Fast and feast in Lent

Sydney
23 March 2003

Helping the world’s kids to a new start

One in five kids living in poverty

ACU model for rest to follow: Beattie

Transsexual ‘marriage’

Refugees ‘destitute’

Curtain falls on Woomera

Expo peek aids hospital

Call for inquiry into needs of low-paid staff

Catholic Weekly takes a holiday over Easter

Pope’s 25 years in stamps

New mysteries on pocket cards

CD to help East Timorese kids

New Vinnies head wants to ensure best deal for needy

Conference celebrates the faith

Medicare principles ‘must be safeguarded’

Bougainville - after the war is over

Fast and feast in lent

Editorial: The poverty line

Letters: Tabernacle

Conversation: Dr Henry Pang, GP and aid volunteer - Dead people all around ‘changes your life’

Voice of Youth: ‘O’ - what a feeling! We’re Catholics

Plea from the bush: Come and see us

Waverley’s 100 years of ‘bright stars’

Young train as catechists

Lay ministry great, says jubilee priest

Fast and feast in Lent

Lent can be more than a time of fasting, it can be a season of feasting. We can use Lent to fast from certain things and to feast on others. It is a season in which we can:

• Fast from judging others; feast on the Christ dwelling in them.
• Fast from emphasis on differences; feast on the unity of life.
• Fast from apparent darkness; feast on the reality of light.
• Fast from thoughts of illness; feast on the healing power of God.
• Fast from words that pollute; feast on phrases that purify.
• Fast from discontent; feast on gratitude.
• Fast from anger; feast on patience.
• Fast from pessimism; feast on optimism.
• Fast from worry; feast on divine order.
• Fast from complaining; feast on appreciation.
• Fast from negatives; feast on affirmatives.
• Fast from unrelenting pressures; feast on unceasing prayer.
• Fast from hostility; feast on non-resistance.
• Fast from bitterness; feast on forgiveness.
• Fast from self-concern; feast on compassion for others.
• Fast from personal anxiety; feast on eternal truth.
• Fast from discouragements; feast on hope.
• Fast from facts that depress; feast on verities that uplift.
• Fast from lethargy; feast on enthusiasm.
• Fast from thoughts that weaken; feast on promises that inspire.
• Fast from shadows of sorrow; feast on the sunlight of serenity.
• Fast from idle gossip; feast on purposeful silence.
• Fast from problems that overwhelm; feast on prayer that undergirds.

Reprinted from Marist Messenger, March 2003