Mark 6:56
“The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”
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Today is the first Friday of the Lenten Season. And on all Fridays of Lent, everyone is enjoined to do fasting.
Fasting is the most powerful spiritual discipline of all the Christian disciplines. However, remembering that fasting is a form of penance and self-denial, there are many other ways in which we can show God how sorry we are for our sins.
The prophet Isaiah was clear on this when he exclaimed (Isaiah 58:6-8):
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;
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer,
You shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am!
Almighty Father, we observe fasting out of love for You and not because we have to, and also to give us an opportunity to deny ourselves in other ways. Every Friday is a day to prepare for Sunday – the day that, for us who believe, is Easter every week of the year. For Sunday is never a day of fasting. Rather, it is the glorious Day of the Lord! Amen +
“I fast not because I want others to see
Rather, because I want to be what the Lord wants me to be.”
A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
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