{"id":106,"date":"2010-02-20T18:32:32","date_gmt":"2010-02-20T23:32:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=106"},"modified":"2010-02-20T18:32:32","modified_gmt":"2010-02-20T23:32:32","slug":"lenten-fasting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/lenten-fasting\/","title":{"rendered":"Lenten Fasting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the common practices associated with Lent is fasting.\u00a0 The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/nab\/021910.shtml\" target=\"_blank\">readings of the Friday after Ash Wednesday<\/a> speak of fasting.\u00a0 The disciples of John come to Jesus and ask why his disciples were not fasting.\u00a0 He replies that the bridegroom is with them so it is not the time for fasting.\u00a0 His disciples will fast when the bridegroom is gone.\u00a0 Jesus is the bridegroom.\u00a0 Jesus is the Messiah and while he was with his disciples it was not the time for fasting but for joy.<\/p>\n<p>Why do we fast?\u00a0 In the past, fasting was commonly associated with punishment.\u00a0 Sinners must be punished with a penance like fasting.<\/p>\n<p>Fasting is not just a punishment.\u00a0 Fasting is to bring us closer to God.\u00a0 Fasting is most commonly thought of in terms of food but we could fast from anything that we like.\u00a0 In fasting, we give up something of this world to seek the gifts that Jesus offers us.\u00a0 In fasting, we realize that there are things more important (God) than earthly things.<\/p>\n<p>Fasting can also enable us to help others.\u00a0 In fasting, we don&#8217;t use so much ourselves and so perhaps we can give give that &#8220;extra&#8221; to someone in need.\u00a0 Or perhaps you have given something like a couple of hours of TV a week.\u00a0 You can volunteer the time that you would have spent watching TV.<\/p>\n<p>The Lenten practice of fasting is not just punishment.\u00a0 It is meant to help us be better Christians.\u00a0 What could you give up that would help you be a better person?<\/p>\n<p>Peace,<\/p>\n<p>Fr. Jeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the common practices associated with Lent is fasting.\u00a0 The readings of the Friday after Ash Wednesday speak of fasting.\u00a0 The disciples of John come to Jesus and ask why his disciples were not fasting.\u00a0 He replies that the bridegroom is with them so it is not the time for fasting.\u00a0 His disciples will &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/lenten-fasting\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading &lsquo;Lenten Fasting&rsquo; &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-1I","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions\/110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}