A Season of Fasting: A few thoughts on a Lenten exercise



Jesus Tempted in the Wilderness by James Tissot Nantes

• The fasting I’m talking about is fasting from calories. Some guys apparently abstain from water as well. This is too much for me.
  
• The gurus say coffee and tea are allowed, but no cream or sweeteners. Again, the point is no calories.
  
• I don’t love intermittent fasting and prefer a few longer fasts over frequent short ones. If they work well for you, that’s great. But intermittent fasts are not quite what I’m getting at in this essay.
  
• I avoid physical exertion during fasts. Walks and mobility sessions are the extent of it for me.
  
• You will need electrolytes to calm your nerves and your stomach. Before I learned this, sleep was all but impossible because my stomach was twisting in discomfort. Sprinkling salt into a glass of water a couple times per day will do wonders. I also use a topical magnesium spray.
  
• Be prepared for the chill. Digestion is an involved process which generates much heat—and when it’s not happening you will often feel cold. If you have the opportunity, a sauna session does wonders to offset this effect.
  
• Time takes on strange properties during a fast. This is one of the most interesting experiences—the days become almost literally longer. When you don't eat meals, don’t prepare meals, and don't clean up after meals, suddenly a couple hours are freed up every day. Still more time presents itself when you don’t go to the gym. You also don’t need as much sleep at night when the body hasn’t expended so much energy on digestion. In all these ways, the day is longer. We all say we want more time—but using it well is no small challenge. A man ought to approach fast with the attitude of a warrior-monk going into the desert to do battle with all that is weak within himself. A dopamine fast should probably accompany an actual fast: no pointless scrolling, no podcasts, no background music, no Youtube, etc. All that extra time freed up by fasting needs to be dedicated to prayer, work, and study—and a man needs to be belligerent about making this happen.
  

Quote:“The Cathedral in which he would have celebrated was denied to him by a Hierarchy that is now allied and complicit with the same enemies of the past, which excommunicates not the enemies of the Papacy, but those who denounce the betrayal of a usurper. Bishop Williamson also was betrayed: not by four assassins, but by those who wounded him in the heart, betraying the legacy of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.”

Quote:

Mons. Carlo Maria Viganò

Message for the Solemn Obsequies of Bishop Richard Nelson Williamson

O mors, ero mors tua;
morsus tuus ero, inferne.

O death, I will be your death;
I will be your mortal blow, O hell. Hos 13:14

The land of Canterbury was consecrated to Christ by the blood of Saint Thomas Becket, martyred on the 29th of December, 1170, in the Cathedral which has now become Anglican. At that time, Archbishop Thomas opposed the Constitutions of Clarendon, with which King Henry II attacked the liberties and independence of the Catholic Church. He paid with his life for this courageous defense of the Catholic Church, and today the Saintly Bishop looks down on us from heaven as we celebrate the suffrages of another Bishop, Richard Nelson Williamson, whom we consider a witness to the Faith and Catholic Tradition in times no less troubled and hostile.

Bishop Williamson was not killed by four assassins of Henry II. He did not shed his blood by being struck while celebrating the Holy Sacrifice at the altar of his Cathedral. The Cathedral in which he would have celebrated was denied to him by a Hierarchy that is now allied and complicit with the same enemies of the past, which excommunicates not the enemies of the Papacy, but those who denounce the betrayal of a usurper. Bishop Williamson also was betrayed: not by four assassins, but by those who wounded him in the heart, betraying the legacy of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.

I hope that the heroic example of Saint Thomas Becket and the testimony of white martyrdom given by Bishop Richard Williamson may awaken in us the feelings that they both shared: first and foremost, the love of God; the love of the God-Man, Our Lord Jesus Christ; the love of the Holy Roman Catholic Apostolic Church; and the love of man for the sake of the love of God, from which flows the apostolic zeal of true Shepherds toward their sheep, who recognize in them the voice of the divine Shepherd.

This earthly life is a battlefield, in which we fight without quarter against a mortal enemy. This enemy has already been defeated by Our Lord, on the Cross, the Via Regia, the Royal Road to the eternal glory of Heaven. This is what the prophet Hosea meant when, referring to Christ, he pronounced these words: O mors, ero mors tua; morsus tuus ero, inferne. Giving one’s life, giving all one’s life and all one’s energy for Our Lord Jesus Christ and for the Holy Church, and doing so in a daily crucifixion, allows us to be cooperators in the Redemption. Our human weakness, when placed at the service of the Gospel, allows Grace to accomplish great things; it allows us to face each day, even the last day, without giving up fighting the bonum certamen and repeating, with the Prophet: O death, I will be your death; I will be your mortal blow, O hell.

Tempora bona veniant. Pax Christi veniat. Regnum Christi veniat.

+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop

February 26, 2025