Article: Fasting frees us from attachment.(Lent 2005)

I watch the hawk circle, swoop and soar. Once again I am in awe, loving the way power and grace are outlined against a blue sky. Now Lent has arrived and I am also reminded of what Augustine said in one of his homilies: "Do you wish your prayer to fly toward God? Give it two wings: fasting and almsgiving."

On Ash Wednesday every year we hear the familiar words from Matthew's Gospel where Jesus, in the midst of the Sermon on the Mount, presents prayer, fasting and almsgiving as three pillars of Christian spirituality. All three are treated equally--the same number of verses, similar language, parallel phrasing. But we Catholics seem to be able to stuff enough ...

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