Author: Father Dwight Longenecker

8 min read

Liturgy

Why do we use incense in worship?

Father Dwight Longenecker

March 23, 2023 2:51 pm March 23, 2023

8 min read

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8 min read

Our altar boys practically fight for the honor of being the thurifer. That’s the name for the server who carries the thurible — the censer — in the procession at…

Our altar boys practically fight for the honor of being the thurifer.

That’s the name for the server who carries the thurible — the censer — in the procession at Mass. They like being thurifer because they get to wear the more ornate lace surplice, and they know thurifer is the most complicated job and is reserved for the older, more experienced boys.

The use of incense is optional for most Masses. It’s used to purify the coffin at funerals and to bless statues and images. However, many Catholic priests choose not to use incense at Mass, and the people of many parishes have forgotten the uses and meaning of incense in worship.

Over the last 50 years many Catholic traditions have been abandoned and forgotten. Too many Catholics simply went through the motions and did not understand what the different devotions and actions of worship meant. When the chance came to abandon the old ways many priests set them aside in an attempt to simplify Catholic worship and make it more accessible for the people.

Ancient Incense

The first recorded use of incense for worship is from Egypt around 2400 B.C. That’s 400 years before the time of Abraham. Incense was also used in ancient China and plays a part in Buddhist, Shinto and Taoist ceremonies. Hindus have also used incense in worship from ancient times.

In the Old Testament, God gave Moses instructions on how to build the tabernacle — the traveling temple of God. The Book of Exodus recounts the instructions to build an altar of incense to stand to the side of the altar of sacrifice (see 30:1-10). When the priest enters the tabernacle each morning and evening to tend the perpetually burning lamps he is also commanded to offer incense.

Just as the oil lamps were to burn constantly in the Temple as a sign of God’s presence, so there was a constant pillar of smoke ascending to heaven from the tabernacle. The pillar of smoke was a sign of God’s constant guiding presence to the people. It hearkened back to the column of smoke that led the people through the wilderness by day and the column of fire that led them during the night.

God even gives Moses a recipe for making the incense: “Take these aromatic substances: storax, onycha and galbanum, these and pure frankincense in equal parts; and blend them into incense. This fragrant power, expertly prepared, is to be salted and so kept pure and sacred. Grind some of it into fine dust and put this before the covenant in the tent of meeting where I will meet with you. This incense shall be treated as most sacred by you” (Ex 30:34-36).

The Jewish offering of incense continued throughout the Old Testament period — first in the tabernacle, and then in the Temple in Jerusalem. Incense was also offered as part of the religious ceremonies in the surrounding pagan religions. In fact, most of the references in the Bible to incense are the Old Testament prophets lamenting the fact that too often the Jewish people had forsaken the Lord and chosen to make sacrifices, including the offering of incense to the false gods.

Why did people offer incense in the first place? The priests of pagan religions believed that the incense was a “spiritual offering.” The smoke was an intermediary substance between earth and air. The demons were marked by a sulfurous stench, and the fragrant incense would drive them away; meanwhile, the beneficial gods would be appeased and grant the worshiper protection and prosperity.

The New Age practice of “smudging” connects people with the supposedly Native American tradition of using fragrant smoke to purify the atmosphere of an area — driving away negativities and creating a positive mood. Implied in the calm discussion of smudging is the superstitious idea that evil spirits are being driven away be the fragrant smoke and the “good spirits” will be pleased and invited.

The pagans offered sacrifices to gain benefits from the gods. Offering incense was forbidden by God in the Old Testament because it was not only a way to offer pagan gods worship, but was a way to invite them into one’s life.

The Increase of Incense

John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah, was a priest of the Jewish religion. He was taking his turn serving in the Temple when the angel Gabriel appeared, informing him of the pregnancy of his wife, Elizabeth. The Temple duty he was performing at the time was the evening offering of incense. As he did so his actions echoed Psalm 141:2: “Let my prayer be incense before you; / my uplifted hands an evening offering.”

The psalmist expresses the true meaning of the offering of sacrifice. It is not to appease angry false gods or to drive away the fearsome demons. Instead, the rising smoke is a symbol of prayer. The wafting smoke and the lifting up of one’s hands in the traditional gesture of prayer provides a most powerful and poignant symbol of pure and heartfelt prayer to the true God.

This beautiful prayer action is seen at the announcement of John the Baptist’s birth. That a priest of the Old Covenant was offering incense when the birth of the forerunner of the New Covenant is announced links the use of incense as a prayer offering to the worship of Christ the Lord.

The fulfillment of this worship is pictured in the Book of Revelation when St. John has a vision of the worship in heaven (see Chapter 4). He understands the worship in heaven to be a completion of the Jewish worship in the Temple. Because of his vision and because the first Christians were Jews, it would make sense to assume that the early Christians used incense in their Eucharistic ceremonies.

The offering of incense as viewed in the first few centuries of Church writings is usually negative. One of the most common ways to ask Christians to compromise their faith was to force them to offer incense to pagan gods. It is probable, therefore, that the practice of using incense in Christian worship was abandoned to avoid confusion among the faithful and to present a clear witness: incense offerings were associated with paganism and, therefore, abandoned by Christians.

Incense in worship made a comeback in the fifth century once Christianity was firmly established. Its use increased in the East and the West so that it’s use as a symbol of prayer and as a means of sanctifying and purifying became universal.

Revelation of Incense

As the use of incense increased, its connection with the Book of Revelation was seen more clearly. The apostle John saw clearly that the offering of incense was a beautiful symbol of prayer. So, he writes, “the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each of the elders held a harp and gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the holy ones” (5:8). The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand.

The servers at Catholic Mass kneel before the altar during the Sanctus — when the faithful sing with the angels, “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth are full of your glory.” As they do so they echo the angels in heaven. Then the server swings the incense as the priest offers up the Lamb of God on the altar. At that point in the Mass heaven’s doors are opened, earth and heaven are met, and we get a little glimpse of glory.

The offering of incense at Mass is therefore an important part of Catholic worship. It is at that moment that our worship on earth becomes connected with the worship of heaven.

Also, the prophecy of Malachi is fulfilled. He spoke the Lord’s words, saying, “From the rising of the sun to its setting, / my name is great among the nations; / Incense offerings are made to my name everywhere, / and a pure offering” (Mal 1:11).

Father Dwight Longenecker’s latest book is “The Romance of Religion.” Visit his blog, browse his books and be in touch at dwightlongenecker.com.

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6 min read

Prayer

Nine Days of Prayer: Why Pray Novenas?

Karen Edmisten

March 23, 2023 10:48 am March 23, 2023

6 min read

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6 min read

Imagine this: With some trepidation about their future, a small band of people with a newfound faith commit to a period of intense prayer, out of obedience to their spiritual…

Imagine this: With some trepidation about their future, a small band of people with a newfound faith commit to a period of intense prayer, out of obedience to their spiritual master. He has left them seemingly on their own, promising something big on the horizon.

After they follow their leader’s instructions for nine days, God answers their prayers by acting in a singularly dramatic, transformative way. And the world is never the same again.

That’s precisely what happened to Our Lady, the apostles and the other early disciples of Our Lord. After His ascension they prayed, waited and perhaps even felt some anxiety over “losing” Him again.

But they also trusted and persevered. In the end, He rewarded them on the Day of Pentecost with the coming of the Advocate He had promised, the Holy Spirit (see Acts 1:1–2:4).

Jesus had instructed His followers to pray, and they obeyed. They were not disappointed.

Those nine days of prayer can be seen as the model for the Catholic tradition of the novena. A novena (from the Latin novem, “nine”) is a prayer, or set of prayers, prayed for nine days, hours, weeks or even months.

It is often prayed for a specific intention or grace and may be directed to particular saints for their intercession.

Sometimes non-Catholics, and even a few Catholics, may ask, “Why should we pray novenas?” The short answer is simply that Jesus Christ calls us to pray. In fact, He tells us to “pray always without becoming weary” (Lk 18:1), to pray with persistence.

We’ll never go wrong when we obey Christ. He promises that prayer works, and He often responds with electrifying results.

But that’s only the first, most fundamental reason why we should pray novenas. A look at the history of this tradition provides ample encouragement for making it a personal practice.

Historical Background

Over the centuries, four specific types of novenas have emerged: novenas for mourning, preparation, petition and indulgences.

Novenas of mourning are the earliest type. They probably grew out of an early Christian custom of offering nine days of Masses for the departed. The global Church witnessed such a novena in 2005 with the death of Pope John Paul II.

Preparation novenas are joyful and anticipatory. They look toward major feasts (such as a Christmas novena) or celebrate the founder of a religious order.

Novenas of petition developed historically among the laity. They most likely originated as petitions for good health and eventually became generalized to include requests for other needs as well. For instance, a novena to St. Hubert, for protection against madness caused by a dog bite, was first prayed in medieval times and is still prayed today.

Many other novenas of prayer, directed to saints for special intentions, have proliferated over time.

The final type of novena, the novena for indulgences, overlaps with the others. The Church offers partial and plenary indulgences for more than 30 novenas, including one of the most recent, the Divine Mercy novena.

If the Church has not only approved and recommended a variety of novenas, but has also designated certain novenas as a prerequisite for an indulgence, we can be sure that these prayers are much more than just an instance of popular piety.

The Church recognizes the special value of the novena, whose form is particularly suited to overcome certain tendencies of our fallen human nature.

Boon to Prayer Life

We concupiscent human beings tend toward laziness. Countering that tendency, the repetitive form of the novena can serve to intensify and reinforce our prayer life. It forms a habit of persevering prayer in those of us who, left to our own devices, may fall away from prayer despite the best intentions.

Fallen human beings also tend toward rebellion. We balk at being told what to do. But following a divine prescription such as a novena can be the perfect remedy for such rebelliousness.

In praying a prescribed set of prayers, for a prescribed length of time, we are drawn out of ourselves and our vanities and into prayerful concentration and obedience. In this way, our prayer time is kept on track, becoming more focused by observing a set form.

A novena can also release us from a false attitude that we are somehow in control of a situation and its outcome through our prayers for a desired result.

With its repeated appeal to divine aid, the novena recognizes that we are helpless without God, and that control of the situation is squarely in His hands.

We are like the desperate widow in Jesus’ parable who repeatedly asked the judge for help — whose humble, persistent petitions the Lord offers as a model in prayer (see Lk 18:1-7).

To suggest that with a novena we relinquish (rather than make a play for) control may contradict popular perceptions. After all, some novenas actually promise “never to fail” should we meticulously follow their directions.

Of course, such instructions (always tacked on anonymously) are little more than superstition. Novenas are not magic and cannot manipulate the Divine Will. After praying in a specific way for a specific number of days, we are no more in control than we were at the start.

Instead, we receive from God a result of His own choosing. Our part is simply to demonstrate faithfulness in our commitment to prayer.

That’s not to say, of course, that novenas aren’t powerful. They certainly are, as is any faithfully attended prayer. A novena may even lead to miraculous results.

So, even though the specific, “guaranteed” promises attached to a number of novenas needn’t be taken literally, they do reflect the confidence in this approach to petition that has grown through the experiences of millions who have received answers to their prayers.

Novenas Work

In short, novenas work, and we should pray them because they are a valuable form of conversation with God and His saints. They flow from faith, and God always attends to the prayers of His faithful.

We may or may not get what we want. But as we pray novenas, we are praising, preparing, waiting and trusting. And we will be rewarded, just as Christ’s first disciples were, in whatever way God sees fit.

Perhaps, then, what “never fails” when we pray a novena is that we always grow in faithful perseverance. And again, like the first disciples, we will not be disappointed.

Karen Edmisten is the author of “The Rosary: Keeping Company with Jesus and Mary” (St. Anthony Messenger, 2009).

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6 min read

Prayer

Six Reasons Why We Make the Sign of the Cross

Bert Ghezzi

March 22, 2023 7:00 am March 22, 2023

6 min read

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6 min read

Catholics often make the Sign of the Cross casually, just as a nice gesture for beginning and ending their prayers. But when we learn to take this act seriously, signing…

Catholics often make the Sign of the Cross casually, just as a nice gesture for beginning and ending their prayers. But when we learn to take this act seriously, signing ourselves frequently with faith and reverence, remarkable results can take place. We find ourselves doing measurably better in our Christian life: praying with more passion, resisting our bad inclinations more effectively, and relating to others more kindly.

The Sign of the Cross, after all, is not merely a pious gesture. It is a powerful prayer, a sacramental of the Church.

Scripture, the Church Fathers and saints, and Catholic teaching offer six perspectives on the Sign of the Cross that reveal why making it opens us to life-transforming graces. Once we grasp them, we can make the gesture with more faith and experience its great blessings.

Six Reasons to Make the Sign

1. A mini-creed.

The Sign of the Cross is a profession of faith in God as He has revealed himself. It serves as an abbreviated form of the Apostles’ Creed.

Touching our forehead, breast and shoulders (and in some cultures, our lips as well), we declare our belief in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are announcing our faith in what God has done — the creation of all things, the redemption of humanity from sin and death, and the establishment of the Church, which offers new life to all. When we sign ourselves we are making ourselves aware of God’s presence and opening ourselves to His action in our lives.

That much alone would be enough to transform us spiritually, wouldn’t it? But there is much, much more.

2. A renewal of baptism.

First-century Christians began making the Sign of the Cross as a reminder and renewal of what happened to them when they were baptized. It still works the same way for us.

When we sign ourselves we are declaring that in baptism we died sacramentally with Christ on the cross and rose to a new life with Him (see Rom 6:3-4 and Gal 2:20). We are asking the Lord to renew in us those baptismal graces.

We are also acknowledging that baptism joined us to the Body of Christ and equipped us for our role of collaborating with the Lord in His work of rescuing all people from sin and death.

3. A mark of discipleship.

At baptism the Lord claimed us as His own by marking us with the Sign of the Cross. Now, when we sign ourselves, we are affirming our loyalty to Him. By tracing the cross on our bodies, we are denying that we belong to ourselves and declaring that we belong to Him alone (see Lk 9:23).

The Church Fathers used the same word for the Sign of the Cross that the ancient world employed to indicate ownership. The same word named a shepherd’s brand on his sheep, a general’s tattoo on his soldiers, a householder’s mark on his servants, and the Lord’s mark on His disciples.

Signing ourselves recognizes that we are Christ’s sheep and can count on His care; His soldiers, commissioned to work with Him in advancing His kingdom on earth; and His servants, dedicated to doing whatever He tells us.

4. An acceptance of suffering.

Jesus promised us that suffering would be a normal part of a disciple’s life (see Lk 9:23-24). So when we mark our bodies with the sign, we are embracing whatever pain comes as a consequence of our faith in Christ. Making the sign is our taking up the cross and following Him (Lk 9:23).

At the same time, however, it comforts us with the realization that Jesus, who endured the Crucifixion for us, now joins us in our suffering and supports us.

Signing ourselves also announces another significant truth: with St. Paul, we are celebrating that our afflictions as members of the body of Christ contribute to the Lord’s saving work of perfecting the Church in holiness (see Col 1:24).

5. A two-edged move against the devil.

When the devil watched Jesus die on the cross, he mistakenly believed he had won a great victory. Instead, the Lord surprised him with an ignominious defeat (see 1 Cor 2:8). From the first Easter morning through the present, the Sign of the Cross makes the devil cower and flee.

On one level, then, making the sign is a defensive move, declaring our inviolability to the devil’s influence. But, more importantly, the sign is also an offensive weapon, helping us reclaim with Christ all that Satan lost at the cross. It announces our cooperation with Jesus in the indomitable advance of the kingdom of God against the kingdom of darkness.

6. A victory over the flesh.

In the New Testament, the word flesh sums up all the evil inclinations of our old nature that persist in us even after we die with Christ in baptism (see Gal 5:16-22). Making the Sign of the Cross expresses our decision to crucify these desires of the flesh and to live by the Spirit.

Like tossing off a dirty shirt or blouse, making the sign indicates our stripping ourselves of our evil inclinations and clothing ourselves with the behaviors of Christ (see Col 3:5-15).

The Church Fathers taught that the Sign of the Cross diffused the force of powerful temptations such as anger and lust. So, no matter how strongly we are tempted, we can use the Sign of the Cross to activate our freedom in Christ and conquer even our besetting sins.

Apply These Truths Now

Right now, you can imprint in your heart these six truths about the Sign of the Cross by making it six times, each time applying one of the perspectives.

First, sign yourself professing your faith in God.

Second, mark yourself remembering that you died with Christ in baptism.

Third, make the sign to declare that you belong to Christ as His disciple and will obey Him.

Fourth, sign yourself to embrace whatever suffering comes and to celebrate your suffering with Christ for the Church.

Fifth, make the Sign of the Cross as a defense against the devil and as an offensive advance of God’s kingdom against him.

Finally, make the sign to crucify your flesh and to put on Christ and His behaviors.

Go through these six signings often in your morning prayer — and watch the grace flow through this ancient sacramental in the days to come.

Bert Ghezzi is the author of numerous books, including “The Sign of the Cross: Recovering the Power of the Ancient Prayer” (Loyola, 2006).

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2 min read

Church Teaching

The Creed: I Believe

Father Harrison Ayre

March 21, 2023 9:56 am March 21, 2023

2 min read

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2 min read

The start of the Creed we profess at Mass is not simply the expression of my “I,” but rather it is the “I” of the Church. To proclaim the Creed…

The start of the Creed we profess at Mass is not simply the expression of my “I,” but rather it is the “I” of the Church. To proclaim the Creed is to say “I hold to the faith that Christ has given to his Church.” This statement of belief becomes personal that expresses I hold to something greater than myself … “I hold to the deposit of faith Jesus has given to the whole Church.”

To believe is not simply to hold to something irrationally, but it is to exclaim that I hold to a truth that is reasonable, though not knowable to reason alone. To make the faith of the Church our own, we are saying, “This is the deepest reality, the deepest truth of my life. It is not something I simply say at Mass, it is the cornerstone of my very existence.”

The first object of our faith, the deepest ground of our existence, is stated first in the Creed: that we “believe in One God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.” The Creed doesn’t simply stop at “one God” but already begins its reflection that God is a Trinity. The maker of heaven and earth is not some impersonal force, but rather a Person — a Father who creates out of tender love and care. The Father, then, is someone who enters into relationship with every aspect of our being. As creator, every moment is upheld by him, and we are always one small act away from entering into a relationship with him, borne out of thanksgiving for the goodness of his creation.

To believe is to act on the deepest and most important fact of our lives: that we are in relationship with the God who loves and cares for us in the totality of our existence.

Father Harrison Ayre is a priest of the Diocese of Victoria, British Columbia. Follow him on Twitter at @FrHarrison.

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4 min read

Morality

Why Do People Do Good?

Sister Anna Marie McGuan

March 21, 2023 6:00 am March 21, 2023

4 min read

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4 min read

Humans always act for a purpose. Voluntary acts are by definition purposeful. Involuntary acts, which we don’t choose – such as breathing – are not something to which we can…

Humans always act for a purpose. Voluntary acts are by definition purposeful. Involuntary acts, which we don’t choose – such as breathing – are not something to which we can ascribe to a goal or purpose. We pursue goals to achieve results we believe are good, or we may pursue a goal to possess or enjoy something. We enjoy things that are good, not things that are bad.

One way to look at love is when humans strive to enjoy and possess the good. This is how human beings are made, but not just human beings. Animals, plants and, in fact, all matter is made this way. Everything acts for a purpose in a way that is proper to that thing. For example, animals live, move and reproduce by instinct. Plants grow, nourish themselves and also reproduce. Animals and plants have a kind of love proper to them. They attain to these things because they are fulfilling their purpose — they’re doing what they were made to do. However, they don’t perform any voluntary acts. They don’t get to choose their purpose — it’s simply written into their DNA.

Human beings also have DNA, which determines certain things about them (brown hair, black hair; brown eyes, blue eyes; male, female; etc.). DNA, however, cannot tell us everything about why we do what we do. This becomes, then, an important distinction. What makes me different from an acorn is certainly my DNA, but also my freely chosen purpose. Irrational nature (plants and animals) just naturally fulfills its purpose without making any choice to do so. Rational nature (humans) has a purpose, too, but it must be chosen.

Morality has at its root one basic question: What is my ultimate goal? Another way of putting it is: What do I love? Or you could ask: What will definitively satisfy me?

At first, we may think there are lots of things that could provide satisfaction. But like plants and animals, our purpose is achieved by living in accord with what we were made for. What one thing, if I love it, will make me complete? What am I made to love? That is what really satisfies me — that’s what will really define me.

But is my ultimate good the same as yours? In other words, is there an objective good worth pursuing for everybody? The simple answer is, “Yes, absolutely.”

Consult your own experience and name the happiest people you know. Without fail, the people who are good are also the happiest people. This doesn’t mean that you don’t face difficult situations, that you don’t occasionally have fits of anger or experience deep sadness. It does mean that your fundamental outlook is one of virtue. In a given situation, you know what to do and how to do it in a way that upholds your dignity and the dignity of those around you. Your interior disposition is one of looking for and naturally, peacefully pursuing whatever is good to do in a given situation. So, if you are at work, you work diligently, without giving into distraction or procrastination. If you are married, you love your wife and children without hesitation and without selfishness. Your outlook is one of desiring the true good for each person, yourself first, and then those around you. And, if we don’t know what the true good is for ourselves, we will have a hard time doing good for anyone else. You know what is right and will actually be happier doing what you know is right. You do that through your choices.

All this does not mean that rules aren’t important; they are, but they are not the most important part of the moral life. It is much more important to pursue and love what is truly good so that you can be happy. To do this, the help of grace and the interior promptings of the Holy Spirit are needed, which can be followed with the help of wisdom, knowledge, understanding, counsel, fortitude, piety and fear of the Lord. These gifts of the Holy Spirit push me (interiorly) to freely believe, hope in and love the good. If we can follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit within us to grow in faith, hope and love of God, we will be truly happy.

So, the moral life comes down to fulfilling what will really satisfy your deepest longing for happiness. Let’s return to our original question: “Why do people do good?” The answer is that doing good makes us happy and fulfilled. If you open up to God and begin to act for the good with his help, you will be authentically human, truly happy and truly good.

Sister Anna Marie McGuan is with the Religious Sisters of Mercy in Alma, Michigan.

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7 min read

Lent

Fasting and abstinence: More than laws of the Church

D.D. Emmons

March 20, 2023 1:00 pm March 20, 2023

7 min read

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7 min read

The penitential season of Lent is upon us, and we Catholics, like Christians everywhere, begin preparing to commemorate the passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Just a few short weeks…

The penitential season of Lent is upon us, and we Catholics, like Christians everywhere, begin preparing to commemorate the passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Just a few short weeks ago, we celebrated his birth, and now the Church begins our preparation to join him on his journey to Calvary. The church scene becomes somber, more intense, and such terms as contrition, conversion, penance, almsgiving, fasting and abstinence dominate the liturgy.

Benedictine Father Dom Prosper Gueranger wrote about Lent in “The Liturgical Year” (1887): “Lent, then, is a time consecrated, in a special manner, to penance, and this penance is mainly practiced by fasting. Fasting is an abstinence, which man voluntarily imposes upon himself, as expiation for sin, and which, during Lent, is practiced in obedience to the general laws of the Church.”

Why fast and abstain?

Pope Clement XIII in 1759 said that “penance also demands that we satisfy divine justice with fasting, almsgiving and prayer and other works of the spiritual.” The purpose of our fast is to not become physically weak or lose weight but to create a hunger, a spiritual void that only Christ can fill; in fasting from the heart, we express our love of God and acknowledge our sinfulness. Though unworthy, we pray our sacrifices will be acceptable to the one who suffered and gave his life blood for us.

Every Ash Wednesday we hear from the prophet Joel (2:12-14): “Yet even now — oracle of the Lord — return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, weeping and mourning. Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God.” It is not our clothes but our hearts we need to rend in reflecting our sorrow. Our fast is not for man but for God.

Fasting and abstinence

Fasting and abstinence are Church-imposed penitential practices that deny us food and drink during certain seasons and on certain days. These acts of self-denial dispose us to free ourselves from worldly distractions, to express our longing for Jesus, to somehow imitate his suffering.

Abstinence traditionally has meant not eating meat and, for centuries but no longer, included meat by-products. Many may recall the calendar hanging in the kitchen that included a fish symbol on each Friday of the month. Catholics never have been compelled to eat fish on days of abstinence, but rather, to avoid meat. While abstinence refers to the kind or quality of food we eat, fasting refers to the amount or quantity of food consumed. It is contrary to the spirit of abstinence and fasting if we avoid steak but pile our plate high with fish.

Fasting in Scripture

In the Old Testament, God told Adam and Eve not to eat (abstain) from the Tree of Knowledge (Gn 2:17). Queen Esther (Est 4: 15), in a successful attempt to save the Jews, ordered a three-day fast for herself and her court. The Book of Jonah describes how the people of Nineveh fasted and were saved from God’s wrath (3:4-10).

Jesus set the example for our fasting when he went into the desert and fasted for 40 days and 40 nights (Mt 4:1-11). His entire life involved suffering and self-denial. In Mark 2:18-20, Jesus responds to the Pharisees’ accusation that his disciples do not fast: “As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.” Once Jesus was not with them, the Apostles did fast and advocated fasting to new Christians as evidenced in the books of Acts and the Epistles.

Evolution of practice

By the second century, fasting was integrated into Christian worship. Jews had long fasted on Mondays and Thursdays, but the Christians chose to fast on Wednesdays, because that was the day of Christ’s betrayal, and Fridays, the day he was crucified. By the fourth century, Saturday had replaced Wednesday as a day of fasting, and over the centuries every-Saturday fasting was dropped.

Fasting before Easter was practiced in those first centuries, but the times and extent varied. Until the ninth century, fasting meant one meal a day and then only enough food to sustain life. Those keeping a fast often would give the food not eaten to others in need.

St. John wrote in 1 Jn 3:17, “If someone who has worldly means sees a brother in need and refuses him compassion, how can the love of God remain in him?” The philosopher Aristides, around the year 128, explaining how Christians lived, noted, “And if there is among them a man that is poor or needy … they fast two or three days that they may supply the needy with their necessary food” (Apologia, XV).

Hermes, a writer in the first and second centuries, said, “and having reckoned up the price of the dishes of that day which you intended to have eaten, you will give it to the widow or the orphan.”

Later, St. Augustine said, “What you deprive yourself by fasting, add to your almsgiving” (“Sermons on the Liturgical Seasons: Fathers of the Church,” 1959). Today we are often encouraged to calculate the funds not spent for food during Lent and put that amount in the “poor box.”

By the Middle Ages, the number of fast days during the liturgical year had increased and at times included 70 days. Sundays and solemnities have never been days of fast. Through the mid-20th century, Catholic missals identified fasting on weekdays of Lent, ember days, the vigils of Pentecost, All Saints, Immaculate Conception and Christmas. Abstinence was required on all Fridays, Ash Wednesday, the vigils of the Assumption and Christmas. This all would change.

In 1966, Blessed Pope Paul VI significantly amended the laws of fasting through his apostolic constitution Paenitemini, in which he affirmed some practices and gave certain authority to national conferences of bishops around the world. The changes by Pope Paul were incorporated into the 1983 Code of Canon Law.

Abstinence and fasting are required on both Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. On those days, one full meal is allowed along with two other smaller meals. Catholics bound by the law of abstinence include everyone age 14 and over; the law of fasting includes individuals age 18 through the beginning of their 60th year.

Canon Law, the Catechism, precepts of the Church and U.S. bishops’ document “Penitential Practices for Today’s Catholic” explain our fasting obligations. Before Lent, most every Catholic parish emphasizes the rules and rewards of fasting and abstinence. A one-hour fast is always required before receiving Communion.

In addition to Friday abstinence during Lent, every Friday is a day of penance (Canon Law, No. 1250). According to Canon 1253, the conference of bishops in each nation may “substitute other forms of penance … for abstinence and fast.” U.S. bishops have maintained the obligation to fast and abstain on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and abstain on the Fridays of Lent. They have granted U.S. Catholics the option of doing another form of penance on Fridays outside Lent rather than abstaining from meat. The bishops focus us on Friday self-denial, along with works of charity and mercy while recalling Christ’s passion.

D.D. Emmons writes from Pennsylvania.

Pope St. Leo the Great on Fasting

“[E]nter upon the celebration of the solemn fast, not with barren abstinence from food … but in bountiful benevolence. … Let works of piety, therefore, be our delight, and let us be filled with those kinds of food which feed us for eternity. Let us rejoice in the replenishment of the poor, whom our bounty has satisfied. Let us delight in the clothing of those whose nakedness we have covered with needful raiment. Let our humaneness be felt by the sick in their illnesses, by the weakly in their infirmities, by the exiles in their hardships, by the orphans in their destitution and by solitary widows in their sadness: in the helping of whom there is no one that cannot carry out some amount of benevolence. For no one’s income is small, whose heart is big. …” (Excerpt from Sermon 40)

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