The good people at OSV invited me to write a little book on fasting, and I was happy to oblige. Looking for something different to kick-start your Lent this year? Here you go: The Handy Little Guide to Fasting.
From the publisher:
Many Catholics view fasting as hard, burdensome, weird, or only for Lent. This little book demonstrates that fasting can be so much more than that! It’s an opportunity for prayer, reflection, and solidarity with the suffering of the world.
The Handy Little Guide to Fasting is your easy-to-read, down-to-earth introduction to this ancient practice. Author, speaker, and award-winning journalist Deacon Greg Kandra presents a way to blend faith and fortitude to make fasting more spiritually fulfilling. You’ll learn:
- Some practical pointers when fasting
- The difference between fasting and abstinence
- What the Church teaches about fasting
- The various options for fasting (hint: It’s not just about food!)
Each brief chapter concludes with reflection questions and a prayer for your fasting journey.
The book is short and, well, little (72 pages that can fit in a pocket or purse). And it’s cheap: under $6. (N.B.: There’s a discount if you buy in bulk.) You can also check out the whole library of Handy Little Guides, that cover everything from novenas to the Liturgy of the Hours and more.
Curious? Below is an excerpt, from the Introduction. And yeah, Lent will be here before you know it. Ash Wednesday is March 5, less than six weeks away!
Gulp.
Introduction: What This Book Is and Isn’t
Did you hear that?
When you didn’t expect it, your stomach started to rumble. You’re trying to be good, trying to watch what you eat (and how often you eat — how much cheesecake is too much?) But your stomach is insisting you need to pay it more attention. That rumbling can ruin your morning. Is it too early for lunch?
If we’re honest, most of us struggle to eat well, eat sensibly and eat healthy. But for Catholics, the struggle can take on another dimension when we try to give up eating altogether and undertake one of the most venerable religious traditions in the world: a fast.
Fasting can be mysterious and intimidating. But it doesn’t have to be. This little book, I hope, will help make it understandable and do-able. Fasting isn’t just for the extremely pious or ascetics who subsist on water and air while living in a cave. Anyone can do it. But before we go any further, it might be a good idea to consider what this book is and isn’t — and what you can expect from the little tome you hold in your hands.
First, this is not the place to learn about the latest dieting fads, trends, gimmicks or techniques. I’m not going to recommend different types of intermittent fasting or offer a new health regimen that will enrich your life and change your waist size. I’m not a doctor or a health guru. (Just ask my wife, who rolls her eyes every time I order waffle fries at Chic-fil-A.) I’m not even that great when it comes to fasting. I struggle with it, like everybody else. I’m a deacon and a writer who, as I write this, would kill for some cookie dough ice cream.
Secondly, this is not a book with recipes or dietary plans. (Search “diet books” over at Amazon for that.) But you will perhaps find one recipe that pervades this whole book — a way to blend the ingredients of faith and fortitude to make fasting spiritually fulfilling.
That is really what this book is about. What I can offer, and what I hope to provide in the pages that follow, are some ideas, inspiration, insights and prayers that can help turn something difficult (and, don’t fool yourself: it should be difficult) into something that may leave you hungry but can still leave you feeling fed. That, in reality, is the real point of fasting: by taking away the incomparable pleasure of eating, we turn our thoughts and desires elsewhere.
How can we do that? And how can we do it better?
If you’re looking for answers to those questions and more, you’ve come to the right place. I’m hoping this book will offer an approach to help you see fasting not as a chore or a duty — or a painful discipline that looms over us all during Lent — but to see this age-old practice as an opportunity to give something up and, in the process, just give.
It is a sacrifice, but I think it is also a gift that keeps on giving.
Consider this “Handy Guide,” then, a guide to keep at hand when one hand is reaching for that bag of potato chips you saw in the kitchen while the other is gripping the rosary in your pocket and you’re trying, very hard, to just say no.
Take a few moments here and now to just say “Yes.”
Say “Yes” to experiencing fasting in a new way.
Say “Yes” to feeling a few hunger pangs and feeling, as well, a small but powerful connection to all the hungry of the world.
Say “Yes” to drawing closer to Christ, who knew what it was to be human and before embarking on the great mission of his earthly life, spent time in the desert to know loneliness and hardship and, above all, hunger.
We all hunger for something. Fasting can help us reconsider our yearnings and appetites — and often find that those desires are for more than mere food.
Wait. Did you hear that?
Man, I could go for a Big Mac right about now.
But we have work to do.
One of the lessons of fasting is coming to the realization that other things are more important than food. (I know: I often have a hard time believing that, too.)
Let’s get started. And let’s begin with a prayer.
A PRAYER BEFORE BEGINNING A FAST
Almighty God,
You created food for nourishment, fulfillment, satisfaction and pleasure.
It brings people together,
binds us as a community,
and enriches our lives.
Thank you for this gift!
And thank you for the opportunity to surrender this gift in a period of fasting,
a period that I pray will bring me closer to my brothers and sisters around the world
and ultimately draw me closer to you
The One whose love that feeds every hunger.
Walk with me on this journey of fasting
that I may one day enjoy feasting
at your heavenly banquet,
beside your Son, who made of himself
a feast for all humanity in his gift of the Eucharist.
I pray all this with joyful hope,
and a heart that hungers to be with you forever.
Amen.
