The Good News About Fasting
This Lent, let us prepare in body, mind, and spirit and seek grudging acceptance of a holistically life-giving relationship with the virtue of fasting.
You Need to Fast More
Is modern man not cut out to fast? Should we only strive to achieve the Church’s very minimal standard of fasting?
Make Lent the Great Fast Again
Lent used to be a truly penitential time of the year for Catholics, but now we just talk about giving up chocolate or “fasting from judging.” How can Catholics reclaim Lent and make it truly a time to prepare for Easter?
Healthy Bodies, Healthy Souls (Guest: Dr. Kevin Vost)
Catholics rightly put their spiritual lives first. But what obligation do Catholics have to care for their bodies? And is there a connection between care for the body and care for the soul?
Making Catholic Resolutions That Matter…and That Stick (Guest: Jay W. Richards)
We’re in a new year and that means resolutions. But what resolutions can Catholics make that will help them both body and soul, and how can we make sure we stick to them?
Want to Help the Church? Try Fasting
Pope Shenouda III of the Coptic Orthodox Church is supposed to have said, “A Church that does not fast is not an apostolic Church.” These words, real or imagined, stand as an apt critique of the current Roman Catholic Church. Catholics no longer practice fasting or abstaining in a meaningful way. Over the past fifty … Read more
To Fast Well, Understand Hunger
I’ve spent about two-thirds of the Lents of the last few decades either pregnant or nursing. In other words, holding a get-out-of-fasting-free card. But since my late 40s just rolled around, I’m pretty sure I’m not going to draw that card again. Which is why I had to face the truth last Lent that I’m … Read more
The Diabolical Tweets of Father Martin on Penance
Around six years ago, after the birth of my eldest son, while in prayer during Eucharistic Adoration, I asked the Lord to make him a priest, if that is his will. In the intervening years, he has, of his own accord, loved to play Mass and “baptize” his sister’s playthings, so perhaps my prayer will … Read more
A Spiritually Meaningful Lent After Mardi Gras
When I was a kid, my siblings and I always felt short-changed on Fat Tuesday. Lent loomed on the horizon, with no sweets for forty days until we got a motherlode of chocolate eggs for Easter. It seemed like we should be able to pig out on Fat Tuesday, since, obviously, it was our last … Read more
Is It Over Yet? Lessons for Lent
“Teach us to care and not to care Teach us to sit still Even among these rocks…” ∼ Ash Wednesday T.S. Eliot Can you believe it? It’s only the first week of Lent, and I’m already tired of it. When will this ordeal end? Surely there’s a door somewhere leading out of this desert. Does … Read more