Here we are on day two of step 1 , yesterday we discussed HUMILITY, today we will be taking a closer look at FASTING as it relates to step 1.
As we saw before, we can’t receive God’s gifts (His graces) with arms that are already full. This fasting process is a letting go, a turning away from all that does not give life. Remember Jesus came to give life in the fullest, the devil came to destroy it. We need to take a closer look at everything that we are letting in to our lives and make a judgement call. It is part of our Baptismal Vows, before we are asked if we accept Jesus, it asks us if we renounce Satan and all his works!
There are three very distinct steps on the spiritual life.
1)Purgative
2)Illuminative
3)Unitive
Today we are dealing with the first step, the purgative way. We need to ask ourselves is this person, place or thing bringing me life, or helping to destroy it. Sometimes it won’t be blatantly obvious. Sometimes it just subtly sucks the life out of you. You don’t fully know what happened until you are no longer in their presence and you feel deflated. Sometimes even apparently good things can have this effect. God given gifts on the other hand are long lasting and spiritually energizing, even if they are harder to come by.
Here are some other fasting concepts that you might be more familiar with…purging, detoxing, letting go, decluttering.These principles can be used for any area of our lives. More obvious would be how it affects your spiritual life but a little less so with whole area of SELF, but let’s take a look at a few possibilities.
*DIET: Is what I’m eating giving me the energy required to live a healthy life. Am I consuming any toxins that may be contributing to my current health problems?
*RELATIONSHIPS: Do the people that I let in to my inner circle bring me closer to God, or are they in any way sabotaging my efforts? Even though you really can’t do anything about who your family members are, you can choose how you interact with them and how much power you give them to speak into your life. Friends however, are totally your choice.
*ENTERTAINMENT: Take a closer look at all that you are allowing in through movies, television, books, social media, etc.
This is just a quick look, I’m sure you see where I’m going with this and can apply it to your own situation. If it doesn’t give you life, let it go. No…I’m not going to post a video of Elsa here because everyone is quite done with her by this point, especially those of us in the Boston area…lol.
Please go listen to a wonderful talk by Fr. Lauer on Renouncing Satan over at my Lenten page.