THE ANCIENT PRACTICE OF FASTING
By Bp. Joseph ( Ancient Church of the West ) Introduction Fasting in the Old Testament began as voluntary acts of humility, repentance, and seeking God, seen especially in figures such as Sts. Moses, David, Jonah and Daniel, who fasted in times of revelation, crisis, and intercession. It later became a communal and liturgical practice, particularly in national repentance and mourning, while the only explicit fast commanded in the Law was the Day of Atonement, linking fasting with atonement and covenant renewal. When the prophet Jonah proclaimed judgment, the people of Nineveh responded with a universal fast, expressing repentance in sackcloth, and God in mercy relented from the threatened destruction. The prophets deepened its meaning by teaching that true fasting requires justice, mercy, and inner conversion, preparing the way for the fuller spiritual discipline continued in the life of the Church (Exodus 34:28; Judges 20:26; 2 Samuel 12:16; Daniel 9:3; Leviticus 16:29–31; Zechariah 8...
