"Fasting is directed to two things, the deletion of sin,
and the raising of the mind to heavenly things. Wherefore fasting ought to be appointed
specially for those times, when it behooves man to be cleansed from sin, and the minds of
the faithful to be raised to God by devotion: and these things are particularly requisite
before the feast of Easter." - St. Thomas Aquinas ("Summa Theologica"
13th century A.D.)
"Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the
devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an
hungred." - Matthew 4:1-2
"And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as
the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken
from them, and then shall they fast." - Matthew 9:15
"And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with
fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed." - Acts 14:23
"[It is] good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor [any thing] whereby
thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak." - Romans 14:21
What the Catechism of the Catholic Church says
about "Fasting During Lent:"
1438. "The seasons and days of penance in the course of the
liturgical year (Lent, and each Friday in memory of the death of the Lord) are intense
moments of the Church's penitential practice. [Cf. SC 109-110; CIC, cann. 1249-1253; CCEO,
Cann. 880-883.] These times are particularly appropriate for spiritual exercises,
penitential liturgies, pilgrimages as signs of penance, voluntary self-denial such as
fasting and almsgiving, and fraternal sharing (charitable and missionary works)."
Fasting During Lent