It is here! Ash Wednesday was yesterday (which ended about 10 minutes ago) and we have the next couple weeks till Easter. The time for fasting and self-examination is now.
I have been looking forward to this for a long time now. This will be my first time fasting with the Church, and I am extremely excited. I will be fasting from any type of meat from Ash Wednesday, February 6, till Easter Sunday, March 23. This will be a time for practicing self-discipline and a time of repentance. I hope to be reminded of my need for God and His mercy. I pray this will be time well spent and that Christians all throughout the world are able to unite through this spiritual discipline, and all worship the Creator together in reverence and in awe.
The primary aim of fasting is to make us conscious of our dependence upon God. (Recall the children of Israel on the journey to the Land of Promise.) Real hunger, which produces tiredness and physical exhaustion, leads to a sense of inward brokenness and contrition. When we are always full, we feel autonomous and over-confident in our own self-sufficiency. Hunger creates in us a poor spirit aware of its dependence on God.
Outwardly, fasting (total abstinence) produces in our bodies a sense of lightness, wakefulness, freedom and joy. Many find that, after a time, they need less sleep, think more clearly and work more decisively. Fasting can be cleansing and can help eliminate toxins from our bodies and restore us to greater balance. But fasting is not a mere diet. Its inward moral dimension is marked by a converted heart and will. In returning to God, we fast not just from food but from sin.
~The Rev. Hartshorn Murphy
I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.
~Lenten Invitation, Liturgy of Ash Wednesday, BCP pg. 265
