"Rather than giving something up, this Lent I'm going to add something."
This is a recipe for a terrible Lent. Indeed, there are three acts to be performed during Lent: Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving - if we don't fast, we are already at 66%, which is a D-.
The fast is the core of our Lenten discipline: Fasting helps us to break free from the attachments of the world so as to pray with greater devotion, and fasting brings us to union with the poor whose whole year is a continuous fast.
Just one hundred years ago, Catholics would abstain from meat every day of Lent (even Sundays), and from eggs and dairy on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Further, every day of Lent excepting Sundays was a fasting day. There were 40 days of fasting during Lent! Not to mention more than 10 others throughout the year!
Today, we are only required to fast on two days (Ash Wednesday and Good Friday) and to abstain from meat on Fridays. No wonder the world is in such a terrible state - Catholics don't do penance any more! Who else will do penance and pray for sinners, if we don't fast during Lent?
Listen online [here]!
