For my friends who are spiritual athletes today, engaging the Easter Fast, here is encouragement and equipment from early church leaders:
"The whole of spiritual practice is symbolized by the FAST, provided that this includes spiritual as well as bodily fasting, as the early church Fathers teach. In the test made by God of Adam and Eve's freedom and trust, the early Church perceived the commandment of fasting. Human beings, instead of hurling themselves on the world as on to their prey, ought to have learned to see it as a gift from God and a ladder by which to reach him. From this point of view sin now appears as exploitation and selfishness, the desire to make use of and consume the world instead of transfiguring it. Christ, by contrast, fasted for forty days in the desert to show the tempter that 'man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God' (Matthew 4:4), and the world also is a word which comes from the mouth of God.
Fasting therefore signifies a radical change in our relation with God and with the world. God-not the self-becomes the Centre, and the world is his creation, a dialogue amongst ourselves and with the Creator. Fasting prevents us from identifying ourselves with the world in order merely to possess it, and enables us to see the world in a light coming from elsewhere. Then every creature, every thing, becomes an object of contemplation. Fasting puts between ourselves and the world a wondering and respectful distance. It enables us to hunger for God as well, and to welcome our bodily hunger as an echo, the 'sighing' of creation.". -Olivier Clement, The Roots of Christian Mysticism p.140
"Fasting is food for the soul, nourishment of the spirit." - Ambrose of Milan
"[One who fasts] feeds like Moses on familiarity with God and his word. He experiences the truth of the text, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." - Jerome
"We have the days of Lent devoted to fasting... And the Christian is free to fast at any time, not out of superstition but in voluntary detachment... How could anyone in fact study the Holy Scriptures, or devote himself to knowledge and wisdom, if he were not master of his own mouth and his own belly? But there is another reason, also spiritual, that some apostles have praised in their letters... Blessed are they that fast for the sake of feeding the poor.". - Origen
"The prayer of one who fasts is an eagle in full flight. That of the wine-bibber is made heavy with satiety and dragged down to earth." - Evagrius of Pontus
"If the enemy suggests to you an extreme ascesis that risks making your body feeble and useless you must moderate your fasting.". - Athanasius of Alexandria
Friends, I will offer you a few more quotes tomorrow morning.
