Day 24: The Importance of Prayer and Fasting

Today is Friday: we remember Our Lord's death on the cross and the sacrifices He made so that we might live. In our vigiling and outreach we also sacrifice for life, which can be difficult at times, almost impossible. However, Peter Chrysologus, a 5th century Christian leader, notes how prayer, fasting, and mercy are inseparable from each other, if we are hoping our petitions will be heard and answered by God:

Prayer knocks at the door. Fasting obtains. Mercy receives... These three are one and they give life to each other... Let no one try to separate them; they cannot be separated. If you have only one of them or not all together, you have nothing.

So if you pray, fast; if you fast, show mercy; if you want your petition to be heard, hear the petition of others. If you do not close your ear to others, you open God's ear to yourself...

...Let us use fasting to make up what we have lost by despising others... There is nothing more pleasing that we can offer to God, as the psalmist said in prophecy: A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit; God does not despise a bruised and humbled heart...

...Fasting bears no fruit unless it is watered by mercy... However much you may cultivate your heart, clear the soul of your nature, root out vices, sow virtues, if you do not release the springs of mercy, your fasting will bear no fruit.

When you fast, if your mercy is thin your harvest will be thin; when you fast, what you pour out in mercy overflows into your barn. Therefore, do not lose by saving, but gather in by scattering. Give to the poor, and you give to yourself. You will not be allowed to keep what you have refused to give to others.

So let's make our fasting generous, and our mercy rich in compassion for the little ones among us. We only have about two weeks left in our campaign, and they will be quickly spent. Let's make this a time of scattering, of giving, and of mercy, and in time we will surely reap abundant harvest!