Fasting is intuitively a bodily and a liturgical act. The Liturgical Year invites us to "days of discipline, denial, and special prayers" in Lent, Fridays outside of Christmastide and Eastertide, Rogation Days, and Ember Days (BCP, pg. 689). While intermittent fasting has recently been a diet fad, ordinarily fasting in our North American context is connected to the Church Year. [...]
The penitential and preparatory season of Lent includes 40 days of fasting, but if you look at the calendar closely enough and do the math you’ll see that the actual season is a bit longer. Why? Because within those 40 days are excluded each and every Sunday. Sundays are feast days and cannot be fast days. It is for this [...]
We’ve all said it. I know I have said it: “In Lent, we fast except on Sundays.” We do think that way, at least I do. I’m focused on the fast, and I tend to think of Sunday as an exception: a time to give up the fast so I can take a break and indulge in something I’ve given up. Then [...]
