Free Republic

Mormons have less heart disease — something doctors have long chalked up to their religion's ban on smoking. New research suggests that another of their "clean living" habits also may be helping their hearts: fasting for one day each month. A study in Utah, where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is based, found that people who skipped meals once a month were about 40 percent less likely to be diagnosed with clogged arteries than those who did not regularly fast. People did not have to "get religion" to benefit: non-Mormons who regularly took breaks from food also...

I'm looking to learn more about fasting, and was hoping that some of you could point me in the right direction towards resources. Specifically I'm interested in the theological view(s) of fasting, different methods, different times to fast, etc.

Abortion Centers in 80 Cities in 33 States to be Prayerfully Picketed for 40 Days Starting Tomorrow WASHINGTON, DC, September 25, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - "Today, people of faith and conscience from more than 80 cities in 33 states are kicking off the largest simultaneous pro-life mobilization in American history - the groundbreaking 40 Days for Life campaign," said David Bereit, national campaign director for 40 Days for Life. 40 Days for Life is an intensive pro-life campaign that focuses on 40 days of prayer and fasting, peaceful vigil at abortion facilities, and grassroots educational outreach. The 40-day time frame is...

Abortion Opponents Prepare Nationwide Campaign Following Victory in Aurora, IL 40 Days for Life campaign begins Sept. 26 AURORA, Ill., September 20, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - "On September 26, more than 80 cities in 33 states will follow the courageous example set by Aurora, Illinois, and join together for the largest and longest simultaneous pro-life mobilization in American history," said David Bereit, national director of the 40 Days for Life campaign. The 40-day pro-life campaign in Aurora that thwarted the scheduled opening of a new Planned Parenthood abortion facility was inspired by 40 Days for Life. Local pro-life leaders have collaborated...

(The following is excerpted from Dom Prosper Guéranger's entry in The Liturgical Year for the Ember Days of September, in Volume XI of the 1983 Marian House edition of the English translation by the Benedictines of Stanbrook.) "We have already spoken of the necessity of private penance for the Christian who is at all desirous to make progress in the path of salvation. But in this, as in all spiritual exercises, a private work of devotion has neither the merit nor the efficacy of one that is done in company with the Church, and in communion with her public act;...

On 07.07.07, we believe the largest prayer gathering in the history of this state will be held at LP Field, The Titans' Stadium in Nashville. Believers from around the country will converge on this city for a national, solemn assembly of biblical proportions. The mandate the Lord has given us comes from Joel 2:12 - 27: "Call a sacred assembly... gather the elders..." Every age group, every gender should be summoned. Since 2001, God has put it on our hearts that a national solemn assembly would be held in the significant city of Nashville. The vision at that time was...

In my last sermon I stated that I was going to set aside a personal day of prayer and fasting for our nation. This note is to invite you to join me, if you are able, in fasting and prayer on Sabbath, May 5, 2007 or at a time more convenient for you. As I pointed out, we are involved in a spiritual warfare, and that this warfare is one we face daily in our personal lives. But the battle is also a national one, and I am tired of watching the attempts to shake this nation from its moral...

HOW TO KEEP THE FAST On fasting “For this kind is expelled only by prayer and fasting” (Matt. 17:21). With these words the Lord Himself indicated to us two kinds of weapons in our combat against our enemy – the dark and evil spirits. At the same time, He indicated to His disciples the need for them to fast at a time “when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them” (Matt. 9:15). The grace of the Holy Spirit is taken away from us through our sins. And its return to us is achieved primarily by means of repentance, assisted by...

Protopriest Nikolai Dombrowski (+1979) Lent as a Divine Establishment and Spiritual Remedy Lent, in Church songs and the writings of the Holy Fathers, is called a spiritual healer. And so, what is lent? In accordance with Dal's Tolkovyi slovar' [Explanatory Dictionary], lent ["post" in Russian] is "the abstinence from non-lenten food and vain pleasures." The Church of Christ teaches that lent is religious-moral vigilance and the salvific labor of piety. Truly Christian fasting is not only abstinence of the body from the usual food, but the restraint of the soul from all that is sinful. This latter abstinence must be...

WILMINGTON, Del. — At 9:40 p.m. on New Year's Eve, Jim Thorpe stole away from his church's all-night prayer meeting to grab a last-minute latte at the local Starbucks. "I needed one more hit before the Great Denial," he says. The next day he and hundreds of people in his church began their first annual Starbucks fast. "It's a killer," says Thorpe. "I thought forty days without food was tough, but this is psychological warfare." Some churches, tuckered out after long, sobering group fasts in past years, are opting for "fun fasts" — giving up Starbucks, scrapbooking, even Bed, Bath...

Sheehan treated at Waco hospital 10:26 PM CDT on Friday, August 11, 2006 Associated Press WACO – Anti-war demonstrator Cindy Sheehan was hospitalized Friday evening for dehydration and exhaustion after fasting for more than a month and protesting earlier this week in 100-degree weather, friends and relatives said. Sheehan was listed in stable condition at Providence Health Center in Waco. Brenda Mauk, a nursing supervisor, declined to say what Sheehan was being treated for and declined to release additional information. Sheehan was taken to the Waco hospital after friends picked her up Friday afternoon at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport,...

Is Cindy Sheehan still fasting? She has now bought 5 acres in Crawford Texas so she can continue to garner media attention, but none of the media ask her about how her fasting is going. I was just wondering...

The late terrorist mastermind Abu Musab Zarqawi is doing more than pushing up daisies. He's fasting, too. Yes, that's Zarqawi -- or at least his ancestral tribal name -- along with his hometown of Zarqa, Jordan, listed on Code Pink's roll of protesters who are "fasting" in hopes that U.S. troops will be withdrawn from Iraq. And how did the once-notorious terrorist's name wind up on the peace and social justice group's list, among celebrity fasters like the ice-cream-licking Cindy Sheehan? It was submitted by a merry prankster from the D.C. chapter of FreeRepublic.com, we've learned, a conservative group that...

Julia Field covered her auburn curls with a blazing pink cowboy hat and listened to her stomach growl. A year ago, the stay-at-home mom from Oak Park would never have imagined herself fasting to protest war. Until then, she had volunteered at her son's elementary school and belonged to the local PTA. Now, armed with a bright pink lawn chair and a motivating dose of outrage, Field has joined a national fast that began July 4 in Washington and has become--from 4 to 8 p.m. for two weeks--a one-woman anti-war crusade. "It might be a little lonely today," Field said...

This day marks beginning of three weeks of mourning for fall of Jerusalem and loss of our holy Temple The 17th of Tammuz is a fast day commemorating the fall of Jerusalem, prior to the destruction of the Holy Temple. This also marks the beginning of a 3-week national period of mourning, leading up to Tisha B'Av. The 17th of Tammuz is the first of four fast days mentioned in the prophets. The purpose of a fast day is to awaken our sense of loss over the destroyed Temple - and the subsequent Jewish journey into exile. Agonizing over these...

Liberals, appeasers and other America haters at home and abroad can now rejoice: Cindy Sheehan and her rabble rousing group called Codepink: Women for Peace, are going to single handedly force President Bush to withdraw troops from Iraq. Sheehan, and her strange feminist sisterhood, have recently adopted a plan to join the ranks of Mahatma Gandhi and Cesar Chavez by conducting a hunger strike in order to make a peaceful political statement. The women plan to fast until President Bush pulls US troops out of Iraq. According to Codepink “hundreds of celebrities, veterans, mothers, and concerned citizens across the country...

06 March 2006 Lent sets in for the Orthodox believers Moscow, March 6, Interfax - On Monday the Orthodox begin to observe Lent. It will last seven weeks and end before Easter, which falls on April 23 this year. The Lent tradition originated in the early, still undivided Christian Church. On the first two days and the last day of Lent, the Church recommends moderation in food, avoiding meat, eggs and milk products. Expectant mothers, the sick and those engaged in hard work can keep a less strict fast. However, the food restriction is not the only Lenten demand. As...

RULES TO PUT ONESELF IN ORDER FOR THE FUTURE AS TO EATING First Rule. The first rule is that it is well to abstain less from bread, because it is not a food as to which the appetite is used to act so inordinately, or to which temptation urges as in the case of the other foods. Second Rule. The second: Abstinence appears more convenient as to drinking, than as to eating bread. So, one ought to look much what is helpful to him, in order to admit it, and what does him harm, in order to discard it. Third...

SAN JUAN — A human rights organization sympathetic to undocumented immigrants celebrated the end of 100 days of collective fasting Sunday in response to the “unwelcome presence of hatred on our border” by the Minutemen, a group that aims to stop illegal border crossings. From a 78 year-old woman to a 10-year-old boy whose grandmother drowned in the Rio Grande, 165 people participated in the 3-month-long protest by taking turns not eating for 24 hours at a time. “When we are really honest with ourselves, we must admit that our lives are all that really belong to us,” Juanita Valdez-Cox,...

In November, 2001, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops approved the adaptation of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal. Following confirmation by the Holy See in February, 2002, the following became particular law for the dioceses of the United States of America: In all the dioceses of the United States of America, January 22 (or January 23, when the 22nd falls on a Sunday) shall be observed as a particular day of penance for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion, and of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee...