{"id":152945,"date":"2017-06-23T05:00:01","date_gmt":"2017-06-23T09:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/ask-a-priest-when-is-it-ok-to-fast\/"},"modified":"2024-10-22T15:14:04","modified_gmt":"2024-10-22T19:14:04","slug":"ask-a-priest-when-is-it-ok-to-fast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/ask-a-priest-when-is-it-ok-to-fast\/","title":{"rendered":"“Ask a Priest: When Is It OK to Fast?”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Q: Aside from times of the year when fasting is encouraged or required, when is it appropriate to fast? Also, are there any prayers for fasting? I haven’t had much luck finding any. Thank you! \u2013 J.R<\/address>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC<\/em><\/p>\n

A: Fasting is prescribed by the Church for the faithful, aged 18 to 59, only twice a year, on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.<\/p>\n

Other times are optional, and the day and frequency depends on each person. Some people might do it once a month, perhaps on a Friday. Some do it every Friday. Some might do it for a special intention. There are no set rules on this.<\/p>\n

Fasting has two basic purposes in our spiritual life.<\/p>\n

The first has to do with our need to discipline our nature desires and cravings. Ever since the coming of original sin, we have had built-in tendencies to overindulge in pleasures, which can even lead to idolizing them — that is, thinking that certain pleasures or material things can satisfy our deepest needs and give meaning to our lives. These tendencies need to be recognized and disciplined. Fasting helps us do that.<\/p>\n

The second purpose of fasting is to willingly share in Christ\u2019s own redeeming self-sacrifice. When we voluntarily choose to make a sacrifice, we can unite it to Christ\u2019s self-offering through a simply prayer, offering up our discomfort or suffering for the conversion of sinners, the reparation of sins, and the strengthening of Christians everywhere. To learn more about this spiritual discipline of \u201coffering it up,\u201d you can watch or read the conference portion of the retreat guide called “A Mother\u2019s Tears<\/a><\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

With that in mind, it is worth mentioning that fasting can take a lot of different forms. The traditional form of eating less, or making small sacrifices at meals, is tried and true. But you can also \u201cfast\u201d for certain periods from the Internet or from watching movies, for example. Periodic \u201cdigital fasts\u201d can open up space in our lives for prayer and greater intimacy with God, in addition to the other benefits of fasting.<\/p>\n

Fasting requires a bit of caution. Sometimes we can overdo fasting, only to swing back to the other extreme “to make up” for lost meals. It is good to check with a spiritual director or confessor if you want to undertake a routine of fasting.<\/p>\n

Perhaps an alternative to fasting would be to simply give up a little something at each meal — by taking a smaller dessert or forgoing gravy on the meat, for instance. Sometimes the ongoing little sacrifices can be just as valuable as fasting.<\/p>\n

I’m not familiar with prayers for fasting, per se. One sample you can find HERE<\/strong> <\/a>on the Internet.<\/p>\n

One of the values of fasting is that it can make our other prayers more meritorious. For that reason a special prayer for fasting might not be essential. What you could do is make a simple prayer of your own: “Lord, I offer up my fasting today for X.”<\/p>\n

Keep learning more with\u00a0Ask a Priest<\/a><\/h3>\n

Got a question? Need an answer?<\/h3>\n

Today\u2019s secular world throws curve balls at us all the time. AskACatholicPriest is a Q&A feature that anyone can use. Just type in your question or send an email to\u00a0AskAPriest@rcspiritual.wpenginepowered.com<\/a>\u00a0and you will get a personal response back from one of our priests at RCSpirituality. You can ask about anything \u2013 liturgy, prayer, moral questions, current events\u2026 Our goal is simply to provide a trustworthy forum for dependable Catholic guidance and information. So go ahead and ask your question\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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He was an assistant publisher of the National Catholic Register and Faith & Family magazine and an editor of the Zenit news agency\u2019s English edition. He has written for\u00a0SpiritualDirection.com\u00a0and\u00a0ePriest. Fr. McIlmail also worked in spiritual retreats in the Northeast, New England, the Midwest, and the South\u00a0and assisted with mission work in Mexico. Born in Philadelphia, he worked in journalism and was active in the pro-life movement before entering the novitiate of the Legion of Christ in 1992. His contributions to RCSpirituality include responding to\u00a0Ask A Priest\u00a0questions and sharing his insights in our\u00a0Weekly Newsletter.","url":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/author\/emcilmail\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/362"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152945"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=152945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}