Q&A Home > F > Fasting

My son is in his early 20s and is asking what is the definition of fasting? Why does it have to be from food? Why can we not glorify God through hard exercise, like biking for a long time? He says that exercising for the glory of God can be really hard because you are putting lots of pressure on your body, but denying a piece of cake is not a big deal. Why can we not choose the way we want to fast? Even if the Church Fathers put this rule, they are not perfect. They also made mistakes. God will look at what we did in life, not at what we ate in life. Even his father of confession says it is by what you are thinking not by what you are eating. Please help me explaining this to him.

Fasting is first and foremost an exercise of love for God, renewing of the heart toward God, and restraining the influence of one's will toward God's will. Fasting redirects our inner selfish pleasures to higher spiritual enhancement. Food satisfies one of the basic survival needs. However, it can also be a source of gluttony, over-indulgence, greed, and neglect of those in need. What we are denying when we fast is not the need to eat but the demand of immediate satisfaction, being led by the eyes and stomach, not the spirit. When we fast, we return to our basic needs and focus on the greater need to be satisfied with Christ Jesus our Lord. We fast by eating the simple foods produced in the earth to satisfy hunger. We ought to use the money saved to give alms and remember those in need, who not by choice, but rather by circumstance, are nourished by fasting portions throughout the year. In addition, prayer is a necessity to accompany fasting and almsgiving, as Archangel Raphael declared, "Prayer is good with fasting and alms and righteousness" (Tobit 12:8). Not only the Church Fathers, but the Holy Scripture also teaches us the importance and need for fasting from foods. The Church has set days, seasons, provisions, and guidelines for fasting, that we all worship together, united in our fasts and understood by the congregation, for example, Queen Esther, the Three Holy Youth, the Ninevites, and many others: "So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and He answered our prayer" (Ezra 8:23).

Please encourage your son to read: "The Spirituality of Fasting" by Pope Shenouda III: http://tasbeha.org/content/hh_books/fasting/index.html.