Sacrifice and Fasting: I think I'm doing it wrong...

[Number 81]

So I was coming home from Mass today, around 7:30, it was Friday and every Friday my dad goes to the store to buy groceries for the week and everyone just gets whatever they want for dinner. I told my parents that I would just get something on the way home from mass, as I would be out a bit running some errands. Next to one of my stops was a Panera Bread, a small fast food place that sells breads and soups. I love their soups, and it's been forever since I've had some. But then I thought about home, and how we have some ramen noodles in the cupboard, and that would be enough to satisfy me for the night. But still, Panera has some awesome soups, and it's been so long.
In the end, I figured I don't make enough sacrifices in my life, so I told myself I would not go buy a delicious meal at Panera but I'll just be happy with what I have and eat the ramen back home.
Now I have indigestion...
Maybe the ramen was bad, but that's beside the point really.
Me deciding to eat what I had at home, and not go out and buy a more satisfying meal, was that actually a sacrifice? I've been trying to do self-sacrifice, but I just don't think I'm doing it right. I've tried sleeping without a pillow or sheets, cutting down on what I eat, limiting my pc time, (Which never really goes well at all) but, I don't know, I don't feel as if I'm really doing anything? Does it really change anything?

 

[Anglian]

Dear Number 81,

It depends why you are doing these things? If it is because you feel you ought to, then whatever you do it will make no difference. But if you are doing a fast out of love for God - that is making a small sacrifice for Him - then you will soon notice the difference.

The main reason most people fail in fasting, or in some other form of sacrifice, is that they either try to give up too much all at once, or they do something irregularly - when they feel like it. It is best to choose one thing to do, and to do it regularly. So, for example, don't eat red meat on a Friday. A small enough sacrifice, but done regularly, a good self-discipline.

Make sure, too, you do something positive for God. So, read an extra chapter from the Bible, and think about what you have read, perhaps with the aid of a Catholic commentary.

Whenever you make a sacrifice to the Lord, do it out of love for Him, not begrudgingly. Remember, He loves you. We all, from time to time, give up something for those we love; God included.

Peace,

Anglian

 

[tinythinker]

I don't think there is a lack of merit to such actions, but the actions themselves can have different effects. One is to develop your own humility, but if you do it with the thought "I am being humble" then it is counter-productive. A simpler lifestyle can help to reduce our attachment to "things", but if we are still distracted by our loss of these things then we haven't really given them up. Anglian makes good points concerning these things.

As for fasting specifically, I can't recall the source, but I remember reading quotes from Catholic saints and scholars who wrote that if you fast without giving what you would have eaten to the poor, it is an exercise in vanity. Maybe someone else knows better than I the specific content and context of those quotes?

 

[miguel_de_luis]

St John Bosco did not recommend special sacrifices to young people but to dedicate anything you do to God.

One thing he reccomended was to pray "Mary help of Christians pray for us" before any task. That's how you start your day in any Salesian school around the world today.

 

[ShannonMcCatholic]

I dunno- did you give the money you might have spent on Panerra at least to the poor box, and did you make an act of thanksgiving for your meal at home?

Fasting and sacrifice is all about self discipline, about mastery over ourselves that we might draw closer to God. In one sense not eating what you wanted accomplishes this- you wanted that immediate gratification, and held out against it. However in another, it does not if not coupled with the other pieces of the trifecta: almsgiving and prayer. I look at sacrifices as sort of cross training to help me give love and be loved more deeply.

I think it's important to look at what you are most attatched to and concentrate your efforts there. Some of my hardest Lents have had nothing to do with food- but other sacrifices like not turning on the radio in the car, or not stepping on the scale, playing with my kiddos for an undistracted hour each day--as these sacrifices focused on particular attatchments where I was having trouble.

I don't think it takes great penances to make a Saint- but rather small things done well and with much love.

As an aside--the mom in me wants to tell you that it is vitally important for a young man your age to consume a healthy amount of calories each day, and to use caution and limits in limiting your food intake. A better tack might be to try to improve the quality of food which you consume, e.g. rather than the rather than the nutritionally devoid ramens- a bowl of whole grain pasta--and one day a week giving up condiments, or only drinking water (rather than coffee or soda, etc.) for your fast day. Remember that the goal is to lose attatchment for your food- to be able to eat what you are given with gratitude, to eat for nourishment primarily and enjoyment only secondarly. There is nothing disordered about enjoying your food, but the attatchment comes when we put taste over nourishment or when we can only eat things which taste "good" to us.

 

[stivvy]

Fasting is a self sacrifice and can take the form in many ways. It is a self denial of things you feel your just can't do without in the name of the Lord. Whatever you choose, you must use that denial of self as an oppertunity to focus on God and his great sacrafices. This should make you smile and loe Him that much more and grow in that love.

 

[Anhelyna]

Another thought

Fasting is not always fasting from food

You could keep your meals simple [ but nutritious ] on Fridays and fast from something else - that would be a sacrifice - like your computer or TV , or a favourite magazine

 

[plmarquette]

there are several types of fasting
1. doing without a meal (days of fast and abstainance)
2. a day neither food , nor water
3. without food, only clear fluids (like for blood work at doctor)

at the same time you add prayer....to strengthen you spirit as your body weakens...Isaiah 58.10; James 2 ...

For a specific thing, as the 40 days of lent to break the power of tobacco , alcohol, pornography, gossiping...

 

[stone]

there are several types of fasting
1. doing without a meal (days of fast and abstainance)
2. a day neither food , nor water
3. without food, only clear fluids (like for blood work at doctor)

at the same time you add prayer....to strengthen you spirit as your body weakens...Isaiah 58.10; James 2 ...

For a specific thing, as the 40 days of lent to break the power of tobacco , alcohol, pornography, gossiping...

I choose #2. Which reminds me... I'm overdue for a fast..

I begin in the evening when the sun is going down, to the next day when the sun is going down, as one day.

 

[Krelian]

In all honesty, I think that I probably fast more often than I pray.
That is, I've probably fasted more cumulative hours in the last few years than I've spent praying in the typical sense.
Fasting, I believe, is the easiest of Jesus' three acts of righteousness enumerated in the Sermon on the Mount because, and this is going to sound very silly, you can do other stuff while doing it.
I can fast and read my Bible, I can fast and take out my invalid neighbour's trash, I can fast while praying and giving alms too!
I always fast on Monday, but now and then, I will do it on Wednesdays and/or Friday.
Usually, no food or water from midnight the night before until 6PM the next day.
I've learned a lot about self-restraint and resisting temptation from doing so.
Also, I actually feel physically stronger.

But it doesn't really matter the intensity of the fast you ordain, so long as it is something done for God, God will bless it.
Often times, I think of fasting in terms of emptying myself of reliance on worldly sustenance in order to rely on God's sustenance.
It's also an act of faith in a way.

If you have an empty fridge, it is saying that you trust God to fill you with the satisfying fulfillment of his Holy Spirit.
If you have a full fridge, it is a declaration of faith in God that when the fast is over, the food will still be there

Nevertheless, it is good to couple a fasting day with some sort of charity work or service toward others.
A chapter in Isaiah admonishes the Jews of "fasting" when their fast seem to have consisted of little more than sitting around being hungry all day.
That doesn't mean much to God it would seem.

So next time you fast, do stuff.
As one other poster said, read some extra chapters in your Bible, spend a little longer in prayer, find a homeless person and buy them lunch.
Whatever you do though, do it as unto the Lord and surely your fast is not in vain.
Now, have you had enough of my preaching?