What's fasting about?

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This may sound awkward, but I really don’t have any idea how this whole thing about “prayer and fasting” works… I heard on Catholic Answers once that one could offer up sacrifices and fast for certain intentions, is that correct? If so, how does that “work”?

I feel a bit embarrassed to ask such a question, to be honest. 😃

Thank you. 🙂
 
This may sound awkward, but I really don’t have any idea how this whole thing about “prayer and fasting” works… I heard on Catholic Answers once that one could offer up sacrifices and fast for certain intentions, is that correct? If so, how does that “work”?

I feel a bit embarrassed to ask such a question, to be honest. 😃

Thank you. 🙂
Fasting is not really that complicated, making sacrifice neither.
Code:
Can. 1250: The penitential days and times in the universal Church are every Friday of the whole year and the season of Lent.

Can. 1251: Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

Can. 1252: The law of abstinence binds those who have completed their fourteenth year. The law of fasting binds those who have attained their majority, until the beginning of their sixtieth year. Pastors of souls and parents are to ensure that even those who by reason of their age are not bound by the law of fasting and abstinence, are taught the true meaning of penance.
Making sacrifice would be to forego something that YOU like as a way of showing to God that Him is more important, for example abstein from drinking that glass of wine during the day and the money saved given to charity.
 
I mean more like offering fasting as something to “enhance”, pardon me for the word, prayer. I thought I heard that one could fast in addition to prayer to bring something about?
 
This may sound awkward, but I really don’t have any idea how this whole thing about “prayer and fasting” works… I heard on Catholic Answers once that one could offer up sacrifices and fast for certain intentions, is that correct? If so, how does that “work”?

I feel a bit embarrassed to ask such a question, to be honest. 😃

Thank you. 🙂
Copied from a Catholic Answer Apologist’s answer from a similar question:
catholic.com/quickquestions/do-practices-of-mortification-represent-a-gnostic-contempt-for-the-body
…we have human nature, composed of body and spirit, good in and of itself but wounded by the effects of sin.
This wound disorders our natural appetites or desires, weakens our wills, and darkens our minds. We are attracted too strongly to good things and are attracted to things that are not good for us. We may crave too much food, or we may crave bad foods—sometimes even things that are not food at all. Such disordered attraction may be a source of temptation, an occasion of sin, but it is not sinful in itself.
Yet in order to fight against sin, we must avoid occasions of sin as well as actual sin. Concupiscence (disordered desires) is not sinful in itself, but we still must fight against it. We must struggle to strengthen our weakened will and master our appetites so we will be able to resist temptation. Acts of self-denial or asceticism, done in grace, help us do this. Thus Jesus instructs us on how to fast (Mt 6:16–18). We are expected to engage in ascetical practices of one sort or another.
 
I mean more like offering fasting as something to “enhance”, pardon me for the word, prayer. I thought I heard that one could fast in addition to prayer to bring something about?
Fasting has been called ‘a prayer of the senses’…we are praying with our body!

But this is important: we should never fast alone…we fast with Our Lord. We use the natural reflexes and pangs of the body (within reason) to remind us to talk with God.

That’s what prayer is, a conversation with God.

God desires union with us…prayer is one form of union or communion with God. Fasting is really just enhancing our prayer, our union. We can “unite” our little pains and annoyances with those of Jesus, who is still offering Himself to the Father. We offer them as a little gift to God.
 
It helps to detach yourself from material things, is imitative of Christ by willingly denying yourself worldly pleasures for a holy cause in sacrifice, and “man does not live on bread alone but every word that comes from the mouth of God”
 
14 And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd about them, and scribes arguing with them. 15 And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed, and ran up to him and greeted him. 16 And he asked them, “What are you discussing with them?” 17 And one of the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a dumb spirit; 18 and wherever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.” 19 And he answered them, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.” 20 And they brought the boy to him; and when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. 21 And Jesus[d] asked his father, “How long has he had this?” And he said, “From childhood. 22 And it has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you can do anything, have pity on us and help us.” 23 And Jesus said to him, “If you can! All things are possible to him who believes.” 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out[e] and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” 25 And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You dumb and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again.” 26 And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse; so that most of them said, “He is dead.” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. 28 And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” 29 And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting.”
Fasting is a form of self-denial… a sacrifice we make to ignore our own desires. But the above snippet suggests that fasting may be more potent than we tend to give it credit for.
 
I mean more like offering fasting as something to “enhance”, pardon me for the word, prayer. I thought I heard that one could fast in addition to prayer to bring something about?
Well, it’s a more intense form of prayer, when you fast, but whether it will “bring something about,” I don’t know. You can’t just pray and fast and then God grants your wish.

When you go without eating, or stop doing something you like to do, that is fasting. You tell God that you are fasting in order to suffer with Christ, to deprive yourself of something as a type of holy penance. Then as you go through the day, when you feel hunger, or it’s time for a meal, you sit down and pray instead. Talk to God when you miss whatever thing or activity you have chosen to give up, such as,

“God, I really wish I could watch TV right now, but my craving for entertainment means I am not craving You, so I am glad to give up my favorite activity in order to pray. I unite my small suffering in this way to Your Son Jesus Christ and please use it for the souls in purgatory,” or something like that.

If you fast, and go about your day normally without praying, you defeat the purpose because you have not been conscious about what you are doing.
 
Well, it’s a more intense form of prayer, when you fast, but whether it will “bring something about,” I don’t know. You can’t just pray and fast and then God grants your wish.

When you go without eating, or stop doing something you like to do, that is fasting. You tell God that you are fasting in order to suffer with Christ, to deprive yourself of something as a type of holy penance. Then as you go through the day, when you feel hunger, or it’s time for a meal, you sit down and pray instead. Talk to God when you miss whatever thing or activity you have chosen to give up, such as,

“God, I really wish I could watch TV right now, but my craving for entertainment means I am not craving You, so I am glad to give up my favorite activity in order to pray. I unite my small suffering in this way to Your Son Jesus Christ and please use it for the souls in purgatory,” or something like that.

If you fast, and go about your day normally without praying, you defeat the purpose because you have not been conscious about what you are doing.
Perfect, thank you so much! 🙂
 
Scripture also reveals the uses of fasting combined with prayer:

Matthew 17:17-20

17 And Jesus rebuked him, and the devil went out of him, and the child was cured from that hour. 18 Then came the disciples to Jesus secretly, and said: Why could not we cast him out? 19 Jesus said to them: Because of your unbelief. For, amen I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, Remove from hence hither, and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you. 20 But this kind is not cast out but by prayer and fasting.

Mark 9:24-28

24 And when Jesus saw the multitude running together, he threatened the unclean spirit, saying to him: Deaf and dumb spirit, I command thee, go out of him; and enter not any more into him. 25 And crying out, and greatly tearing him, he went out of him, and he became as dead, so that many said: He is dead. 26 But Jesus taking him by the hand, lifted him up; and he arose. 27 And when he was come into the house, his disciples secretly asked him: Why could not we cast him out? 28 And he said to them: This kind can go out by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.

Acts 14:22

22 And when they had ordained to them priests in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, in whom they believed.
 
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