“Yet even now,” says the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments” (Joel 2:12–13).
An Ancient Practice
Fasting wasn’t invented by Christians (or Jews, for that matter) but is a universal human practice that the Lord and His Church have sanctified. Periodic, self-imposed limitations on food are attested in just about every culture as a means of supplicating or appeasing angry gods. We…