---

How did we get anywhere before GPS (Global Positioning System) or Mapquest? Now we rely on the computer rather than the compass for making a trip.

Lent has its own GPS. Fasting points the direction for Lent. Our Orthodox brothers and sisters rightly call Lent "the Great Fast."

What does it mean to fast? To fast is to go without food in order to experience the effects of not eating. It serves as a penance or sacrifice to strengthen us.

When we don't eat, we get hungry. When we get hungry, we have a heightened sense of awareness. When we eat too much, we have a sluggish feeling; fasting can result in a feeling of alertness. Fasting is powerful.

Our fasting does not earn God's attention. It clarifies our thinking and feeling. Fasting purifies.

Lent commemorates the 40-day-and-40-night fast of Jesus - the inspiration for our 40 days. We have two days of required fast: Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Abstinence - partial fasting, foregoing meat - unites us on the Fridays of Lent.

How might we fast this Lent? There are many ways: first, in the liturgy we have a season of "language fasting." We have the absence of "alleluia," which lays buried till the trumpet of the Easter Vigil.

Our Lenten language fasting might redeem other words central to our common worship: "Peace be with you." "The Lord be with you."

We might also profit from a personal fasting list:

• Fast from hurry, rush, overscheduling.

• Fast from anger and impatience.

• Fast from gossip.

• Fast from the internet.

• Fast from catalogues.

• Fast from the lottery.

• Fast from complaint and criticism and all negativity and toxicity.

• Fast from the mall and movies.

German physicist Max Planck observed that energy does not travel in straight lines, but rather in waves and packets called "quanta." God's self-communication known as grace is always present.

There continue to be times in which God visits with waves or packets of exceptional clarity or inspiration, allowing us to see what we've missed - or giving us the courage to stay the course. Lent is a time of "quantum grace."

(Father Rosson is pastor of St. Mary's parish in Cooperstown.)[[In-content Ad]]

---