Prayer and fasting

By Lora Goulet

Adam and Eve by Hans Thoma (Wikimedia Commons)

Prayerful fasting powerfully strengthens our intimacy with God. The first act of obedient fasting He required of mankind was to refrain from eating from a specific tree in the Garden of Eden. Our union with our Lord is so threatening to the evil one that he attempts to pervert even our most sincere efforts at fasting. Our souls can be driven away from our Heavenly Father by succumbing to temptations ranging from excessive eating to unhealthy distortions of fasting. May Jesus protect us and our loved ones from deception as we endeavor to draw closer to Him this Lent.

And the Lord God took man and put him into the paradise of pleasure to dress it and to keep it. And He commanded him saying, "Of every tree of paradise thou shalt eat. But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat. For in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death." Genesis Chapter 2 Verses 15-17 Douay Rheims Roman Catholic Bible.     

Now the serpent was more subtle than any of the beasts of the earth which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Why hath God commanded you that you should not eat of every tree of paradise?" And the woman answered him saying, "Of the fruit of the trees that are in paradise we do eat. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of paradise, God hath commanded us that we should not eat, and that we should not touch it, lest perhaps we die." And the serpent said to the woman, "No, you shall not die the death. For God doth know that in what day soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened and that you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil." 

Genesis 3:1-5, Douay Rheims Roman Catholic Bible.

 See more posts on fasting at Lora's blog  mommynovenas.

Springing forward and acting on impulse

By Robert Batch

It is part of simply “being human” to “spring forward” and act out of impulse.  What do I mean exactly?  Lets look at the first reading from Mass today from Genesis.

The woman saw that the tree was good for food,
pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom.
So she took some of its fruit and ate it;

Often times we see something that looks satisfying, or looks like it will be fun and we simply “spring forward” into the action and we skip the important step of thinking.  Whether we are in the situation of eating the cookies…or marshmallows that mom said not to eat….

Read the rest (and watch a video) at Love is Calling.