Beginning on Ash Wednesday, Catholics around the world will enter into 40 days of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving to grow deeper in our relationship with the Lord and help us prepare our minds, bodies, and souls for His resurrection at Easter.
Now, it's easy to find ourselves in mass on Ash Wednesday thinking, "I'll just give up chocolate or junk food again." Maybe we even think our health could benefit from our fast, but that's not the purpose of this season or this sacrifice.
Read on to learn about the purpose of Lenten fasting and discover some creative Lent ideas for fasting this season.
How to Fast for Lent
Fasting is a form of sacrifice, where we intentionally deprive ourselves of something and offer up that inconvenience in union with Christ's sacrifice on the cross. This is one of two purposes for our fast during Lent.
The second goal of our fast should be to remove something from our lives in order to make more space for Christ. This hunger or desire we feel for this earthly thing is meant to help us recognize our need for our Lord. For example, if we are struggling to pray everyday, we could fast from social media and replace that time with prayer, holy reading, or reflection.
Every time we go to check Facebook or Instagram we can redirect that desire to a desire to spend time with Jesus. The trick here is to actually replace the item we are fasting from with something that will help us grow in our relationship with Christ. If we don't intentionally replace it, another habit or thing will quickly fill its place.
Lent Fasting Ideas
What should I fast for Lent? While there are many common things to give up for Lent, your Lenten fast should push you to grow closer to Christ and recognize your need for Him. In addition to the obligatory Lenten fasts, we encourage you to branch out from your typical "no sweets" fast this Lent and try one of these out of the box ideas:
If you struggle to make time for prayer, try one of these fasting suggestions:
- Delete the two most used apps on your phone
- Set strict time limits for social media use (or remove it all together)
- Give up hitting snooze
- Give up reading or watching the news
- Get up 15 minutes early every day to pray
- Drive to work in silence (no radio, music, podcasts, etc...
If you want to grow in humility, try one of these: - Give up your pillow
- Pick a set number of outfits for the week and cycle through them all Lent (wash-rewear-repeat)
- Accept compliments when they are given to you, don't reject them
- Only drink water - no other drinks
- Find 7 of your favorite things (clothes, books, gadgets) and give one away each week
- Give up seeking the attention and approval of others
- Look for every opportunity to give up your seat for another
If you're seeking God's voice, try one of these ways to fast and pray:
- Read the daily Mass readings
- Sit in silence for 10 minutes a day
- Pray "Come Holy Spirit" every time you walk through a door
- Go to Confession once a week
If you need to detach yourself from worldly things, try one of these things to fast from:
- Give up buying coffee out
- Give up online purchases
- Pause your meal-delivery service
- Bring your lunch to work every day (instead of eating out)
- Give up looking in the mirror
- Give up makeup
- Give up all TV (including Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, etc...)
- Give up video games
- Go through your possessions and donate 25% of them (and don't replace them by buying other things)
If you want to grow in holiness, try one of these fasting ideas:
- Give up sleeping in to attend daily Mass 2-3 times per week (this doesn't include the Sunday obligation)
- Perform an examination of conscious every evening
- Give up reading non-spiritual books/articles and pray the rosary every day instead
- Give up snacking and instead pray the Divine Praises every time you are tempted to snack
- Pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy every day
More Lenten Ideas: Subtracting and Adding
Fasting is only one of the three pieces of the Lenten puzzle. If we desire to grow in our relationship with Jesus Christ, prayer is an equally important piece to increasingly incorporate during Lent. This Lent, we invite you to consider adding more prayer to your Lenten practices.
Subscribe to our Lenten devotional and join the MercyWorks community in prayer this season. Sign-up below and we will send weekly reflections to your inbox, as well as specific ways to fast and pray during Lent. Open the emails, and pray and reflect with the prompts—it's that easy.
We pray that you have a holy and fruitful Lent!
Our Lenten devotional makes it easy to encounter Christ in the Gospel and apply His teachings to our lives.
