on Feast days. And there you have it, a Lenten fast.
It's not easy, at least for me, but it's a great spiritual tool which frees us from over attachment to our appetites, quite literally, and from the sins of pride and gluttony. You'll note a selfish man is a greedy man and vice versa. By counteracting this on the most basic level, by denying ourselves food, we free the soul from worldly attachment and that wickedness described by the Apostle, "their god is the belly."
All this sounds strange and repugnant to North American ears because our culture, if you can call it that, is geared towards self-indulgence, to gluttonous pride. We see the outward and visible sign of this on the outskirts of our cities where we're welcomed by forests of plastic fast food signs. Eat moar! But I won't bang on, here's St. Isaac the Syrian via Orthodox Christianity:
As satisfying the stomach is the beginning of any evil, so fasting is the basis of any virtue and the holy way to God. The fast is the protection of virtue, the beginning of self-sacrifice, a wreath of abstinence, the beauty of virginity and holiness, the shine of chastity, the basis of a Christian life, the father of prayer, the originator of chastity and wisdom, the instructor of silence, and the leader to everything good...
Fasting is the weapon prepared by God for us. Whoever neglects it is not right. For if the Law-giver Himself fasted, is it not also necessary for those for whom the law is given to fulfill the fast? For a long time the human race was not able to win, for a long time the devil did not test the defeat of our nature; but at the very beginning he was weakened by this weapon. Our Lord was the leader and the first conqueror. He first delivered the victorious crown of our nature. Since then, whenever the devil sees that some one has this weapon, immediately he is afraid, immediately he imagines and remembers that defeat which he underwent by the Savior in the desert: his power is destroyed and disappears.
Take heed, fasting is the weapon prepared by God for us, we should use it.
God bless,
LSP
