Lent is a season of prayer, fasting, and charity. Of those three, the one that typically gets the most attention is fasting. It’s not that fasting is any more important than the other two. But it is more specific to Lent. While most Catholics are aware that we are called to be especially devoted to prayer and acts of charity during the Lenten season, we also know that we are called to do those things throughout the year. But fasting is, for most of us, distinctive to Lent.

Fasting has long been part of the Christian ascetic tradition. Our Lord Himself fasted for 40 days in the desert after His baptism in the Jordan in preparation for His public ministry.

In the end, fasting is not about eating a certain amount of food or consuming a certain number of calories. It’s about self-denial. And like all Christian penance, it must be accompanied by prayer if it is to be for our spiritual benefit.

The end we are striving to attain with our penance is a more perfect union with Christ. “He must increase, but I must decrease,” says John the Baptist (Jn 3:30). We deny ourselves so that Christ may more freely reign within us.

We as followers of Christ are called to continue this tradition.

Fr. Tarcisio