On Ash Wednesday P.Al held a lecture for us about prayer, almsgiving, fasting in St. Olav Church. I will try to give you a summary of the talk.
P.Al focused on the message of his holiness Benedict XVI for lent 2009. You can read the whole letter here. If you want to read this year’s letter, you can find it here.
We had this lecture in order to “prepare us to better celebrate Easter and thus experience God’s power (…)
We were reminded that God’s power “dispels all evil, washes guilt away, restores lost innocence, brings mourners joy, casts out hatred, brings us peace and humbles earthly pride” (Paschal Præconium).” (Benedict XVI)
The three, prayer, almsgiving, fasting, cannot be separated but have to work together. We cannot escape the fact that we are all “weighed down by sin and its consequences”. In this way “fasting is proposed to us as an instrument to restore friendship with God.”
We desire to know God; we have a deep feeling of thirst and hunger for God. Pope Benedict explains: “Through fasting and praying, we allow Him to come and satisfy the deepest hunger that we experience in the depths of our being: the hunger and thirst for God.” (Benedict XVI) In other words it is essential to make time and room for prayer, both alone and in the Church. The community of the Church reaches beyond and God is available for us at any moment, but at the same time we meet Christ in Church in a very direct way in the tabernacle and the Communion. We are never left alone, God is present. Here we can remember the passage from John 14,18 that we focused on during last adoration: “I will not leave you orphans;(…)”
P.Al recalled what the Canon law tells us about fasting, and reminded us that this is not rules implied on us as a way of control. No, the rules are educative and help us in our friendship with God. The faithful practice of fasting contributes, moreover, to conferring unity to the whole person, body and soul, helping to avoid sin and grow in intimacy with the Lord. You can find the Canon law 1250-1253 about the days of penance here. If you want, you can read this article about “The Holy Season of Lent” by Conlin B. Donovan.
‘True fasting, as the divine Master repeats elsewhere, is rather to do the will of the Heavenly Father, who “sees in secret, and will reward you” (Mt 6,18). As the gospel of Matthew (4,4) tells us: ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.(…) The true fast is thus directed to eating the “true food,” which is to do the Father’s will (cf. Jn 4,34).
Pope Benedict XVI recalls that the ultimate goal of fasting is to help each of us (…) to make the complete gift of self to God (cf. Encyclical Veritatis splendor, 21). And he encourage us (…) to cast aside all that distracts the spirit and grow in whatever nourishes the soul, moving it to love of God and neighbor. He continues to emphasize the importance of (…) prayer, lectio divina, recourse to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and active participation in the Eucharist, especially the Holy Sunday Mass. This is important for everyday life, but is especially important in the Holy season of lent.
