How Ancient Christian Fasting Can Heal Us
How Ancient Christian Fasting Can Heal Us
An Interview with Dr. Pete & Father Josiah Trenham + St. Paisios on Motherhood
My friend & medical doctor, Dr. Pete Patitsas, had a wonderful conversation about the role of fasting in the Christian life w/ Fr. Josiah Trenham. Take a listen! (This is a timely conversation during this Dormition Fast in honor of our Our Most Holy Lady, the Theotokos which begins August 1st and ends on August 15th). Fasting is connected to our own repentance and turning away from sin, but it is also a way that Christ heals our souls and bodies.
Part of their conversation also reminded me of my interview with Dr. Pete last November. He brought up how Christian fasting can play a key role in helping people overcome addictions in their life whether that be to various technologies (video games, social media, online shopping, sports gambling, pornography) or to substances (drugs, alcohol or gluttonous eating, etc).
It is important to teach our children the importance of discipline and fasting so that they can be better prepared to follow Christ as ‘disciples’ in a world that challenges their identity. Fasting and discipline can also help them to become godly fathers and mothers who are prepared to sacrifice and demonstrate self-control. Listen to the wise words of of Saint Paisios (1924-1994):
“A young girl, before she marries, may sleep until ten in the morning and have her breakfast prepared by her mother. She may be too lazy to do even the slightest chores. She wants everything at her beck and call. She has expectations from her mother, expectations from her father, while she sits at her ease. And although she is capable of loving, this ability is not developed because she’s constantly receiving help and blessings from her mother, her father, her siblings.
However, from the moment she becomes a mother, she resembles a little engine that the harder it works, the more it is recharged, because love works constantly. Before, she hated to touch anything unclean, and she used aromatic soaps to wash herself. But after she becomes a mother, when you see how she cleans her soiled child, oh, you would think she’s touching marmalade; she’s not repulsed by anything. Before, if she was woken up early, she yelled because she was annoyed. Once she becomes a mother, when her child cries, she stays up all night without complaint. She rejoices in taking care of her child. Why? For she is no longer a child. She became a mother; sacrifice and love have come into her life.”1
Dr. Pete and I also got together a few months ago for another great conversation on raising your family in the Faith and how to strive to be a godly father. It is certainly worth sharing again!
Lastly, I would love to share Fr. Patrick’s most recently homily with you from last Sunday on the Miracle of Feeding the 4,000 in the Gospel of Mark (Chapter 8). He takes us to the heart of why Christ performed miracles and how this truth forms our identity as followers of Him.
Have a blessed weekend and don’t forget to go to Church to worship our Lord with others! It is the most important gift we can give our children in order to teach gratitude and love for our Lord as well as discipline. It also sanctifies them with many graces so that they can face the next week filled with faith and wisdom.
Be entirely His,
-Kyle
