Editor's Note   Don't take it away!   By Darcy L. Fargo

February 18, 2026

I’m generally not excited about fasting.

Part of it, I’m sure, is that I just don’t like being told what to do (obedience is not my forte; God’s still working on that). Part of it is also that I don’t like when things I want, need or enjoy are taken away from me. That’s how I’ve typically viewed fasting; it’s someone (the Church or the medical provider who ordered blood work, for example) taking food away from me.

Then, last year, I did a Lenten program that featured “Fasting Fridays.” In one of the earliest “Fasting Fridays,” the app presenters encouraged fasting from noise and taking time for silence.

At that time, I had just attended a three-day silent retreat. I didn’t consider that fasting from noise; I considered it leaning into silence. While I was uneasy about the silence leading up to the retreat, I didn’t view it with the same negative feelings I have historically had about fasting. It wasn’t about what I was giving up; it was about what I was gaining and the experience I was going to have. I viewed the silence as a gift from God.
God used that concept – leaning into silence as opposed to fasting from noise – to change how I viewed what I more typically think of as fasting, fasting from food. God showed me that my focus was on the wrong thing. I was focused too much what I was losing and not enough on what I was gaining.

Now, when I fast from food, instead of missing the food that was taken away from me, I think of it as leaning into longing and emptiness and making room for Jesus. Every time I feel the pangs of hunger, I use it as a cue to pray a simple, “Jesus, I hunger for you.” It keeps me focused on Jesus.

Through fasting, God has shown me – and continues to show me – that I’m not a slave to the whims of my body or my baser instincts, including some of my sinfulness.

God has shown me that fasting for someone else’s intentions – a sick friend, my son, the Church, souls in purgatory – is a sacrificial, meaningful way to pray for them, and that I mind fasting even less if I’m doing it for someone else’s benefit.

As we enter into this season of Lent, this season marked by prayer, almsgiving and, yes, fasting, I can’t say that I’m excited to fast.

I am, however, excited to enter into my longing for Christ and to deepen my relationship with him.

And I pray you have a fruitful Lent.