Prayer, Penance, Fasting

Ash Wednesday

From Luke 13:5 - “Unless you do penance, you shall likewise perish.”

Prayer is the raising of the heart and mind to God with a view to appealing to His goodness in petition for the things we need. Penance worthily done transforms our rebellious wills, giving us loving, grateful hearts and so making it possible to pray well.

By penance a sinner hates the injustice of his own personal sin against Almighty God and desires to make reparation for his defiance and ingratitude. Such penance is always required for the forgiveness of sin. To help us fulfill the requirement of reparation, Holy Mother Church, knowing our frailty, obliges us to perform works of penance at certain times. The requirement to fast during the season of Lent is one example.

Lent is the penitential season lasting from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday that serves to remind us of Christ’s fast in the desert and to prepare us for Easter. Because it is a salutary time when our Lord abundantly dispenses grace, according to ancient custom Christians perform additional acts of penance and sacrifice in Lent so that they may win deliverance from their sins and be better disposed to receive the graces that Almighty God wants to bestow upon His children.

There is a commandment laid on us to fast, for fasting helps to curb the desires of the flesh, draws us closer to Almighty God, and makes satisfaction for sins, both our own and those of others–our families, friends, neighbors, and countrymen. For this last reason our Lord and Lady also fasted, for though they were guilty of no sin, yet moved by charity they won by their fasting and acts of penance graces for poor sinners.

Our Lady told the seers of Fatima that "many souls go to Hell because there are none to sacrifice themselves and to pray for them." Likewise, St. John Vianney said that the conversion of sinners "begins with prayer and ends with penance." Let these sentiments occupy our thoughts and fill our hearts this Lent, offering this prayer when we fast and make some sacrifice: “O Jesus, it is for love of Thee, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”