Published by CTS - Deeper Christianity Series.
This is an extremely comprehensive, profound and challenging booklet. In a way, all I need to tell you is the subtitle: Disciplining the body, awakening the spirit, to give you a sense of the message.
The introduction, on The Nature of Fasting, gives an immediate overview of the main themes: fasting as a neglected spiritual practice, the physical and spiritual aspects of fasting, fasting to acquire purity of heart, fasting as a sign of expectation, fasting to purify eating and drinking, and fasting as part of the natural law.
But Sr Mary is not going to cut any corners. She starts by looking at the place of fasting in other religious traditions, and then, after that nod in the direction of ecumenism, goes into our Jewish Christian heritage, looking at fasting in the Old Testament
She then turns to fasting in the teaching and mystery of Christ, and the fast of the Church. This is largely historical, noting the reasons adduced for fasting, and the development of practice over the years. All that is very interesting, but it is when she turns to Fasting and the spiritual life that the booklet really takes off.
You suddenly realise that you are in the hands of someone who has lived fasting, seriously. She explores the spiritual benefits of fasting from many perspectives, but always, one senses, grounded in both tradition and personal experience. Her exploration of fasting and ascesis, and her distinction between the 'flesh' and the body are profound and valuable. She also clearly locates fasting as intimately related with prayer and almsgiving if it is to be of any true value, leading on to a consideration of spiritual fasting, and concludes this section with the reflection that the fasting is ultimately for the feasting:
Fasting from the food and drink of this present world is for Christians a sign of our expectation of the feasting in the new world, the world of the resurrection, on the food and drink of everlasting life. Our fasting orients us towards Christ's second coming, just as the Eucharistic fast orients us towards receiving him at Mass. The fasting is ultimately for the feasting.She then turns to the more immediate issue of the Friday penance and the rediscovery of Catholic identity, and addresses some of the questions that are sometimes raised about the appropriateness of the bishops reintroducing the discipline.
The following chapter is on the value and meaning of fasting, and consists of the Message of the Holy Father for Lent, 2009. As always when reading anything by Benedict XVl, one is drawn into the richness of his wisdom and learning which he conveys with deceptive simplicity.
The final chapter is a Questions and answers section, in which Sr Mary answers some of the commonly asked questions about fasting, in depth and with wisdom and insight.
As a book, therefore, this is slightly disjointed: one feels that different elements have been pulled together around the theme of fasting. The overall structure of the book is not clear.
However, each of the elements is of such high quality that it works: the cumulative effect is very powerful: intelligent, wise, profound and challenging.
I wholeheartedly recommend this book. Read it - and fast (and pray and give alms as well, of course!)