I love a self-help book. I figure that since God gave us these amazing bodies and minds, we should try to keep them in tip-top condition. After the birth of my fourth child I went on a journey reading and listening to podcasts on food, sleep, mind and spirit, and also on just how important it is to use our time wisely.
What I noticed about much of the landscape of what is called “health and well-being” is that although the science can be new, the ideas are not. In fact, some of the most popular fashions these days have been around for a long time and are fundamental to Catholic culture.
Take intermittent fasting, which is a fancy term for leaving a decent gap between your last meal and breakfast. This latest craze advises that people should eat their dinner a little earlier (around 6pm), refrain from any evening snacks and try to eat their first meal a little later (at 11am or noon). Indeed some people skip breakfast completely. This is not suitable for anyone with a history of eating disorders, but it is something I have tried to stick to in the last few months and it has served me well. If we think about it carefully, this modern fashion for intermittent fasting is very close to the Christian tradition of fasting.
Indeed, I do not believe that it is a coincidence that the three main religions – Christianity, Judaism and Islam – require fasting in some form. There are six days in a year when observant Jews fast. There are the two “major fasts”, which call for a fast from sundown on the day before to sundown on the day itself, and four “Minor Fasts”, which call for a fast from sunrise to sunset.
The best known of these six fast days is the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, observed by many Jews, even those who do not observe other fasts. Yom Kippur fell earlier this week.
Muslims participate in fasting during Ramadan. Both Judaism and Islam still retain rules on prohibited food, something that Christians have been liberated from. Catholics should know that they must fast and abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Additionally, they must abstain from meat on all Fridays during Lent. Fasting means a person is permitted to eat one full meal in the day. Two smaller meals may also be taken, but they are not to equal that of a full meal.
Is this really such a hardship? To our grandparents, one meal and two smaller meals a day would be considered as normal as the constant snacking that we indulge in these days. Truly, we can barely get through a day without indulging in the sin of gluttony.
Non-Christians use intermittent fasting to keep their bodies trim, but for Christians there is a spiritual aspect to it: depriving your body of something you want is a sacrifice and a discipline. Perhaps the reason why Catholics find it so difficult to adhere to even the limited fasting rules is because yet again we have been too accommodating to modern commercial interests that would have us eating all the time. In short, we are slaves to the biscuit tin.
It is not just intermittent fasting that is a warmed up religious idea. Another modern fashion that is not novel is for ‘mindfulness’ or meditation. In my view, meditating is a replacement for praying. It demonstrates yet again that the void left when religion falls away must be filled by something else.
Catholic tradition knew centuries before the podcast came along that our souls need some peace and quiet. We need to pray and turn our souls to God. October is the month of the Rosary. This gives us an opportunity to rekindle the habit of praying the rosary if we have not done so for some time.
The Rosary, Pope Leo XIII declared, “is composed of two parts, distinct but inseparable — the meditation on the mysteries and the recitation of the prayers. It is thus a kind of prayer that requires not only some raising of the soul to God, but also a particular and explicit attention”.
Pope Benedict XVI, in an address at the Basilica of St. Mary Major where he prayed the rosary with the faithful, said, “Today, together we confirm that the Holy Rosary is not a pious practice banished to the past, like prayers of other times thought of with nostalgia. Instead, the Rosary is experiencing a new springtime. Without a doubt, this is one of the most eloquent signs of love that the young generation nourish for Jesus and his Mother, Mary.”
Although it can be difficult to find the time with four children, I do try to pray at least one decade of the Rosary every night. Praying the Rosary has sustained generations of Catholics through difficult and challenging times and, just like fasting, we need it now more than ever.
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