Fasting, Periodic Abstinence, and Body Literacy

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February 15, 2024

Fasting, Periodic Abstinence, and Body Literacy

This week, our Church has entered Lent~ the time when we are called to pray, fast, and give alms.

And you know who has a really great, succinct teaching on fasting written specifically for the Thursday after Ash Wednesday?
My dear friend, Thomas Aquinas**

But before I get to that...

We tend to think of Lent as a time of spiritual purification and preparation, but have you ever stopped to ask yourself why Lent is so focused on the body?

To be fair, I expect that my readers probably have a good handle on this already. I've seen your reply emails. You're a pretty great bunch. But just in case you'd like a little extra meditation on the topic, here's something I recently wrote for my social media posts:

What do fasting, periodic abstinence, and Catholic body literacy all have in common?

They are all rooted in the GOODNESS of creation, and the DIGNITY of the human person- body and soul!

This is just your reminder that when we fast from food or social media or video games or TV… it’s not because those things are bad. We don’t “fast” from bad things. We fast from good things in order to make room for better things. So fasting or any other physical discipline MUST be rooted in the knowledge that everything God has made is GOOD. And part of learning how to live as God’s image and likeness on earth is to discern how to properly use those good things to grow in holiness and draw closer to God. The same thing is true when it comes to sexual intimacy with our spouse. Any time we willingly abstain from that unitive act, it should be understood as a form of fasting. That won’t make it easy! But it does help us keep the focus that we’re giving up this good thing for the sake of another good thing. That won’t make any sense unless we understand the goodness of sex and the many goods of marriage, which are both physical and spiritual. Ultimately, we have to admit that me entire ministry and business here would be totally meaningless if there were no good, beautiful, or holy things to say about our bodies. Any attempt to become “literate” about the human body would be fruitless without some understanding of that reality.

@pearlandthistle

So I'm just here to encourage you over the next forty-ish days to really contemplate the goodness of your body and the goodness of those things you are offering up in your fasting discipline during this season. And if you're struggling maybe with fasting and NFP, especially, please take that to prayer! It may be a different sort of fasting because it is in some ways imposed by biological aspects we can't control, rather than chosen, but the fruits of that particular sacrifice are all the more efficacious because of that nature of the thing we are giving up.

Okay, enough of my own talk.
Let's hear what St. Thomas has to say on WHY we fast:

A MEDITATION FOR THE THURSDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY

1. We fast for three reasons.

(i) To check the desires of the flesh. So St. Paul says in fastings, in chastity (2 Cor. vi. 5), meaning that fasting is a safeguard for chastity. As St. Jerome says, “ Without Ceres, and Bacchus, Venus would freeze,” as much as to say that lust loses its heat through spareness of food and drink.

(ii) That the mind may more freely raise itself to contemplation of the heights. We read in the book of Daniel that it was after a fast of three weeks that he received the revelation from God (Dan. x. 2-4).

(iii) To make satisfaction for sin. This is the reason given by the prophet Joel, Be converted to me with all your heart, in fasting and in weeping and in mourning (Joel ii. 12). And here is what St. Augustine writes on the matter. “Fasting purifies the soul. It lifts up the mind, and it brings the body into subjection to the spirit. It makes the heart contrite and humble, scatters the clouds of desire, puts out the flames of lust and the true light of chastity.”

2. There is commandment laid on us to fast. For fasting helps to destroy sin, and to raise the mind to thoughts of the spiritual world. Each man is then bound, by the natural law of the matter, to fast just as much as is necessary to help him in these matters. Which is to say that fasting in general is a matter of natural law. To determine, however, when we shall fast and how, according to what suits and is of use to the Catholic body, is a matter of positive law. To state the positive law is the business of the bishops, and what is thus stated by them is called ecclesiastical fasting, in contradistinction with the natural fasting previously mentioned.

3 . The times fixed for fasting by the Church are well chosen.

Fasting has two objects in view:

(i) The destruction of sin, and

(ii) the lifting of the mind to higher things.

The times self-indicated for fasting are then those in which men are especially bound to free themselves from sin and to raise their minds to God in devotion. Such a time especially is that which precedes that solemnity of Easter in which baptism is administered and sin thereby destroyed, and when the burial of Our Lord is recalled, for we are buried together with Christ by baptism into death (Rom. vi. 4). Then, too, at Easter most of all, men’s minds should be lifted, through devotion to the glory of that eternity which Christ in His resurrection inaugurated.

Wherefore the Church has decreed that immediately before the solemnity of Easter we must fast, and, for a similar reason, that we must fast on the eves of the principal feasts, setting apart those days as opportune to prepare ourselves for the devout celebration of the feasts themselves.

You can read ALL of Thomas' Lenten Meditations online here.

**If you didn't already know, I'm a life professed member of the Lay Fraternities of St. Dominic (aka the Lay Dominicans). My kids have said that I need to write a book called "My Friend, Thomas" because he pops up in so many conversations at the dinner table. Am happy to chat more about that aspect of my vocation if you're interested! You can contact me here.

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Fasting, Periodic Abstinence, and Body Literacy

What do fasting, periodic abstinence, and Catholic body literacy all have in common?

Okay, enough of my own talk.
Let's hear what St. Thomas has to say on WHY we fast:

LEARN BODY LITERACY

KEEP IN TOUCH

LEGAL

Sexuality: Church Guidelines for Educating and Forming Our Children

Luteinized Unruptured Follicles and NFP Charting

Fasting, Periodic Abstinence, and Body Literacy

​What do fasting, periodic abstinence, and Catholic body literacy all have in common?

Okay, enough of my own talk. Let's hear what St. Thomas has to say on WHY we fast:

LEARN BODY LITERACY

KEEP IN TOUCH

LEGAL

What do fasting, periodic abstinence, and Catholic body literacy all have in common?

Okay, enough of my own talk.
Let's hear what St. Thomas has to say on WHY we fast: