Fasting And Power

Et dixit illis, hoc genus in nullo potest exire, nisi in oratione et ieiunio. Ad hoc dicendum sicut saepe diximus quod Domini potestas in eiiciendo Daemones non fuit operans, sicut per claves, sed sicut absoluta et libera potestas, cui nihil obstat: et ideo in sua operatione non fuit opus iniunctione orationis et ieiuni. Sed hac postestatem discupulis non dedit: quia haec est potestas excellentiae et divina: sed potius dedit discipulis potestate clavium, ut per ministrerium instrumenti orationis et ieiunis, et exorcismorum contra malitiam daemonis operatentur, et ideo: Das potestaem ligandi et absolvendi, praemittit potestatem ligandi, dicens, quodcunque ligaveris super terram, erit ligatum et caelis. Et subiungit potestatem solvendi, dicens: et quodcunque solvris super terram, erit solutum et in caelis: ac si dicat, Si vis ut non erret clavis, liga prius ad opera satisfactionis: et tun solve a vinculis daemonum, quibus ligati sunt peccatores: tunc portae, hoc est, malitiae daemonum tibi praevalebunt. Sanctus Albertus Magnus Commentarium In Evangelium Divi Marci, Caput IX Source: Here p101

And He said to them, this type is not able to be driven out unless by prayer and fasting... 1 Concerning this it must be said, as we have often said, that the power of the Lord in casting out demons was not done as through keys, but by a perfect and free power, which nothing may resist, and therefore in His work there was no need for the addition of prayer and fasting. But this power was not given to the disciples, because such power belongs to the Divine excellence, but rather He gave to the disciples the power of the keys, that by the ministry of the instruments of prayer and fasting, they might perform exorcisms against the wickedness of demons, and therefore, giving the power of binding and loosing, He first set forth the power of binding, saying, 'whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,' and then He added the power of loosing, 'and whatever you loose on earth, it shall be loosed in heaven.' 2 As if He said, 'If you wish not to err in the use of the keys, be bound first to the works of satisfaction, and then loose the bonds of demons by which sinners are bound. So the gates, that is the wickedness of demons, shall not prevail against you.' 3 Saint Albert The Great, Commentary On The Gospel of St Mark, Chapter 9 1 Mk 9.28 2 Mt 16.19 3 Mt 16.18