Is there a place for Lenten fasting in contemporary Catholic spirituality? Yes, argues Carole Garibaldi Rogers, as long as its ultimate purpose is to bring us closer to God:
Following the catechesis in Matthew 6, fasting must be linked to prayer, by which we express love of God, and to almsgiving, by which we express love of neighbor. It must be rooted in an imitation of Jesus in the desert, in a personal acknowledgment of our hunger for God’s word and in an awareness of our solidarity with those who hunger for bread.
