Please listen to Father Broom's talk on Fasting & Penance
To please God not only should we “do”
what is right but also we should have the right intention; in spirituality this
is called “purity of intention” or “rectitude of intention.
St. Paul exhorts us, “Whether you eat or
drink do everything for the honor and glory of God.” The Ignatian motto is four letters:
A.M.D.G.--- meaning, that we should do everything for the greatest honor and
glory of God.St. Faustina Kowalska constantly was striving to please Jesus, not the people that surrounded her. Some thought she was bizarre in her actions and criticized her. Either we are “People-pleasers” or we are “God-pleasers”. Choose! Then act accordingly!
This being said let us briefly give a
series of reasons why we should take seriously our Ascetical life of sacrifice,
denial and self-discipline so that these actions will be pleasing to God our
Heavenly Father.
1.
IMITATION OF CHRIST.
The whole life of the Christian should be an ardent pursuit of striving
with all of the energy of our will to imitate Christ to the point that we can
say with St. Paul, “No longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.” Obviously most of us cannot fast forty days
and nights in the desert like Jesus, but we can renounce something with
generosity!
4. CONVERSION OF SINNERS. In both of the approved Marian apparitions---Lourdes, France and Fatima, Portugal, Our Lady insisted on prayer but she also insisted on the importance of sacrifices for the salvation of sinners. At Fatima, Our Lady said that many souls are lost because there is nobody to offer sacrifices for them. The July 13, 1917 vision of hell motivates the children to offer constant and heroic sacrifices for the conversion of sinners.
6.
THE SPIRIT CONQUERING THE FLESH. There is a war within every one of us as a
result of Original sin called concupiscence (St Thomas); Paul calls it the
battle between the flesh and the spirit.
Either the flesh will conquer the spirit and slavery to the flesh and
sin will result or the spirit will conquer the flesh and the net result will be
the liberty of the sons and daughters of God.
It takes prayer, penance and fasting to conquer the animal-donkey within
us!
7. FREEDOM. When we are able to say “no” to our desires--- even when they are legitimate, then we experience true liberty. In other words, things do not have a hold over us. We can say “yes” and “no” to eating at will. This is self-control and self-control produces a true interior liberty. Jesus states very clearly that sin is a form of slavery. Alcoholics, drug-addicts, porn-addicts, gamblers--- even though they do not want to admit it have no freedom but their addictions are a modern form of slavery!
9. PRAYER GROWTH. St. Teresa of Avila stated that sensuality or giving into the flesh and prayer do not collaborate well together. A true, authentic, and growing prayer will undoubtedly include with it that of penance or fasting. In the desert Jesus prayed but He also fasted and He conquered the devil. The first Novena of the Church was Pentecost. In these nine days the Apostles united with the Blessed Virgin Mary prayed and fasted. As a result there was wind, an earthquake and fire and the transformation of the Apostles into true soldiers of Christ.
10. SPECIAL GRACES. St. Ignatius of Loyola invites us to pray and to add to it penance especially if we need a special grace form on high. Ignatius in the 6th Rule of discernment suggests four practices to overcome the state of desolation: prayer, meditation, examination of conscience, and some suitable form of penance…. (Rule 6 for the discernment of Spirits, St Ignatius of Loyola).
In summary, the practice of penance and
fasting is alien to the modern sensual, materialistic, hedonistic, consumerist
modern American society. It seems to be a foreign language. However many pages
of the Bible encourage this practice as well as the great heroes of God the
saints. Therefore, with consultation with your confessor or Spiritual Director
why not generously undertake some form of penance and fasting to imitate
Christ, repair for sin, beg for the conversion of sinners and experience the
liberty of the sons and daughters of God!
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