How do I fast to improve my personal prayer life?

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My Spiritual Director advised me to come to the Catholic Answers website until we can meet again, to seek some answers to my queries.

Thank you, CAF 👏 ❤️

This is solely about improving my personal prayer life and personal walk, and not at all about lent or Fridays.

Please share Catholic faith and traditions of personal prayer and fasting in regards to doing it daily or near-daily to improve one’s mental and vocal prayer life.

I am not sure what fasting is-an hour? no food or drink? Only one day or every day?

How will this improve my ability to do mental prayer?

I am seeking to spend more time with the Lord in prayer, to find peace and to be still and listen for His voice to guide and direct me.

As a newbie in the faith, I am not aware as to what are the Catholic Answers to this query.
 
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Fasting is wonderful! Jesus promised His disciples would Fast after His resurrection.

The Church requires Fasting for those in the Roman Catholic/Latin Rite age 14 & over or 18 & over, depending on which Diocese you’re in.

Universally required is 1-hour before each Mass attended - no food or drink, except water.

Catholics are also required to Fast during Lent which means eating only 1 meal a day (no snacks) or, if that’s too difficult, most dioceses give a dispensation for a person to eat twice in a day as long as the combination of both meals is equal to less than 1 normal meal.

In addition to Fasting, the Church also has days of Abstinence which varies Diocese to Diocese, but typically includes Ash Wednesday, every Friday during Lent and Holy Saturday. Catholics are required to abstain from eating meat, with the exception of fish, on days of Abstinence.

The Church encourages people to come up with their own additional practicing of Fasts/Abstinence more frequently, but there is no additional obligation other than what is required by your own Diocese.

Check your parish issued calendar for details of what your Diocese requires or call them.
 
“How do I fast to improve both my prayer life as my faith walk?”

Under the guidance of a Spiritual Director

2️⃣ ©️ ©️
 
There is many ways to FAST! In the Maronite Church when we FAST we eat and drink nothing (with the exception of water) from Midnight to Noon.

Fasting of course does NOT have to be about food. You could Fast from social media! Many people spend enormous number of hours on their i-phones, laptop computers, etc. and therefore can choose to Fast from Facebook and the like. They might choose to refrain from it completely for a period of time (i.e. Lent) or other’s will say for example that they will only spend a total of a half-hour a day using/reading social media sites (outside of what is required for their job).
 
I tend to get really hungry when I fast. Other than that I don’t see it doing anything for me personally.
 
If you’re planning to fast daily for some period of time, one can do a sustainable fast, such as cutting out one thing that is a sacrifice to give up.
Examples would be cutting out all sugar and refined flour, or drinking nothing but plain water (no coffee, no tea, no soda, no juice, no milk, no sparkling water, no alcohol etc).

Cutting back your food in general over a long period of time is basically going on a diet and you should see your doctor and get their advice on a good way to diet, if you’re going to do that. An extreme fast for days like water only, juice only, or bread and water only should be done under a doctor’s guidance if you’re doing it for more than one day, because a lot of things can go wrong with it.

You could also do a fast for one day a week, or for 2 or 3 days a week and alternate days of fasting with days of eating.

As for “how will this improve my ability to do mental prayer”, that depends on how you yourself react to the fast. Some people find that fasting does improve their ability to pray. Other people such as myself find that fasting doesn’t improve their ability to do anything. I find that hunger and/or lack of nutrition wrecks my concentration. When I wish to seriously pray and spend time with the Lord, I eat first. The only way you will discover what works for you is to try things out.

By the way, you should not go without drinking. Dehydration is dangerous and unhealthy.
 
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I used to fast, but as someone with a fragile health, I can’t continue it regularly. I feel very weak or become sick when I do fasting. Is it against the faith to be not able to carry out this important task?
 
I fasted so that I could feel part of the hunger that our Lord felt in the desert. I fasted to a certain extreme, which I cannot advise unless one is healthy and doctor approves. But, I felt that hunger, especially at work. In my case, bonding with Him in hunger lead to a certain bonding in prayer.
 
It’s not against the faith to not fast if it makes you sick.

Apart from the fasting that’s required during Lent, which for Western Catholics is a relatively small amount and is not required for people who have health issues, all other fasting is a private devotion.

Private devotion means there are no rules and you choose how much or how little of it you wish to do.
God does not expect or want people to do penance that makes them ill.
 
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The “easiest” way i have found to join the fast you are participating in with prayer is this: Every time you feel a hunger pang, and your stomach growls, say a prayer.

As you become more experienced, you may develop your own system, but that is what i have found works for me.
 
Try fasting every Wednesday and Friday. No meat (beef, poultry, fish), no dairy, no oil or wine.

ZP
 
mary15 said:
My Spiritual Director advised me to come to the Catholic Answers website until we can meet again, to seek some answers to my queries.

Thank you, CAF 👏 ❤️

This is solely about improving my personal prayer life and personal walk, and not at all about lent or Fridays.

Please share Catholic faith and traditions of personal prayer and fasting in regards to doing it daily or near-daily to improve one’s mental and vocal prayer life.

I am not sure what fasting is-an hour? no food or drink? Only one day or every day?

How will this improve my ability to do mental prayer?

I am seeking to spend more time with the Lord in prayer, to find peace and to be still and listen for His voice to guide and direct me.

As a newbie in the faith, I am not aware as to what are the Catholic Answers to this query.
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Pick a discipline and commit to it.
You might do the universal daily prayer of the Church from the breviary. You might pick a Friday meat fast. Pick something you might overindulge in, and make a commitment to eliminate it or regulate it.
Fasting helps you to claim agency over your life’s direction, and orient it towards God. When your life is well ordered, you come closer to God.
Life’s distractions can cause us to become fragmented, and these disciplines reorient us to the Only One who matters. God (and his people by union!)

There are many options that can help us to detach and come closer to God. The key is to make a decision on a doable discipline, and commit to it.
 
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Fasting is not all that hard.
Sometimes, when you think about having a donut or some other inbetween meal treat just refrain, and then pray to the Lord and say, I am not going to eat this item. I am denying myself this idea and offer my fast in praise of You and for Your glory.
It’s like praying throughout the day.
Eventually, praying and fasting become part of your daily routine.
 
Some people fast for an hour at 3 pm, the Divine Mercy Hour. Others fast on traditional fasting days, which are (weekly) Fridays (most common, of course) and Wednesdays. Then there is the traditional Lent, but also to a lesser extent Advent. There are also Ember and Rogation days (no longer on the calendar), as well as fasting on the vigils of feast days.

I have fasted for an hour at 3 (difficult because family snack time fell in that hour!). I found it to be a very good experience as I grappled with my “spoiled body.” It showed me how much work I needed to do on myself.

I have also done little things like no seconds, no desserts, no adding salt, etc.

Many suggest starting with something small, and considering that you are learning to do something instead of doing something. It took a year before my family got the hang of abstaining on Fridays–we would forget one part or the other.
 
I often do just one meal a day, and a small/moderate meal at that. It “hurts” a bit, but is completely do-able, especially for those who can’t go a whole day without eating.
It is interesting that even the secular world is all a-buzz right now with news on how fasting is actually good, probably very good, for us.
 
I understand. This is a tradition that goes back thousands of years, so I’ll share my limited but actual experience in hopes it might assist . I’ve gone 5 days water fasting (drinking only filtered water sometimes with a pinch of salt) and have done this many times, but know others who practice 30 day fasts for God and spiritual reasons. I come late to this
But each person, I’ve found, is different. Around 3 days in or so I can begin to feel a “shift” in my body and a clarity in my mind. Spiritually, the practice deepens my gratitude, has helped open my heart and progress in prayers and expanding my intentions for God’s will in my life and, for that matter, all life. It helps me “let go” physically AND spiritually. That said, I’ve never fasted long term (40 days and nights, for example) but others have and said it’s life changing. Like praying the rosary every day for a week (as someone suggested many years ago ) then watching your life change. It did! Also, when drinking water, I’d suggest drinking lots of it on those fasting days. Hope this helps you a bit.
 
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Over the past three weeks I was in a similar boat and felt that my prayer life was “extremely dry”.

To remedy this, I pray a novena as needed, daily Rosary, Chaplet of Divine Mercy and St. Michael’s Chaplet. Rosary is always daily but it depends on my time if I fit the other two in. Also most importantly is Eucharistic Adoration at least 1-2 times a week.
 
Ziggy33339 said:
I’ll share my limited but actual experience in hopes it might assist
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I think it is very important to state that these types of strenuous fasts, or any strenuous spiritual action, should be done under spiritual direction.

People have gotten themselves into spiritual trouble by doing too much on their own.

Also, the OP is a newcomer to the Faith. Please consider that most people need to work their way up to such fasts. Trying to do too much can be very discouraging at least as well as dangerous spiritually, which is why the Church says to only do them under spiritual direction.
 
Just my personal experience and where itvmeets Church tradition:
First of all pray (more) on the days you fast. You should begin by fasting Wednesday (When Christ was betrayed) and Friday (when He suffered the most). Don’t play with days the of week, just follow Christian significance. Outside of the Great Fasts of the Church do not fast on Sundays, that is a day of celebration. Content yourself to just skip meals (food) without giving up coffee and/or tea or water. Set an hour in the afternoon after which you can east (3 p.m. is fine since it is a time with Christian significance). Decide yourself if you really want to fast and then stop rationalizing it. When you get hungry imagine your body is a wild horse that you want to.tame, the body asking for food is just the body fighting with you. Remember that our great grabdparents were eating much less than what we eat and they were in pretty good health.
Don’t splurge by the end of day and after Lent if you decide to hold definitely don’t splurge (it will make you sick).
 
Yes, you’re right, of course. I’m 71 years old and should’ve known to state this . A church here has the entire congregation water fast once a year for 30 days. That’s how I initially found out about it.
I’ve been practicing fasting since 2014 (not that long, really) and began with only one day fasts. Thank you for pointing out this may not be suitable for everyone. Easy does it. And I AM new here! Gratefully.
 
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