Define Fasting

[Totus Tuus]

This is the dictionary definition: [url="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=fasting"]http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=fasting[/url]

I have a Protestant arguing that fast cannot be defined as abstaining from [b]food and water[/b] because of Isaiah 58, which basically says that living according to what became known as the Beatitudes in Christ's time is also fasting.

Does Holy Mother Church have a definition to clarify this? I would think that logic would point to the dictionary definition... does Is. even need to be "reconciled"? Is it just his translation, perhaps.

Thanks for the help

[Pontifex]

Isaiah 58 "This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; Sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless..."

Matthew 4: 1- "At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry."

I do believe that fasting is defined as both. The three main disciplines of the Church for Lent are: fasting, alms giving, and prayer. All three are a type of fasting.

I would imagine your friend is having a hard time understanding why we do not eat meat on friday during lent. His faith life is completely personal and therefore has a hard time seeing the value of a corporate sacrifice by the Body of Christ. It has power because it unifies us with all those who are engaging in the same discipline.

Lent, in general, is a time of self-denial. It is a time to starve our earthly desires, so that we may desire Heaven.

Peace