Monday Meditation – Prayer and Fasting - 3/6/2023

How is your Lent going? Have you been doing anything special as a sacrifice this year?

I recently read the following passage in the Acts of The Apostles: “On one occasion, while they were engaged in the liturgy of the Lord and were fasting, the Holy Spirit spoke to them: ‘Set apart Barnabas and Saul for me to do the work for which I have called them.’ Then, after they had fasted and prayed, they imposed hands on them and sent them off.” (Acts 13:2-3).

The Apostles combined prayer and fasting.

We need God, but sometimes we can lose sight of Him when we engage in other activities. Sad to say, this has happened to me. Prayer is very important to maintain our relationship with God. A good relationship requires conversation! Fasting, too, is an important tool which helps us align our bodies with our spirits. Fasting has been around since the time of the Apostles – and it is something that Catholics are encouraged to do during Lent.

I don’t know about you, but I have trouble fasting – I love my food! Yet fasting need not be just about food – we can fast from anything that gives us comfort. For me, food certainly qualifies as a comfort. But so does periodically enjoying a glass of wine, playing that word game every morning, and spending time reading a good mystery or assembling a jigsaw puzzle. There are many things that I can fast from during Lent.

So as I reread that passage from Acts, I am reminded that prayer accompanies fasting. I am not such a good prayer warrior either – I admit that I sometimes forget to pray for people or things I said I would pray for. So maybe I need to work harder on combining prayer with my fasting… maybe that will help me improve both my prayer and my fasting!

This week I am going to be fasting and praying for a specific intention. At whatever time of day when I would normally indulge in my selected favorite activity, I’m going to fast from it and instead take some time to pray for my intention. I am praying to God for help to ensure that I stick to this plan! My goal is to do this for just one week, but who knows, maybe I will be able to expand this into the remaining days of Lent or make it a habit in my daily life. I would appreciate your prayers to help me stick to this plan.

I encourage you to do a little fasting and praying, too, this week. It need not be on every day of the week like I am trying to do, but I hope you will try it at least once this week. Pick something to pray for, and then pray while you fast. I am praying that you will receive a blessing from your prayer and fasting!

Have a blessed Monday!

Faye

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