Zenit: Pope's Lenten Message for 2009 - "Fasting Is a Great Help to Avoid Sin and All That Leads to It"
Zenit has published the Holy Father's Lenten message for 2009 released on February 3rd, 2009. With all the news pouring in this week, this magnificent reflection got slight attention. As Ash Wednesday is approaching on February 25th, I thought I'd post this link and some of the Holy Father's message: In our own day, fasting seems to have lost something of its spiritual meaning, and has taken on, in a culture characterized by the search for material well-being, a therapeutic value for the care of one's body. Fasting certainly bring benefits to physical well-being, but for believers, it is, in the first place, a "therapy" to heal all that prevents them from conformity to the will of God. In the Apostolic Constitution Pænitemini of 1966, the Servant of God Paul VI saw the need to present fasting within the call of every Christian to "no longer live for himself, but for Him who loves him and gave himself for him, he will also have to live for his brethr...