Part Two: Fasting — Letting Hunger Teach Me How to Pray

Introduction

Once prayer began to order my interior life, fasting took on an entirely new meaning. It was no longer about restriction or self-improvement. It became a language—one my body spoke fluently and my soul finally understood.

Fasting revealed what controlled me, what distracted me, and what I feared letting go of. But more than that, it taught me how to turn hunger into prayer and weakness into offering.

Here is how fasting reshaped my Lent—and my freedom.

Fasting: Letting Hunger Teach Me How to Pray

Alongside prayer, I fully embraced what Beth has taught about fasting—not as a diet, not as self-punishment, but as a spiritual discipline that restores order and freedom.

Throughout Lent, I ate mostly vegetables and protein, including Saturdays and Sundays. There were a few moments of feasting, but I worked hard to keep those celebrations moderate and to limit sugar, which has long been my runaway food. Over the six weeks, I gradually increased the intensity of my fasting, eventually attempting a three-day fast during the Triduum.

I did not fully complete it—but I believe with my whole heart that the Lord was pleased with my attempt. Fasting taught me something crucial: obedience and desire matter more than perfection.

Fasting with sardines

One of the more memorable (and humbling) aspects of this journey involved sardines. Yes—sardines. I used them strategically to help extend my fasting windows. They are incredibly nutritious and surprisingly filling, but they are also, unmistakably, a penance. Learning how to eat sardines at work—and discovering the least-offensive ways to prepare them—was its own little adventure.

Yet that was precisely the point. Every hunger pang became a call to prayer. Every strong taste became an offering. I consciously united my fasting to prayers for Jesus and Mary, turning bodily discomfort into intercession.

The Lord, in His kindness, also blessed this discipline with weight loss—bringing me to a lower weight than I had seen in a very long time. But even more importantly, He loosened food’s emotional grip on me. Hunger no longer ruled; grace did.

Conclusion: Freedom Is the Fruit of Fasting

Fasting did not weaken me—it clarified me. It exposed attachments and gently loosened them. It trained my body to serve my soul, and my soul to listen for God.

But Lent is never meant to turn us inward alone. True conversion always moves outward, into love made visible.

In Part Three, I will share how almsgiving stretched my trust—and how God responded with abundance I could never have planned.