Lent: A Time to Fast From Media and Criticism

Vatican City, March 2, 2006 (Zenit.org Article #ZE06030301).- Fasting today is not just about not eating or drinking, says the president of the Pontifical Liturgical Institute.

Fasting can also include abstaining from radio, television, telephone - and criticism of others, says Benedictine Father Juan Javier Flores Arcas . "Our Lent should be like Christ and with Christ," the priest said in this interview with ZENIT on Lent.

[…] The traditional Lenten practices, of which the Ash Wednesday liturgy speaks, are fasting, prayer and alms. Needless to say, they have not lost any of their timeliness.

But there are many more fasts than those the Church asks of us on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

The member that sins the most must fast, and each one will know what fast suits him and which he must practice most: media fasting; doing without everything that is superfluous in a Christian's life; the indiscriminate use of the telephone, television, the computer, and of the Internet is superfluous; fasting from that which can be harmful in our conversations and which might injure our brother; fasting from lack of charity and sensitivity, from constant criticism of others, from falsehood and lies, from one's egoism.

The eye that sinned, the mouth that spoke evilly, the hand that acted worse, the foot that went on the wrong path, the heart that sinned, must fast.

Ouch, that hurts! I have just been royally skewered. I really hate having the light shine in my darkness. Based on the above, blogging may be light over the Lenten season. Dang, where did I put that sackcloth…

Domine, non sum dignus, ut intres sub tectum meum: sed tantum dic verbo et sanabitur anima mea.

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.