It can be embarrassing to admit that fasting isn’t easy. We feel like spiritual and physical wimps. It’s true that we’ve been incredibly blessed and that many of us have never known real hunger, real starvation. But when the Church gives us a few days a year to practice fasting, we may cringe at the thought.

Eastern Rite Catholics like myself begin Lent two days before Roman Rite Catholics every year. And so our fasting day was yesterday. As I was driving to work this morning, I got the idea of sharing some tactics with my Roman Rite brothers and sisters to help in their survival of fasting and abstinence tomorrow.

Offer It Up – When your stomach begins begging for food, remember that the small physical pain is meant to draw us closer to the Crucified Christ. Offer up each stab of hunger in reparation for your sins and the sins of the world. You can also offer it up for a particular intention – a fallen away Catholic family member, a friend addicted to drugs, even for yourself to overcome a sin.

Be Grateful - Thank Our Lord that you don’t have to feel this way every day. He has blessed your life and our country with such an abundance of food. And in addition, He’s given us such amazing variety to choose from!

Switch The Focus – Don’t concentrate so much on how hungry you are, how you can’t wait for the day to be over, how you wish fasting on Ash Wednesday wasn’t obligatory. Focus on the offering it up, focus on the being grateful…. focus on learning patient endurance!

Remember those who do live day in and day out in a state of hunger. Do what you can through your prayers and financial blessings to help feed them.

May God be with you in your fasting!

“Fasting is the support of our soul: it gives us wings to ascend on high, and to enjoy the highest contemplation! [...] God, like an indulgent father, offers us a cure by fasting.” – St. John Chrysostom

This week all Catholics begin the Holy Season of Lent, The Great Fast. As an Eastern Rite Catholic, I begin my Lent tomorrow (fasting, as well as abstinence from meat and dairy products). For Western Rite Catholics, Lent begins this Wednesday (fasting, as well as abstinence from meat).

But these words from St. John Chrysostom remind us of how we should view fasting:

Do not say to me, I fasted for so many days. I did not eat this or I did not eat that. I did not drink wine, that I endured want. Instead, show me if thou, from an angry man, has become instead gentle. If from a cruel man, thou hast become benevolent. If thou art filled with anger, why oppress thy flesh? If hatred and avarice are within thee, of what benefit is it that thou drinkest water instead of wine? Do not show forth a useless fast, for fasting alone does not ascend to heaven.

This reminds me of James 2:17: “So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”

If we truly have faith, it will show forth in how we live. If we truly understand fasting, it will show forth in how we clean up our act spiritually.

Take the early part of this week to think and pray about how you can use this Lent to become more gentle, benevolent, loving, and generous.

Related Links:

• What is Lenten Fasting and Abstinence?

• Fasting in Scripture, Saint Quotes

• Lent for Byzantine Catholics

• St. John Chrysostom and Fasting

• Faith and Works

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. ~ John 13:34-35

February 14th is best known in the secular world as Valentine’s Day. A day for cards, hearts, flowers, chocolates and the color red. The day most universally associated with romantic love.

Little is known about the St. Valentine we remember on this day. But since 496, he has been celebrated on the Church calendar as a martyr for the Catholic Faith. In the 1960′s, Sts. Cyril and Methodius became the primary saints commemorated in the Western Church on the 14th of February.

Born in Thessalonica in the 9th century, these brothers gave up lives of luxury to serve God and His people through the priesthood, later becoming bishops. Sts. Cyril and Methodius translated the Bible into Slavonic and were among the first to translate the Liturgy into the language of the people.

These holy brother bishops were met with distrust from the Germans, opposition from Western clergy and criticism for developing a Slavonic language alphabet (today known as Cyrillic).

Despite these hardships, they remained steadfast in their dedication to God and persevered in serving others.Through their witness they modeled true love – choosing God and His Way unceasingly.

Each day we are to proclaim our own fiat, our own “yes” to Our Lord and His Will. This is what Our Blessed Mother did. This is what we learn from Sts. Cyril and Methodius.

Sts. Cyril and Methodius are the patron saints of ecumenism, unity of the Eastern and Western Churches, the Czech Republic, and Yugoslavia.

Related Links:

• St. Valentine

• Sts. Cyril and Methodius

• About St. Cyril

• About St. Methodius

• Sts. Valentine, Cyril and Methodius

• Mary’s Fiat

“You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.” – Hebrews 7:17

These words come to mind when I think of the recently deceased Fr. Mark Illig whom I worked with at the Station of the Cross for several years. Unexpectedly, he passed away Wednesday, December 21, 2011.

Fr. Mark’s funeral Mass, which took place just shortly after Christmas, was a beautiful tribute to his life of faithfulness and service. More than 70 priests, several deacons and a bishop joined the laity in mourning the loss of this wonderful priest.

Remembering that the Sacrament of Holy Orders leaves an indelible mark on the soul, even in passing from this world to the next, I consider how Fr. Mark still serves his people as a priest of God for all Eternity.

It’s important to let our priests know how grateful we are for them.

How do you show your priests appreciation?