The Friday Fast and the Miracle I Never Expected
“If I should fall even a thousand times a day, a thousand times, with peaceful repentance, I will say immediately, Nunc Coepi.“
– Venerable Bruno Lanteri
What if the thing you have been struggling to give up is not conquered by willpower… but by grace built on discipline?
In this deeply personal episode, I share the story of a miracle that happened on New Year’s Day. After four years of faithfully fasting from sugar, flour, and alcohol every Wednesday and Friday — offering it for priests, priests in Purgatory, and those struggling with addiction — I woke up filled with unexplainable joy and a clear interior thought: “I think I’m done with drinking.” There was no dramatic decision. No tension. Just peace. And most remarkable of all — the desire was gone.
This episode explores the long journey that led to that moment: the Friday night cravings, the cozy hotel patios that once felt incomplete without wine, the sadness that would arise when choosing not to drink, and the disciplined practice of bringing unconscious desire into the prefrontal cortex to think about my thinking. We talk about how alcohol affects the brain — how dopamine drives desire, how serotonin drops inhibition, and how our habits move from conscious choice to automatic programming. When we introduce a spiritual purpose into that pattern, everything begins to shift.
I also share how fasting on Fridays became redemptive suffering, how I learned to unite cravings to prayer, and how a deliverance prayer helped detach alcohol from the false promise of “fun.” Over time, fasting retrained my brain and reshaped my desires. The miracle did not come instantly — it came after years of beginning again in the spirit of Nunc Coepi.
If you are struggling with overdrinking, overeating, or any attachment that feels bigger than you, this episode is for you. Lent is a training ground for desire. Perseverance invites grace. And God cannot be outdone in generosity.
Praise God — and keep going.
Help Beth reach her goal of bringing 1 Million Catholics back to the Church
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