Early on in the history of the church, fasting was tied to what Jesus and the early Christians called “almsgiving” — a practice that combined generosity, serving, and justice. On fasting days, Christians would take the food or money they would have spent on food and give it to the poor. Often, they would also give the time they would have spent cooking, eating, and cleaning up to serving the poor. This simple practice of giving away the money we would have spent on ourselves has the potential to transform not only the lives of the poor, but our own lives and communities as well.

Fasting

Fasting is one of the most essential and powerful of all the practices of Jesus and, arguably, the single most neglected one in the modern, Western church. Fasting is a way that we can integrate our whole body into life with God.