“All the faithful, each in their own way, are obliged by divine law to do penance; However, so that everyone can unite in some common practice of penance, some penitential days have been established, in which the faithful dedicate themselves in a special way to prayer, perform works of piety and charity and deny themselves, fulfilling his own obligations with greater fidelity and, above all, observing fasting and abstinence, in accordance with the canons that follow,” reads the Code of Canon Law (c. 1249).
In its Lent message This year, Pope Francis highlighted the importance of fasting as a means of prayer so that the faithful can get rid of everything that distances them from God. In his speech, he stated that thanks to prayer, fasting and almsgiving “the atrophied and isolated heart will awaken.”
“The love of God and neighbor is one love. Not having other gods is stopping before the presence of God, in the flesh of our neighbor. That’s why prayer, almsgiving and fasting “They are not three independent exercises, but a single movement of opening, of emptying: away from the idols that overwhelm us, away from the attachments that imprison us,” said Pope Francis.