"Adam and Eve were driven out of paradise by gluttony and disobedience, mankind must return by fasting and obedience." (author unknown)
With the law of fasting being as old as the world, Pope St. Leo further explains the need for fasting, not only from food, but more so from vice:
"...who is it that does not see what safeguards are given us by fasting, in which it is implicitly laid upon us that we abstain not alone from food, but from all carnal desires? Otherwise, it would be profitless to suffer hunger, and not to put away evil dispositions; to afflict ourselves by going without food, and at the same time not to turn away from evil desire. It is an unspiritual fast, not a spiritual one, where a man mortifies the body only, and remains fast in the delights that are more harmful to him than all delicacies.
What gain is it to the soul to act outwardly as mistress and inwardly as captive; to command obedience of its members, and forfeit the right to its own freedom? And so for the most part she fittingly has to put up with a rebellious servant [the body], who fails in due obedience to her Lord. While the body therefore goes without food, let the soul abstain from the vices; and let it measure the value of earthly desires and thoughts by the Law of its King."
CALL TO ACTION: No matter the season, refrain from vice.
Source: Quote above from "The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers" (St. Leo, Pope & Doctor -- "On the Fast of the Tenth Month and on Almsgiving"), Volume I, page 16; Henry Regnery Company (copyright 1955); Imprimatur: Cornelius Ep. Corcagiensis; Nihil Obstat: Jacobus Canonicus Bastible, Censor Deputatus
Photo by Kamil Szumotalsk