Days Of Fasting

Ductus est Jesus in desertum a spiritu, ut tentaretur a diabolo. Haec Quadragesima, dilectissimi, Domini ac Salvatoris nostri Quadragesimis Moysi et Eliae prophetata, vel etiam totidem annorum peregrinatione patrum in deserto, nequaquam a mysterio et salutari aliquo sacramento jejuna ac sterilis credi debet. Verum, fratres, difficile est, et nostrae parvitatis sensum excedit, tot gradibus rationabilis abstinentiae profectum distinguere, et ascendenti de Aegypto ad terram promissionis, id est ed hoc mundo ad Patrem, tot in sui spiritus olim deserto, dum carnem inhabitaret iste ascensor, virtutum mansiones assignare, quibus elongetur carni, ut appropinquet Deo, sicut scriptum est: Ascensiones disposuit in corde suo in valle lacrymarum in loco quem posuit. In quadragenario tamen quoniam decuplatur quaternarius, aut quadruplicatur denarius, ex illis modo nobis intimatur, ut quandiu temporales hic sumus, et in corpore quod corrumpitur et aggravat animam aggravati, peregrinamur a mensa ac delectabili refectione Domini, corpora nostra castigemus, ac subjiciamus servituti legis Dei, ac tempora induciarum ad emendationem indulta nequaquam perdamus negligentia, aut iis abutamur in superbia; sed expendamus tempus, et exerceamus copus in observantia et obedientia mandatorum Dei, corde autem in lege ejius meditantes die ac nocte. Ubi autem advesatur ipsa concupiscentiis nostris, concordemus cum ea, dum adhuc sumus in via, ne posse viam tradat nos tanquam rebelles Judici, Judex tortori. Torqueamus ergo nos ipsos, dilectissimi, in lege, ne torqueamur a lege. Abstineamus ab his quae adversantur legi, ac jejunemus, ne adversariam sentiamus legem, praesertim quando judicabit, cui nunc adversamur, dum consulit. Hoc est enim jejunium, quod elegit Dominus, abstinere ab omni malo, non solum foris ab opere, sed intus a perversa voluntate. Foris quidam alii, intus sibi. Nemo enim non prius sibi quam alteri nocet. Alterius per tunicam corpus perforas. Plus tibi mater cupiditas nocet, quam alteri quae de illa nascitur filia rapina vel furtum; plus tibi mali affert invidia, quam boni aufert derogatio tua, cui per invidiam detrahis. Perfectum etenim, et quale Deus elegit, jejunium est, non affligere hominem animam suam per diem, et torquere quasi circulum caput suum, et omnes debitores suos avare repetere, et ad litem et contentionem jejunare, sed abstinere ab omni malo, ac insistere omni bono; non facere malum alteri quod sibi noli fieri; et id facere boni quod sibi cupit, quasi denarium legis quadruplicare per Evangelium, et quaternarium Evangelii decuplare per legem. In lege enim perfectio Evangelii olim delitescebat, sicut nunc legis imperfectio in Evangelio patescit. Lex autem operis, Evangelium malae voluntatis jejunium indicit, gustum punit. Hinc concionator noster in Evangelio: Audistis, inquit, quia dictum est antiquis: Non occides. Ego autem dico vobis, non irasci, et caetera secundum hunc modum. Sequitur: Et cum jejunasset quadraginta diebus et quadraginata noctibus. Non enim coram et in luce jejunabat, et clam edebat in tenebris; sed qualis in aperto, talis in abscondito; qualis in facie, talis in corde. Isaac, Cisterciensis Abbas, Sermo XXXI In Dominca I Quadragesimae II Source: Migne PL 194.1790c-1791c

And Jesus was lead by the spirit into the desert, that He be tested by the devil... 1 This forty days period, most beloved, of our Lord and Saviour was prophesised by the forty of Moses and Elijah, or indeed by the same amount of years of wandering of the fathers in the desert, and not at all should it be thought that this fast is sterile of the mystery and sacrament of salvation. Truly, brothers, it is difficult, it exceeds the understanding of our littleness, to distinguish all the steps of the progess of rational abstinence and the ascent from Egypt to the Promised Land, that is, from the world to the Father, the whole spirit being in the desert while he who would ascend dwells in the flesh, and to assign the stations of virtue by which a man withdraws from the flesh that he may come near to God. As it is written: 'He has disposed ascents in his heart, in the valley of tears in which He has placed him.' 2 However because forty may be divided up into fours, and tens multiplied by four, and by these things it is intimated to us that while we are here in temporal state, in the body which corrupts and troubles the soul with its tribulations, we wander from the table and delightful refreshment of the Lord, let us discipline the body and let us be subject to the service of the law of God, and in the preparatory time given for improvement, let us not be ruined by negligence, or by misdeeds in pride, but let us use the time in exerting the body in observance and in obedience to the commands of God, meditating on His law in our heart night and day. 3 When it is opposed to our desires, let us bring ourselves into harmony with it, while yet we are on the way, lest we are handed over as criminals to the judge, and by the judge to torment. 4 Let us give ourselves to trial in the law, most beloved, lest we are tormented by it. Let us abstain from things which oppose the law, and let us fast, lest we suffer an adverse law, certainly when He whom we now oppose judges us when He considers us. For this is the fast the Lord chose, to abstain from every evil, not only from works without, but from the perverse will within. Outside for another, inside for onself. For no one harms anyone before himself when he harms another. You pierce the body of another through the tunic. More harmful to you is the mother cupidity than the daughter born of her, pillage or theft from another; more evil does envy bring to you than your denunciation snatch away goods, which by envy you bear off. Indeed perfect is the fast, as the Lord choses, that does not trouble a man's soul through the day, and twist his head in circles, as he seeks out all his debotors on account of avarice, but is a fast from courts and quarrels, to abstain from every evil, and to perservere in every good, not to do the evil that one would not wish done to onself; to do, then, the good one wishes done to oneself, as the ten of the law is quadrupled through the Gospel, and the fourfold Gospel is multiplied by by the law. For in the law the perfection of the Gospel was once hidden, as now the imperfection of the law in the Gospel is revealed. The law ordains fasting from evil works, the Gospel from an evil will, punishing the mere taste. Hence our preacher says in the Gospel: 'You have heard it said of old: Do not kill. But I say to you: do not be angry;' 5 and the rest of things there. It follows: 'And when He had fasted forty days and nights.' 6 For He did not fast openly in the light and then secretly eat at night, but as in the open, so when hidden, as in the face, so in the heart. Isaac of Stella, from Sermon 31, The first Sunday of Lent. 1 Mt 4.1 2 Ps 83.6 3 Ps 1.2 4 Mt 5.25 5 Mt 5.21-22 6 Mt 4.2