Medicine for the soul and also for the body

The usefulness of fasting is not restricted to the sphere of the spirit, as if there remained for the body only that little bitterness and disagreeableness that the most effective medicines usually give. Fasting is a useful remedy, in fact a necessary one, even to keep the body healthy and prolong life. Through lack of self-control many have died, but the abstemious man prolongs his life [Si 37:31].This is the way it is. That enjoyment, that delight between banqueting and drinking, that never knowing how to say ‘no’ to  some satisfaction of the appetite, this is what weakens the body, corrupts it, and brings it to a premature death. While it is mortification, sobriety, and abstinence that keep it healthy and preserve it and makes it strong. 

If this is how things stand, and the Lenten fast is not only a useful remedy, but one necessary for the health of the soul and body, why shouldn’t we greet it happily and full of joy?

We are Christians. By His example Christ has given us strength to accept this remedy with good will. He who for forty days kept such a strict fast. Let us consider the saints, how much they did, undertook and suffered for the health of their souls, Let us not imitate children who refuse the most effective medicines because they leave a bitter taste on the tongue.

With these thoughts let us direct our soul to greet holy Lent with much happiness, to the end that, well purified by means of fasting and abstinence, and adorned with solid virtues, we are made worthy to celebrate with good results the Easter of the Lord here on earth, and to be admitted afterwards to the eternal Easter in heaven.

(Source: 'La Grammatica di Don Gaspare Bertoni' - Rev. Ignazio Bonetti, CSS)